THAT WAS ONE LOVELY DAY!

YOU weren't a fully-fledged Romantic or Victorian, unless you could walk each day for miles! Jane Eyre crosses leagues across the fields, and the same goes for the Bennett sisters in Pride and Prejudice. Marianne Dashwood becomes seriously ill drenched by the rain in some woodland; in Great Expectations, our heart-broken hero walks all the way from Kent to London -- and so on and so forth to literary eternity!

Here are some beautiful pictures from my walking today! You can see, apart from the olive trees, a lovely young eucalyptus tree -- blooming, too! I hope they do not take it down; here in Cyprus they tend to take down trees arbitrarily and without consulting the public.

About the Romantics and Victorians, the upper and middle classes, they had walking as a great pastime and hobby. The working classes, too, would walk distances to and from work. Like for the middle classes, walking then became an opportunity to flirt and chat!

Artists found wisdom and inspiration in wandering. William Wordsworth walked miles in the country with sister Dorothy and BBF Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Shelley would go on rides and excursions with Byron; Keats crossed the fields around London with his friends. Not to mention the beloved Victorian excursion to sea or mountainside to gather specimens and sketch nature!

In the final picture, you can see me at Christmas on the beach in Limassol. That was one lovely day!

xxx