One of Bishop’s Castle’s pioneering eco-homes
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Today, as July winds down, we have a summer’s day. Only the third in a month of coolness and cloud. Sunlight floods the house front. Warmth even. No trace of the wind that has dogged us for much of the year. Stillness then. The soundscape, resonant, a part-song of church bells, bee hum and pigeon chorale.
There’s a sense of bliss.
And where does my mind go?
Why, off to Kenya’s Indian Ocean island of Lamu – a trip made decades ago and at Christmas too.
The harbour at Lamu’s Stone Town
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Perhaps our recent spell of autumn-in-summer weather is seasonally disorienting me, although in mitigation, December in Lamu is the hot season, their summer; though rather hotter and steamier than ours.
But in the full-on Shropshire sunshine, the mind plays tricks. Meanders. Perhaps there’s another trigger to this farflung mental safari.
I soon spot it. Back in the days of the Lamu trip we lived in Nairobi, on one of Lavington’s tree-lined avenues of Jacarandas and flame trees and clipped grass frontages. (Strangely, I discovered later, I have ancestors named Lavington).
At nearly 6,000 feet, the climate there is mostly benign – a subtropical highland climate. In June and July the temperatures might drop as low as 48F (9C), and in December to March reach the upper 70s and low 80s F. The finest days there always had us thinking of perfect English summers (big skies and heat-hazy lawns), the sort from village fetes and school sports days.
Summers back then seemed, well, more summery.
And then amid my mind’s eye ramble arrives the Lens-Artists’ theme for the week: balconies. And so, by winding paths, I come to Lamu.
Stone Town – it is now a World Heritage Site. The surviving 18th century merchants’ homes, finely built of coral rag, are evidence of a once thriving city state, one of several Swahili towns and cities along the East African seaboard, stretching from Somalia to Mozambique. These settlements have origins back in the 8th and 9th centuries – the people who lived in them, their language, their culture born (literally) from a thousand and more years’ congress between Arab traders and indigenous African communities.
The goods once traded out – ivory, leopard skins, tortoise shell, gold, mangrove poles (boriti) and slaves. The goods traded in – silks, porcelain, fine carved treasure chests, brass ware, jewellery and dates. In short this is Sinbad territory (Sendibada in KiSwahili stories). He doubtless plied the seas off East Africa; out from the Persian Gulf, the monsoon kaskazi bearing him south; and, after many hair-raising encounters, the kusi winds blowing him home again to Basra.
I’ve written more about this at Quayside Lamu. And about the Swahili HERE.
But now for more balconies. Those perfect places for dreaming. For today, bathed in unaccustomed warmth, I surely am dreaming.
Lamu donkey sanctuary. Donkeys are a key mode of transport on the island
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Sundowner look-out over Shela village, Lamu
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Lens-Artists: Balconies This week PR at Flights of the Soul sets the theme. Follow the link for a fine gallery of balconies.
I do enjoy reading about all of your travels..I’ve never been much out of the southern USA states so your writing is a treat.
So glad you can come on my virtual tours, Beverly. In fact I’m travelling this way too these days. Can’t face the thought of planes and airports.
Enjoying your travel Blog.😊😊
Many thanks.
There do seem to be pretty good reasons to just stay home. I do hope things level out soon.
Ah, Tish, I was taken to Lamu with your words weaving a drowsy summer afternoon spell. I’d be very happy sitting on a balcony with a cocktail in my hand.
That sounds just blissful. We could watch the dhows wafting by with billowing sails.
Fantastic post, Tish. The perfect combination of words and photos, with the theme just running through.
Thanks so much, Sofia.
Such a fascinating post…and like you we also have warm, still weather….
I feel a bit as if I’ve been starved of pleasing weather. So it’s good to wander around soaking it up.
I understand…although today is glorious. :).
It certainly is glorious. The marigolds in the garden are having riot in the sunshine.
In Hawaii, we called them Lanais, but whatever you call them they are wonderful spots to sit and ponder.
It’s a shame we couldn’t have factored one in atop our new kitchen. The weather’s been so dismal it didn’t even occur to us.
I love the way you’ve allowed us to accompany you as you took your mind for a walk. A great post.
Thanks, Margaret. I have a very wandering mind at present so I’m glad this made sense.
Summer and busyness does that to us.
…and dust!
It all looks so peaceful. Great images!
How wonderful, Tish! Yours is the only post, so far, to show Africa 😀! It’s nice to be on the balcony and remember nice things from times past..Thanks for sharing your musings with the Lens-Artists challenge.
Great balconies. Excellent.
Thanks, John.
I hadn’t heard of a Stone Town in Lamu, although we’ve visited the one in Zanzibar and there seem to be some common elements to the architecture. I love the look of those waterfront buildings in particular 🙂
Lamu’s Stone Town doesn’t have the grand Omani palaces, and is altogether more low key than Zanzibar. But as you, say common architectural elements.
Lamu! I missed it on my trip to Kenya before covid, and we’re planning to go back for that. Looks wonderful in your photos.
These are v. old pix, I.J. On the other hand, checking out YouTube vids, it looks like not too much has changed.
Great balconies and scenes from them Tish!
Thanks, Anne.
Wo doesn’t love a balcony? Your collection is beautiful and diverse.
I agree, Jennie. Thanks.
You’re welcome!
What a thoroughly enjoyable ramble this was, making me want to go both to England (on a summer’s day) and Lamu, which I’ve never visited. As you know I’m engaged in Africa reveries myself at the moment, nearing the end of recounting the expedition I did in 1980, so find myself relating to your grainy film photos of your time in Kenya, and Lamu. I love your description of the English summer soundscape – so evocative.
Alison
Many thanks, Alison. Your overland posts are really remarkable. I keep ‘posting’ them on to other half to stir his own Africa reveries.
I have thoroughly enjoyed following the journeys of your wandering mind Tish! Marvellous balconies
You are such a good fellow traveller, Sue. Thank you 🙂
Bishops Castle is just down the road from me. It’s not often I see it mentioned on a blog!
Nice to find a near-neighbour blogger, Nikki. Just been looking at your Chetham Library posts (excellent photos). What an eye-opener. I had never heard of it, despite ancestral connections with Manchester.