A Midweek Sanctuary
I’m writing this from the coffee-scented comfort of a Center Parcs lodge, one of my favourite places in the world to be. I’m lucky enough to have spent many happy times here, from childhood through to adulthood, and it has become somewhere I immediately feel relaxed and carefree. This is Olive’s first trip, joining my husband’s side of the family for a mid-week break of swimming, cycling, toasting marshmallows, spotting mushrooms and watching birds. The conservation ranger even told me they have river otters here, an animal I’ve never seen in the wild - despite having seen beavers twice!
The weather this week has been so beautiful it feels almost magical, that freshness of early autumn combined with the warmth of a late afternoon sun. This morning we sat by the open French doors and fed a gaggle of ducks that are clearly used to visitors offering up their leftover carbs. I love the dampness of their beaks snappity-snapping at my hand, that bottle-green feathery sheen glowing in the morning light. Weeks after the heatwave, I’m still finding relief in the presence of water, right down to the glass droplets clinging to a mallard’s underfluff.
