The complexities of going "home"

Well I have returned to Ferney from my travels round England and France.
Getting away from being umbilically attached to my computer and the internet was definitely good for me. Travelling through the landscape of my childhood and adolescence also aroused quite complex feelings. Things change so much and going back to Britain is almost like visiting a foreign place for me. I suffer from something like reverse culture shock, as if I totally belong and completely do not.
But the thing I love most about being in the family "home" - apart from my mum of course - is the view from the back of the house. Living now in the fabulous and dramatic mountains round Geneva I sometimes long for the rolling green landscape I grew up with. The view stretches from the garden over 80km to the Malvern hills and the Welsh black mountains - well it does on a clear day and as you can see on these photos the weather was rather more mixed while I was there this time! Fortunately on the day Stephen and I got married the view was perfect and the garden holds many happy memories of the wonderful party with friends and family. Don't know what we'll do if and when my Mum decides to sell up and leave.
So it was restorative to wake up in what used to be my brother's bedroom and see what the view was doing. Meanwhile the family cat was dying of kidney failure, my mother tripped over and smashed a saucepan and gratin dish into her chest and we went shopping.