Today is special, not only because it is Easter Monday, but the 60th birthday of my younger daughter. It has been her ambition for over thirty years to visit the remote Easter Island in the South Pacific and the dream was to come true these past three weeks. First a trip to Chile, cycling round vineyards with husband Danny, and better still sampling the wonderful wines from there. The highlight was to be her 60th birthday on Easter Island on Easter Monday. Months of planning, foreign currency bought, flights, many hotels and hostels booked and paid.....all cancelled just a few weeks ago.
I had to choose a very special scarf for today, one of my best, so it had to be a HERMES. I don’t think they have ever designed one with huge standing stones, bird men or a bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. So which one?
I have often puzzled why my daughter has been fascinated by these gigantic stones for so long? As it is, she lives as near as anyone to Stonehenge’s huge stones. I thought she might have got over her fascination by now, or perhaps be deterred when an out of control pickup truck just a few weeks ago knocked over one of the revered moai stones on Easter Island. There was almost a riot then by the original Rapa Nui inhabitants whose culture has never been fully understood. I worried that foreigners might not be welcome. Disease had struck them in the past with smallpox and tuberculosis from beyond their seas and now there is another unknown enemy. Yet, I have worried about this daughter before as she wandered around South America for three months as a young woman. Does one ever stop worrying about children?
Finally, I saw the right Hermes scarf. You will see it features many keys. We are all affected by the lock down, but keys not only lock, they mercifully unlock. When we finally unlock our lives from this imprisonment, we are going to have one gigantic party!!! Maybe we can unlock something within ourselves, try something new.....let me know.
So for the moment, dear Clare, your daughter Ella, my young webpage art director is cooking you a birthday cake, empanadas are made and I am sure the Chilean Sauvignon Blanc is in the fridge. Enjoy the seascape of my pictures and unlock your imagination, taking you to the island of your dreams.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you and another dear friend Olive in Ealing.
Busy Bee, Scarf Face!
Blog 18.