taking off

Early in the morning, I give a quick glance out on the garden. No snipping lilies. Just a look, and a smile.

I eat a very sentimental, very lovely breakfast on the porch with Ed keeping me company...

I water plants, I pause, trying to remember what else I may need in the next couple of weeks, and then Ed drives me to the airport and I catch a flight out, to Atlanta and then across the ocean.

Where to? Well, eventually to Poland.

I haven't been back since before Covid. On my last trip, in 2019, I still had my apartment in Warsaw and when I left, I didn't quite realize I'd never go back to it. (I sold it shortly after.) 

My returns to Poland have always been like that: very frequent and then, abruptly, I take a break. Sure, this time Covid pushed me to cancel any return, but once I resumed travel, I stayed away. Why? Well, it's complicated, but trust me, it felt right to do a short pause, especially since my friends came to visit me in Madison and then agreed to meetups in other European countries. 

But the itch to return, to visit, has definitely been nibbling away at me. 

This time, I'm not going straight to Warsaw. I'm stopping first for a couple of nights in Stockholm -- a city I do not know, a city that has great bakeries that I wish I did know, a city that I felt sure I would visit soon enough and yet I never got around to it. So, tomorrow I should be in Stockholm. See you then!

with love, of course!