We skipped our walks during Easter, as we feared it would be too crowded wherever we went, especially as there would be all the still-able and allowed-to-work citizens on top of all the oldies and home workers.  Alas, our considerations backfired and we are now a few pounds heavier!

But we made up for it today with an extra-long walk amidst profusely yellow-flowering mustard or rape fields and almost in solitude.  Spring has come quite early this year.  I seem to remember that these fields were blooming after our return from Spain in mid-May.  Across the valley from our flat, the woods are almost white with beautiful flowering wild cherry trees and other unidentifiable breeds.  The birds and squirrels are still turning up in great numbers at the feeding stations.  Even some new larger birds from the woods, which we haven´t seen before.

The other day, an article in our daily newspaper caught my eye with the heading „Patagonia“.  The author claimed that almost every child has a name of a place, country or region, which, when spoken to itself, has a magical formula.  For him it was „Patagonia“ – the title of a book called „Idle days in Patagonia“ by William Henry Hudson, which caught my immediate interest and I thought: how appropriate for the present situation!  Then it came to mind that I, myself, had such a magical name since my childhood in my head.  It is „Antofagasta“, a town in northern Chile, as Patagonia in South America, which also fascinates me greatly.  But why, or in what context „Antofagasta“, I don´t know, but whenever I think of South America, this name comes at once to mind.  Has anyone of you had a similar experience?  In fact, I think, it would be quite interesting to find out whether (t)his theory is shared by some of you.  Let me know.

Thumbs up for the 4th week of splendid isolation.  Don´t despair – there are worse things in life one has to face.

Susanne Xxx

Antofagasta is a city in the north of the South American Andean state of Chile. It has a population of 352,600.  The name of the city comes from the Quechua language and means roughly „village on the large salt lake“.  Antofagasta is the capital of the region of the same name and the province of the same name.

Susanne, in response to your call for magical names from childhood, my offering would be the word „monotonous“.  Admittedly not the name of a town and, at the time, having no idea what it meant, I remember spelling it out loud repeatedly as a very young primary school child to anyone in earshot.  It just rolls off the tongue so beautifully…   (Sandra)