Edinburgh and Honey

Going somewhere new has become incredibly rare since the pandemic. Going somewhere new that isn’t local is even rarer. But that is exactly what I had the pleasure of doing on the 1st of October. I travelled twelve hours and six minutes from my front door in St Ives, Cornwall to my sister’s front door in Edinburgh, Scotland. I had never been to Edinburgh or to Scotland before, and every minute of the journey was worth it.

We had a week, and we used it well. So well in fact that when I left, I asked Kim to send me a list of all the places we had been, the areas we had visited, the bookshops and streets, beaches and cafes, galleries and shops that she and Nick had shown me. I wanted to remember the details properly, in the right order, and placed correctly in my new fragile map of Edinburgh.

They had led me so beautifully through the city that I’d simply followed along, enjoying the new discoveries around every corner and the lack of a plan on my part. Planning is both a positive and a negative in my life, and in my travels. I feel safe within the boundaries of a plan, but I don’t always feel relaxed as I check and recheck that I am doing things right. Heading to Edinburgh I forgot to pack a camera. I think this was in part a symptom of the stationary existence we have all been living with, I had forgotten that I might want one. But I also think it was because I didn’t have a plan beyond simply going.

Part of my van dream is to follow the roads that call to me, and to do so without always having a plan. To follow not a predetermined route but one that grows with each new experience. It seems to me that a route like that would never have to end, unwinding in new and organic ways.

I dream of my van life regularly, and when I do the dreams aren’t all full of grand adventures. My mind seems equally drawn to the smaller details that will build the tapestry of my new life. Locally crafted specialities and experiences are what I want to seek and find. In Edinburgh that ended up being honey. Honey from city and countryside bees, honey in a vast array of flavours created as a result of the bees explorations through woods or heather, sunflower or buckwheat. Honey that came with a fascinating half hour of learning about hives and reproduction and bee matriarchy from the passionate keeper of these industrious insects.

Though I adored every view and streets and unexpected mountain I saw in Edinburgh, it was within the four walls of the honey shop that I felt the first whisper of the experiences I dream of having in my van. I go home to Cornwall tomorrow and am buzzing to get stuck back into the build. Who knows, perhaps if I am lucky, I might get to go meet the bees once I’m done.