A while ago I mentioned I was going to give my blog a facelift, well you can now see the result. No panic – it is nothing major, just a bit of tweeking and twiddling. After two years of the Union Jacks and the tea and scones, it was time to move on. HOWEVER, as you can see, I haven’t moved very far. The tea-time theme is still there as it is very much a part of me. A lot of my students say they learn to make a cup of tea through watching me make my morning cuppa in the classroom. The click of the kettle going on signals that the lesson is almost at an end and my choice of mug is never coincidental.

For the feature image, I toyed with a number of images. To begin with, they were more of a London-based theme – Big Ben, taxis, phone boxes, letter boxes … but then I decided to change tack. When I go back home to England, that is not where I go or what I look for. I have decided therefore to feature MY England in my chosen pictures. When I go back to England, it is to the south coast essentially, where my parents are based and where my sons are for their studies. The New Forest, Southampton, Christchurch, Chichester, Bournemouth – these are the places I return to and so these are the places I shall be featuring on my blog. This is no disrespect to London at all, BUT I am sure anyone would agree that a country is not fully represented solely by its capital. There are some truly beautiful spots to be discovered in the south of the UK, as there are in all parts of the country, so I hope you will enjoy discovering this corner of my world.

To begin with, a view of the place where my parents live : Barton-on-Sea is a small town on the coast with this superb coastline, as you can see in the feature picture. This area is as spectacular in the winter as it is in the summer. When the wind whips the sea up, it can get quite hairy. My sister and I got absolutely drenched walking along this very quay in February of this year. The storms of this winter did a lot of coastal damage. This coastline is gradually eroding, but for the moment, it is a joy to behold. Watch this space for images of the New Forest with its ponies which live in the wild. The light shining through the trees on a Spring morning has an almost magical quality. Here is a taster.