Samhain and a Blue Moon?

Sounds like the perfect day to release the 13th book in a witchy series.
Oh look, I just did!

Before I go any further, I want to say a massive thank you to all the people who have helped in the creation of the Colour of Light series, especially Icy for covers so beautiful they make me weep, Hannah, Kate and Nadine for all their editing advice and Debbie and Nikki for polishing them till they shine. You ladies are truly awesome - I feel so privileged to have worked with all of you.

So it's proper rare to have a Sabbat and an Esbat on the same day - apparently the last time this happened at Samhain was in 2001, and the next one will be 2039. I certainly hadn't clocked the full astrological significance back in April when I planned this release. My policy is usually to release on Sabbats or Esbats. But adding in the second moon in the same month - that kind of thing only happens once in a Blue Moon. A fitting send off, I feel, for the culmination of nearly two decades with Archer and crew.

What is Catalyst about? Almost impossible to say without giving away massive spoilers. But I will hint about the reappearance of some old friends from the very first series, Nature's Tribe.

And I've had the best fun including a bunch of my favourite characters from the Hengist series - it was a true pleasure to drop in and see how they'd developed since I wrote about their teenage lives. I really felt like I was saying goodbye to some very dear friends.

P.S. Although another couple of series are already waiting in the wings, audition scripts in hand, I cannot see me staying out of the Hengist world for long. Already a couple of short stories are vying for attention, featuring Finn (which means Patricia!) and explaining more about what happened to Maura & Riddick. Maybe when the box set comes out ...

Stockholm Syndrome

Hengist Journey #12

Hard to know what to say about this one without giving away huge spoilers, but if you haven't read Chrysalis before you dive into this one, you will miss out on a huge twist on the last page.
Suffice to say that one of the characters turns out to be a proper psycopath, but there's a whole Beauty and the Beast thing going on (always my favourite fairy story even before Disney took it and made it incredible). Gonna digress here and tell you how we went to Disneyland, Paris in the year after it opened and devoured every single one of the shows. So cool that the place we usually ate was running a B & B show, with the the result that my daughter, Jo, knew all the words to "Be Our Guest" in French as well as English. Not bad for a four-year-old. And of course, we had to buy her the cute dress ...

However, Captive is way dark as poor Rory endures all manner of mental torment before she finally understands the part she has to play in the grand scheme of things. And then he inadvertantly has her tapping into the day Coventry Cathedral was bombed - that was pretty harrowing to write - I hope I've tamed it enough so it's not too harrowing to read.

Beautiful Butterfly

Hengist Journey #11

Finally, we get to hear Rory’s side of the story. Although the second Hengist book is called “Rory,” Archer hogged the mic on that book. Being a serene, patient sort, she hung on, knowing she’d get to play the leading lady in three whole books. Chrysalis scurries from twelve-year-old Rory’s first meeting with Archer, through her teenage years where she crushes on him, to her first year at uni. Along the way, her gifts come in, starting with aura-reading. Under Archer’s patient tuition they develop into something far more powerful.

I will admit to this one being a bit of a travelogue of some of my favourite places, from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to half a dozen sites in Wales, all of which have a special meaning for me. Rory visits each one, discovering, as I did, the magic of each place.

In Edinburgh, she is badly affected by the accumulation of fear from thousands of thrill-seekers on the ghost tour, leading to a convalescence in a magical Welsh pine forest.

In Portmeirion, she meets Geoff, who then turns up in King Arthur's Labyrinth, a craft centre, and even halfway up a mountain. Her training sessions with Archer, in a cave behind a waterfall and atop a wind-swept castle ruin, lead to discovey of a shared past. They also highten her ability to tap into the aura of a place, revealing stored memories. So cool.

Wales: Streams, Mountains, Caves, Waterfalls and Castles

The Recent Past - a nostalgic journey

Hengist Journey #10

While writing the Hengist and Colour of Light stories, I met a number of characters who I thought were merely there as a foil for the principals, be it comic relief, a worthy adversary or a shadow-hugging bit-player who had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in the spotlight.
Several of them lit up the stage, demanding attention; some had such engaging/poignant stories. I felt they needed a chance to grab the mic and show us what they were made of. And I was rewarded with some rich background detail, some of which helped shape the following three stories as I got to understand more about the complexities of the links between the characters inhabiting the two worlds. Hence the first Colour of Light book “Context” – strictly speaking a bridge between the Hengist series and the other three Colour of light stories.

Floppy Disks, look!

A bit of a change for me, focussing on the nasty aspects – every one of these stories features characters who are the absolute antithesis of the “Mary Sue” characters critics have accused me of writing. Can I help it if I like to see the good in everyone?
Be warned – some of the scenes are not ones you’d want your maiden aunt reading.
I’ve given the book blurb a bit of a Fairy-tale-retelling spin, but it’s kinda tenuous – it certainly wasn’t a conscious effort on my part to do this. But, as people are fond of saying, there are only so many basic story types!

The aspect requiring most research was the timing. In order for the final books to be set in this century, it meant mothers like Lynette and Maura had to have their tales set in the last millennium. It was a challenge to get accuracy with the level of technology available in the eighties and nineties – particularly anything to do with phones, computer games and the internet.

I had to get proper tricksy with some of the scenes – like in the first one where Maura/Fiona researched her escape route in an internet café – these did not exist back in the mid 80s. Hence the short spiel at the start of each story letting you know which decade (or world) it was set in.
I have a complete file devoted to this so I could figure whether Archer could actually use a sat-nav in Catalyst to track Rory. In the original (written back in 2002) no such thing existed. And the entire thing ends before smart-phones came on board – so I had to re-write all the scenes where people consulted their phones in the middle of the pub. So it won’t feel completely modern-day, but it’s a great reminder of how we used to cope back in the day.
It was a proper nostalgic journey for me, remembering all the stuff which seemed cutting edge – Polaroid Instant cameras, hand-held computer games and my very first mobile phone – a hand-me-down from my daughter. And how reductionist of us - all the functions of the equipment on this page are now performed by a single device! Proper Star Trek, that is.

Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves

Hengist Journey #9

My favourite Cher song couldn’t be more perfect for the fifth Hengist installment. Again, being last in the series, it had a bit of a job to do, bringing together a number of the characters featured in the previous books. But it’s a story of two halves, beginning with “Geraint,” the son of the powerful Renegate leader Rattrick, who gave Reagan and Kalen a bit of bother in the third book. What's a Renegate? Pretty much what we call a Gypsy - hence the post title and Cher reference.

Finally, we get a proper romance – in the form of a Romeo and Juliet tale. Siany, daughter of a rich headmaster falls for the endearingly shy Geraint. Only right after he fell out of a tree and broke his leg trying to pick the biggest apple for her. Too cute really. When he meets her parents for the first time, he is humiliated by his perception of their opinion of him, and then he is forced to disown Siany to save her from danger as they are ambushed crossing a bridge. She cannot forgive him, until he once again rescues her – and her parents – from a vicious Renegate gang. Their romance is hindered further still by people determined to keep them apart, until the final threat that they will die together.

Map of Medieval Oxford

The second part of the story focuses on so much more than their beleaguered love-story as evil incarnate threatens the entire Hengist world, beginning with a massive siege of Oxford. This part saw me poring over medieval maps of the town for many weeks, trying to fathom the complex battle strategies - I could have done with one of those maps with counters representing all the factions like they had in all the WWII movies. And one aspect of the tale bigged itself up beyond all proportion such that it not only featured in the second Colour of Light book, but got its own stand-alone tale, Fletch’s Arrows (only available as part of the boxset).

Being a really sad geeky type, I have the start/end dates for all my books. I started Archer on 25/3/9 (and finished on 17/4/9 – only 3 weeks from start to finish!), and finished Geraint on 7/4/9 – 5 books in just over a year. And I was teaching full time, too. Crazy stuff.

Two Tribes

Hengist Journey #8

Avebury Henge

The fourth book takes the concept of time-travel and goes large. No less than the story of how Stonehenge and Avebury Henge were built. Nothing to do with Frankie Goes to Hollywood (although it is on my playlist), but the idea that two tribes – the Durren (Durrington Walls, where the people who built Stonehenge lived) and the Kenit (from the river Kennett near Avebury) were at war. Each built massive temples to their Gods, competing to make it bigger, better and more imposing than their rivals’ efforts. “Slater,” goes back in time to these places, connecting with the powerful shamen in charge of these complex creations which boasted so much more than the normal bank and ditch (the henge itself), enclosing a circle of stones.

Stonehenge

Just in case that wasn't enough scope for a story, poor old Slater has to find himself in proper pickles as the tribes' powerful shamen seem set on outdoing each other when it comes to who can create the scariest way for him to die. Whether it's ritual sacrifice with the beautiful Sun Princess, being buried alive in a tomb with the rightful prince or being burned alive atop a massive beacon bonfire, Slater has to tap into levels of ingenuity he never knew he had. Luckily, he is aided by some delightfully spunky females along the way. But it takes the aid of Albion himself to settle the age-old rivalry as the two tribes go head-to-head in the final battle for supremacy.

The main challenge of this book had nothing to do with all the technical stuff I found out about building these monuments or the complicated math in the alignments. Nor having authentic descriptions of the mechanics of dowsing, having done Maria Wheatley’s amazing course and gotten to grips with it.
The hardest bit was most definitely getting credible speech for my stone-age characters. I read a bunch of stories where people had written about this period and most of them barely even made a nod to it. I tried my best, and am still looking for any kind of language expert prepared to read it through and critique. Believe me, in the interests of accuracy, I have tried. But to no avail. I hope my compromise does not detract too much from your enjoyment of the story.
And who knows – some of the stuff in my version, could be right.

Crop-circle Central

Hengist Journey #7

Reagan

In the third Hengist book, “Reagan” is the boy closest to my own heart – a total geeky math-nerd. Comes in handy when you have to solve complex puzzles involving numbers, patterns and geometry. This picture was from the original cover of the paperback and I had poor Connor sat at my kitchen table surrounded by magical artefacts to get this piccy - photoshopped beyond recognition to get all the cool magical effects.
Like Archer, Reagan gets bullied by Edlyn, and has a couple of cute girls fussing over him. But unlike Archer, he's not naturally bristling with courage - although he finds it from somewhere when he needs to. Like when he's threatened by fierce Renegates - just as Archer was. The supporting cast in this one are particularly fun – an equally geeky mentor (with a side-line in using torture to hammer points home), an irascible female blacksmith and an irreverent painter – the spit image of a young Brian Blessed/John Rhys-Davies.

Wessex White Horses

I saw my first crop circle back in the early naughties when I took my kids on an adventure which included Avebury, Stonehenge and Woodhenge – a real whistle-stop tour. I’d never been up-close and personal with a White Horse, and while scrabbling down to see the one at Pewsy, there it was in the adjacent field. We didn’t have time to walk all the way down to it, but it was not the last. I later discovered that this day was actually Lughnasadh (1/8/2) – pretty cool huh? And yes, there is a bit of a theme going on (see previous post about Beltane in Glastonbury).

Doug - aka Tu-Bardh

Exactly six years later, I was in Edinburgh for the fringe festival and saw the most incredible drummer band (Clanadonia) who provided me with the idea for Archer’s favourite band Celtic Sound. Check out one of the vids on their website and you’ll see Doug in all his glory. Early on in Archer, we sow the seeds with Archer and his friends talking about having a song sung about them, and this has proved to be a fun part of pretty much every book since.
Still with the dates (yep I do have a file called holidays which starts in September 1985), I planned a visit with my Dad in September 2009 where we followed a dozen or so of the sites in Hamish Miller’s awesome Sun and Serpent book about the Michael and Mary alignments. I made myself a couple of dowsing rods and was chuffed to little pieces when they worked. Our visit coincided with the Autumn Equinox (Herfest).

Crop circle designs

So, about these crop circles.
I discovered a database, from which I extracted cool facts like a huge percentage of the world’s crop circles occurred within a small radius of Silbury Hill – which is coincidentally UFO-central.
For those non-believers, one book shows a guard at Stonehenge gazing out a nearby field where a design appeared within minutes of the time-stamped photo. I'm not saying they're all kosher - hoaxers create poor-quality designs using boards to flatten the crops, but they invariably result in messy, geometrically imprecise knock-offs.
Farmers report that on the authentic designs, all the stalks are neatly bent in the same direction and all have identical holes at the bend as though a tiny explosion weakened them. They continue growing and the seeds from those plants produce a bumper crop in the following year(s).
Many investigators have noticed peculiar effects, and there are definitely some weird energies around. On a couple I visited, my dowsing crystal went totally amok and my phone stopped working. I reckon you shouldn't write them off as fakes without checking them out first.

Teenage Rampage

Hengist Journey #6

The second Hengist: People of the Horse book sees Archer travelling from his quasi medieval world to modern day England (although set in the mid/late 90s). His mission is to gather data about the abrasive, planet-destroying world which threatens his. So he reports back about cars, computers and even chocolate. The other foster boys try to break his spirit by threatening him with his own bow – they have no idea they are dealing with a trained warrior. He teaches them honour, integrity and archery; they teach him how to get in trouble with the authorities.

So why is it called “Rory”? Because she is the only kid who shares the values of his world, being kind, generous and concerned about nature. As well as head over heels in love with him. But at twelve, that’s just not gonna work. She has to wait a decade before he’s allowed to even consider it.

I’d never intended to write this one, but something inspired me to take a trip to Glastonbury on 31st April 2009. While staying in a lovely farmhouse, I had the inspiration to have Archer interact with modern-day teens. I walked up to the top of the Tor twice on that day, at 9am and 9pm. The second time there was a bit of a do going on with people chanting and banging drums. At that time I had little concept of Pagan ceremonies – I don’t think I’d planned to be there on Beltane eve – but I'd just finished writing a whole book about Beltane, so it couldn’t all have been coincidence.

The main focus of this story is the dreadful things teenagers will do to each other – something many of us had to endure as we struggled through week after week where we were made to feel less than. Having been horrendously tormented by a bully (and his gang) back in his own world, Archer is well able to stand up to the much tamer physical cruelty the boys inflict on him. But his honourable nature renders him helpless against the mental torment inflicted on him by Mandy – a bolshie punk who was one of my all-time favourites to write. As was her partner-in-crime, Stiff. But I did have images of Buffy’s Spike when I wrote him. He turns up in this latest series, but is more of a composite as i-Zombie’s Blaine DeBeers gets in on the act. Have you any idea what it’s like living with all these characters in my head?

Anyway, in Catalyst, all the storylines started in this book mature to give a complex set of interconnections worthy of Game of Thrones. Without the dragons. And Wights.

Real-live Jousting

Hengist Journey #5 

Today’s post is all about “Archer” – the guy who appeared fully formed in my head back in July 2002 when my friend Lyndsey and I watched Kevin Hicks, the Bowman at Warwick Castle loose one hundred arrows through a loop of rope the size of a man’s head in five minutes. Truly awesome. We stalked him around the castle asking questions, and when I launched the paperback version of Archer in August 2010, he and his son came to give him a great send off at Kenilworth Castle. Josh is on the front of the boxset.

The original version of Archer was a life-in-the-day-of, set on Beltane (May-day), and it opened with an exciting joust. When I wrote it, I had only seen one live joust (in the Excalibur hotel in Vegas, of all places), but since then I’ve seen several at Reenactor (Renaissance) Fayres all over – and there’s even a riding school in Warwick that teaches jousting. How much did I love researching these books? Watching a master bowyer demonstrate a tool for fletching eight arrows at once was one of the memorable experiences.

I was lucky enough to get all of these masters of their crafts to critique the chapters and give the benefit of their expertise. So if these scenes feel authentic, it’s because I had some of the best gurus. If you want to check out the original opening, you can read it here.

I changed it because of a couple of comments from people complaining about the “swiss cheese” structure, because it was all told in flashbacks throughout the Beltane festival instead of the current, more linear structure. I’d love to know if you think that’s better than the current opening – please leave a comment at the end of this post.

Dancing in the Moonlight

Hengist Journey #4

The fourth Nature’s Tribe book considers the “13 Esbats of the Moon.” As the culmination of storylines set up in the previous three books, it was a massive undertaking. Not one to make things easy for myself, I had 14 different women (plus a couple of guys) each telling their part of the story. It was a challenge to deal with their closely-woven sub-plots, but I hope it made for interesting reading as each woman brought her own experiences (and problems) to this quasi-Neanderthal, dystopian situation. Like exactly how did people boil water with no metal containers? That one took a while.

In addition to the 13 moons in the year (each of which is linked to a zodiac sign and has its own energy and purpose), there’s a chapter for each moon phase.

Every phase (new, crescent, gibbous, waxing/waning etc) lends itself to particular type of spell casting and is attached to a different Moon Goddess.
Here's a little more detail - if you have a particular Moon Goddess you link to, I'd love to hear.

New moon: The Maiden phase of the moon is good for spells to do with growth, cleansing and purifying, new projects, job hunting. Ideal for setting intentions and taking those initial steps towards manifesting your desires. Call on Phersphone or Juno for help.

Crescent moon: Between new and half, with the powerful energy of momentum and manifestation. It is all about going within and ‘pulling’ out what you want more of before you start thinking and envisioning what you want to bring forth from the external world. Good for bringing things into your life, particularly self-love, compassion, a positive attitude and courage. Artemis or Diana will help with this.

Triple Goddess Symbol

Waxing Gibbous moon: Between half and full, a powerful time, particularly for spiritual development. A good time for money, love and protection spells, also prosperity, health, success, courage, luck. If you are struggling with lack of motivation to finish a project or stick to a routine, make use of these energies to give you a push and help you overcome temptations and resistance, especially if you ask Rhiannon or Zirna for assistance.

Full moon: A time of completion and abundance, the Mother aspect lends her strength and power, making it most conducive to addressing major issues or challenges you may be facing. Focus your spells and rituals on things that are of the utmost importance to your life. Also good for healing, divination, love, knowledge, money, dreams. For spells requiring extra “oomph,” try calling on Selene, Demeter or Epona.

Waning moon: A time for reflection. Meditation can give a spark of transformation. The Crone aspect is good for banishing spells, also ridding yourself of illness and magic related to reducing things. A wonderful time for introspection and gaining clarity on what is no longer in alignment with your goals. This could be a dead-end project/job , a hobby/class you’ve taken up, or a toxic relationship/friendship. Focus your spells and rituals on dropping anything which no longer works for you/brings you joy. Try calling on the wisdom of Hecate or Cerridwen to help cut the ties that bind.

Worshipping the Sun

Hengist Journey #3

The third Nature’s Tribe book showcases the “8 Sabbats of the Sun,” following the pagan ceremonies which form the Wheel of the Year. The four “Quarter Days” are all about the position of the sun – the Solstices at Midwinter (Yule) and Midsummer (Litha) and the Equinoxes (equal night /day) at spring (Ostara) and autumn/fall (Herfest/Mabon). In between, the “Cross Quarter Days, sometimes known as the Fire Festivals are 1st February (Imbolc), 1st May (Beltane), 1st August (Lughnasadh) and 31st October (Samhain). Many of these have Christian equivalents, deliberately timed to coincide with their Pagan counterparts.
Most people have some concept of the celebrations and rituals at Easter, Mayday, Summer solstice, Harvest festivals and, of course, Halloween and Christmas.
But for some reason, Imbolc slips through the net – not many households do much for Candlemas.

For many years before becoming a Pagan, I left up my outside string of Christmas lights all the way to the end of January, reluctant to let go of the little piece of joy they gave me in the long dark nights. Now I have several strings of fairy lights in my living room, around shelves and woven into branches of Salix Tortuosa (curly willow) I rescued when we had to cut it down because the weight of its boughs threatened the greenhouse. One set is purple for the rest of the year, but I swap it to white lights on December 1st for a couple of months. Ditto, for the rest of the year I’ll burn candles of any colour, but for the whole of January, they are pure while and at least double the quantity as normal.

So one of my regular Imbolc activities is to take the stubs from the dozens of candles I’ve burnt throughout the winter, melt the (gallons of) wax and create a bunch of new ones. I always save the glass containers they come in. Last year, I actually did this in December, so I had a stack of homemade candles to give as Yule gifts – quite posh they were with different coloured/flavoured layers.

Apart from the light/candle aspect, Imbolc is often about initiations, and I had so much fun creating an awful initiation ceremony for poor Reagan in the third Hengist book. The poor adolescent lads were tormented with tales of willow whips and blood, but it turned out to be worse than anything they could ever have imagined.

Topsy-turvy Fun

Hengist Journey #2

The second Nature’s tribe book delves deeply into the traditions surrounding the “12 Days of Yule,” many of which have found their way into our modern celebration of Christmas.
Unfortunately, none of these made the cut:

Hoodening:

A motley crew would travel from house to house, playing out a short sketch featuring a man dressed as the Hoden Horse, who terrorises the children, snapping at them with great wooden jaws. He’s accompanied by the whip-cracking Waggoner, a tiny jockey who can’t quite seem to mount this terrifying beast and Mollie – a man dressed as a woman who wields a broom and chases the women around the room. Musicians play well known ditties which everyone joins in, and they are rewarded with gifts of food and coin before besieging the next household. 

Lord of Misrule - Topsy-Turvy:
Similar to Saturnalia, an ancient tradition dating back to Roman times, also the Feast of Fools - a Christian adaptation in Medieval Europe.
For many villages it was the height of the season, where everything was shaken up. Lords and masters would dress as peasants and serve their people, who donned airs and graces to match their borrowed finery for the day. Husbands and wives would swap clothes, people would wear garments back-to-front, inside out or all of the above.
A Lord of Misrule would be appointed to preside over the revelries, and he would decree a set of rules which people had to obey or pay a forfeit. The emphasis was on fun and mischief as people ate, drank and played tricks.

Freya-Day and the Queen of Winter
One of twelve days was dedicated to Freya, where people would greet each other with a traditional greeting involving a hug, kiss and even a small dance to spread the warmth and love of the season. The main feast would be split between households, with groups of neighbours banding together and each one providing one of the courses, then all moving to the next house for subsequent houses. And a different beverage would be served at each one – the original “pub crawl.”
Usually on a different day, women would be treated like queens, wearing their finery, topped with an ivy crown. Their menfolk and children would take over the cooking and household duties while they took a day off to visit with their friends.

Countdown to Catalyst

Hengist Journey #1

So it's C-12 and counting. This has been such a tough one to finish, mostly because I really, really do not want my time with Archer and Rory to end. But end they have, and thanks to the support of some awesome people, we have a fitting conclusion to the series. More about that later.

In the meantime, I'm gonna start at the beginning and pick on one aspect from each of the preceding books and big it up so you get an idea of how this disparate, eclectic series hangs together.

Set in a time where couples were more likely to be bound together by a length of rope than a pre-nup, the first Nature's Tribe book features "3 Handfastings and a Burial."  I've included the 9-course menu from Senna and Lyran's handfasting (his dad was proper posh!). 

Each of the couples getting wed has a bunch of problems to overcome before (or during) the happy day, but one of the recurring themes throughout the stories is the food - lovingly described in mouth-watering detail. 

Those who know me know food is a big part of my life and, although I don't always love the effort of cooking, I ALWAYS love eating the results. And the vast majority of it is made from fresh ingredients, where possible grown in my garden, or at least locally. I can't remember the last time I opened a tin of anything - processed food just doesn't do it for me. Apart from Pizza (my Friday treat) and my butcher's homemade steak pies.

I had fond ideas back when I first released the Nature's Tribe books of sharing a bunch of authentic recipes for some of the fabulous foods mentioned. I managed one for Senna's mincen parcels, but I hope, now I've completed the whole thing, to add in a few more. 

Watch this space, but don't hold your breath.

An Unexpected Break

 What happened to September?

The vast majority of it was spent taking a story I wrote a decade ago and massaging it to fit the final book in the unweildy, 13-book series it turned into. But that's whole other post, coming soon.

In the middle of the month, my gorgeous, Adonis-like hubby had one of those birthdays ending in a zero, so our fabulous kids banded together and paid for the pair of us to spend a week in glorious 30-degree sunshine in Corfu. The island where, almost exactly 34 years ago, we spent our honeymoon.

The top couple of pix show the famous "Canal D'Amour" in Sidari (the tiny northern village we stayed in. Legend had it that if a maiden swam through there, she would find the man of her dreams. Nowadays, they say if a couple swim through it together, they will find true love. Either way, it worked its magic!
Unfortunately, modern-day Sidari is way more Benidorm - or "Blackpool with sun."

Driving a hire car in amongst those crazy Greek accidents-waiting-to-happen wasn't the most conducive to peace and serenity, but it did allow us to revisit some old haunts. On the east, we visited the Durrell's "White House," but no sign of Keeley Hawes. A flying drive through Kassiopi where there was nowhere obvious to park for the Byzantine Castle, then a disappointment on the western Logas where the magnificent view of the sunset from the glass balcony was denied us - closed due to COVID. We had undivided attention and a marvellous gyro (donner kebab) at a Pitta place, and parked at the bottom of the magnificent Angelocastro. The double/triple hairpin bend on the way out reminded us why we wouldn't make it to that one either. 

But the following day, Paleocastritsa felt like coming home - we remembered swimming all the way out to where those rocks meet the horizon on the 4th piccie. We walked up to the monastery, then had a well-earned beer overlooking the picturesque beach. Awesome stuff. Here's a wee flavour of Corfu 2020.