"I'd Rather be in England, Jolly, Jolly England"

A veteran English music hall star, comedian and actor, Stanley Holloway was a featured player as Eliza Doolittle's father in My Fair Lady (stage & screen versions); that's where most American's first encountered him. I was lucky and through the ministrations by Paul Schulte, a good friend who'd spent years in London, plus large amounts of fine Scottish whiskey late at night and accompanied by Paul's extensive collection of English music-hall recordings - mostly in 78 rpm format - I was introduced to the songs and sayings of Holloway way before Eliza-time. The title of this blog is a line from one of those songs that pops into my head now and then as Joan & i are off on one of our long distance walks in England (the next line is "living off the earnings of a high class lady! -and it goes on from there, verse after verse - really good for singing whilst walking over the English landscape).

I bring Stanley Holloway up for no good reason except that Joan and I are leaving this Saturday (June 17th) for a three week walking trip, first to Ireland to visit the small island in Galway Bay in the West of Ireland where Joan's grandmother was born; the source of Joan's certification as an Irish citizen and EU member Irish passport holder and then to fly from Shannon to Manchester, transfer to a train first to Leeds and then change trains to get to Ilkley. 

Once in Ilkley, we'll spend the night in the centrally located Dalesway Inn and take off the next morning for Burnsall, located on the River Wharfe, a stream we'll be following for miles more. This will be a long stretch of 13 miles but very flat. Hopefully our five days in Ireland before we get here will have given us a chance to catch up on the time change and stretch our legs walking the Irish coast and Aran Islands. 

Stay tuned- we'll be blogging as we go, hopefully aided by the brand new Kindle Fire 8" tablet we bought out of frustration with trying to create a coherent article on a tiny Android smart phone. Yes, I know it can be done - but it sure is hard unless you have the tiny fingers of an eight year old!