Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

I waited underneath a Victorian letter box until a big hug arrived wrapped around Semioticghost. She herded me to the car where I met her boyfriend, Chris, and was hustled back to their flat. It reminded me a lot of the place I had in Morecambe Many Years Ago, when I was a student.

They fed me pasta and I ejected luggage all over the living room floor. I had a Markeroni calendar for Ghost; she had told me she wanted to order one, but I already had the prototype put aside for her, and it gave me a great deal of sneaky pleasure to produce it.

We chatted and got to know one another. It seemed that there was no real ice to break; we just dived right in and made the transition from a 2-D computer screen to a 3-D friendship. We are all geeks in different ways and they seemed to enjoy the description of my husband’s geekery back home - stuff like interfacing a computer to a toaster, and having the Christmas tree lights come on automagically. We had a glass of port and I played a really old console game which involved me hitting jump a lot instead of whap-with-sword. I think I lost my computer game skills sometime in the nineties and remember clearly on one of my transcontinental flights when a kid leaned over to tell me how to play Super Mario. I couldn’t figure it out. ;-)

30th October

I woke up to the sound of a doorbell and the next thing I knew, still half-asleep, I was being encased in an absolutely enormous bear-hug. This is appropriate since the giver of said hug was my long-time Net friend, Griz. We figured out that we must’ve met in April 1997 which is just before I put annwn.com up as its own domain. He joined Wyrdies and then Ravensmeet and again, this was just like putting the final touches to a real friendship. I can think of many, many worse ways to wake up!

In the background was grinning Healer, who is an energy healer and much more, and was introduced to Ravensmeet by Griz (and Ghost is his “daughter in law” as she is now living with his son, the abovementioned Chris). Now, he was introduced to me as the Paraplegic Pagan - and there he was, standing on crutches. He has managed to beat his condition to the point where he can now get around on sticks - and he keeps beating the doctors’ worst predictions. I was immeasurably touched by that discovery. Big grins were spread all round.

I tried and failed to waken up rapidly, but never mind. We had homemade muffins for breakfast and then Griz and Healer took me off to tour some of Essex and Suffolk by car. They took me through a lot of picturesque country lanes which made me sigh in a very happy and contented way. It felt like coming home, much more so than the last time I was in the UK and I’m still assimilating that. I am starting to feel that I have two families, both of whom love me, one chosen and one born. I think the last time I was here, I was forgetting my chosen family.

They showed me where Constable did some of his paintings. There were fields and hedgerows and woodlands that I just knew would be full of bluebells in the spring. Churches peeked out of the fields and pheasants trundled around. I have never spent any time in that neck of the woods, and I really loved it on quite a visceral level. The good company helped :: grin ::

I thought it would be rather nice to ride between locations. I wondered about buying a motorcycle and keeping it at Griz’s house, as that’s how we first met - ‘cause of bikes. (Annwn came up when he searched for motorcycles online - back when Annwn was one of the few sites with motorcycles on, online.) Turns out that Griz would love a motorcycle - he sold his when he started the wildlife rescue centre - , and has no objections from his lady other than if they can’t afford it. So, we’ll see. I can’t afford it, either, but it’s jolly nice to dream.

We stopped off down at some place which overlooked water and Felixstowe, which does bring back a few memories. We used that port to get to the continent sometimes when visiting Slovenia, before we started going from Hull instead. Griz and I wandered up the street and I promptly saw a deer, wandering through a little copse just off to one side. I was told that S., Griz’s wife, would be green with envy as she’d never managed to see one in the wild, and there it was. (I have seen plenty before now.) Griz said it was a roe deer, and I believe him.

After that we headed over to Griz’s place, and Healer went home because his back was troubling him. He controls the car with his hands; it’s been adapted to suit his injury and he is an excellent driver. He used to be an instructor but now is a combination of retired and working from home in the spiritual field. We did not get much chance to chat and I think that this might be something to schedule for the next time. I’ve already decided that I need, not just want, to be in the UK more often than I have been from now on…It is not pulling me as a place to live, but it’s pulling me as a place to be in and come back to, and not to pretend isn’t there or forget about.

I met Griz’s wife, at long last. We got along just fine and she made sure I got a cheese sandwich and some tea ;-). I was loved to death by the two dogs, Tia and Tosca, then Griz plonked a tiny baby hedgehog into my hand and I fell in love. It was utterly gorgeous and started to lick my hand, holding on with little tiny claws. The hedgie was bout 3 inches long and I can’t remember how old Griz said it was.

Then I got the grand tour of the wildlife rescue efforts. This included the sad parts - the two dead owls. The hedgehog that a stupid teenager set on fire because he was bored - and he only got a slapped wrist. The hedgehogs that will crawl into bonfire stacks and be burnt. It also included the awesome parts, such as seeing a screaming kestrel up close and personal, and the baby squirrel which is too tame to release, and the other critters. It’s quiet right now - a lot of the hedgies are being fostered - which gives him a chance to put together more cages and stuff. I am thoroughly impressed by what Griz does, and it‘s all grass-roots and unfunded and he does it anyway, because it‘s what he loves and he‘s put his money where his mouth is. And despite being pecked and bitten on a regular basis. ;-)

After that it was time to go, and I got taken back to Ghost’s house, and thus we went on to the next adventure. I’ll leave that for now. I’m still basking in the memory of the hedgehog and it’s days later.

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