We walked through the bright yellow, coconut-scented gorse while strands of heather pushed their way skyward; still bare trees covered a forest path lined with holly, sonorous with the songs of blackbird, robin and blue tit, and a handful of birds we sadly could not identify. We visited a tiny shopping area full of local arts and crafts with my mother-in-law and her husband., ate a crepe lunch and talked about the world and all the things in it