It's not really magic... But we've only just discovered it, so it feels as though it has popped out of the ether...

It's a bus to Peel that we can catch from a stop just 10 minutes from home. So, you don't have to walk down the hill, as you do when you catch the non-magic bus (and, similarly, you don't have to walk back up the hill at the end). It goes via Foxdale, so it's really quite a pretty route (not that any route is exactly un-pretty over here...)

Having discovered this piece of wonderfulness, we used it twice in quick succession.

1. Wednesday 20

We caught the bus to Foxdale, and walked down the route of the old railway line to St Johns, where we met up with a friend at Greens (still no bonnag...)

We walked this route back in February 2022, during that memorably influential month in Foxdale, but of course, it looks very different now, with summer flourishing all around:








Once we'd arrived in St Johns, we had a look in the beautiful little church, aka the Royal Chapel of St John the Baptist, or the National Church (so called for its role on Tynwald Day). I was last there for a friend's wedding, a large number of decades ago. It's very striking:






2. Friday 22

This time we caught the magic bus to St Johns, and then walked along the old railway line to Peel.

So, so leafy...





And this was an amazing thing: Way up on the hillside there was a patch of bluey purple. As the wind ran across it, it waved like corn. And we could see through the camera's ultimate zoom (the one you never use, because you can't keep it steady enough) that this was an almighty patch of bluebells:








And, of course, Peel is a gastronomic wonderland these days:




Home on the magic bus, with extra scenic loop via Niarbyl.

Splendid.