It’s been a glorious autumn here in Suffolk with misty mornings turning into warm afternoons and the garden full of ripe apples, raspberries, tomatoes and squashes.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I visited the author Ronald Blythe at his beautiful home in the Stour Valley – somewhere he describes as being perfect ‘for artists and writers’ so we felt very much at home as I read in the garden and Roy painted the house.

Back in our own garden, I harvested some of our squashes, marvelling at the shapes and colours. We shall enjoy eating them, I’m sure, but I have to confess that I grew them because I knew they would be beautiful.