Can you believe it’s September already? Where did the summer go? But – oh – how wonderful it’s been. I’ve enjoyed many an hour sitting in the garden reading a good book. My favourite summer reads have been The Inn at Eagle Point by Sherryl Woods, Last One Home by Debbie Macomber, and Blackberry Summer by RaeAnne Thayne.
Our Springer spaniel Hattie often hopped up onto the bench beside me, wondering what I was up to!
I also really adored Robyn Carr’s What We Find – a moving novel about healing and allowing yourself to risk your heart one more time. It’s the start of a new series and, if it’s anything like the wonderful Virgin River series, I’m going to be hooked!
So, a special thank you to every single reader who has bought a copy of The Rose Girls because, without you, I couldn’t have achieved this and it really has made me very happy indeed!
These are the sort of days summer is made for: eating, drinking, walking and talking with friends and kicking your shoes off and just being.
And the lovely Alice Thwaite was punting guests up and down the river after a splendid buffet-style lunch in the garden so Roy and I climbed aboard.
There is something magical about being so close to the water. We saw damselflies galore and some beautiful plants and flowers and the gentle beauty of the Norfolk countryside.
No wonder Ratty in Wind in the Willows says that there is, ‘nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.’
Beatrice – the top hen of this little flock who keeps everyone in check.
And Rosalind – a very vocal hen who lays beautiful pale eggs.
Collectively known as The Shakespeare sisters!
Viola and Hermia are the little uns and have so many bare patches that I’ve been trying to pop a bit of sun cream on them as they are keen sun worshippers.
It’s wonderful to have the hen head count up to seven. The garden was looking a bit depleted with just three, but the old girls haven’t taken kindly to the new arrivals and I fear that further battles will be fought before the flock settles down!
But it’s hedge mazes that I’m most interested in so, with that in mind, Roy and I headed to the beautiful Rococo Gardens at Painswick in the Cotswolds whose maze has two separate centres – one easy to reach and the other a little harder.
Hattie met her first stone spiral staircase and soon got the hang of going up and down, and up and down, and up and down…
There are so many fabulous moments to remember like drinking champagne and singing Happy Birthday under a fan vaulted ceiling, being the curators of our very own museum for the week and sitting in the sunny walled garden with gargoyles watching over us. It’s a holiday we’ll never ever forget!
