... so to begin...

I'm sitting here in my cosy studio at the bottom of our garden, watching dusk fall across the paddock directly outside my window, and over the rhyne and fields beyond. Our single-storey home (okay, a bungalow then, but that conjures up visions of uninspired, dull dwellings for the elderly - none of which applies, except that we who dwell here might be considered by the young to be literally 'over the hill') - sits on the gentle southern slopes of the Mendip Hills, with views to die for. From our front gate we can see the cleft in the hills which is Cheddar Gorge, some three miles away, and we have uninterrupted views across the Somerset Levels from every rear window. On a clear day in winter, when the trees across the countryside are bare, we can just see Glastonbury Tor if we lean against the picture window in our garden room/kitchen and peer leftwards.

I was researching a fresh subject to add to my List of Talks on life in the Edwardian Era (around 100 years ago) and came across a book entitled 'Pot Pourri from a Surrey Garden' written by a Mrs. Earle around the turn of last century. It was made up of random diary entries over the course of a year, covering happenings in her garden and the countryside beyond, with the addition of interesting titbits about her family and the wider world. The book seems to have gone into many editions, and I found it so absorbing that I decided to keep a similar notebook myself, using the computer which is installed (along with great numbers of Edwardian magazines, newspapers and books) here in my garden eyrie.

Two of our daughters have got themselves Blogging, and dear sweet souls that they are, encouraged me to do the same. So here goes....