SNOW WAS FALLING, SNOW ON SNOW ....

What a fabulous pre-Christmas week!    We have had Jon and Sam staying a few days to chill out from their busy City jobs, and with their arrival came lots and lots of snow, which even now is lying 'deep and crisp and even'.    We were all so excited at the spectacular wintry views from our windows, and much enjoyed making our way through soft powdery, deep snow along the Railway Walk to Winscombe yesterday.   The sky was completely blue, and the sun shone which made everywhere look ravishing - yet didn't melt the snow one bit.   How we enjoyed a hot drink at the warm and cosy pub there, before making our way back home again - cheeks glowing and eyes sparkling.     This weather is SUCH fun - as long as you don't have to travel anywhere, and we do feel so sorry for all the poor souls stranded at frozen airports, and presently on the M25 in both directions!       We plan to travel along the M5/M4 to Mumbles tomorrow to take Kerry out for Christmas lunch, and give her all the family presents..... fingers crossed!

I have spent a busy morning baking 6 dozen mince pies - will that be sufficient Kim?   .... and also done a chocolate log to take to Kerry.    (I could bring one of those to Harewood House too Kim, if you like....)

Thought this picture would add a festive note.

NEW BEST FRIENDS.

Christmas has come early for me this year, with the most wonderful and totally unexpected 'presents' (or should I more correctly say 'presence') suddenly appearing in the paddock outside my studio window.  I looked up from wrapping a parcel to see a dark brown creature, with the softest fluffiest coat and the most soulful large dark eyes looking in at me.   My heart missed a beat!

Warm sunshine has taken the place of hard hoare frosts these past few days - though the temperature has remained very low, particularly at night - and this lovely animal was outlined in its golden glow.   I grabbed my camera and dashed outside, to discover that there was yet another little surprise lurking behind the hedge.   A dinky  cappucino-coloured miniature pony, with delightfully trendy unruly hair.  I couldn't believe my eyes.

Then a really nice young woman appeared, whose pets these beautiful creatures obviously were.   She explained that the cuddly brown one was an Exmoor pony, just two years old, which she planned to ride in the spring, and his name is Dragonfly.  The other is in the paddock as a companion for him, horses apparently liking company, and he is called Scrumpy.  They have been brought into 'our' paddock as there is plenty of long grass available, it having been empty since dear old Butch died in the spring.

It seems that both ponies are extremely hardy.  Joy (for that is the lucky owner's name) pointed out that the ponies' tails flowed straight down from their backs, which allowed snow to slide off easily.    So it seems they don't have any cosy stable to return to in the winter weather, but are perfectly happy to be outside all the time.     I find myself peering out of the window when I go to bed on frosty nights to get a glimpse of their dark shapes, and do feel a little sorry for them.   However, it is obvious that Joy loves them to bits, and knows what is best for them.

Perhaps the empty stable might find another use sometime soon!

(question? - why can't I get the text to 'sit in line' when I edit a paragraph? - most irritating!)

ALL GOD'S CREATURES.

Today I am a little melancholy – for I have had  reluctantly to face the fact that summer is well and truly over, and winter is closer than I would have wished.

Our cattle have gone!   I can no longer pretend to myself that I just can’t see them because they happen to be in the one area of their meadow which it isn’t visible from here.    Their pasture looks forlorn and dreary, desolate in the grey November weather, and the tree whose  leafy branches they nibbled on, now bare  leans at an un-natural angle, like an old gravestone – a winter reminder of my summer friends.

           (My boys, a little earlier in the week, on a misty morning.)

However, I am not entirely without creature-company, for the small flock of sheep in the paddock outside my studio window are not only still in residence, but have been joined by a very handsome and well-endowed male. (he was acting coy when I photographed him.)  I was busily occupied on the computer the other day when I looked up to see him making eyes at me through the window – and very sexy dark-ringed eyes he has too!

As you can imagine, this has caused me a great deal of excitement, for perhaps not only will the sheep remain in their paddock, but maybe we shall have the pleasure of little lambs a-frolicking in the New Year.    Certainly Rambo has gone about his business quite assiduously, for several of his girls show very obvious signs of their promiscuous behaviour.    Not only do I find him extremely attractive, but those ladies on whom he has not yet bestowed his charm, follow behind him like a little fan club, as he saunters distainfully around his domain.

One of the girls seems to have been totally overcome with excitement – or perhaps his passion literally left her weak at the knees. 

Anyway, all the goings on just outside my window here have helped to make up for the loss of my bovine chums, who sadly are probably even now on their way to a local butcher.     Goodness, I’ve just realised, we’re having steak and kidney casserole for dinner tomorrow…….  oh dear …. that does seem a little insensitive under the circumstances!

A PLENTIFUL HARVEST

It has been the most wonderfully bountiful autumn this year – not only in the garden but especially within our family circle.    Days of warm golden sunshine have produced a late harvest of fabulously colourful blossoms  in the garden, and have also gilded our youngest daughter Jenny’s visit home from Australia.

Here are a few of the Supporting Acts….

And now for the Main Event….

We were so thrilled  to welcome Jenny back after well over two years away, and were in a great state of excitement when she arrived here with Jonathan late afternoon on the last day of September.     She looked amazingly fresh and bright after her very long trip, and even managed to do justice to the meal I had prepared – which of course included blackberry and apple crumble, as John and I had picked over 5 lbs from the well-laden hedges just a couple of days before.

Shopping was high on Jenny’s list of Must-Do’s and we did plenty of that, both together with her, or dropping her off to have marathon sessions by herself.   She loved being back amongst her favourite stores, with everything seeming – to her- extremely good value.   Not only did Jenny manage to find lots of great stuff for her newly refurbished home, gifts for the family and (with Alasdair’s birthday-money) some lovely clothes for herself (including the inevitable boots!) – she also knocked off a huge number of presents from her Christmas List – AND manaaged to wrap them all, leaving them here for distribution come the Festive Season.

Jenny emerges from my studio with left-over gift-wrap and ribbons.

Amongst a host of other things,  her Daddy and I took her over to Wales to visit Kerry., who was really chuffed to see her ‘little’ sister again and show her round the beautiful Langland Bay, and catch up with all her news.

Though Jenny’s schedule whilst staying with us was packed full, she  somehow  even found time  to catch up on English newspapers and a pile of magazines I’d kept for her; to have brunch in the sunshine out on our balcony; to have her hair done in Wells, and to enjoy her favourite Mummy-meal of eggs-in-cheese-sauce.

We said what we thought were our final goodbyes on leaving her at her sister Kim’s in Hampshire last Thursday – so were truly amazed and thrilled to find ourselves at a dinner party organised by Jon and Sam at their home in Bucks. onFriday evening. They had somehow managed to gather together ALL FIVE of our ‘children’ under one roof, and John and I were just so deliriously happy.   It was just THE most magical evening for us – I just kept looking at all the joyful faces round the table, taking in all the noise and laughter,  hugging it all into my memory.

Jenny will now be back home again with her three littlies, who will have missed their lovely Mummy terribly, but not half as much as her dear man did, and we are so very grateful to him for loaning his precious lady to us for a while.

Thank you Jenny for bringing so much happiness in your wake.  DO come again!

" All Good Things Around Us...."

Sitting here in my garden studio, freshly ‘spring cleaned’ during the past week when the weather was so warm and sunny that I was able to turn all the contents out on to the terrace whilst I gave everywhere a bit of spit and polish, I’m transfixed watching raindrops stumbling their way down my newly cleaned windows. And I’m thinking – let’s hope this miserable weather continues for a fortnight so that when Jenny arrives from Oz at the end of the month, we’ll be due a good dose of late summer sunshine. Everyone is so looking forward to her visit, and our lovely English countryside bathed in all its golden glory might go some way towards convincing her that things aren’t all that bad over here. Still, I know that whatever the weather, Jenny will no doubt need bundling up in winter woolies having become accustomed to a climate much more congenial than ours, even in their so-called winter!

I have just been downloading some photos taken whilst Kerry was spending three days with us last week. The weather being hot and sunny we were able to drive out each day to go wherever she pleased. We fitted in such a lot, yet Kerry was able to enjoy a lie-in each day , and breakfast on the balcony in the sunshine before setting off for the beach, or the garden centre, or the Chew Valley Lake for a delicious lunch at the fishing lodge there. We had my mother over one afternoon and evening, and it was lovely for the three of us to see her returned to good health after her recent emergency hospitalisation. Kerry set off back to Wales with a newly-baked lemon drizzle cake, and from what she wrote on the lovely card she sent us afterwards, she seems to have really enjoyed herself. With all the many health problems she has had to contend with over the years, we are just so happy to see her glowing with good health and getting such obvious pleasure out of her new life.

So now things here have settled back into a familiar pattern after our superb summer break. Yesterday I enjoyed such a pleasant drive across the Somerset Levels with Glastonbury Tor beckoning me on, to give a Talk for 50 Probus gentlemen at the Wessex Hotel. (I shall be ‘Talking’ to a History Society over the Mendips later in the week.) I’ve taken a sudden flurry of future bookings, have had a much needed hair cut and style here in my own bedroom, have done lots of cutting back and transplanting in the garden, have had a great round of golf with John over at Clevedon, and dealt with a backlog of correspondence. None of the excitements that our daughters write about so wonderfully descriptively in their blogs, but the tenor of our days is very pleasant indeed now that we are both well into our seventies.

Old friends for a ‘proper’ afternoon tea tomorrow, and today a most unexpected but welcome invitation for Christmas; long and interesting e-mails from a couple of our ‘children’, photos from Kerry’s newly acquired Blackberry, and even a phone call today from Sean. What more could we ask in the autumn of our own days.

Bonnie, BONNIE Scotland.

We have just spent almost a fortnight in Scotland and the Borders, and are left with so many lasting impressions .   Here are just a few....

The coast ...

Country roads lined with rosebay willowherb, and heather clad hills.

Holy Island - Lindisfarne - the Castle viewed from the Abbey grounds.

And the colourful garden Gertrude Jekyll created in that windswept spot for the Castle owners to gaze down upon.

Time on our hands to watch and enjoy our feathered friends....

..... and spot the heron on the bank .....

And of course, best of all, the people ....

and this next one enjoying refreshment having watched master craftsmen making whisky casks ...a hugely fascinating process.....

And lastly, one of the shots that John is most pleased with (though we should have hidden the ketchup!)

Iain and Margaret were the most wonderful hosts, providing endless delicious meals .. and loads to drink! ...and taking us out and about to savour so many different experiences each day.  We even managed to play a couple of games on a golfcourse which was amazingly beautiful -  though the same can't be said for our golf, but we did so enjoy ourselves.   An unexpected highspot was a summer party to which we were all invited by their neighbours, where not only did we meet some really lovely people, but late in the evening, when all were well fed and whisky'd, their 10 year old granddaughter sang unaccompanied, a Scottish ballad in such a clear voice and totally unselfconscious way that there was ne'er a dry eye in the house.  Her old grandfather bashed out tunes on his squeezebox which we all joined in with great enthusiasm (even though we Sassenachs didn't know many of the words), and the child's mother, a shepherdess, sang a favourite old Scottish love song with great warmth.    An evening we shall never forget, and a holiday made perfect by so many kind folk. 

Although this Blog is from a Somerset Garden I seem to take it far and wide.   So I thought I would wander round the garden one sunny day recently, and take a few photos for the record.....

And there were certainly signs of autumn in the air .....

And what better way to end the day than by sipping pink champagne on my studio verandah!