" 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.