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!

Mothers and Daughters

How very blessed I am to be a daughter, and mother, and granna all at the same time!   And even luckier to be given the opportunity to spend time with each of the generations.

During the course of this past week I have had the real pleasure of not only having lengthy phone calls from both our sons, and Oz-based daughter, but have had a chance of a real catch-up with our two other daughters, and my own mother.

I spent such a happy couple of days staying with Kerry in her lovely flat by the Welsh coast, with wonderful walks along the seafront and pier at Mumbles - together with a bit of very satisfying retail therapy.   It has been a while since I have been able to spend such a long time with her, and we both enjoyed it so much.

Then on Sunday we took my Mum to Kim's, where we celebrated her 94th birthday a couple of days early.  I felt so proud of our daughter, so full of kindness and energy, going to so much trouble to give her Nana (and of course ourselves!) such a very happy day.     Although two of her children were away,  we had the pleasure of being with Max and Vikki, and not only did Vikki make a REALLY delicious birthday cake for her Great Nana, but provided us all with a large yummy homemade dip which we greedily demolished with our g&t's!

Kim drove us to  Winchester in the evening to enjoy a sensational evening of Chopin's music, and Martin was waiting in the car right outside the theatre when we came out.    ..... then back at Harewood House we all tucked in to an enormous strawberry/raspberry pavlova .... and vin rose.  Pampered indeed.! 

Very Happy Families.