How little we know. I had no idea that we’d still be in pandemic mode when I sat down to write my 2021 Christmas column. I was slowly starting to try and feel my way back to some semblance of pre-Covid normality, and it was working. Despite my reticence, going […]

I’m sitting at my desk, fire lit to chase the damp, facing a window streaked by rain. Mind you, there’s nothing much to see anyway. The sky is a solid grey and the horizon has been reduced to the front field. Beyond the big oak is a land of fog. […]

I often feel a sense of sadness at this time of year. It’s a melancholy that is both nostalgic and foreboding: nostalgia for the summer that’s gone and foreboding of the winter ahead. This year however, I can’t complain. September has been such a beautiful month, stretching summer out for a […]

I’m writing this on a terrace in the full sunshine in what is probably the last hurrah of summer 2021. All around me people  – mostly tourists – are eating and drinking, soaking up the heat. Others stroll down the street eating ice creams, trailed by a line of children […]

Oh my, my July! What a month it was. Not only did we have a glorious heatwave, but we also started meeting up again. Both were wonderful and yet a little freaky. The heatwave was like a dream come true. I even went swimming -both in a lake and in […]

Last week, an envelope filled with documents arrived from my solicitor. Along with the usual ‘sign here’ stickers, was a note to arrange a zoom call to go through it with her, which I thought was rather considerate. Once we had connected, however, it became clear that the reason for […]