I don't particularly like this time of the year . The mornings are cool. The skies are like a grey blanket covering us and keeping the sun out. When the suns does appear it swelters . It is so muggy that the trousers I wore this morning are discarded for shorts . The thin jumper thrown back in the cupboard and the T Shirt dug out . The air feels still . The sun burns down . High summer has arrived and with it unpleasant sultry conditions . We don't do summer well . The grass is turning yellow . The hedgerows are dusty. The flowers in the fields are almost over . Everything looks a uniform yellow or off tinge of brown . The schools are out for summer . Well at least some of ... read more

We had a plan to day but it was thwarted by the weather . For July it is dreadful . It threatens rain every day . The skies are overcast . That complete covering of grey with little to relieve it . The plan had been to do something most days . Hodnet Hall - only opens in the summer months on a Wednesday . Each week something else got in the way . Looked it the same would happen today . Cholmondeley Castle Gardens - again summer opening only . This time Thursdays only. By the time mid morning had come around we just had to go out somewhere . In the end we got in the car and just drove . Across the border into England . To a small hamlet called Bruera . ... read more

Sion was rather excited as we had promised to take him out for a trip . " Yes it was a lovely day, the last day of June and I was being shuffled along with the words Come on Siony we are off for a trip" I got very excited to be fair and was a bit bemused when they did not go into Gabby . They told me I was going to see a Dutch bridge . Now that excited me . I remember we were supposed to go to Holland and see bridges in Amsterdam so I thought to myself we were probably off to Holland to see the bridges . About time too. Sadly Sion was going to be a tad disappointed . His face dropped when we got into Ziggy rather than ... read more

We were driving into town talking amongst ourselves as we drove . What have we done since we have lived here ? Had we realised we have been here 15 months ? We came down to rain, a flooded garage , a family who would not move out and Covid almost instant lockdown . Life had drifted along under Covid. Gabby had stood unused and stored . It is fair to say she has not travelled far in the last 15 months nor in the months that preceded the move . We have struggled getting workmen to come and do the jobs we are not allowed to do . We saw prices of materials rise. Life was very different to 2 years ago . Would we have driven into Chesterfield for Arms Forces Day? No probably ... read more

First things first . Boscobel House is in Shropshire . Boscobel is one of those oddities in our small isle . The building , the house itself lies inside the boundary of Shropshire however part of the property and its land lie in neighbouring Staffordshire . The post address is Brewood which clearly falls into Statffordshire and the house has a Stafford postcode . So I have one foot in one county and one foot in the next . The house once belonged to the nearby priory . The White Ladies priory which we would be visiting next . When we move we usually draw a circle of fifty miles from our home or one hours driving time . This is the limit we like to travel without taking our girl Gabby out for an overnight ... read more