Hello and Goodbye

 Hello September and hello to rain. Honestly, our paddocks look like the Sahara and a couple of our oak trees have already started to shed their leaves and acorns due to stress. We drove Connor and Amelia to Bristol Airport on Friday and it was shocking to see how green the fields are just an hour from home. Hopefully the much needed rain will do the trick and we can enjoy the usual Autumn "flush" of grass.

So that's the hellos over and done with now the saddest Goodbye. It was with a heavy heart that we said Goodbye to my Darling Surprise a week or so ago. She brought me such joy over the 25 years that she employed me(!!) and I have such happy memories. She didn't do so well last winter and despite piling food into her she continued to look poor so we made the decision to let her enjoy the sumer and take her final journey on a bright and sunny morning. She's not gone far away though, just beyond the garden with Mog and Suzy where, come the spring, we enjoy masses of spring bulb colour.

I loved her for most of her life and will miss her for the rest of mine.

This was us ten years ago when Surprise was about 25 years old. 

Wills has settled down now but was a little bit "shouty" for the first few days. We didn't think that they were actually very fond of each other judging by the faces they used to pull!! Surprise was very much the yard "Matriarch", hugely independent and evidence suggested that Wills was merely her subject!!

Anyway, thank you for hearing me out and I shall see you soon with something crafty xx