Warm sunshine for the first time for months: birds singing, butterflies appearing, lambs playing in warm green fields. We so nearly lost faith in spring. But even now after such a strange cold winter, I do still wonder if the warmth will really last; the forecast is ominous. Thick snow in Devon in March shocked…

March 1st and heavy snow has been falling now for forty eight hours and shows no sign of stopping any time soon. I can’t quite believe my eyes; so unusual in Devon and Cornwall. The last time we had anything like this in the valley was in the 1980’s. The whole of Briton is gripped…

February 1st

The early morning sun struggles over the hill slowly lighting the frozen valley. My boots crunch on the grass as I make my way through the glistening garden to the icy farmyard. Cobwebs sparkle on shining rosehips, the last little rose shimmers as its petals warm; a winter camellia is covered in perfect tiny flowers…

A soft autumn mist hangs over the river. From my Devon window I watch oak tree leaves glistening red in the persistent rain, they glow with warmth against the steel grey sky. The cherry trees try to compete, cornus, viburnum, acers too; pink, orange, yellow, everything in the valley is riotously fading into autumn. The…

Garden, June 2017