Letter from home

It has been a quiet week at Hepworth Towers.

The family member who declines to be named rang on Thursday to ask if I’d go over at the weekend with Dave (who was going to help with some landscaping) because on Tuesday MsX had come out of pre-school and said she thought Sue was picking her up.

The lovely Jaine asked her why she thought that, and MsX said “Because I love her and I miss her.”

You can imagine how I felt when I heard this. And of course I said yes, I’ll go. I was missing her too.

Then at half past seven in the morning on Saturday, the family member who declines to be named rang to tell me that he thought I should know that MsX had a nasty cough and the lovely Jaine also had a bit of a cough. If I didn’t want to go because of the risk of catching something worse (as grandparents often do) then they would understand.

Readers, I went. MsX is irresistible, just like all of my other grandchildren.

Our garden has been looking lovely for a month, and now the bluebells are fading, the wallflowers are nearly over, and the honeysuckle is out. 

The cow parsley is at full height along the lane. I’m in heaven. There is nothing that compares to May in the Derbyshire Dales.

View from our lane

Just round the lane from Hepworth Towers

I’m watering my wildflower patches every evening, and they’re certainly germinating, which is encouraging. I’m waiting for Dave to put up the canes so I can plant my sweet peas. Our blackbird has been singing for much of every day and when I go out and hear him I always call up to him on the chimney, or the laburnum tree, or next doors larch, and say hello. I tell him how lovely it is to hear him. I’m an utter soppy date when it comes to our blackbird. 

Today we have to drive over to Ashbourne, 35 minutes away, to deliver some paintings I am submitting to the Ashbourne Art Festival exhibition. We’re allowed to submit up to four paintings. These are they. They are ones I want to sell. We have run out of space on our walls. Wish me luck!

That’s my week. I hope you’ve had a good one, and that you’re free to enjoy this glorious weather.