Apologies for absence!

Hulloooo I'm back - so sorry I've been away, but unavoidably so: the most senior of my family members passed away and I headed back up the M5 and M1 to glorious Yorkshire for his funeral.  And it was indeed glorious, including the most beautiful of days for the memorial service itself, which took place in what can only be described as the outstandingly stunning location of Grenoside crematorium...I wouldn't normally expect to go into raptures over a crematorium, but this one is worth it indeed.  The setting at the very top of one of Sheffield's 'seven hills' overlooking open fields towards a panorama of the city across the valley, excellently designed chapel capturing the open views with cathedral-like tall windows which flooded the room with light and provided an inspiring and ever-changing view of the huge sky with clouds shifting across the sunny blue.  All the staff were marvellous and made the day smooth and peaceful, for which we were immensely grateful.

Afternoon sun bathing the garden as we arrived home

I returned this afternoon - with an additional child in tow - am I mad?  Quite possibly...my niece will be staying with us until the weekend when my sister comes to collect her - we had only been here for 10 minutes and already I am traumatised by 3 children bouncing at once on the trampoline (against all house rules!!!) accompanied by the delightful sound and aroma of A tearing around on the ride on mower like a man possessed...am I the only person who thinks that's the last thing I would want to do after driving for 3 and a half hours down the motorway???

He was whizzing around so fast, the best photo I could get was this one with him hiding behind the little pear tree (and doesn't she look magnificent in all her pretties?)

The rest of the evening was spent herding children and urgently reviving my poor greenhouse occupants who had - shall we say - slightly suffered during my absence?  Who knew that the 4 days spent away in mid-April, not normally known for blistering sunshine and tropical temperatures, would turn out like the peak of June?  Hmmmm...my own fault for not asking my kind neighbour here in the village who was popping in twice daily to see to the cats, to have an occasional peep in the greenhouse too.  And as for the cats, well, they are naughty naughty naughty!  Having not shown hide nor hair for the whole time we've been away and hence worrying my good neighbour ridiculously that they would be starving to death (Ha! chance would be a fine thing... plenty of rabbit flavoured take-out to be had around here!), needless to say, Cobweb the usual stay-at-home appeared around my ankles shouting loudly within 5 minutes of me being in the greenhouse, and Mr Darcy, generally more of a 'sneak-in-before-last-orders' type, arrived about an hour ago, shouting through the lounge windows as we were settling down in front of our recorded Masterchef fest... I shall have to go over to my neighbour and apologise profusely for their rudeness.

Here's looking forward to this weather continuing and lots of lovely hours lolling about/working hard in the garden this week! x