Saturday...

It has been a glorious week here in the west of Wales. Brilliant blue skies, flowers lifting their heads and saying “thank you, God”, swallows dipping and diving and taking advantage of the wide open door of the writing cottage to squat in the rafters if I don’t chase them out.

All my television watching time has been spent drooling over the wonderful gardens at Chelsea. Could I make a clover thatch on the shed roof like the one inspired by John Clare’s woodland walks?

Probably not — I’m a bit wobbly on a ladder — but I’m definitely up for a drift of wild flowers in the corner of my new garden. Foxgloves, daisies, bluebells — I might lift a few from this garden, and pot up a few violets to take them with me — creating a little woodland corner under the silver birch. And lavender, thymes and marjoram for the bees, because they need all the help we can give them.

The brilliant part of the week hasn’t just been confined to the weather. I’m blogging today at Tote Bags and Books about some very special news, so do drop by and share the joy.

As for me, it’s the best beloved’s birthday today so I’m taking him out to lunch. This photograph was taken in Zambia — where we met — a very long time ago. While his hair (still thick and curly) is now, like mine, silver, he is still my hero.