Yellow and blue - colours of spring

Daffodils are flowering in the garden,

Trumpeting heralds for the new season.

They brighten the corner under the hazel bush, where the pond used to be and may well be again.

The sky is not the only place to see intense blues -

this gleams from under the still-bare walnut tree.

Spring at Lydiard House

Lydiard Park waslooking very green and full of promise yesterday, with plenty of evidence of the new season's growth.



There were some delicate Hellebores waving in the damp breeze.

The clumps of snowdrops were much more abundant than the last time I visited.

New cyclamen leaves pushed up through last year's pine cones.

Even the moss growing on the stone walls looked lusher, greener and more abundant.

Supper in Swindon

This is the School House Hotel and Restaurant in Hook, just outside Swindon. I spent Monday night there in this lovely converted building, which was built to educate the children of estate workers at nearby Lydiard House, coincidentally where I had a date the next day.

The large windows mark the spot of what was the school hall, now transformed into a restaurant where I enjoyed a really superb meal with my friends Maggie and Penny, and Penny's husband, John (who took the photo below of we three girls enjoying our main courses). Great company makes an evening go well, but so did the scrumptious dinner - I had a starter of salmon and scallop terrine on salad leaves, followed by loin of venison with mixed seasonal vegetables, and completed the olfactory adventure with a fabulous pannacotta with kirsch-steeped cherries - ecstacy!

The gluten free breakfast was equally excellent the next morning. We were looked after very well there, and I look forward to having the occasion to visit there again. The restaurant is open to non-residents - shame it's over an hour's drive from home!