Who’d have thought that we were one year on from ‘That‘ weekend…the one when we had flown back to the UK to celebrate Keiths’ 50th birthday with family whilst all was looking pretty peachy before take off – well, it is all relative, we thought we would have a couple of weeks before lockdown took hold – yet by the time we arrived in the UK, Spain announced that it was shutting its borders…. where has the time gone?

We have swapped walking round the motorhome in the Aire in Spain for walking round our field in Holyport….and life is good! We have our health, we are happy and we are surrounded by the natural beauty of the British counrtyside … which is second to none. It is so refreshing to wake up each morning and hear the birds sing and no matter whether the sun is shining or the snow is falling – you can’t deny that we are lucky to live in such a beautiful country… can you tell that we don’t miss Spain!

Where has that year gone though… every time I think about what we are doing or what we have done it is time for a gin and tonic and its the weekend again…. ok, to be fair, I do have a couple of gin tonics during the week too so I possibly shouldn’t base timescales on my alcohol consumption!

The days are getting longer, the weather is definately brightening up and the flowers are certainly starting to spread out in the fields and gardens…. although I am a bit disappointed as we don’t appear to have any wild garlic growing near us!

We haven’t been anywhere though, just lots of walking (well…. once a day) in the beautiful Berkshire countryside, generally along the river during the week when there are less people and then across the fields and polo countryside over the weekend.. but both routes are equally beautiful and tranquil really, we are very lucky.

After the snow in my last blog I can’t say that the weather has warmed up hugely but it appears to go in cycles…. a couple of weeks of very cold, dry weather, then a week of wetter, warmer weather…. not sure which is better but we have learnt that we need to dry the door seal on the colder drier nights after waking to it being frozen shut one night, taking a little while for us to ease it open again!! One of the issues when you only have one door in and out!!

Although it isn’t much of an update, I thought it was about time I did a blog to let you know that we are still here…in our little field and give you a few new photos and recipes……

We have still enjoy our Oddbox, although fear that we are coming to the end of ‘Sprout’ season!! In the last 6 weeks we have celebrated my mums birthday…. mexican style as well as tried out a handful of new recipes as follows:-

• Breakfast tortillas with refried beans
• Home made pasta… again
• Vegan lasagne
• Fish tacos and chocolate pots (mums birthday)
• Pasta Bake
• Falafel
• Jamaican Patties
• Traditional Goan Curry (which we have made before and is one of my favourites) and Mushroom Bhaji – a deliciously tangy side dish.

And although I haven’t been doing a huge amount of sketching at the moment – there is a lot of research going on (more on that next time) – I am getting more confident with the flowers… just don’t ask about the attempt at the hare!!