A nice retreat with a sunny conservatory even though the weather wasn’t the hottest. At least it was dry and sunny nearly every day and the dog was very pleased with a reasonable sized enclosed garden to play ball in! Time to sit and reflect and spend time with Mr Darcy in the book I was reading at the time, ‘Mr Darcy’s Diary courtesy of Amanda Grange – see Facebook entry www.facebook.com/journojohnson  Also visited her majesty at Sandringham (unfortunately she wasn’t at home), Blickling Hall and walked and cycled for our health – husband’s idea but not a bad one. Only problem on the cycling front was that the seat was adjusted a little too high and when I stopped I kept falling off the side of my bike!!

Then it was on to Essex for another week of exercise but not so relaxing this time with – 7 dogs, 6 hens, 4 geese, 2 finches, 2 canaries, a tank load of goldfish and a pond full of Koi Karp and a retired racehorse to care-take. Yes, we were ‘animal sitting’ for my sister on her farm once again. Angus even made up a song for us to sing based on the 12 days of Christmas substituting holiday for Christmas. I won’t publish it here because, like us, it’s still a work in progress!!