We have a Victoria Plum tree in our garden and despite the drought and the apparent lack of pollinators we seem to have had a bumper crop of plums. I love to wander in the garden and eat the fruit straight from the tree. Unfortunately we seem to have a heavy infestation of plum fruit…

The next plant to mention in this series is Rudbeckia with beautiful yellow flowers that have grown up through the cracks in the paving stones in our backyard. These have not been knowingly watered and were certainly not intentionally planted, rather they seem to have self-seeded from last year’s flowers and flourished independently of anything…

This is a series of TFTDs inspired over the months of July and August – the hottest on record! East Anglia seems to have been particularly affected by the long hot and dry summer, with brown lawns, trees and shrubs shedding appearing to wither before our eyes and devastating wildfires on Dunwich Heath that required…

Last week I wrote about my recent cycle trip. This is another thought from that trip. On day 2 we arrived at our final destination, the Lindisfarne Inn, nestled besides a petrol station on the verge of the A1! However, we all chose a detour to cycle along the causeway to Holy Island. (Yes, the…

I recently completed my latest long distance cycle ride – from Newcastle to Edinburgh. The road started easy and flat following the east coast out of Tynemouth, past various castles along the coast – Warkworth, Dunstanbrugh, and Bamburgh, before we took a short detour to Holy island and Lindasfarne. Our third day saw us cross…

There has been a vogue for repurposing phone boxes. Since the advent of mobile phones, the iconic red phone box has often been left unused and even vandalised. However over recent years they have received a lick of paint and a new lease of life. Many village streets have a lending library of books or…

We were very lucky to have this view of Mount Vesuvius from our holiday villa recently. There were many stunning sunsets viewed from the veranda whilst sipping something cool and refreshing. The sunrise was taken on our last morning as we had to leave around 5am in order to get to the airport on time.…

On our recent trip to Italy, we stayed in Sorrento, the home of limoncello. (Lemon flavoured digestif). The UK supermarkets would have us believe that lemons are all, more or less, a standard size with shiny yellow peel. However, the lemon groves that adorn the Sorrentine peninsula produce some fruit the size of melons, with…