We spent the majority of February in Edinburgh and most of March relaxing back into our routine back at home.  That home-based groove is pretty nice though.  The weather has been mixed – warm and cold, sunny and wet by turns.  But we live in a lovely and relatively quiet part of the Cotswolds.  When the weather has been good, we have enjoyed rural walks, local pubs and the start of Spring with all the bird song and new growth that brings.

We have also, courtesy of Jane’s Christmas present to me, renewed our membership of The Newt Gardens in Somerset.  We paid our first visit of the year there a couple of weeks ago.  We haven’t been for about four years and there have been some notable extensions to the structure of the huge garden space.  The weather wasn’t great so we restricted our explorations to the areas already familiar to us and the new ‘Four Seasons Garden’; we saved the ‘Roman Villa Experience’ for another day. 

The garden is very impressive.  The centrepiece remains the ‘Parabola’ the top half of which is home to over 300 apple tree varieties.  The trees are trained onto trellises or architectural shapes.  The attention to detail here, and elsewhere in the garden, is incredible. 

We stayed for lunch in the main restaurant and that too was, as on previous visits, very good.  We had a great table with a view over the ‘Parabola’.  Beyond that we could see the vegetable and fruit garden, the topiary towards the hotel and then, even further on, the orchards on the slopes to the south west.  Next time, we will come when more of the planting is in flower and the weather is more conducive to a longer excursion around the property, but we enjoyed the first of our membership visits very much.

Back home, I have slotted back into the normal mix of walking, daily shopping, volunteering at the Food Bank and local school, and watching my football team, Forest Green Rovers, struggle to regain their early season form.  On the cultural side, I have increased the pace of my reading of novels (slightly).  I have enjoyed that even if it has been at the cost of catching up on the backlog of The Economist magazines that built up while we were in Edinburgh.

Also, I caught up with an old acquaintance from when he was involved in the local Climate Action Network who had, bravely and impressively, organized an exhibition of portraits of progressives and activists he had painted.  Whilst I didn’t like many of them much, they were good likenesses and the reasons for choosing to paint them were explained well.

Jane and I also saw Salt House, a threesome folk band from Scotland and the North of England, at our local Ruskin Mill.  We had heard a lot of their music in advance on Spotify and loved it.  We often caught each other, before and after the gig, humming the melodies.  The gig itself was lovely, intimate and beautifully done.  I will renew my attention to the list of future performances at Ruskin Mill since the quality is almost always exceptional.

Other highlights have been involvement in celebrating Second Grandchild’s second birthday in Bristol.  Given my love of football, I was encouraged to see that his presents included a small football goal and a child size football.  (The football was branded Arsenal to reflect his father’s preference but Forest Green Rovers have merchandise too so watch out……).  Plus, last weekend, we hosted a couple from London who have been close friends for decades; it was great to catch up, chat and to eat well at home, at The Crown in Minchinhampton and, especially, Juliet in Stroud.

Now we are planning a big family Easter get together.  Fortuitously, life – whether in Edinburgh or back home – is good.