Safely back, and we had a wonderful time. The weather was peerless, for all six days. That doesn’t often happen. It wasn’t peerless, in much of the rest of the UK. That’s even rarer – the contrast, I mean.

This post will be mostly about feliculture and gardening, but knitting should make an appearance.

The cats didn’t at all enjoy the journey. The weather, however, meant that we could leave the back door open all day and they could go in and out ad lib, popping back in when necessary to ensure that I was all right. They were nervous the first couple of days, and didn’t eat as much as usual, and stayed in a lot, but by the end they were completely comfortable with the new set-up. And I was completely comfortable about letting them loose. The only possible danger is that the still-unspayed Paradox might head off looking for love, but that didn’t happen this time.

Both of them came to bed with me, both at naptime and overnight. That has never happened before. It will be interesting to see what happens tonight.

I am trying to persuade the iPad to send us the gardening pictures I took. No luck so far, and I can’t sit here all night. I describe the scenes I want to show you, and maybe tomorrow you will see them.

Here is the Good King Henry patch. I cut some this morning, and have set it to ferment this afternoon. I have no great hopes, since it tastes so bitter, but we shall see. I added carrots and garlic and spring onions to the ferment, but forgot chillies. I think I’ll open the jar and pop in a couple of them this evening.

Here is my fruit hedge, an unexpected success after many years. There is a gap in the middle where something has died. The bushes are black currents and white currents and gooseberries, all promising a good crop. And a free-range cat.

Here is the apple tree at the bottom of the vegetable garden. Some may remember my grumbles about this tree. It has far more flowers this year than ever before. With luck, there may be ten or a dozen apples this year.

There are a couple more unseen pictures, but this is ridiculous. And the knitting news requires more space than remains available.