Is it the lunch, or is the conversation . . .

It's hard keeping up with her sometimes.

We've done hardly anything since we arrived home, and feel all the better for it. The house, which was extremely tidy when we came home, is pretty much back to its usual shambles. Sid and Beri have ALL the sofa cushions from ALL the sofas piled in the middle of the floor, are dressed in their sunsuits and are playing some arcane game, while Kit is off at a friend's party, racing Go-karts.

Tomorrow morning we go to Jeremy's parents in Essex for a couple of days. I'm hoping to visit Audley End, where there is a wonderful vegetable garden managed by the HDRA. In Trevarno we saw a similar garden at a MUCH earlier stage of restoration, again with the HDRA's involvement - if we get to make the visit, I'll tell you about the Vine House. Maybe we'll even have the courage to see the inside of the House this time.

Our friend Daisy, who is a couple of weeks shy of her fourth birthday, and a twin (developmentally, twins are supposed to lag behind singletons by about six months), has just mastered the art of riding a bike WITHOUT STABILISERS. (Beri, almost a year older, hasn't a clue.) She was riding round the garden, where her parents were standing chatting, and crashed into her father's legs. She fell off, got up, and putting her hands on her hips said 'Daddy! You MUST learn to look where you are going!'