I came home from a trip to the Isles of Scilly a month or so ago, a gorgeous archipelago of habited and uninhabited islands 25 miles off the coast of Lands End. The winds of up to 60 miles per hour were a challenge! … but it was lovely to experience small island life for a while. And when...

The ‘sketch’ at the bottom confirms that I’m no artist. Far from it. But in the summer I went on an art walk to Northey Island, a fabulous tidal nature reserve island in the Blackwater estuary. The National Trust manage it and have commissioned a new sculpture for the island on the theme of...

At this time of year, the garden should be bursting with colour. Annual and perennial plants at their peak of showiness at the end of spring and before the summer gets too hot to wilt them. But not this year it seems. They’re doing their best. And thank goodness some June sunshine and warmth...