Simple things

To Great Dixter with our pals this morning. When I visit a famous garden for the first time I often worry that it won't live up to expectations and sometimes it doesn't, but this time I was charmed by the intimacy, the brilliance of the colour, and the relaxed, apparently careless gardening, but most of all by the simplicity of all the extras - the homemade sweet chestnut fencing supporting the plants, the wooden litter bins, the locally made ash tools, the oak labels - the complete absence of anything plastic. I especially liked the collection of seeds.

Returned to a lazy afternoon in the sunny courtyard, lunching and chatting with our pals and a wander round the orchard and pond. Then a grand evening to ourselves watching the sun go down at Beachy head.

GOOD THINGS:
Dragonflies at the pond
Windfall Bramleys
The perfect weather

EXERCISE DIARY:
Wok up to Great Dixter- only a mile, but it was uphill
Bit of yoga in the courtyard under the stars