NOT THE SOUTH OF FRANCE

but just outside Hartlepool, so they're doing surprisingly well considering how much less sunshine and warmth we've had than the rest of the country. I wonder whether any of the local beekeepers offer sunflower honey - I love it and haven't seen any for a very long time.

A weird thing happened as I was about to set off to find them and then do some shopping. I went to drop my bunch of house keys into the little box in the moulded 'tunnel' between the two front seats of the car, but it missed and slid down then disappeared through a hole where the handbrake emerges. I didn't even know that could happen. B and I fished around with an extendable magnet and could hear them, but they wouldn't come out. We have neither the eyesight or tools between us to dismantle the cover so I'm off in a few minutes to the garage up the road to see if he can help without charging us a fortune to take the interior of the car to pieces.

EDIT: A young man came out to the car and retrieved the keys in about 5 seconds. No charge - and now we know which bits we can pull apart without breaking the car!