The studio

I enjoyed a drive though miles of sunny Cotswold countryside this morning, to a village near Kemble, close to the source of the river Thames (currently resembling a muddy puddle). The venue was an artist's studio on a farm, in a converted outbuilding. Some of the Saturday life drawers from Stroud had booked me to model for them in these luxurious surrroundings. (I say luxurious because it wasn't a freezing 200-year old stone cloth mill building with a thin mattress on the floor....)

The group was very pleasant, the silence was wonderful, broken only by the droning aerobatic displays from Kemble airfield, and the sound of a herd of indignant cows being transferred from one farm to another, in accordance with the changing of the seasons.

We had lunch (they'd even provided gluten-free options for me, even though I'd said I'd bring my own!) and promised to meet again soon. I hope we do. On returning home, I spent an hour with my neighbour admiring her latest 'bead-hanger creations' (I don't know what else to call them), before going home to get ready for a 50th birthday party.

It was a wonderful affair at the local brewery's rustic weekend-only pub-in-a-tent. There was live music, a bar, and a make-it-yourself pizza station, though the wood-fire oven baking was done by experts.

Then I returned home to my second office, which nowadays consists of my bed. Still haven't finished my book, though: too many emails and plans to attend to first!