I have been busy. Looking back at photos of this summer I see colour and smiling faces and trips and travels. I was so harassed at one point that I thought I would like to run away and book into a lonely hotel for two nights and stay in bed and read my book. I might have had to stay a fortnight as at the time I was reading The Magic Mountainby Thomas Mann, and it is HUGE. But a visit to the cinema on a rainy afternoon made me so glad to be alive. John and I went to see Marian andLeonard – Words of Love.It was lovely, sad and poignant, and we had to sit in the dark for a while to stop tears from falling. We saw the pair meet in Greece during the hedonistic days of the 1960s and watch their relationship unravel over the years, yet there was always something that brought them back together.

Ah – I do love Leonard Cohen’s music, and now when I hear Farewell Marianne, I have a face and the beautiful island of Hydra to bring the words to life. He describes his time there as creative, wonderful, and he felt as though the island was covered in gold dust.

Meanwhile John and I have been to Wales, and visited with Bonnie and Hazel, then he went on to Sussex to spend time with his family.

Natasha and the children and I  had a picnic on a Jurassic beach beside the footprints of dinosaurs, and boiled in the July sunshine.

Leo joined us to spend a morning going round a car boot sale and I espied a bread maker machine.

Well Natasha haggled and it was mine for £5! It was brand new, so I carted it off and that night we made the most delicious bread.

On the way back John and I drove to York, and were dwarfed by the Minster,

then drove on to Alnwick Castle and gloried in its gardens and beautiful rooms.

I loved the Poison Garden, full of dire warnings of the most evil outcomes of sniffing, touching and swallowing the most mundane of plants. Did you know that all green parts of the aubergine are poisonous? The castor oil plant is a source of ricin, a deadly poison with no known antidote. It is feared in chemical warfare. It was the poison placed on the tip of an umbrella used to murder the Bulgarian dissident. And Oleander! Apparently it is believed to be dangerous to sleep in the same room as this plant! I am in awe of such natural beauty, and am happy to respect their biological makeup, but really, I am not one to munch my way through a meadow or a garden. At the moment, I am waiting for my King Wa  plant to produce  three more flowers. I really thought it was done this year, but no… we have a curtain call. Such an exquisite  flower which sadly only flowers at night and is wilted by the morning. Natasha cut one of the blooms at night and put it in the fridge for Bonnie to see in the morning. So much beauty for such a short time.

We did walk around Culross, and up through the fields to the ancient cemetery,

then decided to visit some plague graves, and meandered through the fields to a wooded area.

Imagine our surprise when we came across a plaque announcing that it was on  this spot that the Scots, led by King Duncan, had been defeated by the Danes, and in revenge, the local people had poisoned the invaders with ale laced with deadly nightshade, which enabled Macbeth to enter their camp and slaughter all but ten of them. It was soon after this that Macbeth famously met the three witches and as you know, it was all hubble bubble toil and trouble, or so the story goes!

I did a two-day course at the University on Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Very intense but very good, as the lecturer was from Moscow and she told us about her school days growing up with bookshops only stocking the works of Lenin and so on. It was really fascinating. One of my fellow students was a High Court judge. It was very interesting to listen to his take on  the novel and at the end he was  going to give Raskolnikov twenty one years!

We have just had Natasha, Bonnie and Hazel up for a week, and it was magical. We baked, and visited, walked and talked.

We had Gerry and Darcey and Dillon over and the kids had such fun on the beach and in Deep Sea World. We went berry picking and then jam making and of course bread making.

I feel as though I am a born again Mrs Beaton! I have plans for my rhubarb next. I think I will attempt the ice cream. Last time it was so delicious.

We did go to Pittenweem’s Art Festival and enjoyed cruising around looking at art in every kind of venue – living rooms, kitchens (complete with the smells of a recent meal), hallways and courtyards. I even tried on an arty sort of dress in a lady’s bedroom! It was all just so intimate.

There were about 77 venues in all, so a lot of people had given over their houses for the festival. The paintings were all a bit ‘samey’ – sea scenes and harbours and depictions of the Cuillen mountain range. We were about to go home, but …. we came across a room full of paintings of flowers. And we were hooked! So we bought two prints by Gill Smith, an Edinburgh artist; they are stunning and fresh and full of colour.

John and Nick went off to the angling shop to buy some more hooks, as fishing has been such a success this summer. We have relished two huge sea trout (with lemon aiolli) and last week a mackerel.

When they came back, they had bought a small boat! A one man fishing craft, and so now we have a new dimension to our days!

I had my maiden voyage on a flat, sunny sea, and it was so peaceful. I rowed and dropped a line over and secretly was quite relieved that I didn’t catch anything, as I had visions of a mighty cod dragging me off to America. Little Bonnie had a go with the big fishing rod from the shore, and in minutes she was able to cast and reel in the line. We were all amazed. That rod is heavy. She said she would like a pink one of her own and then she would fish every day.

So that is me in mid-August. I might not be Leonard Cohen, but I can understand his thoughts. I have had a summer covered in golden dust.

Baby starlings, about fifty altogether!