We actually managed to tire Monty out! When Bill and I bought Pinks Barn in the early 80s I was thrilled to discover it had stone floors. Not very pretty ones actually, more like paving slabs inherited from the days when Pinks Barn was a restaurant. The reason for my excitement was that in a mad moment Bill had agreed to us being dog owners for the first time! (Stone floors are made for muddy paws, and ‘accidents’…) I was beside myself and so, before we had much new furniture but after the damp proofing had been done, I became the proud owner of Charlie, a bearded collie puppy. Our lives were ..read more

I suppose this all started with Domestic Science at school (dare I say it – back in the sixties!) and we were always told that if the oven was on, all the shelves should be full so that all the heat was used. This must seem very old-fashioned now and I cannot say that this is always the case at Pinks Barn but with my trusty Rayburn in the kitchen, it is easy to slow cook casseroles and to cook jacket potatoes. I cannot really remember how this happened, or in what order, but with some baked potatoes cooked but now cold, I scooped out the potato skins with a spoon and mashed the contents with ..read more

Setting off from Vancouver for our journey to Alaska There has been a certain amount of déjà vu writing these words as, at last, I am going to tell you about our visit to Canada last September. This time I did manage to board our ship for Alaska! For those of you who did not know, this was our second attempt to take this trip.  In 2022, Bill and I travelled through the Rockies on the wonderful Rocky Mountaineer and then, as I was boarding our ship for the second part of our adventure, I was tested and was positive for Covid and promptly kicked off the ship. We spent four days in Vancouver ..read more

This may be an extraordinary thing to say but it is rare to be completely bowled over by the design, the planting, the range of plants and simply pristine environment of a garden. Quite often only parts of a garden suit our taste but Butchart garden in Victoria, on Vancouver Island left me speechless. I will not admit how many photographs I took both with my big camera and with my phone. Bill and I spent the whole day wandering the gardens and turning corners to discover yet another glorious view.  I have put a few facts together from my souvenir brochure but do have a look at the Butcha ..read more

I have mentioned before that Bill, my husband, simply loves to travel. A far cry from when we met in 1977, when he did not have a passport and had no intention of leaving the UK. I took him on a trip to Boulogne as a day tripper and, as they say, the rest is history. The outcome of his complete change of heart is that he is in charge of researching our trips and then surprising me with treats on the journey. Just such a surprise was a visit to the Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts.             This extraordinary place was found ..read more

In March Nicola Parkman (from Hands across the Sea) asked me to take part in her incredibly exciting and enterprising Sampler Weekend at the Hilton Hotel Swindon, to be held at the end of September 2023. Living so close to the Event was a blessing and I was happy to accept her invitation. I was to talk about my journey through embroidery and also mention Finder of Treasures and, of course, The Cross Stitch Guild.  It also transpired that I was to have two tables so that I could offer a pop-up shop for the day. Bill and I arrived at 8am with our daughter Louise who manned the card machine ..read more

I am a very lucky woman and try not to take the men in my life for granted. I have to say that my brother-in-law Dave is a cut above. In past years Dave has travelled from Suffolk to help me in the garden for a few days – I am not certain why. The fact that his wife, Lesley, likes to have a few days to ‘play house’ without a husband cluttering up the place might have something to do with it. I am very grateful as he sems to love working his socks off in my garden and chatting football with Bill in the evenings. Last year he could not visit because he needed an aortic valve to his heart replac ..read more

A shop in the antique quarter – how could I choose? I had rather random thing happen as a result of going to a needlework fair in Dusseldorf in 1988. It was the year before the Berlin Wall came down. It is a long story, but I was working a show in Germany and met an English lady called Rosalind Parnell who was there as an interpreter for a German designer. Some months later, I asked Rosalind to accompany me to Germany for another stitching event where she was my translator. Rosalind’s husband was working in Berlin and was suddenly taken very ill and was admitted to hospital in Berlin. We flew ..read more

Thrilled with the new windows! Our decision to invest a large sum of money in changing the windows and doors here at Pinks Barn was initiated by our son James. I was bemoaning the fact that we had been so cold last winter and the high cost of the heating our home, when he pointed out that every window in the house leaked and none of the doors fitted. He was, of course, quite right – you could see daylight through the gaps in the doors, so it was hardly surprising that heating such a big house was challenging. What it is to have the wisdom of grown-up children!  All sorts of thoughts ran t ..read more

The legendary Golden Temple didn’t disappoint Bill and I have visited this fantastic continent three times now and I am still aching to go again. I know that the films about the Marigold Hotel were intended as entertainment and did not show all the faces of this fascinating country, but I still love to watch it and get quite wistful about it. When my dear Bill was ill with his cancer and I was frightened about the outcome, I very selfishly told my kids that if anything happened to their dad, I was off to India to live. Maybe not really fair or realistic… For our second visit to India, Bill sur ..read more