The four nights in St Ives to celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary also fulfilled a long held ambition to visit Barbara Hepworth’s home and sculpture garden, as well as the exhibition of her work hosted by Tate St Ives, which moves on to Eastbourne in May. And after another demanding spring I needed time by … Continue reading St Ives in April 2023

Thursday 30 March  This long-planned trip to VinItaly fell between my brother Andrew’s death (5 March) and his funeral (11 April) and provided me with welcome moments of distraction from grief and sadness.  Today would have been the first of a three day train strike so we had planned to travel to Orpington the previous … Continue reading Vinitaly at Verona: April 2023

We have often flown into Turin airport but never lingered in the city. It is three years to the day since our first book-related Piemonte visit to Alba for Grandi Langhe 2020 (and exactly three years since we first heard mention of Covid ‘19). Grandi Langhe is a two-day event at which Langhe producers show … Continue reading Piemonte 14 : Turin for Grandi Langhe 27 – 31 January 2023

What better use of the end of year limbo (aka the Christmas break) than a quick backward look? Five education secretaries  Four chancellors  Three prime ministers  Two Tory leadership coups  And one massive omnishambles in a pear tree  Oh, and I almost forgot. The Queen died. 2022 has been quite the year  John Crace in the … Continue reading Wrapping up the year 2022

David’s press trips to Valdobbiadene (for superior Prosecco) and five days later, to the Euganean Hills (for more obscure wines, salumi and olive oil production and spas) provided us with an unprecedented opportunity to spend a long weekend in Venice. A holiday! Yes a real holiday ! I flew from Gatwick at midday on Thursday … Continue reading And what will October 2022 bring, I wonder? Venice!

Monday 12 September  We made an earlyish start (we saw the sunrise from our bedroom window) to drive east from Alba to our first visit Ca Turin in Cisterna d’Asti at 09.00 where Alessandro met us promptly and showed us his modest cantina with four small concrete tanks (and several bags of hazel nuts). Fabulous … Continue reading Piemonte 13: Monferrato September 2022

Saturday 10 September  Today we drove west, returning to the foothills of the French Alps to expand David’s material gathered in May. At Costiglione Saluzzo we met Serena Giardanino and her father in their small domestic sized winery around which they grow Qualiano as well as Barbera, Nebbiolo, Chardonnay and Favorita, used in six different … Continue reading Piemonte 12: Saluzzo (again) and Diano d’Alba and the Langhe’s eastern edge; September 2022

Friday 2 September 2022 After a busy week of birthday celebrations, it was a relief to be catching a mid-afternoon BA flight from Gatwick, accessed easily by trains (running almost to time!). Wonderful when it works!  But a late departure meant a later arrival at Turin, and though Hertz’s rep was both friendly and helpful we … Continue reading Piemonte 11: the Langhe 3; September 2022

After a very hot and dry July with not one but two record-breaking heatwaves, the garden had gone from flourishing colours to rock-hard ground and shrivelled plants with yellowing foliage. Souther Water inevitably imposed a hosepipe ban, though ours were put to use siphoning water from the bath onto suffering flowerbeds and roses. Look carefully … Continue reading And what will August 2022 bring I wonder? – drought and a significant birthday!

The first set of train tickets I purchased from Andover to Bridlington were for 19 July; I planned to visit my sister and Hugh was revisiting the RSPB site at Bempton Cliffs in the hope of spotting an albatross…. Strange, but true. The day when the ‘A1 corridor’ experienced 40 degrees celsius was not the … Continue reading And what will late July 2022 bring I wonder? – heatwaves and a difficult journey north….