I’ve never been a fan of February. Back in the day, before clients and commitments, I would pack a small bag and head off travelling. The nights might be getting shorter but I find the glimpses of Spring almost tortuous – snow drops and aconites peek out from under my favourite curly hazel tree, but then Storm Doris comes along, rips tiles from the roof, and slays one of a row of lovely big old oaks in the field behind my house.
The highlight of the month is that I now have a lawn and terrace in front of the house – the quagmire is no more. Andy and his boys at Garden Works survived the elements and are just the best.
Aside from that there has been quite a lot of writing, some chauffeuring (Manners Media photographer Leigh parted company with a bronking horse and managed to snap his medial collateral ligament and damage the anterior cruciate – not ideal when his bees needed feeding due to the cold weather), and we got the contracts signed with Ecqlusive, which now sponsors both Ros Canter and Cholmondeley Castle Horse Trials.
Earlier this week I made the trip down to Badminton for the annual pre-event Media meeting. It’s a mighty long way to go for a meeting, but always worthwhile. With my partner in crime Ellie Crosbie a very new mother, Ellary (so much easier to function under one name when we do the same job… Nina and Claire are known as Clina… I forget why Sally has morphed into Jeff!) is awol this year – but I’m happy to reveal that for 2017 I will be half of Selary, having met up with this year’s media partner Stephanie.
Hugh Thomas treats us all to a great lunch in the Old Royal Ship in Luckington after the meeting, although my delicious lasagne had to be abandoned unfinished when the ‘very very nice man’ from the RAC arrived to tell me that the grinding noise coming from my car was totally knackered brakes. I gingerly followed his van to a local garage, MGS… good choice. Super-efficient, absolutely charming, and if you ever need mechanical help near Chippenham, that’s where you should head.
It was quite a month for catching up with my past which, whether alarming, surprising or entertaining, is almost always thought provoking. John Swire’s hugely moving memorial service in Canterbury Cathedral hosted people I rarely see, from my Far East travelling companion (who on one memorable occasion failed to successfully mime to our delightful Burmese hosts how long he’d like an egg boiled for – credit where it’s due… he ate it!) to my ex-husband. Along with the hyacinths which are just bursting forth, some real blasts from the past have popped up out of the woodwork and been helping to banish my February blues.