A few days with our good friends Allan and Julia who live in Northumberland but had never visited Devon or Cornwall. I’m afraid I always seem to rush them around all over the place…no sooner had we picked them up at Exeter airport than we were off to Dartmouth, and Kingsbridge (the long way home), and then in the following few days we were helter-skelter to St Ives, Portleven, Padstow, Looe, Polperro and probably many other places I can’t remember. St Ives was windy but pleasant and we had a lovely time at Padstow taking the ferry to Rock, and walking along the beach until we found a nice place to picnic.

Hopefully they will visit again before too long when I will give them a more restful time. But we also took advantage of their visit to catch up with news and to seek detailed advice on our furnishings, decor and picture placement (both having an expert eye). It was very interesting indeed to hear about Allan’s brother  Trevor Frankland, sadly no longer with us, who was a well-known artist in modern circles and past President of the Royal Watercolour Society. We have seen some of his work in Allan’s house….very impressive.