We're both recovering from this bug that's been around - I'm feeling better but the poor Fiancé is off today feeling very icky. Just as well we got all of this stuff over before the wedding, eh? Talking about that, it is now a mere 6 days until the big day. Someone from my side of the family can't come, another dear family friend had to pull out too because she is now too unwell to travel and a mutual friend to both of us also doesn't think he'll be able to come. But on the upside we've had others telling us that they now will be able to come when previously they couldn't.

And when I know there will be people in the house, I go into a manic house-cleaning frenzy. Today alone I've shifted every piece of furniture downstairs, hoovered everywhere, and mopped all the floors. I've dusted, smashed a pretty glass bowl, sat down, stood up, and then felt like I'm ready for the mental hospital. My head is spinning - there is so much to do, how on earth am I going to do it all? I know it'll all be fine in the end (at least that's what I've been saying every sixty seconds - if I believe it then it might come true, non?), but right now everything seems a bit frantic.

Thankfully tomorrow my mother will arrive to soothe my worries, or at least provide a shoulder to scream on when I've just about had enough! On saturday the rest of the ménagerie arrive, including Fiancé's parents, brother, brother's girlfriend, and grandmother (and breathe).

I drove my car (after having it jump-started) to the local garage and said "here - fix it!". A weight off my shoulders, I'd just like it back here in one piece, having not been charged the earth for a new battery and a service, and everything working again.

My only sanctuary from the stress has been the garden. The pure bliss of seeing bees coming and going from the foxgloves, our roses full of leaves, the cornflowers about to burst and the orange heads of the Californian poppies. It's really magical, and the perfect antidote to thoughts of menus, receptions, shopping and wedding planning in general! I am so pleased with this little bit of land that we take care of, it's never really ours, because nature isn't ours, she is just there for us to take care of and pass down.







This year I panicked that there would be no foxgloves at all. Since we moved in we've cleared so much land that was just fallow with various grasses, I feared the foxgloves would desert us, but no, they have come and stayed. I take pains to broadcast their seed as far as I can in the autumn, carefully weeding around all of the new plants as they are biennial and flower on their second year. Originally I think they had a cultivated variety, which is how we have some cream ones, but with time they have cross-pollinated and have become a mish-mash, some bright magenta, some the palest ice-cream pink. Most of them are or will be as tall as I am - 5 foot 7 inches. The bees think they've died and gone to nectar heaven, and so do I, they're such a stunning addition to our garden, I'll never be without my favourite of all wayside plants.



Although I don't find my legs particularly attractive, I find bodily curves pleasing to the eye - but that is beside the point. This picture sums up all that I love about summer, how I love to go barefoot (I was and always have been like this), and how sitting in the garden watching the sun go down is just the escape that I need. If you've got a garden, or access to a park, I urge you to sit down in it and forget life. Don't take your iPod, your phone or your child, just go down and sit in silence - it's better than any drug, food or television program. The best thing in the world. Definitely.

Mary Poppins said "A thing of beauty is a joy forever", if only she knew how right she was.