Hello dear Friends, My goodness, we are are experiencing temperatures here in the south of France that are WAY above what we used to think of as average for this time of year. Every day it hits close to or a wee bit higher than 30C. It has meant a change of life in that…
Hello Dear Friends! Welcome to my Spring Newsletter. This last week has been a bit of a whirlwind. Last Saturday, the 22nd, was my birthday – a milestone one. We celebrated quietly but with gusto. M took me for dinner to one of my favourite “special” spots, La Colombe d’Or in Saint Paul de…
Dear Reader, Spring is in sight. Mediterranean Spring. We have almond blossoms almost in full flower which, of course, is the first sign of spring around the Mediterranean basin. Do I say this every year? Possibly. I am always so overjoyed to see that lovely pale pink petal showing its face like a blush on…
Happy New Year! There was a time when I used to look to the years after 2,000 and think of them as distant stars. A universe I could not see into or imagine. Now, here we are, almost a quarter of a century into this millennium. It hardly seems possible. I remember my father when…
This was last year. Ours is not up yet! This letter is so overdue that I am almost too embarrassed to apologise, but here we are and … erm, sincere apologies. My last note was in July. I wrote it soon after Michel and I had made a journey across southern France to spend a…
Happy Easter, dear Readers and Friends! I am moving offices! A few yards from one building at our home outside Paris (fondly known as the Mad Old Chateau) to another crumbling stone building on the same patch of land. Today is Good Friday, the sun is shining and I am traipsing back and forth through…
Hello! Once again this letter is a little late. My sincere apologies. It has been a low-key Christmas and winter for us this year, which explains my silence (nothing really to write about!). After I had finished shooting and recording the final episode of Carol Drinkwater’s Secret Provence (Channel 5 changed the title from A…
Hello! This comes so late! I meant to write this Newsletter almost a month ago. I apologise for the delay. My only excuse is that I have been so busy. Thanksgiving has just been celebrated by all our American friends, Black Friday has been studiously avoided by us and we are now looking at the…
Hello! I want to begin this missive with an apology for the delay in writing a Newsletter. I know, it has been several months since the last one. Truth is, it has been a hectic summer and I have quite a bit of news. I am writing this from Greece where I have been attending…
Hello! I am writing to you from the South of France where our first waves of spring have been very contradictory. The blossoms have been simply spellbinding. Hours I have spent strolling about the land breathing in the delicate scents of fruit flowers only to wake the next day to heavy rains, which have driven…
Dear Friends, Well, if you are reading this you, like Michel and myself, are still here. Thank heavens. We have all struggled through and reached December of this crazy, rollercoaster of a year of 2020. Earlier, back in the spring, which seems like many lifetimes ago now, I lost two very dear friends to Covid….
Dear friends and readers worldwide, It is ages since I have written a Newsletter. There have been several blogs posted directly to my website, but no Newsletter. My sincere apologies for this; we have been experiencing technical difficulties with the site and some glitch or other was blocking mails going out. Grrr. Fingers crossed my…
Hello to you all, I am writing this from our home/office up north, east of Paris. The pic above was taken at the farm last week. We’ll be back down at the farm after the weekend. It’s mighty hot here in the Seine-et-Marne region with the temps soaring to 34C yesterday and then an overnight…
Dear Friends, It is the last day of April. I am at my desk looking out onto more blossoms than I have ever seen here before. It is a riot of colour and a joyous expression of nature’s determination to live and procreate. Our “confinement” will due to ease in twelve days from now. It…
Hello dear friends, Apologies. I don’t seem to be very good at keeping to my schedules at present. There seems to be so much on, not least hammering away at a new novel. I am almost half way through – that’s of the rough draft so doesn’t quite count as half way through. Even so,…
I know that I am late writing this when I begin to receive emails from some of you asking why they have not received my Newsletter! My sincere apologies. I have two excuses: the publication on 16th May of The House on the Edge of the Cliff took me off on a fabulous book tour…
Hello, For those of us in the northern hemisphere, it is welcome to spring. Our winter has not been harsh but it has been unpredictable with, as is becoming the norm for many areas, extreme temperatures and erratic weather patterns. Dining outside for lunches on the terrace, wearing sunhats to protect against 22C in February…
Here in France, we have the right to wish someone a ‘Happy New Year’ up till the last day of January, so I am just in time even for those of you living in Australia. Phew! ‘Happy New Year’ and, as we say in France: ‘surtout la santé’. Above all else, good health. These last…
Dear Friends, Where has this year gone to? We have hit the olive harvest season and I am not really prepared for it. The trees are laden and the fruits are fat and healthy. If only I could persuade the three dogs to get their paws at the ready and get picking instead of lazing…
I want to begin by introducing you to our new member of the Olive Farm family. His name is Samson. He is a Tibetan Mastiff and has jaws like an alligator. I heard about him through my Olive Farm Facebook page where I saw a photo of him. He was in a refuge over on…