A little posy of freshly picked sweet peas, as colourful as they are fragrant, sits on my desk as I write this. I am in the sunroom where, with the door and window open, the sounds, sights and smells of the season waft in and mingle around me. As always, they provide much of the inspiration for these posts and the time of the Summer Solstice, tomorrow in the northern hemisphere, is no exception.

The air is filled with the distant sound of agricultural machinery working in the fields, making hay or silage for winter fodder. A thrush sings a …

Before moving to Wales, we lived in Salisbury for 15 years and never once did we go to the Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge a few miles away. We probably missed out... Stonehenge at the Solstice is a big event. There were things like family life and work commitments that meant we never joined in the all-night / early morning festivities. In any case, crowds are not really our cup of tea.

Last night, tempted by the invitation over on Facebook by some Montgomery friends to gather at the Town Hill County Memorial Monument to see the sun rise on the …