VE Goes Mad In The Country

Tally ho, dear reader. VE has left the hustle and bustle of the capital to venture down to Mrs M's in Somerset for a few days of country air. And I appear to have turned into one of the Famous Five in the process.

As I sat on the train from Waterloo to The Country on Saturday evening, my eyes lit up with glee as the scenery changed from Vauxhall-based tower blocks to boring Basingstoke to fields filled with rabbits and llamas (really). And as I alighted in Somerset, my lungs were filled with good old country air and lashings of ginger beer (not really).

And Sunday morning saw me embrace the possibilities of the countryside to the hilt. After breakfast, I set of on a cycle ride of the village (once honoured by TS Eliot and now home to the family of Daphne du Marier) and spent a bracing 30 minutes cycling around the country lanes I knew so well as a girl. (Sigh). And after a hearty home-cooked roast lunch, Mrs M and I set off for a brisk walk in the woods before coming home and baking a huge tray of fairy cakes and icing them. Yum. All before, I settled down in front of the fire and began reading Frances Hodgson Burnett's "The Shuttle" (you'll never guess who published it). This book is so good that, despite being around 500 pages in length, I have already read around 350 of them. It's simply topping.

Tomorrow evening I have to return to London (via the "Dollar Princess" exhibition at the American Museum in Bath, one of the reasons for my visit) and frankly, dear reader, I don't want to. (Sigh).