Finally, a chance to sit down and gather ourselves. What an interesting, busy and exciting time the last couple of months have been. May is always my favourite month as, day by day we see the garden becoming more green and by mid month colour is scattered throughout with the bright acid yellows of the giant Euphorbia, blues and purples of early geraniums and pastel pinks, ruby reds, blues and creams of Aquilegia. Knowing this is just the start of the flowering season with so much more to come including the flowers in our recently planted rose garden is truly exciting. Last July we had a great couple of days with Sian and Brent who were working on a photo shoot for Country Living Magazine. Our shepherd's hut and wild meadows were the perfect location for their "Picnic in The Meadows" feature and we were thrilled to see the article in the recent June edition of the magazine. The world famous Hay Book Festival which runs for 10 days at the end of May and the three day HowTheLightGetsIn Festival, brought a great number of visitors to the area. The weather was beautiful and the town was buzzing. I think one of the most special moments we have had at The Cob was when the Bosnian-American author, Aleksandar Hemon was staying with us before his performance at Hay Festival alongside musician Damir Imamovic. It was a perfectly still, sunny morning and the two friends were sat on the verandah chatting away in their native Bosnian language before Damir began to play his Persian lute and sing some of the folk songs he has written as a companion piece to Aleksandar's book, "The world and all that it holds". A truly moving and magical morning.