2022...... another year older, another year wiser. Hey ho then, onwards and upwards. After all the trepidation about the Omicron variant causing devastation, things have started to settle down at last.

All of a sudden it’s the middle of December. Doesn’t time fly, especially when you’re enjoying yourself. Well, we’re doing our best. We have the traditional Christmas tree up in the sitting room and some twinkling lights around the back door and porch.

Human nature can be a strange phenomenon. Much of the country is grinding to a standstill because garages are running out of fuel. Not because there is a shortage of fuel but because certain sections of the press are suggesting that there might be.

August has flown past again in a bit of a blur, as usual. It always seems to be our busiest month of the year, despite being fully booked from April until October. Keeping the pool up and running smoothly puts us both under extra pressure.

Following two weeks of glorious, hot, sunny weather it is finally raining again, at last. I'm sorry if you're on holiday, or gardening, or harvesting or something but I sort of like our temperate climate. As I was just saying to one of our guests the other day, 'you have to have some "bad" weather to appreciate the good days'. Everything is growing like mad.

June has been a reasonably 'benign' month, compared to the rest of the year. It has been mild, we've had some rain and some sunshine, everything is growing like mad so the animals are all fattening up nicely - in fact, some of us that aren't even dependant on grass are fattening up nicely, too. Surprisingly, it is now the last week of June.

Has May been yet another month of extremes ? After the driest, coldest April ever we've now had the wettest, coldest May for years. We have over the years had the swimming pool open in March and guests lying on the beach, sunbathing at Easter.

This time last month my opening gambit was about the weather beginning to warm up and the ground starting to dry out after the wettest six months in years. Here we are a month later desperately praying for rain, following the driest April in history combined with a bitterly cold but drying North Easterly wind which has sucked the moisture out of the ground.

Spring is officially here and already the weather is warming up and and the ground is drying out. The grass is slowly starting to sprout and the wild flowers and the garden flowers are starting to blossom.