Bourgainvilia and Hibiscus

The latter looks faded but good to see the mingling.

A pleasant drive this evening to look at the coast line, the view from our exchange home interrupted by a point of shrubby land. I want to show some of the brightly coloured flowers to remind us of this place that's too hot to do anything but perfect for reading, fresh fruit and wine.

During our time here reading has included Laurie Lee's trilogy and in recent days 'A life of ones own' by Gerald Brennan. This is set a few years before 'Cider With Rosie' and quite different, GB coming from a different background, more middle/upper class. Reading both authors back to back was interesting. At the beginning of the last century Gerald Brennan's parents rented Miserden House during his childhood years, a village not far from Slad and Stroud where Cider with Rosie is set. 60 years later my grandfather rented it for a number of years after suffering a stroke and at a time when he was friendly with LL who by now had returned to Slad. How different were the early years of all three boys.

I am trying to find out more of the friendship between my family and LL, they were brought up within two miles of each other and from similar backgrounds although grandfather was a generation older and in France when LL was born. I imagine the friendship developed in later years when both became celebrities in their own little worlds.

No doubt when I return home the day dreaming will come to an end