Not just green for St Patrick

This morning was blocked out for a magazine photoshoot. The two cars we were due to photograph for a twin test appraisal were silver and white, so we needed a colourful backdrop. We knew just the place, a smart hotel in Essex built of warm golden-coloured bricks.

So it was through the Dartford tunnel and into Dick Turpin's Land, as I like to call our adjoining county, if only to rev up friends who live there. First port of call was a favourite car wash at Lakeside, where you drive onto a conveyor belt and then sit in the transported car as it moves slowly through all the successive washing and drying processes, to emerge spruced, shiny and photo-fresh at the other end.

I was going to blip something from the photoshoot, but the beautifully tended hotel grounds were such a riot of spring colour that I couldn't resist this amazing display of polyanthus in the long beds beside the foyer doors.

Today is St Patrick's Day, although as my Welsh daughter-in-law reminds me, he was actually born in Wales. Happy day to everyone of Irish descent, or with family or friends from the Emerald Isle.

An Irish Glen where fairies dwell,
And should you pass that way,
Perchance they'll weave a magic spell,
And steal your heart away.