A perfect stay

My Mexican lady has returned home. It was fascinating spending a week with her, she loved the afternoon teas in various stately homes, drinks parties, evening racing at Newmarket, a matinee performance of Alan Bennet s " A Lady in a Van", in fact everything that makes a quintessential British experience.

Charming Mexican Lady

Alexandra from Mexico found me on You tube, so I am really internationally famous now, and she is spending a week with me learning about and experiencing traditional British life. The lucky thing for me is that she could not be nicer. Yesterday we looked at Sandringham, no Queen there, then a quick tour of Kings Lynn and then on to a friend's house for "afternoon tea". Today Alexandra had a day learning to make hats with Peter Kingston Yeoul, she made a stunning purple fascinator. And then I took her for a drive in my pony and trap, the evening was lovely. I am having a lovely time with her, I hope she is too.

Ascot in the mud

We were very lucky to have such a beautiful day on tuesday, but by saturday the Royal Enclosure was awash with mud. My shoes and tights were covered in thick brown mud, despite the large quantities of tree bark put down to soak up the rain. And rain it did. So I wore my ankle length pink tweed coat, at my age warmth is more important than glamour.
But talking of age and stamina, only the Queen and the D of E were present from the Royal Family on the last day, the rest too exhausted, whilst the 85 and 90 year olds held the fort.
It was great fun going with my girls, who looked gorgeous , and some old friends. We all did so well on the betting, I was £25 up on the day !
Glorious Mud

Royal Ascot

Princess Anne was in the Royal Enclosure today, again looking very elegant. She had not come in the Queen s royal carriage procession from Windsor Castle, as all the carriages looked full of the Royal family, from the Duke of Edingburgh who received a large birthday cheer, to the two Princesses of York.

I was there to host a lovely group of charming Dutch guests in the Royal Enclosure. I won £11 on the first race, had a delicious lunch, saw some old friends, was interviewed on tv about my hat and outfit, ( designers Peter Kingston Yeoul and Mary Bolton respectively) and only came home with one blister.

The Suffolk Show and The Princess Royal

Each year my daughter rides at the Suffolk show in the side saddle class. But this year we had the first day to wander around the show ground ( and tomorrow she will be riding). Well I had my summer dress and elegant hat on, when suddenly a large group of journalists and camera men starting filming me, some running ahead, others walking backwards as they filmed. I thought, they must really like my hat, but then the penny dropped, they were interested in the person behind me. So I stopped, turned around and 3 feet behind me was the Princess Royal, I stepped aside and smiled, and she smiled a lovely smile back. You dont realise seeing her on television how pretty and elegant she is in real life.

Persian film company

No rest for the wicked, so straight back from my epic journey along the border of Scotland , to another day of filming. This time a charming Persian film crew, the model who had never ridden before, learnt to ride side saddle ! drink her tea like a lady, arrange flowers, shoot, eat a 4 course dinner, a very busy but happy day. I cant wait to see the results.

Hadrians Wall

Well for a little rest after my epic 8 day garden tour I decided to walk Hadrian s wall. I did not have walking shoes or waterproof trousers. We endured horizontal sleet and hail. After that I bought waterproof trousers and walking shoes. Sadly all the pubs and cafe s were shut on a Monday, the sleeting, hailing day, I would go again but not on a Monday.

Garden Tour

What a very busy few weeks, I need to blog more often as I have now created a blog backlog.

For 8 days 20 lovely German guests followed me around 24 amazing Suffolk and Norfolk private gardens and houses. they were introduced to a Duchess, Countess and Lords, they looked around houses with ghosts , gardens with rhododendrons , and charming cottages in secluded woods where the "three bears" obviously live. The work, love and attention to detail of all these gardeners who were kind enough to share their work with my clients was impressive.
My lovely German guests very kindly gave me a yellow rose in a pot with a big yellow ribbon as a thank you. I forgot to tell them that yellow roses are my favourite. An added bonus was the translator Victoria, who accompanied the group, a star and now new friend