What a beautiful morning. The Autumn sunshine is streaming in throught the bedroom windows and when I look out over the gardens I see the waterlilies in the ponds are still in bloom, huge pink flowers set amongst dark green glossy leaves. The huge old rocks around the water are covered in moss and lichens and all the plants are really green a lush. Looks like being an Indian Summer this autumn.

Yesterday we picked more of the huge yellow raspberries down by the pond, apples from the orchard, oranges from the orangery and grapes from the conservatory. We have loads of ripe tomatoes, both red and yellow in the lean to greenhouse so I picked some rosemary from the rockery and set about making home made tomato soup. Skin and de-pip a couple of pounds of tomatoes, chop a large onion and gently simmer in a little olive oil for 5 minuutes, then add the tomatoes, some really good home made stock, finely chopped rosemary and some black pepper. Left it on to simmer for 20 minutes while we went up to the top meadow to check on the geese. I could not immediately see them in the three ponds, but eventually found them among the bull rushes - I think they are pretty lucky to have their own acre of ground fenced off with saplings, grass and plenty of water to enjoy. When we got back to the kitchen the soup was gently bubbling away. Served it with a swirl of cream and some home made crusty bread - delicious.

Anyone looking for a holiday cottage in Wales could do not better then visit the web site at http://www.walesholidaycottages.com/ The Bwlch Tre Banau Estate is just an hour and a half from Bristol, an hour from Cardiff and about 3 hours from London.

Must go as we are going out to look for mushrooms in the fields - it's that time of year!