I went to the funeral today of my aunt, Faith Raven, a remarkable person, who was an important part of my childhood, not least because we would stay every summer in Morvern, the first time I ever went to Italy was to stay with them in Asolo, and for Christmas we would sometimes be given a whole Wensleydale, the origins of my cheese addiction.

The church was full of flowers from her garden at Docwra’s Manor:-

I am not sure I had been there since my 21st. birthday, a while ago, apart from the funeral of my uncle in 1980.  I certainly hadn’t appreciated the scale, as well as the beauty, of its gardens and greenhouses:-