Back in the fresh air of Virginia Water, where the rhododendron ponticum, with its pretty lavender flowers, grows wild in the woodlands and lines private lanes, we wash London from our skin and hair. Rediscovering the woodland gardens back at our homesit, I nearly stand on a little brown snake. A little squirrel leaps from the lawn into the bushes to hide and its silvery tail flows behind it like a waterfall.
I check out the fox hole, that Chris has tried to block with an old stump, to see if there is any fresh digging - there isn't. It's not the home of a cute little red fox but one of a big ('the size of a labrador') brown fox. There are also no new hoofprints of a little deer that visits the property at night to nibble on all the new green shoots in the garden.
The rest of the gang is here, though. Fergus, the parrot, who eyes us suspiciously but does tolerates us quite well. The chickens who, in their delightful walled garden, pester me for more food each time I come into view. And there are the ducks, magpies and jacdaws, who visit the garden each day for a handful of wheat and dried corn (the jacdaws, a type of crow, also like to steal food from the hens).
The house is also home to an Aga. This is a large cast iron heat storage cooker rather like the coal ranges we used to have years ago. No coal for this beauty, it runs on gas 24/7. It sports two round heating plates on the top - one for simmering and one for boiling and each has its own insulating lid. There are four ovens, each with its own purpose - simmering, platewarming, roasting and baking. Toast is cooked on the top with a special wire holder. And we discover it is great for drying clothes - the kitchen stays warm day and night. Cooking on it is an art and one that we will not have time to master!
We enjoy being away from the city and relax in our new surroundings again...
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