Talk, Talk, Talking in Tynemouth

I had been invited by the fabulous ladies of the Tynemouth Flower Club to head to the north and talk flowers with them. I say 'fabulous' with every good reason; firstly I was contacted by Julie from the club, who by the time I met her felt like an old friend. Then another member, Sue (in the midst of a mad week putting the final touches to her new flower shop) found time to go to market and buy the flowers that I needed for the demonstration. Added to all of this kindness, I was greeted by a wonderful afternoon tea and sent home with presents, wine and chocolate.

Fabulous.

Well they asked me to talk flowers, and boy, can I talk flowers!

Once I start I can't stop ... this is the one about the bouquet that got away...

As I talked my daughter Alex snapped away. She has just come back from Uganda and if she thought I was going to let her out of my sight after missing her for 11 weeks she was wrong! She was coming to Tynemouth too. Alex had been in Africa studying and photographing Chimpanzees and she seemed to think I was another interesting study.

Afterwards she did tell me that in a couple of the shots I looked like a meerkat, but she kindly decided to delete those.

To be honest Alex didn't put up much of a fight when I said we were going away for a few days. We were staying with my best friend Pip who lives nearby in Durham (to whom my latest book is dedicated) and she is a much loved godmother.

Although I did make the two of them work really hard as we sold and signed books on the evening.

Overall, a wonderful trip and I shall definitely be back soon to see Sue's new shop.