MARY WESLEY AND TOTNES

I’d read all Mary Wesley’s novels by the time I came to live in Totnes – and what a surprise it was to find that I can see her old home from my bedroom window! I wonder what she’d make of my novel The Foreigner. Too late now to ask her as she had died before my arrival.

After my morning gym session today a friend rang to invite me out to lunch at the Turtley Corn Mill. Set in six acres of gardens (where rather exotic chickens – nicknamed Turtley Quackers! – roam freely) on the edge of the River Avon, it has a working water wheel that can make you dizzy if you watch it turning while you are eating your meal. So we sat in the rear restaurant overlooking the garden, rather than in the one at the front. My chicken breast on rosti potatoes with a creamy leek and bacon fricassee was one of the tastiest meals I’ve had in ages. But I felt a bit bad about eating chicken when we subsequently went out into the garden (where the sun was shining) and saw those that were roaming out there! I doubt though that I ate a near-relative of theirs as they seemed to be kept as treasured pets.

As I’m off to Shropshire tomorrow I’ve been busy since lunch preparing for my trip. It’s just a short one and I’ll be back almost before I’ve gone …