White lilac…

Spring has reassuringly reappeared, and not before time. This winter has been a drudge, a very wet, drudge. Nothing gladdens my heart more than trees burgeoning under the weight of blossom – cherry, apple, blackthorn, and plum: everywhere you look, trees and hedgerows are wearing their best and fanciest dresses. I’m so hopeful of a dry May, a month without the need for galoshes and so’wester. One, when walking the dogs, the scent of lilac, Lily of the Valley, peony, and iris knock me off my feet.

I don’t want to hurry my life away but I’m eager for the warmth of the summer sun heating my bones. Rather ironic, considering the fact that, for my birthday, my good friend gave me a Wim Hof (aka, The Iceman) workshop complete with the Ice Bath challenge. We did it together quite recently, and one of my lovely boys came to support us too. We had a lovely instructor, who I trusted with my life and we met some gorgeous people, and unbelievably, I managed two whole minutes in the ice bath. Those of you who know me well, know that I do not like being cold one bit and so it was surprising and amazing to find that not only did I endure it, but I also absolutely loved it. So much so that I immediately booked myself onto a cold-water swimming workshop and have been swimming outside in local lakes three times a week (I would go every day if I could). I love it – there are all sorts of shapes and sizes there. No one cares two hoots what they look like and it’s mainly women. I feel incredible afterwards: the hot flushes have gone, and I am sleeping like a baby. I have joined up to the Blue Tits, a most apposite name. I recommend everyone to give it a try.

Going swimming regularly ensures that I am making the most of having more free time since we finished the last of the candles in the large order we had been working on. What an achievement that was – over 25,000 candles made completely by hand, we haven’t yet done the final tally but it’s a lot. In truth, Jean and Sian finished the very last of these whilst I was away on a yoga retreat to Kerala for three blissful weeks in March. Kerala was just what the doctor ordered after four months of solid work – four hours of yoga a day, two hours of Ayurvedic treatments, and a panchakarma detox designed to rejuvenate. I came back feeling amazing and I am determined to keep up the momentum of swimming and yoga – my yoga instructor gives me a few lessons a week via zoom just to make sure I do!

Jean and Sian worked like troopers while I was away, and I came back to find the final pallets wrapped and ready. They are delighted that we are all back doing our Limelight thing, especially as a new batch of Murano Glasses has just arrived. These are so pretty and we have a waiting list for orders – so get in quick. Refills for these are also now available to order online too. We have also been busy making loads of gorgeously scented tealights. Those of you that had these for Christmas loved them so they are here they are in a variety of scents. These are great value – each one burns for approximately 4 hours and is made with 100% natural plant wax.

I’m so very lucky to have a business that I love and a team I adore, as it takes my mind off the fact that my little nest is becoming increasingly empty with child no. 4 about to turn 18. Hubby is determined to stop me from pining, so what with work, swimming, and yoga, we have decided that we are going to have more adventures together and, take on some new challenges. First on the list – Couch to 5k. It’ll do for now, but I’m holding out for Italy, the odd Limoncello and, the Amalfi coast…

Cathy x

White lilac, by Sheila Swayze, Unsplash.

Narnia (again)…

Phew. We have worked our little socks off these last few months, emerging into the dark, November nights after having completed one of our largest ever orders. We’ve made tens of thousands of candles for a lovely client, but we received the glassware – which is just fabulous (hand- blown in Istanbul no less) far later than expected and so, it has been a day and night operation to get the order out to our client to meet their deadline.  

Just when we needed a bit of a break then, I accidentally left one of the Wax Melter tank’s handles ever so slightly open and we were greeted in the morning to a scene from Narnia. White wax had cascaded onto the floor creating stalactites and stalagmites of wax. This is somewhat ironic given that I have just written a piece for our local village mag about a day in my life and was joking about how this very calamity happened to me when the business started in my kitchen, seven years ago. I couldn’t believe that I’d done it again. Cleaning cold, congealed wax is unimaginably laborious and I was plastered in it. I cracked as I moved. I could have sobbed as once the mess was scrubbed clean, I had to dash to Soho to a glittering launch party of one of our client’s fabulous new shops and had hoped to give the impression of elegant professional and not, as it transpired, Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast.  

Party over, I took a breather and had a little wander around London. The lights were being put up. The streets were bustling, the shop windows arresting, and perfume from posh shops was being spritzed into the air. I half expected Richard Curtis to round a corner as I was seduced into feeling rather festive. Perfect timing because next week, we have Bath Christmas Market from Thursday 23rd November until Sunday, 10th December. We are in a different location this year, next to the glorious Bath Abbey and not on Bath Street. We have some special things planned and some special offers only available at the market so do come and see us. Until then, I am crossing everything that the delivery of glassware from Murano, Venice will arrive soon and in one piece. The delivery is currently four weeks late. Don’t panic. Don’t panic…If not, they will be available to order online in time for Christmas. 

Once done, I am very much looking forward to a long break with the whole family. Birds will be flying back to the nest from all over – our daughter from America, eldest son from London, middle son from university, and the youngest son might emerge from his room to see his siblings. And then, once the trees are down for another year, my husband and I are heading off for a week of winter sun. Just the two of us… However, there is a lot to do before then. One heck of a lot. 

Cathy x

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

School’s out…

For the final time in this house, GCSEs are over, and school is once again out for summer. Study leave and exams seemed to go on forever this time, unsurprisingly I suppose, given that exam season these past few years has been unprecedentedly cancelled. To celebrate, we took our youngest and four of his friends out to Italy immediately after their exams finished for some well deserved R&R. The eternal city of Rome did its magic as did hanging out at the beach and laughing and singing in the hot tub under the stars. They were as nocturnal as the local wildlife.  My husband and I drove home exhausted if happy, that kind of, end of Christmas Day feeling, when you know everyone has had the best time, but it’s not an experience that you’d like to repeat for at least another 365 days. The weight of responsibility looking after other people’s teenagers is real… 

Our eldest three children are on a road trip in America. By way of apps and other sorcery, we have been able to track their progress from their initial get together in Los Angeles, down to San Diego, into the National Parks and up the Pacific coast to San Francisco and Oregon. Remarkably, they have hiked and camped all the way. The irony is not lost upon Hubby and I, who, over glass of rosé, remember the long hikes we would drag them on every weekend. So much whingeing, so many strops, so much “Is it nearly over?”, “My legs are killing me!”, “Mummy, can we stop now for a snack?” ad nauseum. Now that they are adults, they choose to spend their time doing the same. Who knows, maybe they are still whimpering? Hubby and I look at each other knowingly, relax and take another sip of the wine that is as chilled as we are. They’ll be home in a few days and, after innumerable rounds of washing, chaos and noisy catching up, we’ll all squish together in the car and head back to Italy to our house in Abruzzo for the annual making of tomato sauce and limoncello in the hot summer sun. 

Before then however, as some of you may know, we make candles for other brands, and we have a particularly wonderful brand that is keeping us very busy so there are literally tens of thousands of candles to make in the next few months. Our Murano candles have also proved popular, and I’m delighted to say these are back in stock and refills will soon be available! 

Team Limelight then is relieved and delighted therefore to be welcoming a new member of staff this week, Sian. She’s from our village and used to babysit for our eldest children twenty odd years ago and so it’s lovely she’s coming to work with us. We will also shortly hopefully be welcoming Bea who is on her Gap Year. Each one of my team is much valued at Limelight and like every business, its success is due to the commitment of its staff. Thank you to you all x 

Here’s to more sunny days, rose-scented balmy evenings, birdsong, fetes, carnivals, picnics and good exam results! Have a lovely summer,  

Cathy x 

Semplice è meglio…

Semplice è Meglio, semplice è meglio, semplice è meglio is a mantra I will adopt from now on. It means, ‘simple is best’ and is a favourite saying of our Italian teacher, Irene in her online podcast, Italiano Bello. It will serve to remind me when Hubby and I are grappling with the Italian language, as we have been doing, one evening per week for the last two years, which is, to use the simplest conversation to convey meaning and not to try and overcomplicate things. Whilst we both understand much of what we hear and read; speaking is more difficult because the words just don’t come quickly enough in the moment. Irene’s advice will be heeded from here on in. 

With that in mind then, semplice è meglio, was very much in evidence on a short visit to Italy last weekend. We were only there for three nights, yet at very short notice our wonderful Italian neighbours invited us to join them for supper twice in that time. As far removed from my usual dinner party planning and, the angst involved therein as could possibly be. While I scour delis and specialist food shops looking for elusive ingredients that I’ll only need half a teaspoon of, the remainder which will then hide at the back of my pantry for another decade, our neighbours’ attitude was the epitome of semplice è meglio and so much better for it. Our hostess didn’t look as though she was about to have a nervous breakdown because she hadn’t been able to locate ras el hanout, urfa chilli flakes and black garlic and thus, ruin dinner. On the contrary- wrapped in coats, we ate home-made pizzas cooked in the outside wood oven, pork chops, chips and salad. There was no stressing about who was invited, who should sit next to whom, or any of those shenanigans. We just slotted into their extended family and loved every minute. Everything is all about family in Italy – you eat with whoever is there that night – sons, sons-in-law, daughters, daughters-in-law, grandparents, and grandchildren. They all come. It helps that the simplest foods in Italy are outstanding. Bread toasted over an open fire, drizzled with olive oil and salt is a game changer. Great food extends itself to great conversation, helped along with a couple of glasses of the homemade limoncello.  

With the importance of family at the forefront of my mind, three generations of women were extremely lucky when Mum and I flew to the USA to reunite with my daughter who is studying there. It was a wonderful, if emotional reunion but after a few tears on our arrival, we three girls hit Manhattan. We walked the Highline, had afternoon tea at a restaurant on top of the Edge, went to MOMA and the Natural History Museum, did a little light shopping at Macy’s, and then, after my dear mother took out a mortgage on tickets, saw Hamilton on Broadway. The joyful tears on our arrival however were nothing compared to the sobs as we were about to leave – nothing compares with your mummy and granny’s enveloping love. I thought at one point that she would be coming home with us but in the end, sufficiently buoyed with familial love, she returned to California, and we are all counting the days until she is home again for the summer.  

Our simple dinner in Italy and its almost zero carbon footprint – the food and alcohol all have been either home-reared or home-grown – made us realise that ‘simple is better’ would be an ideal motto to put into practice in our work at Limelight and to that end we are intent on, simplifying. Conscious of the ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’ incantation, we have pioneered floating refills – you slide a scented refill into existing glassware. Online, we are to go live shortly on our packaging-free option and, we are delighted to announce, there is some really lovely hand-blown reusable glassware coming very soon. We are however fully aware that these are tough times for everyone – buying candles is a luxury after all but, we hope to remain an affordable one, the simple, packaging-free option a help when every penny counts. All our suppliers have put their prices up and the cost of our materials has rocketed, and we are trying really hard to absorb these price increases and as ever very much appreciate each and every one of our valued customers. 

I am about to go and make dinner now and you can be assured that its component parts will be very limited. “Simple is most definitely best darling”, said Hubby, smiling as he saw how much cheaper life is without mystifying ingredients…. 

Cathy x

Waking up from winter…

Bath Christmas Market and all its twinkling glory seems like a hundred years ago. I was firing on all cylinders – Christmas was on the horizon, I’d baked, shopped, wrapped and packed and was very focussed on the success of the Christmas market. We met hundreds of people and had conversations with many of them. I wrapped and chatted, wrapped and chatted, restocked, did the books, over and over. I tried to sparkle as brightly as the fairy lights that adorned our chalet alas – in the middle of it all, I started to feel a little off colour. I was hot, cold, aching and very, very weary. Feeling truly dreadful, my gorgeous friend M. sent me home to bed for the afternoon and that is where I would have liked to stay for some considerable time. It lingered for weeks.  Whatever it was, and it wasn’t covid, it was a nasty little lurgy. Thankfully, I managed to shift the worst of it just before Christmas, and although many of us were never more than a metre away from a box of Man-size Kleenex, we had a lovely family Christmas, and I was especially grateful to have our daughter home from America for almost three weeks.

Seemingly minutes after the bells of the local church chimed in the New Year, our youngest son had a Maths GCSE to sit and so, daily maths tuition was also part of our holiday routine. I’ll be so very glad when the last exam for the children in this family has been sat. The drama, the despair and the drinking (!) has gone on for decades. Feels like it anyway. I kept well away from the textbooks and kept everyone well fed instead, insisting after a few hours intensive revision that we adhere to the routine of daily outings with the dachshunds and lunch. It was mostly drizzle and mist, but we returned to a crackling log fire and lit the candles. I think we went through an entire load of logs, wax, wine and cheese in those three weeks. It was bloody marvellous.

The lurgy was still lingering well into the New Year, which is why I was absolutely thrilled with a surprise trip to India. I stayed at my favourite Ayurvedic spa in Kerala. It is just above the Indian Ocean; a little straw-hutted village of winding, scented paths which provided me with transcendentally still and silent days of yoga, meditation and Ayurvedic treatments. It’s a magical place and I haven’t been there since January 2020 just before the dreaded Covid struck. 

I’ve just returned, restored, rested and rejuvenated to the British countryside doing its darndest to turn into Spring.  Snowdrops and crocuses are blooming, the daffodils are shooting up, the early morning birds are shrieking with excitement and best of all – the days are getting longer. Unfortunately, no sooner had I admired the local flora, than the fauna – i.e.  Dutchy and Daphne our miniature dachshunds got into mischief and precipitated another medical crisis. Rather erroneously, I had left some dark chocolate on the kitchen table with which I was going to make some chocolate brownies. I’d forgotten that they have lofty aspirations. They may be small in stature, but their ambitions are as big a Great Dane’s and so, I came down in the morning to discover the vestiges of the chocolate and an empty box of Tunnocks teacakes, the dogs licking their lips and looking terribly pleased with themselves. Of course, an emergency visit to the vet ensued. There is no lasting damage and after a diet of chicken, rice and charcoal both hounds are fit as fiddles, but Hubby was quick to remind me that the brownies might as well have been laced in gold, as they were the most expensive that he’d ever eaten.

The dogs are better, I’m better, Spring is almost springing, and Limelight is working hard on new product development – we have a couple of new innovations to share with you – scented tealights and standalone refills for our larger candles.  I am also in the midst of sourcing some beautiful Italian glassware which will house a very special edition candle. I also loved the sandalwood, cashmere and silks that I came across in India, hopefully these too will inspire future collections and even more hopefully, I want you to love these products as much as we do. 

Much love Cathy x

Twinkling (nearly)..

For the first time since 2019, I write surrounded by aromatic greenery and yards and yards of fairy lights as we are about to set up our twinkling little chalet at Bath Christmas Market, home for the next three weeks. On the one hand, the festive season has arrived upon us in the blink of an eye, and yet, on the other hand, so much has happened since the last time Bath Christmas Market was held that it is difficult to process. Covid will no doubt have touched the lives of many of the people that will visit Bath this year. I am so very thankful that we are lucky to spend another Christmas with those we love. 

Coincidentally, as Americans are preparing for Thanksgiving, I am giving thanks to the wonderful people who work with me and help get Limelight to the point where we are ready for the Christmas markets. There has been a couple of points in the last few weeks where I thought we might not be. Somehow it always comes together in the end, and I could not have done it without our wonderful and amazing, Jean. A shout out to Rachel our Florist at The Fresh Flower Company as well for her help in the chalet decorations.

Whilst we will always sell our fabulous range of candles, diffusers, home mists, wax melts and luxurious bath and body products, I totally understand that the cost of living crisis is going to have a profound effect on people’s spending this year and so, some customers may be delighted to know that they can still have a little luxury in their lives or gift it to their best friends as we are offering gifts from £5 and some lovely gifts in the £10- £20 range.

The Bath Christmas Market runs from Thursday, 24^th of November until Sunday, 11th of December and there is a preview evening for Bath residents on Wednesday 23rd November. If you are local or planning to visit from further afar, we’d love to see you. You can find us on Bath Street (Chalet BD 118). 

Like everyone at this time of year though, however much we may plan for the festive season by writing lists worthy of Samuel Johnson – such as steaming puddings, making cakes, ordering gifts, turkeys, geese, cheese, wine etc., etc.,  other people and events have to be considered – the car’s MOT, the dogs’ vaccinations, the ever-present mock exams, our children’s hearts and minds, work, admin. My mantra is – Me and you are not alone! It’s a tricky time of year when the expectations of us are superhuman. If covid has taught us one thing though, it is that the most important thing is our health and being together. Do try and find time in the lead-up to Christmas to chill out, even if this means nothing more than lying in a bath with the company of Audible and a flickering candle (put it somewhere safe!), or really making the effort to catch up with an old friend. The year passes so quickly, it’s quite remarkable how long, sometimes, it’s been since we’ve seen people that we’re very fond of.

All good advice – let’s hope that I can follow it. We’re all in this together and I sincerely hope that I get to meet some of you over the next few weeks so we can remind each other of this very fact!

Cathy x

I Pomodori…

Summer feels like a distant memory. For the most part, one that was spent languorously at our house in Abruzzo, Italy. Whilst the children slept in, I, in the cool and quiet of the early morning, painted so much furniture that I feel qualified to call Annie Sloan and her transformative chalk paint, a dear friend. The household would gently wake up, Hubby had more than enough work and DIY to occupy him and our daughter kept at her MA dissertation. At lunchtime, we all gathered to eat Caprese salad. A favourite and eaten every day. We have eaten it for years at our kitchen table in England– but nothing compares with the Italian tomatoes, warm off the vine, fresh, milky, pillowy buffalo mozzarella; pungent, abundant basil, drizzled in local, extra virgin olive oil, all mopped up with hunks of crusty bread. Food of the gods. Afternoons we spent at the beach, where we stayed for sundowners at our favourite spot, before returning to cook supper together. Ragu, simple pasta, oven-roasted vegetables. We made fig jam from our trees in the garden (see pic below) and also homemade limoncello. Lazy, slow days. 

Our neighbours welcomed us into their family and could not have been more nurturing. The nonnas invited my daughter and me to help make made tomato sauce from tomatoes grown at the end of our garden which involved hours of careful peeling and filleting, de-seeding and skinning some 200 kg of tomatoes. What an experience. All the chatter in Italian tested our basic Italian to its limits but somehow, we got by with a lot of gesturing, smiling and laughing. The sauce was cooked outside over a wood fire for hours. We have brought some home and every time we open a bottle, I am transported back and remember the time, effort and love that finally resulted in a bottle of Nonna’s pomodoro. 

One evening we decided we should invite them all for dinner. Everyone came, mothers, grandmothers, godmothers. Too many to count, but I think we had twenty four including our own family. Cooking for locals however, be they any nationality, on their own turf, with their own traditional food, is genuinely terrifying, but we made a stellar effort. Our daughter made her legendary bruschetta and this was followed by the excellent local Ventricina and polpette in industrial quantities. Tiramisu and fruit was well received and rounded off with our homemade limoncello. The boys did a marvellous job of keeping everything moving and all glasses topped up. After they left to an operatic chorus of ‘Meraviglioso’, ‘Delizioso’, ‘Bellisima’ and a thousand, ‘Mille grazie’, ‘Molto, molto’ and many kisses, none of us could quite believe what had happened.  It had been as though we were on the set of a Dolmio advert and then, to be congratulated by our children on our Italian speaking was the crema sulla torte (cream on the cake) for hubby and I!

Nothing lasts forever, not even our dear Queen it seems. Everyone has now returned to school, university and work, and, apart from the dogs barking, the house is very quiet. I miss them all so much. Our daughter is now happily installed in LA studying for a PhD, bought a car and has even passed her US driving test, all in the space of three weeks. She is doing so well, I, however, have aged a decade. Thank God for the WhatsApp video and the ability to see her dear face very regularly. Too regularly she might say.

Mercifully, the busiest September at work since I can remember keeps me focussed during the day, not allowing me the time to be continually fearful of the health and wellbeing of our only daughter. We are literally making hundreds of candles and getting ready for Bath Christmas Market which returns, at last, after a two-year break next month.

We have no alternative but to embrace that Autumnal feeling – nights drawing in, the flickering flame of our Fig candle snuggling up watching TV in front of the fire. Autumn also means that Hubby and I are back at night school learning Italian having moved on from the beginners’ class. If nothing else, I can shut my eyes and pretend that I am far away, sun shining, my fingernails still encrusted with the very best pulped pomodoro Italy has to offer…

Cathy x

School’s out…

School’s out for a sunny summer and it has brought back home how much the younger generation have gone through in the last two and a half years. Their rites of passage expunged. Our daughter had her final year at university snatched from her, sitting her final exams at home. Our middle son had his entire 6^th form blighted by covid, with no experience of a public exam, no 18th birthday parties to attend, no prom, trips to the pub or to a nightclub. Life has been very sober for adolescents, in all senses of the word. Given the lack of practise in a controlled environment, where mum and dad are there to scoop up and taxi home, we were worried about how our second son would make the transition to university life. Our fears were unfounded – achieving a staggering first class in every single subject he’s taken, despite partying hard. I’d like to add that it’s not rocket science to pass first year exams – only that it is – that’s exactly what he’s reading at university!

To make up for the sobriety of our children’s youth the husband and I can find just about any excuse to open a bottle of champagne these days. I blame the Queen for encouraging us with a five day jubilee. Several bottles have been consumed in recent weeks – because apart from the fledgling rocket scientist’s achievements, our daughter has just received a first-class honours degree in History and Spanish. Having been delayed for two years from July 2020 her graduation felt so very special. Not to be left out, and after a phenomenal amount of work, our eldest son has launched his own business and we are thrilled for him. We have also celebrated birthdays ‘properly’ with parties, sleepovers with gangs of lovely teenagers and twenty somethings and going out to restaurants and concerts.

This may go towards explaining why we’ve all had the festering virus again – thank God for all the young scientists’ brains for the vaccine, so that, although one feels a little yuck with covid, we can at least live our lives to the fullest. Is it just me but given that life on earth seems a little precarious right now, what with wars, climate emergency, strikes, energy and food crises, I want to make the most of every little moment. Some champagne from time to time and my evening ritual of lighting the candles, returns me to an equilibrium – a little solace in a crazy world. 

Work has also been a little crazy; we have re-launched two of our lovely summery fragrances with new scents – ‘Amalfi Lemon’ and ‘Sea Salt’. These fragrances have proved very popular with you: thank you. We have made hundreds of these little sage green beauties for one of our clients and a lovely independent group of hotels (one of which is just outside Bath) and our new wax melts have also gone down well and offer exceptional value for money. Customers seem to love them. We have resolutely not increased any of our retail prices, despite some real increases in the cost of materials and will continue to do our utmost to keep it that way.

It’s been a busy time and we are longing for a few weeks of downtime in our Italian house with our youngest son soon and we are hoping that the older ones, who are all now working for the summer, may be able to join us for a bit. Fingers crossed that my oldest girlfriend and her family will join us too. Yet another excellent reason to pop open a bottle of bubbles and maybe, a little Limoncello chaser…

Salute!

Cathy x

A British Summer

Whilst I write, the temperature has dropped a little and the sunshine has temporarily disappeared, however, what a wonderful few weeks of glorious summer weather we have had since the Platty Jubes, as I’m reliably informed the Platinum Jubilee is referred to.

We celebrated Jubilee day in true British fashion, with our neighbours in their garden with a local band playing. We feasted on Coronation chicken and I surpassed myself and even made ‘the’ Jubilee Trifle. I’m not sure how many people tried their hand at it, but it was truly delicious. I made a few changes, such as pistachio amaretti, but otherwise followed the recipe faithfully, including making the mandarin jelly from scratch! The citrussy smells were amazing.

We watched the concert and waved our flags along in time to the music, helped by a couple of libations and a jug of Pimms and on the Sunday, after a very jovial barbecue with friends and family watched with piqued interest as the Duchess of Cambridge kept her cool, as her four year old son, bored out of his brains, tried his mother’s patience. She was incredible. Imagine having the world’s cameras on you as your child torments you. You have no alternative other than smile through gritted teeth, although, if she’s human, what she was really thinking was, “get this kid in his pyjamas and me a large glass of something chilled”. I take my fascinator off to her. Few of us are cut out for royal life. Mostly because we yell at our children and cannot tolerate high heels for more than fifteen minutes!

After such a lovely long bank holiday weekend, we have come back to earth with the inevitable bump. With the husband hitting the deck. I immediately thought that he’d had a stroke. He was in hospital for a few worrying days, but after every scan known to man, CT and MRI to name but two, it turned out to be a debilitating inner ear virus. The relief! I saw first hand what an amazing job is being done by the NHS, but by God, it is at crisis point. I counted 18 ambulances queuing to get into Bath’s RUH and there was a two hour wait to even be triaged. Husband, thank all the gods, was only out of action for a day and when I visited him the next morning, he had set up a mobile office from his bed and was already in a meeting. Ever the stoic and in typical Royal Navy fashion, he glossed over the fact that he was in a hospital bed preferring the “there may be some background noise” approach.

If Hubby’s funny turn has taught me anything, it is a reminder that we are not promised tomorrow. Without being reckless, we must live in the moment and live as big a life as possible. Look around us. The Queen is running towards 100 years old, Kate Bush still running up that hill at 63. Rod Stewart is still thinking he’s sexy; and Tom Jones, who my friend saw last Wednesday reported back that at 82, he’s still a sex bomb. Paul McCartney at 80, headlined Glastonbury, with a surprise visit by the 72 year old, Bruce Springsteen and Diana Ross, 78, played the legends spot. Such vitality, vigour and vim are more than inspiring. It gives us hope that we have decades of rocking it still. Something hubby and I intend to start immediately as a matter of fact, because this weekend is our wedding anniversary and to celebrate we are going to see another legend, the Rocket Man himself, Elton John. 

With so much uncertainty in the world, the cost of living crisis, war, spurious politics and god knows what all – that old British stiff upper lip attitude of ‘turn the wireless up and get on with it’ which I’m sure is the Queen’s mantra, at least we know that we are going to listen to something good…

Bluebells and Bridgerton

The Easter holidays came and went in a flash, but we were very lucky to manage some time in Italy, although the three of us were assiduously engaged whilst there. I cleared and cleaned, my husband painted, and our son revised. We were delighted therefore to accept an invitation to our lovely neighbours, Roberto and his wife for an Italian family lunch. We were fifteen and the lunch, which lasted seven hours and seemed to drift seamlessly into supper, tested our Italian to its absolute limits. Fair play to our teacher at Bath College, because we managed to understand much of what was going on. We were served wild boar, followed by pasta, followed by lamb. There were salad courses, cheese and all washed down with a delicious local Montepulciano made by Roberto’s daughter’s father-in-law, who, retired from the Carabinieri, is now happily making wine. The Italians know how to do food and family – if you need further proof, watch Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy on BBC iPlayer. It’s pure escapism from the madness of the world – where everyone and everything is beautiful.

What else is beautiful is this burgeoning time of year. I almost crashed the car the other day so bewitched was I by the verdant, brand spanking new, green leaves that were kissing the white blossom from the other side of the road. The pink blossom next to it seemed to be blushing in response. Lambs are frolicking, baby calves are getting unsteadily to their feet, wisteria is showing off, tulips are flirting. Spring is nature at its sexiest! 

Speaking of which, last weekend my husband and I headed off to Stourbridge with the dogs for a blissful, child-free long walk and a pub lunch (our youngest was in Dartmoor for two nights for his Ten Tors trial). We stumbled across a beautiful, forest with an eiderdown of bluebells as far as the eye could see, its scent far removed from my grandmother’s Yardley Bluebell bath cubes!  We so enjoyed just being the two of us again and the pace of life on slow, with nowhere specific to be and no timetable. 

In our house, it doesn’t stay slow for long and this week is no exception. Not returned two minutes from his adventures on Dartmoor, our youngest is in the midst of exams; our daughter meanwhile has moved home, kit and caboodle, to complete her Masters degree, when, in September she will embark upon a Californian adventure as she continues to study in Los Angeles. 

Before then summer is around the corner and we have a Jubilee to look forward to. Bunting, trestle tables, dainty cakes, Pimms, tea and the chance to celebrate within our communities will be the order of the day. Limelight is doing a patriotic little Jubilee candle to get into the spirit, so if you are hosting a garden party or looking for a little gift, watch the website. We are a British brand that our Majesty would be proud of and virtually all our suppliers are in the UK, such as wax and scent and we support local suppliers where we possibly can, with bags and artwork made in Bristol and packaging in the Midlands. Come and see for yourselves! We would love to see you at one of our markets if you are in Bath – just check on the website as we list all the dates on there, and if like us you have been hooked on the Bridgertons’ shenanigans, I can even give you directions to the Modiste’s shop! Oo la la!

Much love

Cathy x