Joyful days, beautiful venues, lovely people...and thanks.

​I can't believe that I wrote this over a year ago ...but, yes, here we are again...
"So, here we are - with the swallows practising their lining-up-on-the-telephone-wire skills, summer is at a wistful end and the 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' is here. 
The last flowers are budding and flowering but that's fine - I love the early morning mists and the way the world rises out of it: glimpses of church towers, the tops of hills, the tallest trees - as if the sky is in your garden.  
I am very happy, too, with 'mellow fruitfulness' - here our figs are falling from the trees they are so ripe and so sweet - jam as they hit the ground. 
Brambles, heavy with berries, are rambling where they shouldn't be rambling and tripping me up as I hang out washing. Sloes are slowly ripening to their own peculiar bitter end, ready to be picked, pricked and added to gin for delicious Christmas tipples.
Butternuts, ready to be buttered and roasted, are harvested and drying, and quinces queue on the branches - but, I query, ready to be - what? I never know what to do with them - they look so lovely but need so much work to make them palatable ...
Enough ramblings and ripenings! The beginning of autumn does seem a good idea to look back and reflect on a busy and lovely summer..."
And I don't even know where to start - so many joyful days, beautiful venues, lovely
​ people. 
​I've loved the Chateaux I've worked at - Chateau de Lisse www.chateaudelisse.com and Chateau de Lartigolle www.lartigolle.com, particularly.​ 
I've loved the informality of marrying couples in their garden, with friends and family joining in with the preparations.
I loved the drama of the mediaeval village, Castelnau de Fieumarcon, where couples and their guests take over the entire village. And the wonderful, atmospheric chapel of San Prudentzio, on the road to Santiago de Compostela, in a small place just outside San Sebastian, is unforgettable - (as is the amazing lunch I had, down on the harbour...!)
So thanks to all my couples for being lovely, wedding planners for their help and for suggesting me to their clients, photographers whose work I enjoy so much and the wonderful teams at venues for their hospitality and for creating the beautiful and joyful atmosphere I have so enjoyed this year.