one when we go back in and sample some seasonal delights from Blossom’s bakery,’ Lisa quipped and everyone laughed.
The fire was much appreciated, as were the warm pastries, and everyone was enjoying the hygge atmosphere as they emptied their treasures on to the table and Lisa flitted around the room asking questions relating to the walk. She was going to use everyone’s answers along with her ideas to kick off the creative writing session.
I took my time moving among the group and chatting. Everyone had gathered lots of lovely things, including snail shells, still bright leaves, lichen-covered twigs and even a few feathers.
By the time the group was primed and ready to start, everyone was eager to get going, even the people who had been worried about getting it wrong because they’d never done anything like it before.
‘Okay,’ said Lisa, about twenty minutes later. ‘Pens down.’
A collective sigh echoed around the room.
‘Well, that was easier than I thought,’ said the daughter, who had insisted on telling us when she arrived that she was only there because her mum wouldn’t come without her. ‘I’ve written loads.’
They all had, and after more time spent sharing ideas, Lisa set them off again, which took things nicely up to lunchtime.
‘I’ve had some great ideas for a children’s story,’ Sara told me, her tone full of excitement. ‘I can imagine a whole host of little characters living in secret in the fern garden and I’m going to write all about them when I get home.’
‘And when the Winter Garden’s officially opened,’ I told her, ‘you’ll be able to come back to keep the inspirational well topped up and your ideas flowing.’
‘Oh yes,’ she said, ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’
I was pleased to see her so stirred and hoped that my afternoon activities would buoy her up further still.
‘Help yourselves to bread,’ said Carole as we filed into the kitchen. ‘The plates either end are all gluten free.’
While she and Kate ladled out bowls of thick, hearty homemade vegetable soup, I asked the group what they would like to do with the leaves they and I had collected. I had plans to show them how to press, sketch, laminate and preserve with a view to embellishing the nature diaries, or journals, to make them even more memorable.
The most popular option, everyone having admired my own set of leaves which I had arranged down the centre of the table, was to try out the glycerine preservation technique. I hadn’t been expecting them all to pick that one, and even when I said they’d have to come back to collect them later in the week in the hope of putting a couple of them off, they still stuck fast.
‘How’s it going?’ called a voice behind me, when I ducked out to take Nell back to the square and see if I had enough spare baking sheets of my own to add to the few I had already lined up.
Nell had been looking a little perturbed by the sudden influx of strangers and so I was using her as an excuse to pop home. I hadn’t wanted to ask Kate if she could help bolster my supplies, for fear of looking disorganised, not that she probably would have thought that, but she was busy enough sorting lunch, without me presenting her with a problem.
‘You aren’t doing a runner, are you?’ It was Chloe. ‘It can’t be that bad.’
‘What are you doing here?’ I asked as she walked across the courtyard with Finn.
‘I had to come and get my wellies,’ she said, holding up her bespoke boot bag. ‘Hannah and I off to the coast tomorrow. We fancied a run out to Wynmouth.’
‘Oh, right,’ I nodded, mindful that I only had a few minutes. ‘Well, have fun.’
‘Hang on,’ she laughed, ‘you haven’t told me how you’re getting on.’
I didn’t much want to say in front of Finn.
‘Great,’ I said, because the morning had been. ‘Lisa’s a natural. She’s had them all writing ninety to the dozen.’
‘I saw you all walking around the garden,’ said Finn.
‘I hope we didn’t disturb you,’ I said, then quickly added for fear of sounding churlish, ‘Your sculptures were much admired.’
I didn’t want him to think that his hard stare had upset me and therefore, much like his reaction to our kiss, I carried on as if it hadn’t happened. That said, I wasn’t prepared to boost his ego by telling him that Lisa had been admiring him too.