Country diary: The recipe for life is simple - just add water | Anita Roy

Wellington, Somerset: The long, dry summer has taken its toll in the orchard. But while we can't rely on rain, we can always take matters into our own handsIt's a dove-soft, pigeon-grey Sunday morning, the like of which my friends in India insist I'm just making up. Not a whisper of breeze and borderline chilly at 17C. I am sitting on the edge of my friend Flip's wildlife pond, listening to the sound of church bells from across the valley.This was a plain old lawn until a few years ago, when Flip decided to hire a mini-digger and a create a pond. It was winter, raining non?stop, and the result was a massive crater of mud. It looked like a meteor had hit. Continue reading...