The summer is drawing to a close and the autumn is just starting to peep over the parapet. Evenings are getting a little chillier even though the sun is still very warming during the day.

We were drinking a glass of wine the other evening, sitting on the veranda and taking in the view when we noticed just how beautiful and blue the sky was and how it was contrasted by the most wonderful cloud.

How does the poem by William Wordsworth go ‘ I wandered lonely as a cloud. That floats on high o’er vales and hills, when all at once I saw a crowd…..’

Well this evening we were the crowd and the cloud was our evening entertainment, as we sat and sipped and chatted, it still wasn’t cold and we were still able to wear shorts and T shirts quite comfortably.

I have to say you can get the biggest wide screen, high definition TV in the world but you won’t get a better picture than this one. I suppose I am waxing a little lyrical as I write this but I just needed a written account of just how wonderful this time of the year can be. It actually got better the later it got, the moon came up and was very full, shining through the trees and lighting the garden almost as well as daylight.

I am sure there will be a few people who will think I have lost the plot when they read this, but the last time I really stopped to consider the environment we live in and the peace and serenity it can offer, if allowed, was a little while ago now.

In our busy lives we can all too easily let moments and evenings like this pass unnoticed and that, I think, is a little bit of a crime.

So next time you get to relax for a while, stop take a look around and see if there is anything for you to appreciate. I am pretty sure there will be, even if you are not living in the South of France at one of the best chill out places I know.