In the middle of this, in late February, Celia fell over and broke her hip. Fortunately she was whisked to hospital and came through the surgery with flying colours. She spent a very difficult month in hospital. Another whole blog could be written on that experience, but for a start, let's beg Jamie Oliver to turn his attention from school dinners to hospital food. Starvation interspersed with nausea doesn't help anyone get well.
The only (narrow) silver lining is that she missed the last and most intrusive stage of the building works on her lovely new extension. Her local council, with some difficulty, had agreed to this addition to enable her to stay in her own beloved cottage, and it's been done nicely. She's now ensconced there, with good access to all she needs and a stunning view of the fields and horses. Now it's keeping up the exercises to get well enough to resume driving the ponies now that summer is on the way.
During this time, Sarah's been working in south London again and staying two or three nights a week with Fiona, who's been very generous. She and Melanie came out to Rome in February and had a great time rushing around the sights.