No, I’m not on the farm this week. I’m in my studio, which is my private world for painting and thinking. I’m sad, not least because I received the news yesterday that Bella – my “Beautiful Bella” (of whom I wrote and published a short story of the same name) – passed away. It’s hard not to cry every time I think about the demise of the most intelligent, faithful and lovable dog I have ever met, who, in fact, turned me into a dog-lover.

To cheer myself up I looked at some of the photographs of Rosie’s animals, taken when I was farm-sitting last week. And then I thought of Harry the pig – the smiling pig – who loved nothing better than a nice fresh raw egg on top of his breakfast pellets; and I remembered that the farm didn’t seem quite the same on my last visit, not without poor Harry who met his maker the week before… Oh dear, I feel sad again…