Well, in fact our days haven't been lazy at all - we've been so tied up that I see that we haven't posted an update for over a month. So here's a quick trot through what's happened since.
This is the first tomato to emerge from the greenhouse a few weeks ago... as as for the cucumbers, beans and lettuce, we're in serious glut. Beans are a particular issue as next door have gone away instructing us to pick theirs as well, so we've spent several hours in the last few days trying to wrestle them into submission. Alan has pickled, I have blanched and frozen.
The garden is starting to fill out and look a bit greener, even the grass is mostly green now (on both sides of the fence). No horses in the paddock at present - there are rumours that the stud farm is closing / changing hands - doubtless we will find out at some point. What's not a rumour sadly but a fact, is that our neighbours down the road have put in a planning application to build a new house on their garden - ie between us and them. If it goes through as per the current design, our house will be shaded by the new house for about half of the year and the vegetable garden will be affected nearly all year. They are trying to fit a family house onto a small plot - it's nearly all house and no garden, and is in fact a higher roofline than all the other houses around it. The village is up in arms about the proposal for a number of reasons, overdevelopment and groundwater flooding being just two amongst many others, so we're not alone in our concerns. 
But who can predict the outcome of the planning process? We have made our objection and will just have to wait and see what transpires.Meanwhile, our lovely neighbours at the top of the hill celebrated being in the village for 25 years yesterday. We partied wildly till it ended at 9pm - they're our kind of people! - and we've been recovering from that for most of today.
This afternoon I've finally found time to plant the trachelospermum that Fiona and Simon brought us when they came to visit. It's already delighting the patio with a heady almondy scent, so think how good it's going to be when it's properly settled in.