Welcome to Cotswold Essence magazine.
UNSURPRISINGLY gardens feature heavily in this edition of Cotswold Essence. Even though the sun has been a bit slow at putting in an appearance this year, there has been plenty of rain to ensure that spring is busting out all over.
Jill Fenwick fell in love with gardens at the tender age of five and began designing magical spaces for friends when she was just 13. And Alena Standova left the greyness of the Chech Republic behind to create colour in the Cotswolds through her Back to Earth Living Gardens.
Gloucestershire is represented again at Hampton Court with Cirencester based Chris Beardshaw who is hoping to bring back a glittering prize again this year after his success in winning silver gilt last year.
But no matter what the temperature is doing outside, our fashion for the new season is hot. We’ve got seven pages of swimwear and beach accessories to inspire your summer holiday wardrobe.
Recently I was lucky to meet a couple of enterprising young men in the county who have refused to be downhearted about all the talk of a recession and double dip. Rather than resting on their laurels and blaming the state of the country, they have both started up own businesses.
Will Thompson shoots and sells game and has been drawing in the crowds at Gloucestershire’s outdoor events for over a year. And despite problems with dyslexia and dyspraxia at school Charlie Beldam was canny enough to see a good business opportunity in rape seed oil.
Of course we couldn’t let this issue go by without making a bit of a fuss about the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics. What a summer it is going to be. Party fever has been in the air for some time now with everyone getting excited about these two major events in the UK this year.
The union jack is going to be popping up everywhere. I can feel myself welling up already.
