Birthday celebrations tonight, with the most delicious chocolate brownie cake! Thank you so much to the cake-maker for that: it was absolutely scrummy! It was one of those very special evenings tonight, as after we had consumed and sung Happy Birthday, we all sat around on the benches and seats in the 'private side' garden, (how quaint that sounds now!), chatting about anything and everything, with the sun setting behind those beautiful trees and the birds singing their evening melodies. It was magical - and one of those lodge times that stay in the mind for ever.

Other than that, it's been a pretty quiet night - thanks largely to the antics of Mr J Bond, whose antics are entertaining the troops in the common room as I type! (No, he's not really there.) But I think I'm going to have to play the part of Blofeld now, and extinguish Mr Bond, as the LMs (or, as the pedants will have it, the LM) must go to bed. I expect I shall be greeted with "Ah, Mr Cheater: we've been expecting you."

I may not be able to write tomorrow night, as Mrs C and I will be dining with the HM and friends. But I'll be back soon. Until then - bonne nuit.