Yesterday the weather continued to deteriorate until it was chucking it down. Today is gloomy, with dark skies, but it is forecast to be dry this morning. I will make myself go out with Domino for a walk on the South Downs. He was housebound too much yesterday and is bouncing off the walls.

Yesterday I decided to go to Woking to the wholesale nursery and buy a stack of peonies – pink and red. I want to fill all the holes in the garden and stop the weeds from growing back on the bare earth. I would rather look at peonies, than be on my hands and knees digging out weeds. Well I bit off more than I could chew. The peonies were out in the open yard, rather than in a glass house, and it was as if God, in the heavens, was emptying his kitchen sink on me. I was soaked by the time I loaded them in the car. And I don’t have a large car. It was quite a squash. While there, I couldn’t resist buying a few white iceberg roses.

The roses reminded me of Nicky St John’s wedding to John in Biggar, Scotland, in summer 1995, where her mother and father lived on a farm. You see it runs in the family. Nicky being a good ‘pheasant’ adores the countryside and all that goes with it – the sheep, chickens, crops and sheer scale of it all. John is a Yale Man. His father was a professor of economics at Yale. He wrote a bestselling economics book, the sort regular people read too. They are an American family, although his mother was Scottish!

The wedding was a happy and sad occasion for me. Nicky had been smitten with John for some time, but it was clear that at New Year 1994, turning into 1995, that he was going to pop the question. We were all at Castle Douglas, Scotland, staying with the Scotts; the castle burnt down long ago and is a ruin, but they have a big house and cottages, where the guests stay.

John had flown over from Santa Monica, California, where he lived, for the occasion. It was very predictable – why he was there! I was so delighted for Nicky. But gutted at the same time. John was going to export her back to the States with him. Another goodbye for me! I was sick of saying goodbye to the people I loved. When I saw her later at tea at the big house, she had a sapphire and diamond ring on her engagement finger, an heirloom from John’s mother.

The other couple that were staying were Chris and Shirley Tawney, also close friends of Nicky’s, and ours. Shirley only needed to look at Chris and she was pregnant. I remember playing on the floor of the cottage with Anna. Shirley walked in and in her direct way announced, “I think I am going to have another baby.” I remember thinking that, having a baby so easily, will never happen for me (remember I had a lot of trouble conceiving Anna). As it was, Hugo was conceived a couple of months later at the Great Barrier Reef. A blessing.

At the wedding both Shirley and I were not on top form as we were both pregnant. She had two boys already, Jack and Harry and Anna was just over a year old. Nicky insisted that they all be part of the wedding party, even Anna who couldn’t walk. I kept on saying, “Nicky she can’t walk. How is this going to work?” Nicky was adamant. Anna was like a niece to her.

The solution was that Nicky held her in all the photos. All of them – where the bridesmaids and pages were present.

How can I put this delicately? Nicky’s parents are extremely posh. They had waited for their eldest daughter to marry for some time and it needed to be perfect. A baby in the bride’s arms did not look quite right. I heard Nicky’s father mutter under his breath, “Could someone please remove that baby from Nicky’s arms. It looks like it’s hers.” Nicky found it very amusing. But Anna remained glued into Nicky’s arms for the duration.

Nicky did go and live in Santa Monica, but she didn’t like it too much. Pheasants prefer the British countryside. Not long afterwards, she was back.

Today I am going up to London.