Dear Readers, by the time you read this I should hopefully be in Obergurgl in Austria, for our annual two weeks of walking in the mountains, eating more cake than is reasonable and looking at the flowers. This year, I have a choice of not one but two guides to Alpine flowers, both published this year: I think I shall probably take the one below, as it weighs slightly less (an important consideration when one is yomping up and down paths).

I would be lying if I didn’t mention that I have some trepidation about this trip – we missed last year because of my fall/broken leg, and I’m not sure that I’m as confident as I was. But the great thing about going back to somewhere that you know is that the paths are familiar, and we already have a multitude of plans for easy walks so that I can get back in the swing of it. And how I’m looking forward to seeing the meadows again! At every step, butterflies and moths fly up from the paths. I’m in Bug Woman heaven.

We stay in a small hotel where the food is good, and it’s peaceful. At night, the deer come down to the slopes to feed, and there are often bats careering around the chalets. During the day, we have a coffee in the Pic-Nic restaurant, where swifts and swallows are nesting in the eaves. And we can re-acquaint ourselves with the local animals – the Haflinger horses, and the Italian sheep, who spend the summers in Austria.

And on the wildlife front, I’m sure we’ll see a few marmots, or at the very least hear them. I sometimes wonder if they’re actually stuffed toys, being manipulated by Austrian youth on some kind of work experience scheme.

And so, with any luck our plane won’t have been cancelled, I won’t have thrown myself down any flights of stairs, and the weather won’t be too ridiculously hot/wet/windy. At the very least, there will be cake…..