Escape To The Country

Our new colmnists, bestselling author Adele Parks, convinces a frazzled friend and twins to accompany her on a trip to the farm

- Adele Parks

“ARE we nearly there yet?”, one of the most irritating phrases a parent has to endure, up there with “she/he started it”.

My son is 16, it strikes me that we are nearly there, in terms of launching him into adulthood. I was given a timely reminder of just how far we’ve come when I spent a day with my friend and her twin six-year-olds. She’d been moaning that she was frazzled and her recent move from London to Southampton had left her feeling a bit at sea (excuse the pun). She grumpily complained that I wouldn’t understand. “Surrey is practically London, but green,” she said. I felt duty bound to share my cornucopia of good fortune and invited her for the weekend.