The Enchanted Village hots up as the Olympic flame comes nearer

And the big farm machinery rumbles through The Enchanted Village, big fat trailer tyres squishing over the kerbs as they march on to make more silage.

The fields are white and fuzzy where pussy willow down has wafted across and trapped itself in a carpet of green grass.

Dandelion clocks have been sliced through by council contractors cutting the verges and the air is full of wispy seeds drifting to who knows where.For the first time in months, we have had very hot sunshine and it has taken us all by surprise.

It arrived not long after the Olympic Torch, which is making its way around the country. If you are at all interested, you can see it here, courtesy of the BBC. I am disappointed the torch is put into a vehicle on the quieter stretches of its long route. It feels to me like cheating, especially as Mr Grigg was not chosen as a torch bearer.

It's like doing a marathon and taking time out for lunch.

However, I digress. In the warmth about to hit us (as I write this, The Enchanted Village is still in its usual Brigadoon mist), it feels like the place is coming back to life.

The bluebells are out in force on the hill, the songbirds are belting out power ballads and children are on the village green later and later each day.

My glorious wallflowers fill me with the scent of nostalgia for my rural childhood as I prepare to plant nicotianas in their place to fill the evenings with their heady aroma.

Our Ding Dong Daddy is on a triumphant tour with The Imagined Village (oh, you should have been there on opening night in My Kind of Town. I could have got you a guest ticket). I just hope he is back in time to show me how to work his DJ gear.

The pub is doing very well, entries are trickling in for the pram race and our thoughts are turning to our Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend at the beginning of June. The Enchanted Village, with its 400 households, must be the busiest in the country with at least eighteen different things happening over the four-day bank holiday break. Plenty to blog about.

Best of all, there is good news about our shop.

Our former shopkeeper (one of the performers at our special Jubilee Concert, on a 45ft trailer provided by a local builder and former parish council chairman) is having the place done up.

And it looks like (with fingers crossed and a nod to the fairies that live on Bluebell Hill) the village could be taking it over.

Watch this space.

That's about it.

Love Maddie x