Three things have come into my life in the last five years that have made me so happy and added to my mental and physical well-being. What makes it even more unbelievable is that they’ve come along at this ‘stage’ in my life.

Firstly, Boom Radio. I’d come to terms with the fact that my broadcasting career was over. I’d had a good run and reasonable success on radio and television and was happy with that. How wrong I was.

Then there was singing. I’d been in a choir for a few years which only tickled my taste-buds and made me realise that I wanted more than being a tenor lady with the dum-dums and the do-doos supporting the sopranos who always get the melody!! Out of nowhere came singeatretreat which gave me the opportunity to work with West End professionals and find parts of my voice I didn’t know I had - and the confidence to use them without a sherry or two at a karaoke party!

Thirdly painting - and not the skirting boards, as Rob Jones always likes to joke! Art with an easel. I got my art ‘A’ level at school but that was donkeys years ago and what I produced then certainly didn’t suggest I should further my career at art college.

What happened was a great friend, Alan Cotton who in 2005 was chosen by the King, then Prince of Wales, to accompany him as his Tour Artist to Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, invited me to his studio, set me up with paints etc and helped me get started. This whetted my appetite but, sadly, I just couldn’t commit to painting alone at home.

Then at the beginning of this year, I saw a one-day workshop advertised in Exeter Library with Caroline Cattermull. Caroline had been to Art School but spent years teaching English before moving onto teacher training in the Middle East and Africa. It wasn’t until the pandemic, that great period of change for so many, that she taught herself to paint and found her own style. Like her, it’s a style that she describes as funky, colourful, full of movement and quirky. A dozen of us - all ages, from all walks of life, all different abilities and we all came home with a finished canvas!

Since then, I’ve done several longer courses with Caroline in village halls in the depths of Devon and met some wonderful characters. We all support and encourage each other and buoyed up by coffee, chocolate biscuits and Caroline's never ending enthusiasm it’s amazing to see people flourish in just a few sessions. I’ve tackled portraits, flowers, seascapes and with each class each painting Ive learned …and laughed more. OK, so I’m not ready for Portrait or Landscape Artist of the Year and probably never will be ..but that’s not what’s important. I’m happy.

There’s nothing better, in this weather.