Because our home is called Pinks Barn, I like to plant the garden in a range of pinks, lilacs, soft blues and mauves but this year I seem to have gone orange and this is not my favourite colour! I think I must have lost more of my dahlias than I realised, and the colour balance has changed completely. I will be moving plants this autumn and replanting in my preferred colour palette.
Our barn and attached cottage were converted to a more useable space and became a well-known restaurant called Pinks here in the Cotswolds. When Bill and I moved to the area, we could not afford to eat here so we never experienced the food or the building until we bought the house nearly 30 years ago!
The house was owned by James and Sue Kennaway and they opened Pinks Restaurant and, with the help of Lady Oaksey, the restaurant had a very good reputation. James Kennaway was a successful author and playwright with eight books and had a number of screenplays to his name – the film Tunes of Glory starring Alec Guiness and John Miles was based on one of his books. The name Pinks came from a character in his book Household Ghosts which went on to be the basis for the film Brotherly Love starring Peter O’Toole. It is on record that Peter O’Toole, Sean Connery and Honor Blackman were amongst the well-known guests who dined at Pinks Restaurant. Before I have messages about the lack of an apostrophe, you can see from the photograph that the name did not have one!
James, our son is a professional photographer and had recently invested in a drone so that he can take aerial pictures for some of his specialist clients. I let him lose to test his skills here at Pinks Barn. Well, I couldn’t wait to see this new toy in action either…
Pinks Barn/Restaurant as we bought it over 30 years ago.
