A FRIEND and I really enjoyed our Sunday out to the Tavistock Garden Festival on the jubilee weekend. With its colourful stilt walkers, cheerful Morris men and great selection of plants we found the atmosphere so uplifting.

But it was as we walked back to our car at midday past the Bedford Hotel that something rather charming happened. Four men, dressed in country clothes, had just got out of their 4WD vehicle. They stood watching us as we walked along with our bags of plants in high spirits with our skirts swishing.

One of them doffed his hat to us and spoke as we passed. Another positively beamed with a lovely grin that made my heart leap.

As a young widow in my forties I would love to have found the courage to break with convention and approach this smiling man to enquire whether he was single and looking for love. Instead we hurried on back to our car leaving my heart behind in Tavistock and wondering whether I had missed a wonderful opportunity.  

So, if by chance you know that man with the smiling eyes who looks just a little like Richard Gere please get in touch with the Times — even if it is to say, yes, I know him, and he is my husband!

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