Marta and I were standing on the patio admiring the magnificent view on Sunday morning. And the weather was so lovely and you could just stand there and stare. But neither of us looked happy. Yes, we are very grateful to be staying in this peaceful and beautiful place, but we long to get back to Kyiv and the news from this week gone by continues to be very upsetting.

The thing about being on holiday is that you plan a holiday. You pack to go on holiday. The idea is to switch off and relax. But we are the opposite of switched off. This is no holiday. There is constant news from Ukraine and a lot of chats/text with friends and family back in Kyiv, and outside of the country. The ones in Ukraine tell us about the air raid sirens and the military presence in every direction, but they also tell us about the beauty and the vibe. People in Kyiv love their city and you can hear it in their voices every time they speak. Magical Kyiv. These are two words I hear often. And the folk on the outside all have the same question: when are we going back? A question we keep asking just about every day since we left.

The Bunster looks very happy down here in Fancourt. He runs around all the time without a worry in the world, and the other day he made friends with a cat. It was love at first site, for both the Bun and the cat. If it wasn’t for the Bunster we would head back to Kyiv this week.