One of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen was when I was 3 years old.Just before a thunder storm (beautiful in its own right) the enormous oak tree in the field across our lane turned to burnished gold in a ray of sunlight against a steely dark grey sky.I was completely awestruck. Everyone in our row of cottages came out to look. After the initial cries of surprise, no-one spoke a word. We all stood and stared. The collective, wistful sigh when the sun went in and the tree became, "just a tree" again was something I will always remember.I've seen trees "glow" since then , but not one of them has appeared to turn to metal like that one did. At three years old I believed the tree had actually become real gold, because it shone so brightly. Magical.

Since then I've been stunned by the sight of humpback whales swimming underneath our catamaran off Ka'anapali beach on Maui, Haleakala crater (Maui again) as it appeared out of thick cloud and was lit by sunlight, a rainforest gorge which magically appeared when our waiter pulled up the blinds on our restaurant verandha after a rainstorm on Mauritius.

There are so many more.The view from the Pheasant pub at Burwardsley in Cheshire is something not to be forgotten. However,the one which never fails to take my breath away is the view across the South Northamptonshire countryside from our garden. I never fail to remember how lucky I am.