I’m typing this on Friday, so it’s St David’s Day and the Met Office, who forecast weather in the UK and seem to be the most reliable of the forecasters in my area say it’s the first day of spring. If it is, then someone forgot to send the weather the memo because it’s been pouring down all night, the wind’s blowing hard, it’s bitterly cold outside and there’s a flood warning down at Harbourside so I’m stuck indoors for a second day and my stupid arthritis doesn’t like this weather.
As a result, my family had to endure scones with clotted cream and raspberry jam yesterday and chocolate chip shortbread and home made English muffins today because I needed to make the recipes for research purposes. I’ve also sorted through the freezer, put everything into drawers according to type and am committed to using it all up, so there’ll be some ‘creative’ meals to come. My chores are up straight, I’m ahead on the new Amy Hammond that comes out in May and I was feeling rebellious so I’ve begun to cut out a new quilt.
I know that as rebellions go that’s probably a bit on the tame side, but it’s what I feel capable of right now, and making my mystery quilt brought it home to me how much I, like Amy, like making simple quilts with gorgeous fabric and lots and lots of room for quilting. It’s odd that we have so much in common, isn’t it? And what, I hear you ask, was mysterious about it? It wasn’t an Amy and Peter sort of mystery but because I cut the fabric just before my husband was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in all sorts of places and it got put away till 8 years laer when I had the time and head space to do it and I forgot what it was going to be.
I still don’t know what I meant it to be, but I’ve added some lovely pale blue fabric and now it’ll combine 2 quilt blocks and embroidered squares and come out as a 40” square lap quilt that I can work on outside and snuggle under when spring comes. Because it’s got to come, hasn’t it? Soon would be good, because I’m longing to get outside and plant the 45 little pots of daffodils and crocuses I planted last year into the garden to fill in the gaps between the bluebells as they go over. I can’t at the moment because it’s less a flower bed and more a mud pie making station, and that’s not improving my mood either.
I want sunshine. I want long walks and to paddle or preferably swim in the sea. I want to enjoy sitting out in the garden, and aren’t I lucky that I can do all that in fiction when I can't in real life ? I can’t remember writing so many first drafts in a month as I did in February so maybe that’s good news? And I’ve sorted out my wardrobe and ordered bits and pieces I need for summer because I’ve been losing weight little by little and so the decks are cleared ready for me to get out there.
What’s the weather like where you are? And what do you do when you’re stuck indoors? Do you feel stuck in the way I do? Please let me know…
And here’s a picture that I’m hoping to use as the cover for ‘Crazy for death’ which is the Amy Hammond after the one that comes out in May. Isn’t it beautiful? And I hope I’m the only person who goes looking for a good place to hide a body! If you’ve done it, it’s probably better if you don’t let me know, but take care till we meet again.
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