It’s Monday morning as I type this because I’m reorganising my week so that I can get out when the weather allows and make the most of every second of it because I’ve got a nasty suspicion that we’re going to be stuck with weeks of this weather. Which is, of course, what we call ‘winter’ so I shouldn’t be complaining and I hope I’m not doing it too much.
At least I’ve got the escape of writing so I’m playing sunny tunes and escaping in my imagination to a proper Dorset summer where the sun shines and it’s warm enough for dresses or shorts and t-shirts but not too hot to do anything. There’ll be ice cream close at hand and little fishies and crabs swimming in the sea when I walk down to the beach and a gentle wind in my hair. All that will be coming for real and for now the first of my crocuses has come into bud so the wind and rain isn’t as bad as it seems.
The Christmas trees come down today and the dust bunnies have been sucked into the vacuum cleaner. The cats are home and cuddly, which is a sign of bad weather to come. My second cottage loaf is actually a cob, but I’m sure it’ll taste nice and I’ll use a firmer dough next time and learn from it so it won’t be anything like as bad as the day when I was just starting out making bread when the loaf was so bad that we took it to the park for the seagulls. They ignored it scornfully and it sank when we threw chunks of it into the water!
I’ve got new plants on the way and my sedum cuttings are in their compost and nicely sheltered so another stage of my plans is under way. My embroidered bag is coming on well too. It’s crewel work butterflies on a lovely heavy canvas and I shall use it as a sewing bag in the garden come the summer. I’ve chosen my next project, which is a Chinese style picture of a heron that reminds me of the heron we see in the park. It’s one of a set that I’m going to make into cushions and border them with gorgeous Chinese style fabric. Then, next year, I’ll get them out for Chinese New Year because I like celebrating things.
The cookbooks I got for Christmas are waiting to be explored, but today’s lunch will be sausages, jacket potatoes and baked beans because it’s that sort of day. Then in the afternoon I’ll reorganise the top of the freezer where the Christmas tree always sits and do some more sorting out. I’ll reclaim the sewing room once all the boxes of decorations go back up in the loft and I want to make some more cushions so it’s not as if I haven’t got loads to look forward to. It’s just that I want to be outdoors and feel the wind in my hair and the smell of the sea. Just not when there are gale and flood warnings because I’m not daft and I don’t want to cause work for the RNLI and the coast guard.
That means that it’s a much better time to be indoors and doing research reading for the next Esther and the Professor book which I’m hoping to start in February. Just in case you fancy doing some reading too, here are the books that are on offer this week.
There’s a nice assortment of them, starting with Echoes which is one of my favourite Amy Hammond thrillers. It’s set during Covid lockdown, which makes Amy and Peter finally decide to live together and has echoes from the VE Day anniversary.
Echoes in a very different kind of way come from ‘Changing Times’ which is currently stand alone, but I’m hoping to write a sequel when times allow, which they may well do if we have a bad winter. Imagine an alternative universe where World War Two ended far earlier and very differently and all the politicians were wiped out in a massive flood that was followed by cholera. Technology developed very differently, as did the community, and now their world and ours are intersecting, which isn’t good for either of them
If something lighter appeals, then head to Windy Bay for a cosy romance and a Vintage Girl Summer where Gracie finds herself as well as love. Cake, vintage crafts, cottage core life…
Finally, there’s a visit to Christians Cross, which is my least popular series. It’s still fun though, especially when you come across a sword that might or might not be Excalibur as well as the Holy Grail. This series started after a lovely lady in a shop in Dorchester warned me off going to a henge monument after dark because it was unchancy. Obviously I had to ask what she meant, and she patiently explained that it was a place where things happen as don’t by chance and aren’t natural. They haven’t happened to me when I’ve been there, but part of me would love them to, so these stories began.
So that’s it for now. Have a good week and we’ll catch up on Sunday. Today's picture is the cat-cast, which is more accurate than any weather forecast and currently reads 'curl up in the warm and be as spoilt as you can.' Sounds good to me, so I hope you can have the same even though neither of us will ever reach cat standards.
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