More home making… aka, cold, windy and with sudden downpours and a severe weather warning.

You can tell it’s the school holidays, can’t you? Last week was bright and sunny and gorgeous and the sort of weather that fools you into thinking that spring is almost, almost here and soon you’ll be washing your coat and packing it away till winter which will be a long, long time away..

This week it’s changed its mind which means that I’m back to acting as if it’s coming as if that’ll make it happen. Don’t worry about laughing at my daftness because I’m used to my family doing that and I like hearing people laughing because there’s not enough laughter in the world.

I was feeling a bit down about it because my pain is always worse on cold, grey, damp days so I decided to look at some new perfume oils for my diffusers to give me the illusion of summer. Then I was daft enough to ask my husband’s opinion. I liked the sound of ‘hotel blend’ because it sounded elegant, classy and expensive. He suggested ‘last night’s cabbage,’ ‘slightly dodgy drains’ ‘damp carpet’ and, for the ultimate experience ‘gents loo after a stag night.’ Somehow, I didn’t fancy them after that, and I haven’t told him that I went for ‘clean house’ instead because I don’t want to know what he thinks that means.

I just know that I like the house to smell nice on the days when I can’t have the windows open as much as I want to. Since part of that is because of my menfolk’s allergies I reckon I deserve to indulge myself, especially since the humidity helps their atopic eczema. So clean it will be and I’ll update you about what they smell like on Sunday. At the moment I’ve got ‘salt breeze’ which, now I come to think of It, doesn’t smell anything like a salty breeze but I still like it. Is that because of the pictures it conjures up? Or is it just because I like the smell? Who knows, but I know I don’t care.

For me, pampering myself at home because I can't go out as much as I want to is all about indulging my senses. Taste isn’t good when you’re watching what you eat, so I’m enjoying the sight of a clean shoe rack where all the shabby shoes have gone and I’ve cleaned the winter boots and shoes and put them on the shoe rack in the porch with bars of soap stuffed in them. Now there are summer canvas shoes and sandals beside the token pair of winter trainers and the trainers smell nice because I’ve washed them. Sound is relaxing spa music courtesy of Amazon Prime Music and gentle classical albums like Rondo Veniziane. We’ve already covered smell but fresh baked bread’s good too and so is newly mown grass; as long as it’s nowhere near my menfolk!

Then there’s touch, and for me that’s clean clothes and bedding. A fresh nightie every night, ironed if necessary. A clean embroidered and freshly ironed pillowcase under your cheek on a hot sticky night. The crust of that newly baked bread while it’s still hot and drenched with good butter. Warm sand between your toes. Warm-ish sea sloshing over your toes as you gently paddle your way along the beach while you head for ice cream.

They’re all simple things, but I’m a simple person so they make me happy.

Sight could also be reading, which is a great escape when you’re literally aching for summer but it won’t cooperate so that leads me smoothly-ish on to this weeks special offers.

This week's special offers at 99p in the UK and 99c in the US are the first three books in the Esther and the Professor series, all ready for the new one which is due out on May the first. These are ‘A very private war’, A Very Personal Invasion’ and ‘A Very Different Kind of War.’ The new one is “A Darker Kind of War' and you can pre-order it if you'd like to. They’re all set in World War Two Poole and are gentle mysteries featuring the irascible Professor James Lomax and his assistant Mrs Robert Graham because married ladies were known by their husband's names when being addressed. Inside though, she’s Esther and juggling work, helping on the WVS canteen van, bringing up her children while living with her parents and getting caught up in trying to foil an invasion. As, of course, you do, or at least you did if you lived in one of the tropical 3 candidates for invasion which was what Poole was then. My house is in the area that would have been abandoned to the enemy, which is a sobering thought.

Following on with that theme is Echoes, which is from my Amy Hammond series and set during the first Covid lockdown because surely Amy and Peter couldn’t find any trouble? Or not any modern trouble anyway, but they do find a mystery from World War Two.

So have a good Easter. Here in the soft South saying that’ is practically the same as doing a rain dance, but my indoor games will carry on so I’ll have fun and I hope you’ll have the same till we meet again.


Today’s picture is from last week's sunny days, and as requested, I’m in it. Please let me know what you think but be kind because I'm still learning not to scuttle off like a crab whenever anyone wants to take my picture…