A lovely windy walk before the wind and rain came in…

I began by looping round the freshwater ponds where the geese are coming in all sizes from sweet and fluffy to teenager and the cygnets are leaving cute and becoming teenagers whose ambition is to be as firm and forceful as their daddy. Watching the children who are in that awkward stage when they’ve outgrown nursery or play school but won’t start school till September. Their mums and grandparents know they’re more than ready and are torn between counting down the days and the sadness that comes from knowing that a stage of their lives is almost over. That also comes with a side serving of guilt that they’re looking forward to it and indulging in some sneaky planning about what comes next for them.

And then on down, as I always do, onto the harbour and realising that selfie cameras don’t work as well on windy days because your hair goes everywhere. Still, I’ve learned a bit more about how to use it, just like I’ve learned a lot about what does and doesn’t suit me. So I’ve booked a collection for my favourite charity, which is ‘Together for Short Lives’, and I am ruthlessly going through my summer things and saying. “It didn’t suit you last year, it doesn’t suit you this year, and it won’t suit you next year either, so do you want crammed storage space and a feast for moths or to help with palliative care for children who aren’t as lucky as the ones you saw in the park? Do you want to say ‘this is wrong’ or do you want to help to campaign to make the time parents and children do have together better?’ This is pretty much a no brainer for me, so I really enjoy thinking of things less as mistakes and more as chances for them.

And now here’s a picture of young geese before I move on to this week’s special offers at 99p in the UK and 99c in the US. Stop here if you don’t fancy a bargain chance to try a new series and have fun till we meet again on Sunday.

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A Prayer for Peace

All Amy Hammond wants to do is enjoy her job running a craft centre at a stately home,get on with her quilting and cross at least a few things off her apparently endless to-do list. Only she's never been any good at walking away when people need help so maybe her beloved but bossy big sister is right to claim that she might as well have 'mug' tattooed across her forehead.

Now her best friend and next-door neighbour, enigmatic retired Brigadier Peter Cunningham, is revisiting his past because he’s decided to find out whether his ex-wife was right when she claimed that the child who was born at the end of his marriage wasn’t his son. It may well be embarrassing, but surely it can't be dangerous, can it?

Oh yes, it can, and an attempted murder is only the start as Peter's past has literally come back with a vengeance. And Amy's finally starting to understand why so many strange things have been happening since he moved in next door to her. Can Peter begin to resolve his past, and will they both survive their most dangerous adventure yet? If they do, then how will they handle their growing feelings for each other?

To have and to hold

People have started accusing Amy Hammond of being her little Dorset town's very own Miss Marple. She hates it, not least because she's only in her very early fifties, but there's no way she can tell them that most of the trouble she's found has involved her close friendship with her next-door neighbour, retired Brigadier and nothing like as retired as he wants to be spy Peter Cunningham.

She loves sewing, quilting and embroidery and her job at the Swansmere Craft Centre, which is part of a stately home. Once, she'd dreamed of escaping from the rut that it felt as if she'd lived in all her life, but she'd never got round to making it happen. Now, she's living proof that the old Chinese proverb 'be careful what you ask for....' is all too accurate.

Still, nothing should happen while her favourite niece is getting married at Swansmere's new wedding facilities because her hyper-organised big sister Laura is definitely not panicking, no matter what it looks like. Everything seems to be going perfectly until the chef gets stabbed by one of his staff at the rehearsal dinner.

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Can Amy and Peter find the attacker before anything else can happen to spoil the wedding? Can they find another chef in time, or will the wedding reception have to be supermarket sandwiches and cream cakes? Why are so many pretty foreign students disappearing? And will either of them admit how much they mean to each other, and if they do admit it, can they work out what they want to happen next?

Let the Dead

Middle-aged Amy Hammond always wanted an adventure until she started having them. At first she didn't understand why, but now she's realised that her neighbour and increasingly more than good friend Brigadier Peter Cunningham is actually a nothing like as retired as he wants to be spy!

Friendship seems to be turning to love, so she's nervous when he invites her to go on holiday with him and meet his cousin and see an archaeological dig.

What can possibly go wrong on a lovely farm that's nestled among the beautiful Black Mountains where there are three quilt shops within easy reach and museums with plenty more quilts in them nearby? Doesn't Amy deserve a break after all their adventures? There doesn't have to be crime and murder and intrigue everywhere she goes, does there?

She kept telling herself that until the archaeologists unearthed a body that's only been in the ground for a few months. It's Peter's cousin's former lover who vanished in Berlin just before the Cold War fell and was long ago presumed dead, so guess who is the obvious suspect?

Add in a childhood feud with the local Police Superintendent, an attempted murder and a Russian gunman and Amy starts wondering if she and Peter are going to live long enough for her to admit that she loves him, let alone visit all those shops and museums.

Knights Move by Eleanor Neville

A prominent politician narrowly escapes death after his driver is killed by a crossbow arrow. A whisper is heard that terrorists are planning to gather under the guise of a tournament and medieval reconstruction that's being held at an authentic English castle while they plan how to wreak havoc at a political conference. That makes it a job for British Intelligence's elite MI27, which is known as the Shadows to its agents.

Protection specialist Andrew Stannard is an avid reconstructor who took part in the tournament the previous year, so he’s the obvious choice to lead the team, with former three-day event star Maria Jordan as his squire. It’s hard having to suspect his friends, and it gets harder still when a woman he had a brief affair with dies in a horrific fire. He’s still coping with that when he narrowly avoids death after a prop malfunctions, and his determination not to have any sort of emotional relationship with Maria because this is his first time as a team leader and he intends to follow all the rules vanishes when he sees how upset she is.

Add into the mix bondage and domination, a blackmailed knight, kidnapping and drug dealing, and the couple who were both wishing for a proper adventure might well decide that they need to be a lot more careful what they wish for in future!

Knight to Pawn by Eleanor Neville

Welcome to the Shadowy world of British Intelligence’s most secret department, MI27 They get the strange jobs and count their successes by what nobody knows could have happened.

Agent Suze Lomax is a brilliant administrator, who's second to none with a spreadsheet, but the closest she's come to the adventure she's always longed for was a job at Cerne Castle, where she protected professional knight in shining armour Bedevere Morgan who was taking part in a medieval reconstruction and fighting in tournaments every day.

Vere’s interest in bondage and domination got him blackmailed by the terrorists who are aiming to wipe out the British Government. One of the reasons why he's so attracted to Suze is her natural air of control, so who better to infiltrate the local bondage and domination scene as Mistress and Slave?

Can they stop the terrorists? Can they find a way to have the relationship they want? Can Suze work with Vere's aggressive and domineering father without giving in to the temptation to tell him exactly what she thinks of him? And why won’t Vere walk away from his father?

There are mysteries within mysteries within mysteries, yet they’re having the time of their lives when they're not terrified so for once the hyper-organised Suze has to let the future take care of itself.

Pawn to Queen by Eleanor Neville

Welcome to the Shadowy world of British Intelligence’s most secret department, MI27. They get the strangest jobs and count their successes by what doesn’t happen or doesn’t get noticed. 

Millionaire computer security genius Gavin Allender was attacked after he discovered something vital about a terrorist threat against the government's party conference. He was savagely whipped and badly concussed and now can’t remember what he knew. He needs nursing, but refuses to go to hospital and is too independent and arrogant to be an easy patient.

Nurse protection specialist Cheney Stannard is assigned to care for and protect him, but her boss warns her off having a relationship with him. Unfortunately, the more people seem to be determined to protect her alleged innocence, the more the attraction between them grows and the more curious she gets about exploring a world she's never considered before.

Can he remember in time to stop the Prime Minister being assassinated?

Can they escape in time to save the day when they’re kidnapped and held hostages?

And can two driven people who have very different dreams and goals ever build a lasting relationship?

Happy Never After

Single parent and childminder Ellie Foster’s daughter is leaving home. Her son’s happy in the Navy, and everyone’s united that it’s time for her to live her own life, preferably with a nice man. Her husband was a total rat so as far as she’s concerned it’s less of a case of living happily ever after with a man as living happily never after by not getting involved again.

She’s known Steve Grey for most of their lives, and he’s always been a rotten tease who doesn't want involvement either. Yet now he needs her help as he applies to foster two troubled boys and she needs his help when her daughter brings home a visitor that she never expected to see.

Can they weather the storms together? And could happy never after become an entirely new kind of happily ever after in this latest very cosy instalment of the ‘Oldcastle’ series?