Change is on its way..

According to the UK Meteorological Office, autumn starts on the first of September, which ties in pretty closely with how it feels down here close to Poole Harbour, and I’m more than ready for all the good things it’ll bring.

The children start going back to school on Wednesday and will all be back by Thursday, so the Harbourside will be as quiet as it can be while they’re rebuilding the sluices. There’ll be older tourists for a week or so, and then the Quay and Harbourside will settle gently into a winter peace, and I’ll be safe to go exploring again and enjoy all the migrating birds. There’s a new museum with a teashop that’s being provided by an award-winning local hotel that sometimes features in my books waiting for me now that it won’t be crowded. The Paddlesteamer Waverley is also coming to pay its annual visit, and I shall stand on what we call starling point and watch it coming into harbour and time-travel back to the days when boats like that ran excursions all summer long.

I’ll also be visiting a sweetshop that’s almost as good as Rob and Pam’s at Swansmere, and where I dedicatedly research fudge so I can describe it for you. (It trades online as the Pink Sugar Mouse if you’re interested, and Jeannette and her team are amazing.) Both my now adult children are autistic, as you’ve probably guessed, and they were endlessly patient when my son was practising decision-making. We decided that the simplest thing was to start at the top of one long shelf and work along, and it was going really well till they rearranged the jars, which taught me exactly what a good memory he has and that he was a lot more flexible than I thought, because the little dear thought it was funny. They did that at the bakery too, but it was a good plan until it met reality. Isn’t that life for you?


Speaking of life, we finally had rain on Thursday night. In fact, we had 42mm of it in an hour, which is 1.7 inches and more than we’d had in the whole period between the beginning of June and then. This is also known as ‘a lot’, and it was coming down so hard that it was bouncing off the chairs and the cats were not happy. And, of course, the ground was so dry that we had flooding, including our shopping centre, which is called the Dolphin. I’m a bad person because my first thought was ‘how appropriate.’ Thankfully, the ground floor shops had sandbagged their entrances before they’d gone home, so all they had were very, very clean floors between the shops.

Speaking of being bad, I had an amazing email from the online chemist I use asking me if I was ready for the children to go back to school. According to them, I needed to buy stuff for upset tummies, verrucas, scabies, head lice, nervousness, painkillers for adults and children, multivitamins to protect against winter coughs and colds and spot gel. As if that wasn't bad enough, it suggested that the children going back was the ideal time for me to diet. It makes going back to school sound like so much fun, doesn’t it? I hate having injections and I've been losing weight steadily over the last 3 years by the simple method of being aware of what I eat and why I eat it and moving around as much as I can, so I'll keep the hundred and fifty odd pounds each month to invest in things that make me happy without adding unnecessary calories, thanks and enjoy being a UK 12 again, and doesn't it sound nicer as a US size 8?

Whatever you do this week, I hope you have fun and we’ll catch up on Tuesday when I’ll tell you about Thursday’s new releases, which I think you’re going to like…

(And how’s that for a low impact cliffhanger? Till then, here are the Purbeck Hills and Corfe Castle just visible in the distance.)