Changes in the air

I’m starting to wonder if I might just be past the first flush of youth, because I get excited about different things these days. Once it was holidays and clothes shopping. Now, I’m thrilled because my new back garden gate has arrived, and it’s not just any gate either. My husband drew up plans for it to my exact (and he would say exacting) specifications, so the curve of the arch fits perfectly between the two walls with their capped tops where I haven’t yet persuaded our two black cats to sit like miniature statues It’s made of tanalised timber so it doesn’t need painting and won’t for ten whole years. It’s lovely, solid timber, and we’ll be reusing the same hinges that we bought when my husband built its predecessor more than 30 years ago, and the same numbers on the outside that we bought a decade ago.

I mean, why would you want to change things when they work? So the heavy-duty bolt and padlock won’t be going anywhere, but there’s going to be a gorgeous heavy latch with a circular lifting bit to lift it on both sides. There’ll be a key lock too, so I can go out that way and still leave the garden secure. I’m sorry if I’m boring you, but these things matter in my little kingdom, which is pretty much a walled garden but without the stately home. Which also, of course, means without the upkeep, which I’m grateful for as the last of summer is replaced by a beautiful autumn where the leaf colour is gorgeous but they do seem to fall everywhere

On Friday I put a new battery in my camera and went to enjoy it in the Park and down by the Harbour, where someone else does all the mowing. I stopped to watch the increasing numbers of cormorants who’ve arrived, and the ever-cute and sneaky starlings. I built up my distance a bit further because I’d lost ground a bit recently, and if you think gates are boring, then you don’t want to get me onto the subject of compression toe socks. How can a sock be life changing? But these are, which is just as well because I really need to be out in the garden or out for a walk. Even nipping across the road to the seats that are set in the green space above the old air raid shelter will do the job (No, I’m not kidding. Here’s a link to the urban explorers who got in there a few years ago. https://www.theurbanexplorer.co.uk/ww2-underground-shelter-poole-dorset/#google_vignette What can I say? This is my Poole and I love it)

I’m afraid I'm wandering off the point a bit, because the star of my day was the arrival of our next winter visitors. These are turnstones, which is one of those times when it strikes me that ornithologists ran out of names. They’re closely related to sandpipers, and they have the most brilliant camouflage, and yet when you see them, they become obvious. Ours come from Canada, and they leave in late srpring, but they’re a sign that autumn is coming, and I love watching them. They do exactly what the name claims (and isn’t that a rarity in our world) and can lift a stone that’s their own weight to look under it. According to the Wildlife Trusts, they “feed on a wide variety of prey from bird's eggs to chips and even corpses! They can be spotted creeping and fluttering about the rocks, looking for food underneath them.” So, obviously, how can I resist them for my Dorset-based cosy thrillers? I suppose, logically, it shouldn’t always be dog walkers having to find bodies. Sometimes, it could be bird watchers, but that is quite definitely going to be another story.

Here’s a picture of a beautiful pair of them that I took on Friday, and I’ll see you on Tuesday to tell you about next month’s book. Till then, try to be happy, stay sneaky, and don’t find any dead bodies because doing that can really spoil your day!