It’s all in the way you see it…

Or why I’ll never take it as an insult to be called a bird-brain ever again.

It’s stopped raining, and while we had 33mph winds down on Harbourside, the sun was shining, the grass had grown back, and I was desperate for a decent walk, so off we went with our cameras because my daughter is doing her critical review and project work for her degree in representation of animals. ' I’ve always done this and love imagining what they’re saying to each other, so it's a joy for us to enjoy our passions together, although I tend to prefer landscapes because they don't fly away.

Today was amazing, and I’m sorry because I was too busy watching it to photograph it. We’ve been feeding the starlings all summer because they’re such cheeky, cheerful, chatty little souls. Now most of the tourists have gone home, and it was a blustery day after a week of bad weather, when food hasn’t been easy to come by for them. That probably explains why a murmuration of starlings began to form as soon as we came out to what we now call Starling Point, because this is reclaimed land, so a lot of areas don’t actually have names yet.

A murmuration is when they all gather to swoop and fly in a formation that’d make the Red Arrows hang up their flying suits, and my beloved Harbourside is known for them. This one formed up, flew over to us, then swooped down in a spiral like a tornado and landed where she couldn't avoid seeing them. She fed them and photographed them, and then we walked on. A minute or so later, another formation appeared in front of us. That kept happening, so we had a magical walk that made a lot of other people smile, and she’s got the pictures she wanted, and they’ve got the high-protein food they needed. If that's being bird brained then I'm taking it as a compliment.

On the way back, I looked at the potholes in the car park and then realised that they weren’t just potholes. If you are a seagull, then they’re a valuable freshwater bathing pool, or if they’re smaller, then they’re a drinking bath.

I came home windblown and eager for the coffee my amazing husband made (his allergies mean this area is out of bounds for him.) I was also thinking about how we interact with the natural world and how it reminds me that land that’s basically made from rubble from slum clearances can become a Site of Special Scientific Interest in fifty years. Yes, I’m a hopeless dreamer (it’s in my job description), but that’s a massive sign of hope that I needed and confirmation that walking is miles better than the Pilates and Balance Ball exercises I’ve been doing while I couldn’t get out.

I’ve been writing too, and that leads me smoothly-ish on to this weeks special offers.

This week there are three in the Amy Hammond series, which I write as Tia Brown, which are A Handmade Crime, Ageing Disgracefully and Two Graves. At this stage, Amy and Peter are growing together, and they’re mainly Swansmere based. Aging Disgracefully is set round a nursing home and reminds me of sheltered housing where my late father-in-law lived, which turned out to be a local centre for drug dealing. Add to that drunkenness in the ladies' hair salon where they had wine instead of tea and coffee and ageing clearly isn’t what it used to be!

There are also three books from my Shadows series, which I write as Eleanor Neville. The Shadows are agents of the top secret M27 who work behind the scenes to stop things happening, and are sometimes camouflaged by the elite Hostage Recovery Unit. It’s quite logical to stop there being hostages in the first place because it’s got to be easier than recovering them. They feature Andrew and Maria Stannard and Simon Jones who have all started popping up in my Amy Hammond and Lucy Williams series and are To be the best, Professional hero and Enemy Within.


So have a good week and think of me out in the wind and making the most of the warmth and the birds in a beautiful part of a beautiful world till we meet again. I hope you’ve got your own special place and can get there in fact or fiction.