More weather and a new bright idea

Today I’m taking notes and storing feelings and realising yet again why I write about floods so often in Windy Bay. After all, it’s not as if Dorset makes the news much for flooding, is it? I can explain it by saying ‘it’s not as if Dorset makes the news much at all’ but the thing about living by the Harbour and on the peninsula (not the posh Sandbanks one, I’m happy to say,) is that once the weather comes inside the circle of the Purbeck Hills, it stays there. The Park and Harbourside Park were both built on reclaimed land, so it floods whenever there’s heavy rain, I always think of it as being ‘the sea wants it back’ and right now it’s doing a pretty good job of taking it.

It’s currently 5.40 on Tuesday morning, and I can hear the wind howling outside, which is a lot nicer than having it howling in my face when I paddled down to put the bins out in my pyjamas and with the water coming over the top of my garden clogs. They’re now nice and clean, and one of my little treats is a pair of clean pyjamas every night, so it didn’t matter how wet I got. My hair will dry soon, and rainwater is good for it. It takes about 3 minutes to get to the bottom of the garden, unlock the lovely new gate, put the recycling bin out and then get back inside and I really was soaked to the skin. In fact, I dripped, so I put the kettle on as soon as I got back inside and had a hot cup of coffee as soon as I was dressed.

Now I’m all warm and snuggled under a quilt. I decided not to open the windows and doors to air the house like I usually do. Instead, I turned on the LED candles and put on the diffuser with an aromatherapy oil that claims to smell like clean linen. I suppose what clean linen smells like depends on what washing powder you use and whether you iron it. Mine doesn’t smell like that, but it does smell clean and fresh and of hope.

When we went down to the harbour for a nice long walk yesterday, the air smelled clean in an entirely different way, and everywhere was freshly washed. There was also seaweed on the far side of the cycle path to tell me exactly how far the sea had got and why there was a flood warning down there on Sunday. There’s one today too, so I’ll get the bin back in again, then it’ll be indoors till it eases off. The weather forecast reckons that it’ll have blown through by about three o’clock with the worst over by ten, but the problem is that there’s been so much rain that everywhere is sodden with slippery leaves. If I ever want to disable a hero or heroine, then that’s an unromantic way to do it. Or I can trap them under a cliff fall because this sort of weather encourages them.

Or I can just end up with him wet and an undignified mud monster even though usually he is well aware that he’s gorgeous, so he goes home with the heroine, and she makes a cosy oasis against the weather, just as I’ve done. She makes hot chocolate with squirty cream on top and probably marshmallows too and turns the candles and the diffuser on. She’s volunteered to sort the jumble out for the church jumble sale so he can find clothes to fit him, and he laughs about it and somehow she manages not to and a pair of frenemies take the first steps to becoming something else. Then the power goes out, and that’s a whole new book coming to life in my mind complete with characters, so it’s already a good day.

I hope you have one too, and the weather’s better where you are. If it’s not, then you might be interested in this week’s special offers, which are unashamedly slushy and romantic. There’s the whole Lavender House series, which includes House of Dreams, Ghost of Dreams, Ghost of A Chance, A Time to Fight, Sunshine and Shadow and Love Always. They’re set down on the posher Sandbanks peninsula, which is getting it really bad at the moment and feature a determined woman property developer, a handsome gardener (but not the one in the Windy Bay book that’s out next week but we’ve got loads of handsome men doing all sorts of jobs down here so that’s no problem. Anyway, they bring a big old house and its outbuildings and former staff cottages back to life, some for wealthy people and some as affordable accommodation. If you ask the resident ghost, she’ll tell you that she gives people who need it a helping hand. If you ask the people who are on the receiving end of the help, then they might say something very different!

There are also two books from the Windy Bay Series, Elf n Safety and Spring in the Heart at Windy Bay, because spring will come, my garden will be ready for it, and today I’ll get on with my sorting out, and yes, that hot chocolate does sound like a good idea, doesn’t it?

Today’s picture is of a spring day from last year because I need to remind myself that it will come. See you on Sunday, and please, take care and escape whenever you can because it’s a strange old world right now, isn’t it?