OUT AND ABOUT ON A LOVELY AUTUMN DAY…

Right now, I make the most of every single day like this that I can get, because the signs that winter is getting closer are getting stronger and stronger, and more and more days are grey and misty. A lot of people around here are doing the same thing, and they say that pictures are worth a thousand words, so I’ve got two of them to share with you today.

Here we have an aircraft carrier cruising along with all the yachts in the model boating area of Poole Park lagoon. It was scratch-built by three lovely gentlemen and is a scale model of the Ark Royal, which we’ve seen a replica of at RNAS Yeovilton (That’s well worth a look if you’re ever Yeovil way. You may even see Daleks, but that’s another story.) Anyway, it took them about three months to design and then six weeks to build with laser-cut pieces, and it’s beautiful. It hasn’t got any missiles though. Apparently, they’re too hard to build to scale and then get to fire, although they might just have been teasing me!

And then there’s this beautiful, beautiful car, driven by the lovely man who drives it each day and was happy to tell me all about it as we shared our view that beautiful things need to be seen and used and loved. He sat contentedly on the bench overlooking the sea to keep his eye on it, and we chatted about how much of it has been replaced and how much easier it is to repair than modern cars.

These are the people I have in mind when I write about older people and oh, how much I want to be like our so-called elderly when I finish growing up. I once said that to the over-70’s extreme sports club, and they looked at each other and asked if they’d finished yet, and wondered if they were supposed to. They decided that they might be supposed to, but they weren’t going to, and I agree with them and love knowing that this next section of my life can be amazing fun IF I decide I want it to be.

Thinking that leads me on to the amazing fun I have writing and telling you about this week’s special offers, which are 99p in the UK and 99c in the US.

This week, we have the whole of the Lavender House series, which is six romances featuring a matchmaking ghost as well as the beautiful seaside down at Sandbanks, where most people are ever so much nicer than the ones you read about in the paper. They’re House of Dreams, Ghost of Dreams, Ghost of A Chance, A Time to Fight, Sunshine and Shadow and Love Always, and characters from them pop up in my other series as well, especially the amazing Lavinia Cunningham, who’s not letting a little thing like being dead stop her from sorting out things that need sorting out. I suppose she’s a logical next move for the people I’ve met recently, because I can’t see being dead stopping them either!

So have a good week and we’ll catch up on Sunday, when I hope to have a ghost story for you….