It’s Bank Holiday Monday. I’ve swept up all the leaves that days of wind and storms brought down, although I know I’ll be doing it pretty much every day for months. I’ve also rearranged some of the plants ready for autumn and winter because we’re now firmly in that stage when you treasure every minute that you can get outside and then enjoy coming indoors and snuggling down ready for the indoors season.
The sun is going in and out and it wouldn’t surprise me if it decides to rain, but I’m warm enough with a cardigan on and the side return, which is the correct name for the narrow rectangular bit outside the back door, is beautifully sheltered. It’s also my favourite part of the garden because it’s sheltered on three sides and hidden from anyone going down the back alleyway. It’s down a step from the back door and the main garden so I suppose I could call it a sunken garden. It’s certainly taken its inspiration from the sunken garden at Kingston Lacy, which is my favourite place at one of the local stately homes that helped to inspire Swansmere. Over the last eight years my ferns and black dragon grasses have grown and so has the holly and laurel and bamboo. The dwarf azaleas and the phormiums are new additions but basically as many of the plants as possible are Japanese or Chinese. I’ve kept adding them till there’s only a narrow pathway, and there’s two garden chairs and a pair of tables and a solar fountain in summer so it long ago became my favourite sitting spot.
My husband has been known to claim that there could be an undiscovered tribe lurking in the undergrowth but I know it’s probably only the cats, who love sheltering there and then pouncing out or sitting on the chairs so they can charge cat tax of some fuss from anyone who’s on their way to the washing line or the bin.
There’s definitely a growing feeling of autumn in the air and I like that too. I like following the seasons and making the house ready to snuggle down in for winter and thinking about what I want Christmas to look like. I like thinking about what I want to learn to cook, or to sew or to sort out. I like thinking about all the old TV I want to watch, thanks to You Tube. I even like getting out my autumn clothes and filling in any gaps.
Most of all, I like reading so I’m thinking about revisiting old friends. Jodi Taylor’s Chronicles of St Mary’s, all my Georgette Heyer’s, Lucilla Andrews’ romances. My collection of lifestyle books by Fiona Ferris and Jennifer Melville. Both those two have written books about how to have a stress free Christmas, which I’ll be revisiting in the next few weeks so I have time to note any ideas that appeal to me when there’s time to plan how I’ll put them into practice. The same goes for the recipes I want to cook at Christmas so any disasters happen when they don’t matter.
September marks the start of the reading season, so here are some books you might like to revisit while they’re on special offer at 99p in the UK and 99c in the US.
There are 4 of the earlier books from the Amy Hammond series and they are The prodigal daughter, A Prayer for Peace, To have and to hold and Let the Dead. I had fun writing these because they cover the period when Amy starts to realise why she’s started finding so much trouble and that Peter Cunningham is becoming more than a friend.
There’s also three books from my Shadows series about a fictional department of British Intelligence that I particularly enjoyed because the first one is set round a fictional tournament that reminds me of happy summers spent at Lulworth Castle watching the amazing Horses Impossible jousting and trick riding and being heroic or villainous.
At the moment I’m working on the Amy Hammond that’s going to be published next June if I get fair winds and following seas, and I’m happily weaving all my fictional worlds together, so you might enjoy giving those a try.
Till then, think of me sitting here and enjoying the last of the summer sun while I write with my beloved cat close at hand and the promise of coffee and home made biscuits for elevenses… I hope you have a good week too.
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