The last few weeks of spring.

I tend to work on the British Meteorological Office’s definition, which is that spring is March, April and May, summer is June, July and August, and I’m sure you can work the rest out for yourself. The weather, of course, does exactly what it feels like doing, in the same way that Old Dorset claims women and cats also do. That’s fine by me because I can be bright and sunny or stormy. Anyway, it’s not been the best spring, so I treasure the bright days all the more, even if I’m still wrapped up in a fleece.

So here is ‘my’ Harbour, which you’ll hear a lot more about in the next Lucy Williams book ‘Death and the Curious Cyclist’, which is out in August. Luke, who flits between Lucy and Amy Hammond, loves it here and is out on it as much as possible, and I like to imagine him in the pictures here.

In the distance are the Purbeck Hills, and the dark green is Brownsea Island, where Lucy helped to stop someone from becoming a dead body. We don’t have that many accidents, although we do have our fair share of people who think the sea is soft and friendly until they get into trouble and find that it’s anything but. So, please, if you’re going anywhere near the sea this summer, read this https://rnli.org/safety and follow its advice because while there are people like Luke, who’s in the next book that’s out in June and is called Letters from a spy, I can’t guarantee that they’ll be in the right place to save you.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, and next week the weather should get warm enough for me to paddle. Today, though, I’m firmly in socks and thinking fondly of hot chocolate rather than Purbeck or New Forest Ice cream!