Yes, I know. It sounds boring, doesn’t it? Maybe even as if you’re giving in, but I promise you that it wasn’t and I didn’t exactly. I simply walked through the woods on my way down to Harbourside, looked to my right at the hustle and bustle as the workmen finish off the new cycle and foot paths that run all away down to the Quay and then changed my plans and turned left.
Left, to where the cycle path is already well separated so I hear and see them whizzing by as I walk along at my own speed, which is slow enough to enjoy the amazing views and remember to be rather than to do. Slow enough to see this beautiful little egret.
And this oyster catcher
And these boats
Slow enough to sit and look out over the boatyard up at Turks Lane and wonder why it’s called that. So when I went home I consulted Peter Cunningham’s oh so helpful Mr Google, and found this on the Poole Museum Society website. All the spellings are historic.
“In the 1620s, Poole seamen had to face many dangers, but one peril which they most dreaded was to be attacked by Barbary pirates, known as ‘Turks’. These sea raiders from Algers, Tunis, Tripoli and Morroco had become a scourge in European waters and would take ships, cargos and the crews. Their unfortunate victims would be transported in chains back to North Africa and find themselves for sale in the slave markets of Tunis or Tripoli, with slim chance of ever seeing their home port again,”
And guess where the Turks came ashore? And who knew that my sleepy little town didn’t just breed pirates? Sometimes, we had to fight them off but today all was quiet and still. The wind was coming from the sea so I couldn’t even hear the children in the playground. I sat and embroidered my seaside crazy quilt that mirrors the one in the next Amy Hammond book that's due out at the start of September and watched the birds. Then I walked home past the skate park and admired the children on scooters and skates who were skimming up ramps and doing jumps and being incredibly athletic and not making a fuss when they fell over. I wished I’d had knee pads when I’d been their age, but my scabs were badges of honour back then and knowing to slow down and let the world pass by and glory in how beautiful it is and how lucky I am is a badge of honour now.
Then I came home and enjoyed a cup of coffee and some of my fruit nut and chocolate chip shortbread, which is another recipe I’m testing for my project to have amazing cakes and biscuits with simple ingredients and minimal effort. All I want is for them to taste great, be quick to make, no icing cos I hate icing and store well in a tin. Not much to ask, is it? If you’ve got any recipes that fit this, then please share… Pretty, pretty please.
In a minute, I shall get back to writing the latest Lucy Williams and incorporate those fearless kids into it. Till I finish that, here are this week’s special offers…
There are three books in my Shadows series which I write as Eleanor Neville, which is fun because Lucy’s and Peter’s worlds are now overlapping with them. They are Accidental Hero, Strange Harvest and Kisschase, and Kisschase is largely set on the beach at Sandbanks and in the area around the deserted village of Tyneham.
Or, if you fancy something gentler, family friendly, no violence, and happy endings, there are three Oldcastle cosy romances. They are The Toddler and the Tough Guy, Buried Trouble and Where there’s a Will… So why not visit Oldcastle, where the river runs through the slightly run down market town that’s in the process of reinventing itself? This is Dorset, so there’s a lovely old fashioned bakers shop as well as handsome and often impossible heroes and women who are determined to make their own way in the world as soon as they work out what they want that way to be!
I’m still working on that, so please let me know if you’ve worked out how to do it.
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