Well begun is half done...

My hands ache, I’m stiff and sore from sitting still for much longer than I should have done and fed up with this damp and/or downright wet weather, but what matters right now to me is that the first draft of another Amy Hammond book is completed, which means I have two thirds of a book, and a long list of things to research.

While the rest of the people in my lovely Dorset were ‘enjoying’ wet weather and winds and flooding, I was off in my imagination on a hot summer’s day, sitting in a beautiful old-fashioned pub down by a river (and you can tell it’s fiction because no one got eaten alive by the gnats or the dreaded Blandford Fly.) At other times I was having bacon sandwiches with Amy at Swansmere and sharing her worry over whether her quilt would be finished in time for the course she’s going to be teaching about how to make it. I suspect it will be together and basted, and she’ll end up quilting it as part of the course and swear yet again that she’ll be ready in plenty of time next time.

In this, Amy is nothing at all like me because I’m a compulsive organiser who delights in planning. So this week I’ve also been packing two lovely old-fashioned tin picnic boxes that I stalked on eBay till I found them within my budget with an embroidery project and a piecing project for the garden and by the sea this summer. Because, you see, spring is coming. The daffodils are coming out from previous years and so are this year’s batch of crocuses which will be tipped out of their pots and planted into gaps in the garden once they’ve finished flowering. There are more dwarf daffodils too, and my very first wallflower is coming out. Leaves are budding, the birds on my new bird feeder are tweeting regular requests for more mealworms and the wonderfully named Buggy nibbles which are insects wrapped in suet (and I try not to think about that too much.)

The days are getting longer too, and I’m getting the washing more or less dry outside on days when it isn’t actively raining. Have you worked out yet that spring is my favourite season? It’s so full of possibilities and I’m excited and can’t wait. There are so many small things to do, but for today I have typed those four **** which denotes that Amy’s next adventure is on its way and I am very pleased.

I swore I was going to have a better work-life balance but my characters keep talking to me when I’m pottering around, so there are more Windy Bay’s and Oldcastle’s waiting to come as well, along with Lucy Williams' adventures and Esther and the Professor. There's also the new Harbourside series which sort of follows on from Lavender House. The first book in that series is ‘Picking up the Pieces’ and it comes out in early March, and I’m hoping you like it…

So, is spring coming where you are? Or is it autumn and you’re getting ready to snuggle in (hopefully with a good book.) And are there any stories you think I should be telling? Please let me know…

Today’s picture is of the RNLI museum at Poole, at the height of a spring tide, where you can see the sea deciding that it’d like the land back. And yet the building was built to withstand that so it endures, just like we all do… Have a great week and catch up on Wednesday…