We've had some summer and there's more forecast! A little blowy, and only around 20c, but definitely sunshine and weather for paddling and then sitting on the beach and sewing and thinking and scheming and plotting. It was weather for sorting out in the garden too and for carrying out the next stage of my sewing room plan by reaching down the baskets from the top of the wardrobe that went up there in what I call BC which is Before Children, sorting out the contents and passing on the things that I shall never, ever use to the group of sewing friends as part of our four times yearly swap shop.
I write a lot about the fellowship of women because I value it so much in my own life. You’ll read about it in The Crafty Sew and Sews which is out the week after next, and, of course, it’s a big part of Swansmere and the Amy Hammond series. In my case, we swap cookbooks and recipes and sewing projects that somehow weren’t right and fabric for scrap quilts. We also talk about everything and nothing and between us we usually know someone who can help if one of us needs it or have equipment and skills that we’re happy to share. So, for instance, a friend with a tall ladder will send her husband to pick the cherries from the 30 foot tall dwarf cherry tree (yes, we have tall dwarves here in Dorset, but it’s held a swing and the cats love to climb it and we keep the area in cherries.) He’ll go home with freshly baked cherry pie and a punnet of cherries and we’re all happy.
At the moment, I’m doing something tricksy and complicated which is weaving together my three espionage based cosy series so that they all operate in the same world, but this is very much the undertone of it. It’s natural for us to look after our own, and most of the time that’s great. When it isn’t though, we get nasties and cover ups and I wish there were real people like Peter Cunningham and Kim Kinsella. There’s started to be a hint of this in the last 2 Amy Hammond books and it’ll get stronger still as time goes on, and really come out in the second of the next two Lucy Williams books that I’m currently working on.
I’ve left her in a right mess, and I feel guilty about that, so if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go and see what’s happening with her and leave you with a picture I’m thinking of as Willow and Willow. What is it with cats and baskets? If you buy them a cat basket they refuse to sleep in it but every other basket seems to be theirs by right along with every other cardboard box…
Have a good week and see you on Wednesday.
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