Hello and welcome to my June newsletter.
How lovely to have some warm, sunny weather at last. I’m a keen gardener and just a few weeks ago, I was fed up with watering and wishing it would rain and then it didn’t know when to stop. My husband, Bryan, recently bought a rain gauge and during the first fortnight it was in place, it recorded four inches of rain. Mind you, the garden is looking much better for it and my azaleas have been amazing this year.
Although Bryan and I have had our two vaccinations, I’m still doing my supermarket shopping online with “click and collect”. It’s become a habit now and I’ve got to like it. My neighbours are in their eighties and they have always been good to us, so in March 2020, I offered to do their shopping online too. At the time I thought this would be for a few weeks, but yes, you’ve guessed, I’m still doing it! It’s not a problem and because I pay for all the shopping and they pay me, I get all the reward points. To spend some of them, I’ve booked two night’s bed and breakfast in Tewkesbury in June to celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary. There, now I’m giving away my age. I wouldn’t be surprised if a blog about the Cotswolds appears here soon.
A Walk on the Cornish border
The walk I have written about this month is in Bude, a lovely little town on the north Cornwall coast. It offers an excellent choice of accommodation, shops and restaurants, but still manages to retain its Cornish charm. There are beautiful sandy beaches with spectacular views and Summerleaze Beach even offers a sea pool hewn into the rock. Over the years we’ve made good use of this pool for our own children and then our grandchildren. It’s much safer than the beach, where the tides can be dangerous. The walk described in my blog offers some stunning scenery and I hope you enjoy it:
Circular Walk along the Bude Canal and Cliffs
Devon Book Club
I’m a member of Goodreads and I follow the Devon Book Club page. The Club recently asked authors to contribute to an event showcasing websites and blogs. I responded and my piece was shared by the Book Club on Goodreads, Facebook and Twitter. For some reason I can’t share their link, but I’ve put the piece I wrote into a blog which you can access here: Devon Book Club: Discussion on Blogs, Vlogs and BookTubing It was nice to get a bit of publicity and pick up a few more followers.
Barnstaple – in Victorian Times
I live in a village about three miles from Barnstaple and it is a town I have known all my life. Part of the story in my new book is set in Barnstaple and so I set myself the task of identifying what my characters would have seen there in Victorian times. I enjoyed doing the research and found out a few things about the town that I didn’t already know. I’ve written a blog providing information and some photos of the town: Barnstaple: The Oldest Borough
A Great Holiday Read – My Book of the Month
Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham
SLEEPYHEAD kicks off with a fast-paced storyline from page one. A psychopath has murdered several women and the police aren’t making much progress in their hunt for the killer, until he appears to make a mistake. Alison Willetts is found alive, but is left suffering from locked-in syndrome. However, it turns out it was the others who were the killer’s mistakes; he doesn’t want to take life, but to put people into a state where they cannot move, talk, or do anything but think. The characters are well rounded, authentic and likeable. The book introduces readers to Tom Thorne, the detective on the case, who appears in another thirteen novels by this author. I love the relationship between Thorne and his friend Phil Hendriks and also that of Thorne and Holland, another detective. The novel was first published in 2001 and is now a little dated, but this does not detract from a great story. Well worth a read.
Thanks for reading my June Newsletter and I hope you found something to interest you.
0 Comments