Hello there friends ,

I hope this finds you well or at the very least dry!  News from CQG HQ is that it stopped raining for twenty-four hours and then started again almost immediately but and it’s a BIG water butt …. I genuinely believe that Spring is about to pop its head over the hedge.  

The daffs are neon yellow in the hedgerows, the primroses peeking through and the rooks have started to build their nests in the tall trees. Speaking of birds, I’ve been on a brief birdwatching trip since we last spoke, mostly as inspiration for my next book Drawn to Nature, which is almost finished. Once again, as with Drawn to the Garden, I have done all of the illustrations (over eighty) and as you can imagine because it’s about our native wildlife, there are lots of pictures of birds and I needed to see some in the flesh or rather in the feather. The North Norfolk coast has always been a favourite holiday destination and is the perfect place to walk among the reed beds, watch the birds and almost more importantly, to listen to them. The soundscape of the marshes changes from moment to moment, the curlews cry, gulls overhead, the geese landing on the brackish pools with a flapping of wings and a fair amount of honking.

There is a lovely bakery at Holme next the sea , which didn’t exist when Sam and I used to visit over twenty years ago , I have Coeliacs disease , which means I can’t eat anything with wheat or rye or anything containing gluten ,  having lived with it for many years I’m very used to not thinking about pastries , I don’t usually feel envious of Sam as he eats buns or toast but I have to say that watching him tuck into a fresh from the oven pain au chocolat made me dribble ! 

I made up for it at the fruit and veg shop in Holt though, beautiful local veg and some lovely local honey.

I’m home now and really looking forward to the change of season. The radio is tuned to classical music most of the time at the moment as the news is almost always unbearable grim. So with my faithful transistor radio in hand I’m heading out to the greenhouse, sowing seeds is on my to do list…tomatoes,  chilli’s , herbs and a few lettuces, I think. I’m going to build a new strawberry bed soon too and I’ll be starting the peas and beans, let’s hope that they don’t get washed away by more rain and that the sun shines long enough to warm the the soil and kick start the darling little seeds in to growth.

So, until next time dear friends to quote Annie in the musical…

“When I’m stuck with a day that’s grey and cloudy I’ll just stick out my chin and grin and say, the sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there’ll be sun”. 

Now, where did I put my factor 50 ? 

Lots of love chums  

Caroline Q x