Where Did Summer Go?

Once again, I find myself apologising for not being as regular and frequent with my blogs as I would like. It has been a tricky couple of months which started shortly after I wrote my last blog towards the end of July.

I came back from my holiday filled with enthusiasm and ideas for my writing, but all that evaporated with the terribly sad news that my beautiful friend, Alison had died. It wasn’t unexpected. She had been in end-of-life care since January after a long and hard-fought battle with a rare type of blood cancer, but it didn’t make the news any less devastating.

I met Alison through QVC. She was a jewellery expert guest who really knew her stuff, so much so that I entrusted her with designing both my engagement ring and wedding band. Without telling me, she added a small sapphire stone on the inside of my wedding band as my ‘something blue’. I think of her every time I look at it.

Shortly before Alison’s funeral which was a very colourful affair, just as she had wanted, it was what would have been my mum’s ninety-ninth birthday. Since writing my last blog, we accepted another offer on Mum’s bungalow and completion was agreed for the end of August. My brother and sister and I decided to meet up on Mum’s birthday to scatter her ashes in the garden of the home she had shared with our dad and at a local memorial garden. Just as we were saying our goodbyes a white feather spiralled down.

I found it difficult being in the empty bungalow which on that date the previous year I’d visited with Chris and our daughter, Sophie and her partner, Reece to celebrate Mum’s 98^th birthday. As you can see from the photo she was physically well and mentally, she was as sharp as a pin! Her decline was quite rapid, but I guess we should be thankful that she didn’t have a protracted illness. Just three days later, we were driving up the M1 motorway again to Northampton for Alison’s funeral. It’s not a week I would ever want to repeat.

At least we had something to look forward to the following week. I’d rented a four-bedroom house in north Devon for a family holiday with our son, Dan his partner, Danielle and her children and Dan’s daughter, India. The fourth bedroom was for Sophie and Reece. We were blessed with lovely weather for the most part which saw us heading off to the coast most days. We did Saunton Sands, and went on the boating lake in Bude, but our favourite was Putsborough Sands, the other end of Woolacombe Bay from the town of Woolacombe. We visited three times despite the extremely narrow roads we had to navigate to get there! I’d remembered it from when Chris and I took our children there about thirty years ago and although it is a bit busier now as more people have ‘discovered’ it, it was still as lovely as I remember.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve not permitted to post photographs of our granddaughter, a decision I’m happy to respect but it does mean that the best pictures I can manage are sandcastles! Above is our effort from the first day we visited and below is our second attempt. Thanks to Sophie and Reece who were my co-constructors.

The house we stayed in had a lovely rural outlook with a tree house in the garden for the children to play in and more importantly, a hot tub which we all made great use of. The host, Nigel could not have been more accommodating. Do ask in the comments section below if you would like the name of the property. 

Along with the happy memories of our family holiday that I brought back from Devon, I also brough back yet another chest infection. It’s my fifth chest infection in the space of twelve months and while I initially tried to battle it with cough medicine, Sterimar salt water nasal spray and copious hot drinks, I eventually had to have a chest X-ray and agree to a course of antibiotics. I only started them last Saturday but there is no improvement yet unfortunately. Fingers crossed they will start to work soon as Chris and I are meant to be going away next week after having to cancel a trip to Meze in the south of France as I felt too unwell to go. We were all ready with the suitcases, clothes and even travel money on the bed in the spare room and we’d checked in, but we wouldn’t have been able to fully enjoy it so there was no point really.

By the way, those of you who know me well will have spotted the red and blue suitcases, the colours of my football team, Crystal Palace. To say I’m on cloud nine with their current run of form is an understatement! We are now on a run of eighteen games unbeaten, with two lots of silverware, the FA Cup and the Community Shield and are now the ONLY unbeaten club in the Premier League this season after a 2 – 1 victory over Liverpool, the league leaders last Saturday. 

Not only that, but we are playing in Europe for the first time in our club’s history. We have some brilliant players, even after selling our star striker, Ebere Eze to Arsenal in the transfer window, but it is our manager who is the key to our current success. In all the years I’ve been a Palace fan, Oliver Glasner is by far the best manager we’ve had in my humble opinion! The red and blue balloons that have been hanging in my lounge since FA Cup Final day in May will no doubt come down at some point, but I couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams that they would still be up in October when I made the statement, ‘I’m not taking them down until we lose a competitive match.’ I’m impressed that they are still inflated to be honest! 

So, back to our prospective holiday. If we manage to get away, I’ll tell you more about it in my next blog, but it all came about after my sister asked for suggestions for a European getaway and I suggested Skiathos along with Lanzarote and the Algarve. My sister plumped for Lanzarote, but it gave me the urge to revisit a property we had stayed in with our children back in 1997. Like I say, IF we manage to get away, I’ll tell you more on the next blog.

Despite not feeling too well, I’d committed to attending an author event in York almost a year ago and was determined to go as I was also planning to visit an old friend from my dancing days. Diane and I worked together in a theatre show in Barcelona in 1976. We lost contact for a while but rediscovered each other when she recognised me on QVC. We’ve been in contact ever since but haven’t physically met up in almost fifty years!!!! There was a lot of catching up to do but I can honestly say the years just fell away as we chatted.

At the event in the centre of York it was lovely to meet up with some of the book bloggers who were part of the blog tour for my first novel, Life’s a Beach and Then ten years ago. We had a good old natter over a delicious cream tea.

It was also nice to meet author, Lynda Stacey who’d invited me to the event and reconnect with author, Erin Green who I met at a writing retreat about eight years ago. Attending more writing/author events is on my list of things to do in my 70^th year, so at least I’ve made a start. And as for the list itself that will have to wait until the next blog as this one is already very long!

I wanted to give a quick mention to my book, The Woman on the Beach which has been enjoying some success in the USA and Canada this past month as she has been on a Kindle Monthly Deal. It’s always lovely when someone ‘discovers’ a book that you wrote a while ago and that is exactly what happened recently with one of our QVC guests, Niki. She sent me these DMs on Instagram recently.

If you are reading this in the USA or Canada you have a few hours left of the reduced price deal – it ends midnight on September 30^th.

I was going to mention the various produce I’ve grown this year and what a good year it’s been for tomatoes and how I used the plums from our tree to make a yummy plum upside down cake…

Oh, I just did!!

But what I do want to share is this beautiful rainbow. It was off to the left as we drove down the M1 from the Author Cream Tea event in York – it arched over almost exactly where my parents had lived in Nottinghamshire! It was as though they were saying a final farewell.

Thanks so  much for reading my ramblings. Please do leave a comment. I read them all even if it takes me ages to respond (if at all) and they are much appreciated.

Until next time

Julia xx