It was a rather chilly month, with brief glimpses of spring but an awful lot of rain, wind and gloom – and even another late month snow flurry. When the sun came out, it made for a lovely photo over the shingle towards the sea near Walmer – what’s missing from the photo is the biting wind!

I had a very productive spell during the horrid weather and made the patchwork quilt for new baby Ellis within a week, in time for (new) Mothers Day. On my occasional walks, I saw the blackthorn flowering bravely, along with cherry plum, brightening up the grey days.

It was quite something to see my first paperback shelved in The Deal Bookshop, and to pop in to sign a few copies for them.

Then it was time for another trip to London, for a baby visit and to go to a private view where one of the pictures on display had been painted on our trip to Goa earlier this year. (It feels like much longer than that!) London by night had a certain magic that went some way to making up for the horrors of getting around it in rush hour on public transport.

A planned weekend walk to have Sunday lunch at The Zetland Arms ended up taking place with a wind chill of -5 and driving snow! Surprisingly, the walk over the top at Hawksdown, along the edge of the old First World War airfield, was more protected than I’d expected. My slice of meat pie was the perfect reward, as well as good preparation for the walk back.

The following weekend found me in Bluewater, for the first time ever, meeting friends for a four-hour lunch – we hadn’t met in 15 years so there was a lot of catching up to do! The next week began with a glorious day when spring truly was in the air – a good chance to get some serious gardening done.

Sadly the weather didn’t last and it was back to a chill wind and rather grey skies, followed by heavy rain, for a trip to Chatham Dockyard for research purposes. One of the most interesting discoveries (for said research) was in the first stop, the café! A three-panel reproduction of an engraving from the Georgian era, (excuse the wonky photos), was filled with fascinating detail. A sneak peak at the amazing building where the ropes were made was another highlight, as was the submarine tour, if only to confirm that I could never, ever be a submariner! It was an eye-opener in so many ways – not only the amount of nuts, bolts and hardware visible inside, but also how little room there was for the crew, under the waves for ten weeks at a time.

The start of the Easter Bank Holiday brought more rain with it. An orchid from last year bravely decided to flower, despite the cold weather we’ve had and the fact that it has found itself in the home of someone useless with houseplants! With brownies baked ready for another trip up to London, the month drew to a close with a pizza lunch at The Taphouse in Deal, busy with visitors determined to make the most of it as the sun came out for a few hours – before the next band of rain moved in…