At the beginning of the month I went to London to have dinner with my NCT group – we’ve been meeting for 34 years now! And as my intended trip to the Garden Museum was thwarted as it was closed, I got to see the exhibition at the Wallace Collection of wonderful and intricate Indian paintings done for the East India Company in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

Back in Kent, the weather was warm enough to sit outside for coffee in Ramsgate, where the harbour (top) looked positively Mediterranean. The Clock House on the quay proudly displays the fact that Ramsgate Mean Time is 5 minutes and 41 seconds ahead of Greenwich Mean Time!

I was back in London again for a champagne tea – lots of lovely sandwiches and cakes (I didn’t make the one pictured) for a friend’s big birthday. And the chance to spend some time with Ellis as well as have a fabulous family lunch cooked from the Dishoom cookbook.

In Kent, the skies threatened – and frequently produced – all sorts of weather. We had at least three different storms (Ceira, Dennis and Jorge) with gales tearing down trees and heavy rain turning the fields into swamps. But we escaped the flooding that affected so much of the rest of the country. And two days after taking this photo I was in the garden, giving the grass its much needed first cut of the season. While I was out there, a van arrived bearing a very exciting delivery – a box of my first-ever hardback, to be published in March and set in Kent.

Later in the month, I found my book already in the window and on the front table in Waterstones Westwood Cross, when I popped in to ask whether they would consider ordering a copy. The Canterbury branch already had it on order, too. To add to the excitement, the family sent flowers and gifts from afar.

 

At the end of half term, it was back to London to spend some time with Ellis. And in the last week of the month, Ellis turned two – he had a trip to the London Aquarium and a fairy cake to tide him over until his party at the weekend, when I joined forces with his mum to create his birthday cake. It may look professional in this photo, but that ribbon is hiding a multitude of sins!