Spring is springing

by Carola

Spring is my favourite season, and here in western Oregon we get 5 months--February through June. Here's some of what's blooming in my garden at present:

The North of England is not generally so lucky, so when Daisy Dalrymple, my 1920s sleuth, heads to Cheshire to write about historic Occles Hall (based on Little Moreton Hall), she doesn't expect to see beautiful flower gardens. But the Winter Garden is sheltered by high brick walls and Spring arrives early there. Unfortunately, what Daisy finds is a buried body...

The Winter Garden Mystery has just been reissued by St Martin's Minotaur with a wonderful new cover, to match the later books in the series.

 That's not all that is coming out in March--Another month, another audiobook! Having finally got around to it, Blackstone is producing the Daisy Dalrymple audios at a great rate! The latest is the 10th in the series, To Davy Jones Below:

Daisy, newly wed to DCI Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard, embarks for America. Their hoped-for honeymoon is disrupted by people falling overboard to starboard, port, and astern. Not to mention fog, and a gale that has Alec confined to his bunk with seasickness while Daisy carries on the investigation single-handed. Alec emerges just in time for a shipwreck and yet another mysterious death!

 Previous covers--which do you like best?

Original US hardcover

UK paperback

German first edition

German 2nd edition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Polish

US paperback

Simple pleasures...

 Carola

Why do flowers give us pleasure? Does it go back to prehistory, when blossom was a promise of fruit to come? Certainly it seems to be embedded deeply: Consider the lilies of the field...even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these.

Be that as it may, to most if not all people they're a source of continual enjoyment. Here are some that have delighted me in recent days.

Walking by the river-- Is this a wild viburnum? (Classification and "naming" is also a source of pleasure to some of us!)

 One within reach, and one way over my head...and for some unfathomable reason the fact that it's way over my head pleases me

In my garden

 Those that return year after year of their own accord:

 And those that start anew every Spring:

And last but not least, an exotic intruder:

This was a reward for taking part in an "inspiring women" panel for teenage girls. Of course, being regarded as an inspiring woman also has its pleasures...