When I sit down to write this newsletter to you, I feel as if I am ‘talking’ to each one of you or as if I were sending you an old-fashioned letter. I’ve known so many of you for many, many years and every year there are new names to add to the list. Some of you email a response every now and then. Some may do so once a year or not at all. Sometimes I am allowed a glimpse into your lives – for instance, I learn about the hens laying or the difficult weather or whether you’ve had the vaccine or not. I do like that. I really do.

But today I am feeling a bit ‘down’. Toothache. Aargh. Anti-biotics. Also Urgh. I had the root taken out yesterday and today I’m not sure I’m up to being as cheery as usual. I know this will pass, but I fear I may not be able to produce as long a newsletter as usual.

Please forgive. I will back on track soon. And if anyone feels like dropping me a line then I will be so pleased to hear from them . . . but please excuse if I don’t reply?

On a brighter note, there are more flowers arriving in the gardens every day. My green-fingered neighbour has been setting seeds for some weeks and now all her windowsills are clustered with seedlings which are not quite ready to go out into the greenhouse. One of my friends keeps ringing to tell me how many flowers in bloom she has found in her garden! I can report on snowdrops, crocuses (or should it be croci?) celandines, pansies, viburnum, kerria, iris unguicularis and osteospermum, tete a tete daffodils and winter jasmine. Some years the geraniums manage to survive outside but this year, I’ve lost all those which I left in the garden. Ah well. That makes room for some new plants.

The next short story from the archives is ‘Excuse Me!’ And this introduces a character who is going to be around for a while. He is ‘The man from Mars!’ who says he doesn’t care about anyone and no-one cares about him. Only . . . he has come across a shop-lifter and now doesn’t know what to do about it. You can access it here.

A reminder that Murder-in-Law comes out at the end of March. Ellie is in the background in this book as she’s still away in Canada while the big old house is being remodelled into two units. So it is her younger friend – and excellent cook – Susan who has to deal with Diana who finds herself in trouble. Evan, Diana’s husband, has been attacked in what looks like a burglary gone wrong. Diana is always asking for help, isn’t she? Or demanding it, rather. Can Susan – with help from a distant Ellie – solve the mystery?

A blessing on all who remember to send birthday cards on the right date.

Veronica Heley