Eagle Swimming Photo by Diane Hill  Catch her marvelous photos on FB group  Wildlife Spotting on the Sunshine Coast

The eagle didn’t have a nine-hour flight; I did.

Hello all,

I am back from a two-week trip through the British Channel island to France, ending in Paris. It was not a research trip as it would be difficult to set a mystery in the Channel Islands when there is no crime. The local daily newspaper on Guernsey reported one crime, that of a man who spat on his ex-girlfriend’s car window. She called the police. They came, took DNA samples and charged the man. As far as I could tell, that was the only crime. I suppose there must be some,. but I expect on an island only about 8 by 3 miles everyone knows what everyone else is doing and it would be difficult to hide anything. Since the Second World War, it’s been a peaceful place.

We were in Guernsey for Liberation Day and in Jersey for the day after Liberation Day which celebrated the end of the Second World War. The Channel Islands, so close to France, were the only territory the German Army occupied during that war. The islands were not defended by Britain, although Hitler thought they would be so had massive fortifications constructed. The people hold their history close and we were reminded of those difficult days everywhere.

The contrast was wide between Sark, a small island that does not allow motorized vehicles except for tractors

and Paris where there seems to be no rules to how people operate vehicles.

Four lanes come from fours directions in the centre of Paris. No one obeys the traffic lights and every car tries to squeeze into every available space. Amazing.

Back home, my garden, thanks to the attention of my friend Jill is growing with promise of largesse in the summer—except the peas, again. They refuse to grow past four inches. Petulant, that’s what I’ve diagnosed. An attitude problem.

I was too jet-lagged to go paddling on Saturday so, of course, my crew saw the wonderful sight of an eagle diving to capture a salmon and then swimming it to shore to eat it. It was close and the talented photographer Diane Hill captured the event.

Book News

The sequel to Always pack a Candle, which is presently unnamed, is awaiting editing at the publishers. I will get it back and work on the revisions.

Shadows in Sussex Book 5 of the British Book Tour Mysteries is ready for delivery on Sept 13, 2023. More on this closer to the release date, but it’s exciting that it is ready to go.

Conferences and Festival season in upon us and locally we are gearing up for the Art and Words Festival in August here in Gibsons. We have an award for best nonfiction, best fiction, best poetry and best Young Adult novel and the competition fierce. We have attracted excellent authors. The premise of this festival is  a team of an authors and an artist who have been matched, sometimes randomly and sometimes deliberately, to produce a joint effort. I was lucky enough to get Kevin Wells and we have almost finished our collaboration. It is wonderful. I can say so because although the art is inspired by my words, it is a beautiful scene which I couldn’t hope to do in paint. What you will see if you attend the festival is words and the art showing the same scene. I can’t wait to see what others have done. There is a lot of work involved in organizing a festival and I am awe of the authors and artists who do that year-long planning and organizing. Check it out and come if you can. www.scwes.ca

It’s going to be a busy summer.