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Dear friends,Welcome to the October newsletter! As I write this, the crab apple tree outside my studio window is heavy with orange and red fruit, and the sky is a deep and glorious blue.
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I am happy to report that the books are selling well and have been warmly received. It makes my day to see a new review and to know that someone new is enjoying visiting our cozy little world of Rookscroft for the first time. I’m spending my mornings working on book four, and right now, there are papers and maps spread out on the guestroom bed as I plot out Quentin and Robin's next adventure.
This month, my world has been turning towards the shop. With Christmas fast approaching, we’ve been dreaming up all kinds of wonderful new things to share with our customers. I’ve started to work behind the counter at weekends, so if you are visiting York, pop in and say hello. I love a good chat.
While working, I noticed that children really enjoy the shop, and I wanted to add something cute that they could buy with their pocket money. Someday, I'd love to have some cuddly toys made, but in the meantime, we came up with the idea of charms.
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This was my first sketch of the overall idea, in the corner of my notebook.
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Then I drew out lots of little pictures until I found just the right ones. I remade them in a larger size and coloured them with my oil paints.
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Here are the final four. All shiny and ready to hang on their new display in the shop, I'm so excited to have them there!
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I'm making a little mouse of the week. This week I made Heather, she has a little chair which I will paint tomorrow.
She is dressed in a vintage hanky, a scrap of silk taffeta, and a little triangle of velvet.
She will be for sale at the shop this weekend.
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I’m sorry this newsletter is so late in the month, but I’ve been hanging on waiting to get news from Quentin and Robin. I’ve been so worried since their last letter, and finally, this morning, their letter came along with some pictures, and I'm excited to share them with you....
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Well, hello there!
I expect you've been on the edge of your seats waiting to find out if we made it to safety. I'm sorry I left you on such a cliffhanger last time, but in truth, I was in a bit of a dither.
You'll be relieved to hear that the camouflage hat worked a treat and we were able to make our way through the hedgerows and safely arrived at Badger's house with not a feather out of place. He has very fine accommodations that I highly recommend if you are ever traveling via the hedgerows to Newstead Abbey. It’s accessed by a wide, dry tunnel and has large, comfy living quarters where we made ourselves at home by the fire.
When we arrived, he had made a very fine cake to share, and we each had a slice, then sat toasting our toes while he told us the most wonderful ghost stories by candlelight. Of course, Robin was wide-eyed and more than a little fearful, and in the morning, the cake was gone; and he swore it had been absconded by a spirit in the night, but I'll let him tell you more about that.
The rest of the trip to the potting shed went very smoothly, and we arrived in the late afternoon to find that Aunt Maude had set up a lovely spread to welcome us and were together among the plough shears. Aunt Agatha's birthday is tomorrow, and I was hoping to wait until after the blessed event to send you this note, as I'm sure there will be more than one humorous incident to report back on, but I want to make sure this letter arrives in good time, so I'm being good and posting it this morning.
We arrive home on Tuesday, the baker is giving us a ride home in his van, and I hope he has a couple of current buns back there.
Toes crossed.
Until next time, take care and beak up!
~Quentin
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Hello again,I've got a very exciting story to tell you, and I hope you don't mind, but it's a bit scary and it happened to me at Badger's house. I wanted to share it, and so I drew a little picture too with some charcoal from the fire, did you know that charcoal is made of burned wood and that it can make your feathers black?
Quentin made me have a very thorough dust bath after I had finished drawing, and I had to wash my feet in a puddle and wait until they were dry before he let me under the blanket, and I had to get under there because I didn't want to see another spirit, and blankets keep you safe.
Oh yes, the story. We were staying with a very nice badger, and he made a delicious cake, a sponge with cherries, and we all had some by the fire, and then I got very drowsy and fell asleep while he was talking to Quentin, some of it was a bit frightening because they were talking about owls, and owls are very beautiful but also they can sometimes eat small creatures and I'm one of those you see.
Did you know that under their feathers, they have very long legs? even longer than Quentin's, though not quite as thin.
When I woke up in the night, Quentin was sleeping next to me, and the fire was almost out, and when I looked over towards the door, I saw a spirit. It must have been very hungry because it was carrying off the cake!
It looked very big and mean in the gloom, and I tucked my head under until it had gone. This morning I drew it by copying the picture from my mind, and you can see how terrifying it was, if you look closely, you can see the door through its spectral body, I know it was real and not a dream because the cake was gone.
I don't want to be mean about the badger's house because he was very nice, but I was glad to leave his haunted burrow, I wonder if he sees the ghost too sometimes and if it often eats his treats in the night.
We are now a the potting shed, and we've had a very nice dinner, and I'm ready for bed. Tomorrow we set off for home again, I hope it's a short trip because I would very much like to snuggle up in the nest at the end of Jayne's bed in all the places of the world, I sleep best there, and I never have bad dreams.
Bye bye friends and see you very soon
Robin
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