February Newsletter

Finally after what feels like an age, Book Three is almost finished! Thank you to everyone who preordered a copy, as I mentioned to you in my email, I will include a signed map from the story which you can see above.

I’m hoping to finish editing next week and I have one last illustration to complete and then I can put everything together and send it off to the printers.  I’m so excited to share the adventure with you all and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed creating it.

As well as working on the Book we have been developing a new line of items which are made in England and I am excited to introduce our new fine art posters.

They are A3 size (11.7 x 16.5 inches or 29 x 42 cm ), and printed on velvety textured archival paper and at only £12 plus shipping they are a wonderful way to add a touch of whimsy to your home.

The posters are now available in our shop in York, on our website and Etsy.

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And now I will hand you over to Quentin and Robin who as always, are excited to tell you all their latest news.

Welcome back my dears,

Now that we are thankfully home and sleeping properly in our own bed again, I'm finally able to sit down at my new writing slope and send a little message to you all.

I'm hoping we've seen the back of the worst weather and my fingers are crossed that the days will soon grow longer:  I just love lounging on the bed in the evening and writing poetry in the twilight, and right now when I go upstairs its dark and cold and the only decent thing to do is to go to sleep quickly and dream of the Italian countryside.

Robin was in the kitchen all day yesterday working on some easter project, and he wouldn't let Jayne or I get so much of a beak in all morning. We were relegated to the library where we sat and read by the fire and after a little snooze, I went to check on, him only to find this little note under the kitchen door...

I wouldn't expect you to read his scratchy little hand, so to save your eyes, I'll translate it for you:

Please help me because I'm in a bit of a pickle.

Don't come in because I dont want to ruin the special surprise.

Do you know how to get chocolate off things if it's runny and sticky I mean, and also, was that jar of lemon curd on the table for something important? becuse it's not in the jar anymore and also the candied cherries are gone too.

Please reply about the chocolate soon because it's setting and I'm finding it hard to walk.

Robin

Can you pass the answer under the door, I'll be watching the crack. Thank you

I took the note to Jayne and she wrote one back, instructing him to wash his feet in the saucer of warm tea on the table that she'd poured for him at breakfast and about a quarter of an hour later he emerged, damp, excited and dying to tell you all about it so I will pass you over now...

Until next time take care and as always, don't spare the treats

Hugs

Quentin

HelloFriends, I have a special secret gift that I made for Easter and it's for Jayne because she makes lots of cakes and breads for us every day and this is my way of saying thank you.

It's an egg and it's made of chocolate which she likes very much, which is very bad for birds so I didn't taste it, but the smell was very tempting.

Kitty brought a bar for me from the village and I sat on it to get it nice and warm and then I rolled it with my feet when it was like clay and made an egg shape.

The back is a bit wonky but the front looks quite good and I wanted to put a candied cherry in it but I couldn't quite make it work and I know that it's not good to play with food so I ate them all because I don't think Quentin and Jayne would like to eat cherries with my footprints on them very much.

Today I sneaked into Jayne's sewing box and found a bit of ribbon and I made a decoration and I stuck a pin in it to hold it on, I will tell her about the pin when I give it to her because if she ate it, it might get stuck in her throat and that happened to my Aunty once and I don't think she liked it very much.

I took a picture to show you what it looked like but when I tried to carry the egg back into the pantry where it's cool, I dropped it onto the floor and now it has a dent in it so the picture shows it in its prime and it isn't there any more, just like my Aunty.

I hope you have lots of fun plans too. Quentin and I are going to look at a book on roses this afternoon to identify his house. It will be very exciting to visit when it grows back in the summer which feels a very long way off right now but that day will come because it’s the next thing after spring and that’s happening soon.

I can smell something nice wafting in from the kitchen so I'm going to investigate.

Bye bye for now

Robin