February Fun and Festivities

Hello! And Happy February…

• It’s the month where no one ever knows for sure how many days there are ‘til spring marches in, because sometimes there’s a sneakily surprising Extra Day that pops up out of nowhere like a last minute snowdrop to confuse us all.
• It’s also the month of scraping pancakes off the ceiling tiles and off the dog, because some of us flip with far too much gusto!
• And it’s the time for sending lovey-dovey cards to your Lovey Doveys (soppy bit alert!)

This year for Valentine’s Day, I set out to write a poem for my lovely hubby: a really romantic gushy one featuring dancing lions, kazoos and a band of macaques. Well, everyone knows that all of those things are especially romantic, don’t they?

I penned out my poem and decided to make a card to put it in. Hmmm.

At this point, I didn’t actually have much time to create this masterpiece of a doting card, so the idea of drawing a detailed inky illustration of a macaque jazz band spinning through space wasn’t feeling terribly practical.

Eventually, after much furrowing of brow, I settled upon cutting out all of the letters for the first line of the poem from my stash of coloured paper and arranging them lovingly on a sparkly purple background. This was a task I found to be most rewarding and relaxing…although I was still finding tiny snippets of red and yellow paper in my slippers for a week afterwards.

Last week, I had a brilliant day at the Bishop’s Stortford College Festival of Literature!

It was a joy to share my book The Best Chip with all the fantastic pupils and their teachers in Pre-Prep. Everyone had a wonderful time creating their own super characters and coming up with ideas for stories. A big round of applause also goes to the amazing kitchen staff, who went all out with the chippy theme at lunchtime and served a whole variety of wondrous chips and potatoes to enjoy alongside the fishfingers!

I met authors Ramzee and Jack Meggitt-Phillips for a most pleasant authorish chat in the lovely library. Here we are wearing our best smiley faces. (You can find these talented chaps on Instagram @ramzeecreates and @jmeggittphillips)

Not long now before the daffodils will be dancing and filling our hearts with happiness. I do so love their trumpety-yellowness.

See you again when we skip into spring…

Kate x