Hot Chocolate & Great Books

It’s been so very cold here in Seattle that this favorite photo I took in England came to mind.

We were in Stoke on Trent at the Emma Bridgewater factory in 2010 and these darling mugs made for drinking hot chocolate filled the table. I had to take a photo.

I shouldn’t want hot chocolate now, but there have been snow flurries and a dampness lately that simply calls for a warm drink. Downright weird this late in spring. At least I tell myself it’s weird until I remember Rosamunde Pilcher and her book Snow In April. I loved reading all of her novels years ago and I have been thinking about finding them on my kindle and working my way through her body of work all over again. Her most famous book is called The Shell Seekers and I’m sure I’ve read it 3 times. Her books are set in England after the war with sweeping vistas of the sea near Cornwall. The stories are about families, traditions and life moving on in a place that never seems to change. There are lots of old roses, tumblers of whiskey and deep conversations by the seashore. I think you’d love everything about these books. And that sometimes life feels weird and then it snows…in April. 

#books #snowinapril #emmabridgewater #coldspring

The Shell Seekers

Earlier this month, I wrote about making a shadow box to display your shell collection and I titled it "Shell Seekers."

So many friends said, "Oh...The Shell Seekers!" knowing that it is one of my favorite books by Rosamunde Pilcher.

Have you read it? It is set in Cornwall, England and spans a family over 3 generations. It is filled with love, family lore and friends stopping by for tea. 

I always tend to reread it in March when I am longing for the garden and picnics on enamelware plates. In one of the opening scenes, Penelope Keeling straightens the kitchen after breakfast and then heads out into the garden to check on her roses. It is my kind of fiction! 
I'm including a photo from my shell seeking. Can you see the white shell near the bottom that is filled with bubbles from the last ocean wave? So pretty.