Whether the Weather

 RHYS BOWEN:  It’s fall, start of the rainy season in Marin County, California.  I’ve just returned from an event with Julia and Jenn at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, where it rained every day I was there. Yes. Arizona. Supposed to be warm and sunny. Who knew?

Anyway, the weather now becomes headline news on the TV. I’m sure in other parts of the States (I’m thinking Julia in Maine) there is weather news every day, unless they say "It's going to be cold" until April. But in California all summer its going to be foggy at first then sunny. Or sunny and then sunny for the whole summer. Boring.

Now the weather men are getting quite excited, and dramatic. This is when they come into their own.  They say, “An atmospheric river is heading toward Northern California.”

I grew up in England. You can’t scare me. What is an atmospheric river in California is Wednesday in England. “It’s starting out dry but we may have some rain later.”

Unfortunately even England this fall has had what might be described as an atmospheric river. There has been bad flooding in various parts of the country, but this is abnormal. Normal weather throughout the year in England is if it’s fine early it will rain later. I remember vacations in Wales, taking miserable forced strolls along the sea front with the wind whipping at my raincoat, and that was August. I remember Wimbledons being rained out.  It rains a lot.

I always thought that the easiest job in England was TV weatherman. They are hardly ever right and every day they can say “It may rain later” and even if it doesn’t nobody bothers. And they never get fired.

The main topic of British conversation is the weather. Standing at a bus stop you’ll hear: “Good morning. Nippy for the time of year, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but the frost is good for the cabbages.”  (the other main topic is gardening.)

“It’s been milder than last November, hasn’t it?”

“It certainly has. My begonias bloomed until a week ago.”

That, my dears, is the extent of English small talk.

The only thing they can’t handle in England is snow. A few flakes land and buses stop running, children are kept home from school, trains are hours late. I’ve Canadian friends who laugh themselves silly. I do remember the great freeze of 1963 when the snow lay on the ground for several months, but it hasn’t happened since. I hear it’s snowing this week. Maybe it will be the great freeze of 2025.  It will give everyone something to talk about.

How about where you live? What is the attitude to weather there? Do you take it seriously?

RHYS CELEBRATES FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE.

 RHYS BOWEN:  Actually my book came out last Tuesday, on the same day as Julia's new book. But since she hadn't had a book out for five years and mine appear with monotonous frequency I stepped aside and let her have last Tuesday.  As you probably heard we had a fantastic event at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, with Jenn as our host. You can still watch it on the Poisoned Pen Facebook Page or on their YouTube channel. When I last checked it has had over 2000 views. Not bad!

SO let me tell you a little about the book. FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE is number 19 in the Royal Spyness series. If you remember Lady Georgie coming down to London in the first book called HER ROYAL SPYNESS she is camping out in the family's London house, trying to survive alone for the first time with no money. She makes some bad mistakes, mixes with the wrong people and survives more than one assassination attempt. 

But she is still here after 19 adventures as a sleuth. What's more she has married and now has a son. Hooray for Georgie!

This book gives us a glimpse into the life of a British aristocrat at the time, in that Georgie now has a baby. She's been enjoying looking after him herself (with the help of one of the maids who does the unpleasant stuff like dirty diapers so she's never exactly slumming it like us). But all the time she knows she really should hire a nanny. It is expected of her class in society. 

In aristocratic famlies the nanny actually raised the child. Not only did she feed and care for him or her but she instilled the correct values to make him a future leader of the Empire or her a mother of future leaders. So she had to be not only a good caregiver but morally sound. 

The only time the parents saw their child was when he or she was brought down into the sitting room at tea time, nicely dressed for the occasion, to interact with the parents whille Nanny hovered in the backround. Remember the episode of Downton Abbey when Lady Violet complains about how demanding it was to be a parent. And Mrs. Crawley says "I bet you only saw the children for an hour when Nanny brought them down" and Violet says "Yes, but it was an hour every day."

We know from The Crown that the queen felt a failure as parent because she was never shown how to hold and love her children. I'm so glad that William and Catherine are really hands on parents. Their kids won't grow up nearly as repressed as Charles. 

It seems so odd to us, doesn't it? And sending boys off to boarding school at seven. But that's always how it was done. I suppose it was rather like Sparta. Those boys had to grow up strong and resilient because they'd be in the army in India or running something in Africa. My own husband went to boarding school at ten, then worked in Nigeria, then Malaysia, Indonesia. And let me tell you, they are not very good at expressing feelings!

Anyway, Georgie knows she needs a nanny, but when one appears on her doorstep Georgie has second thoughts. Nanny Hardbottle is not the warm and fuzzy type. Poor litte James. Will he survive? Will Georgie survive? She can't get rid of her right away for various reasons, but one of them is that someone seems to be bumping off eldest sons of the aristocracy. Will Darcy be next?

If you've already read the book let me know what you think. An please leave a review on Amazon. It does help.

Would you have liked a nanny when raising your kids?

What Am I going to Wear?

 RHYS BOWEN:  While I am celebrating the release of a Royal Spyness novel (FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE) I am also in the middle of writing the next one. This one is going to be centered on the coronation of King George VI in 1937, a coronation that should have been that of his brother.  Lady Georgie has received an invitation to the ceremony at the Abbey. 

As the book opens and she realizes she’ll be going to London for the big occasion can you guess what is her biggest worry? What to wear! I bet you guessed, didn’t you.  You see she won’t be going as a peeress any more because she is now married to the Hon Darcy O’Mara who is the son of a peer, but not a peer himself. Therefore she won’t be wearing the traditional peeresses robes and coronet. She’ll be wearing smart, ordinary clothes. The big problem is that she doesn’t own any smart clothes, at least not smart enough for a coronation with the eyes of the world on her (and the first television outside broadcast in the world)

Her only dressmaker has a sick child and she doesn’t dare buy off the peg in case other women are wearing the same thing. She certainly can’t afford a designer outfit like her mother.  What will she do?  You’ll have to read the book next year to find out…

However…

Her dilemma echoes my own. When any event is approaching I agonize about what to wear. I lie in bed staring at my wardrobe. I try on ten outfits, all not quite right. When I have finally decided on an outfit I have last minute doubts. It’s too warm, not warm enough. Is it too fancy? Too casual? I know it’s silly to worry about such a casual thing, but it haunts me.

And too often it’s never quite right. I look at the weather forecasts and go on a trip to England (as I did last month) It was supposed to be cold. I took sweaters. It was mild. I wore the only blouse three times.  In Cassis last year it was supposed to be summery in September. It turned cold and daughter Jane and I had to find sweaters in the market (actuallyt the shopping was great and really fun.)

Before every book event I agonize especially. My big dread is when a fan comes to greet me and says “I took a pic of us together last time you were here” and i’M WEARING THE SAME JACKET. Mortification!

I know it shouldn’t matter. But it does.

So how about you, Reds?

Do you obsess about what to wear? Do you have any horror stories?

LUCY BURDETTE: I know that feeling so well Rhys! (Although I don’t think Hayley Snow worries much about clothes.) John says all the time that I look in my closet and wail that I have nothing to wear. How can that be when my closet is STUFFED with clothing. Traveling makes it even harder. I’ve gotten pretty good at figuring out layers. They may not be fashionable but I can titrate the temperature!

JENN McKINLAY: I’m not much of an agonizer. Like Lucy, I’ve become really good at layering. Somehow my personal thermostat has been wonky ever since I hit the mid-fifties and I’m always hot or cold but never just right. Mostly, I try to wear clothes that make me happy whether it’s a pair of boots or a funky jacket. If I focus on the one piece that makes me smile, I don’t care about the rest.

HALLIE EPHRON: Isn’t that one of the delicious things about having a new book out with events at which to strut your stuff? It’s always been my cue to SHOP. But since Covid there are so few places to actually shop… in person. And IMHOP you can’t get something *special* that you haven’t tried on. My go-to boutique in Cambridge has shut down, and the mall is full of fast food. Lord & Taylor and Filene’s caput. :-(

RHYS: Hallie, I totally agree. It's impossible to buy things on line without trying them on. And my local Macy's has closed, so has Talbots, J Jill... all my old standbys. The nearest Chicos is twenty miles away. We do still have a Nordstrom but that's about it.

HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: Guilty, here. It’s really part of me, I have come to admit, and maybe from 40 years on TV and having to be camera-ready at any second. I am pretty good at knowing what will fit in on-line purchases, but of course, free shipping on returns.

And yes, the scourge of social media. I can pack for a two-week book tour with one carryon bag and no checked bags–yay me. But whoa, “Hank in the green jacket” is on repeat on social media, and there’s nothing to do about it. I’d  rather repeat clothes than have a suitcase go lost, though.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hank, you are our packing heroine! Like Rhys, when I've done big book tours I have agonized over choices AND spent a lot of money on new things. From a photo I can tell which book it was immediately by the outfit. Now I think I will just wear black, which is already my wardrobe basic, and not worry about it. 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I just did the agonizing-over-what-to-bring thing for my (ongoing) book tour. I had to go from Maine (high of 40) to Arizona (65) to Houston (85) and then to NY’s North Country (high of 40, chance of snow.) I need my outfits to be professional, hopefully flattering, and NOT the same as ones I’ve been photographed in at previous events!

For in-person special events, I tend to spend an hour or more going through my closet, trying on this and that, and wondering why I own so many useless clothes. I try to come up with a new mix and match based on what I already have, because, like the rest of you, my things fill up my bedroom closet and overflow into a now-empty child’s closet. And that’s not counting the off-season items in the attic!

RHYS: Sometimes we do coordinate!

So now it's confession time, Reddies.  Do you find yourself agonizing over what to wear?