Belle & Dixie's Mysteries

 Well it's been a long time. Both girls have been gone for a while now and I still miss them every day. 

I finally decided to get on and write the stories I've always wanted to write. Losing my job also gave me the time I needed to write and the push for an income, no matter how small it is. 

Each book is a story about Belle, a teenager, and Dixie, her puppy, solving crimes. It is a cosy mystery story aimed at teenagers to adults.

So book number one is out on Kindle and paperback. Published on Amazon. If you have Kindle Unlimited it is currently free to read for the month of June, so please read and leave feedback, it costs you nothing.

 It will be published on Kobo after the Kindle Unlimited offer is finished.

Unfortunately I found out after publishing that cover on the paperback has come up darker than the picture looks on my pc but I will make sure that's sorted when I publish the second book in the series (around July).

Belle & Dixie's Mysteries, book one Murder at Hawthorne Manor is available:

Murder at Hawthorne Manor for the UK

Murder at Hawthorne Manor for the USA

Murder at Hawthorne Manor for Canada

Murder at Hawthorne Manor for Australia.

For any other country please just type in Belle & Dixie's Mysteries and it will bring it up for you. It is currently available in English only. 

The second book is nearly ready, I'm still debating the title and I still need to get the cover sorted but I will let you know once it's ready. 

A very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year form all of us at Berntoak

Getting ready for the Howlidays

Well I know they are still a long way off but the Ogre has been busy making lots of Berner things add to our shop. Hopefully that will mean she can buy us lots of goodies & pay for all the baths the K.I.T needs.

The Ogre has made some lavender sachets and the lavender comes from our own garden.

She has also decorated & lined some lovely little wooden boxes, the lining is our favourite paw print fabric.

She is now going to get making some hanging decorations & some pressie tags.

Don't forget you can also buy cards from our Zazzle shop.

Shorne Woods

The Ogre took us to a lovely place this weekend. It was really big, we should have taken a picnic with us as well as lots of water.

There were lots of shady spaces

Lots of things to climb on

We think this was a little place for people to rest & have a small picnic

We found a Troll bridge, but no Trolls

We stopped for lots of photos

The Ogre thought this tree would make for a good picture, we did not 

Now this is more like it, we found the Kingdom of the Faeries. This was a very special area where the kings or Elders would meet to trade or make laws

Each one of the Thrones was named for the kings of each Kingdom, you can't see it in the photo but their species was carved into each Throne, Faeries, Elves, Dwarves but many of them were broken & we could not read them anymore.

Shorne is a very ancient woodland & we found the scars of many battles.

We had a lovely time & will go back again but the Ogre did say the price of parking was not good (£3 weekends & bank holiday, £2 the rest of the time)

F is for.....

F is for Fizz

D is for Dunce (ha ha)

A new place to walk

On Sunday we went for a walk with thousands of other Berners, it was the Bernese World Wide Walk. 

We went somewhere new to us. It wasn't very far away, not like the beach was when we met up with others before.

This time it was a place called Trosley Country Park.

It was a nice place with parking (you had to pay though) but there were parts where you were near a road.

We took the smaller walk with everyone, around the Woodland Walk. There were some people with walking sticks so they couldn't walk too far & we stayed on the built paths.

We took lots of photos but these are a few with most of us in.

We were very well behaved, especially the KiT. There were lots of areas where you could stop for a rest but we didn't really need it.

The Ogre took lots of pictures of the 2 of us in the Bluebells, they smelt wonderful & there were just so many of them.

After we had all gone round the other ogres decided to go to the cafe & have some food & drinks. We really hadn't walked enough for us so we went back out & took the Downland Trail.

That is when we found the Faeries, hidden away from everyone.

Eventually we made our way back to the car, most of the other ogres had left by this time. We had another long drink then lay down ready for our trip home. By this time we were quite tired out.

No surprises today, well maybe one

It was lovely weather today so we got to go to the Heath. 
We met some Firemen whilst we were there, there was no fire but we think the were "in training" so we left them alone.

We kept our eyes on them for a while, just to make sure they were ok. 

The Ogre made us pose for photos again. It takes her a long time to get us both looking in the same direction & of course one of us always has to spoil it, usually the KiT.

Just having a little rest before carrying on following the red markers so we don't get lost.

Well the Ogre never managed to get a picture of the running dog but he came pelting around the corner and straight past us. The KiT gave chase & the Ogre started shouting again. 

The KiT got almost out of sight before she finally turned and came back. The Ogre had started running the same direction just in case she didn't stop. The little dog was well out of sight, much faster than the KiT.
We had already visited Katherine the Mermaid's lake, she still hasn't returned & there is only mud left where her lake used to be.

We came out of the wooded area & back to the grass where the sun was still shining.
We met a little black dog which was frightened of us, he said we were too big so we sat down & shared some treats with him to show we were ok. Unfortunately the KiT got bored & started running around so we had to leave.

Hope the weather was nice where you are. Have a lovely day.