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Sunday, February 14, 2016

Christina Hollis— Happy Valentine's Day!

A Valentine, just for you.
Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s not only we humans who are in the mood for love at this time of year. Wildlife is warming up, too. 

Tradition says St Valentine's Day is when birds choose their mates. In actual fact, they start scouting round for partners and possible nest sites as soon as the hours of daylight increase, and the days get noticeably longer. 

We’ve had small birds chasing and displaying around our garden for weeks now.  Last week, I found the outer shell of a wren’s nest in the ivy behind one of our outhouses. That’s not to say we’ll be seeing babies in it any time soon. Mr Wren builds several homes, then invites a likely female to inspect all his available real estate. The birds only really get down to the business of raising a family when the female has chosen her favourite site.

During one very mild winter a few years ago, our local news reported a blackbird sitting on a nest she’d built behind a store’s Christmas display of plastic reindeer. The decorations had to stay in place until the beginning of February, to give the chicks time to safely fly the nest.

My surprise anniversary present
My husband is wonderfully romantic. We met on a blind date. He swept me straight off my feet, and they’ve hardly touched the ground since that first meeting. He chooses a Valentine card according to the words inside, rather than the picture on the outside (although that has to be good, too). He also manages to think up lovely surprises. I don’t know how he’s going to top the reconstruction of my wedding bouquet he commissioned from our local florist for our most recent wedding anniversary, though!

What’s the most romantic thing that’s ever happened to you? I’ll pick a comment at random after 19th February, and the winner will receive a copy of my latest release, Heart Of A Hostage.

When she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping, Christina Hollis writes contemporary fiction starring complex men and independent women.  Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and she’s sold over two million books worldwide. You can catch up with her at her blog, on Twitter, and Facebook and see a full list of her published books here.

 Her current release, Heart of A Hostage, is part of her Princes Of Kharova series published by The Wild Rose Press. It's available from http://bit.ly/1iNf2Gw in the US, and from myBook.to/HeartOfAHostage around the world. To find out more about Christina, you can sign up for her newsletter here.


5 comments:

Laurie G said...

When my future husband and I were dating, I had started my first job as an RN. Back then the pay was awful. He was in his third year of grad school so money was tight. On Friday nights we liked to go out for a cheap fish fry buffet. After eating one gorgeous night in September we took a walk through a park we liked to visit. As we were crossing a pretty footbridge he dropped down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was totally surprised! We will celebrate 39 years together in July.

Christina Hollis said...

That's a really lovely memory, Laurie. He's definitely a keeper! Thanks so much for sharing that with us.

dstoutholcomb said...

flowers for no reason

denise

Christina Hollis said...

I agree—a guy can't go wrong if he gives flowers. Thanks for commenting, Denise.

Mary Preston said...

For me the most romantic things are the little things; laundry in the hamper, dishes in the sink, garbage taken out.....