Back in August, a post on 365 caught my eye. It was by Heidi about some fairy houses in a wood, the inspiration for the children's books she had written. I wondered if we might meet so I could see them. Heidi was fine with that and at last, this week, we managed to arrange a day to get together.
We met at a garden centre near her home in the Romsey area, and half an hour's drive from me, after she had taken her eldest daughter, Isla, aged 3, to pre-school. Amber, aged 2, was with her. I said I'd wear red, display my camera, but we knew each other straight away.
I struggled slightly (but only very slightly!) with the definition of stranger and asked Heidi if she would participate in my strangers' project. She was happy to do so.
Heidi is married to Tim (who works for Garmin, a company which I think surely promotes peaceful conjugal travel by car) and currently looks after Isla and Amber.
This leaves her time and space for her creativity and she is now designing a colouring book, doing the work during the girls' nap-time and expects to self-publish this latest book shortly on Amazon.
A glimpse of the colouring book here:
http://365project.org/creativelyunique/365/2016-10-28
(That the partial colouring is purple has absolutely nothing to do with me.)
Born in Leeds and having spent her childhood in Wales, Heidi went to university in the Lake District and completed her degree in primary education. She has worked in both primary and secondary education and in her last post she worked in a junior school in Gosport in charge of special needs teaching, and as their child protection officer. She told me that she enjoyed this latter part of the work very much. She plans to return to teaching.
You can see the other books on Heidi's page:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heidi-Piercy/e/B01FOA8084/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1479916527&sr=1-2-ent
I learnt that Heidi's granma, although she does not paint so much now, is an established artist who has had exhibitions in London, mostly portraiture in oil.
I'm sending Heidi her photo and also some I took of her daughter, Amber. In my other album today you can see a collage of a few of the fairy houses which we visited.
In their leisure time, Heidi and Tim are very keen on outdoor sports such as mountain climbing and kayaking.
It was great to meet you, Heidi and good luck with the books.
