I'm used to the vagaries of fashion seasons...the pressure to ponder over winter coats and knitwear while winter is still a distant blip on the horizon...and giving serious consideration to flimsy dresses whilst schlepping through the snow...yet, despite all this, I was still caught unawares in H&M.

But first (as always) a little back story...a few moons ago...when I was a mid-teen...and knee-high to a (no, wait, that won't work...I've always been an extra tall freak of nature)...anyway, back in the day I was the proud possessor of a sort of leather and shell friendship bracelet. It spoke of summer in a way that the dank depths of Scotland never did and was one of those things that, once slipped on, stayed with me every second of the day until it disintegrated and was given a decent burial at sea.

So...in the back of my mind...and occasionally the front when not a lot was going on up there...there existed the longing for a similar leather-y shell-y item (preferably something in the necklace realm). Every summer I assumed I would find it at some craft fair...or tourist shop...or...somewhere. And, every summer, I ended up bathed in disappointment (and a barely visible "tan").

Then...in the middle of November...in a suburban H&M in a suburban mega-mall...I found it...three strands of plaited leather...bedecked with enough shells to make the ancient mariner feel at home. Do I care that it is going to languish, unworn, in a drawer for the next six months? Not a jot...because I know that, come next summer, I will be wearing it every second of every day...