A letter from a reader

At 62, I found a way to keep a bit of summer going all winter

I have never written to a shop before, and I certainly did not expect my first letter to be about a hoodie.

Every summer, on the last morning of our week by the sea, I stand on the front with a cup of tea and try to remember it all. The sun coming up over the water, the colours, the feeling of not having to be anywhere. And every year, by the time we are home and the washing is done, it has gone. By November it might as well have happened to somebody else. The sky is grey, my coat is navy, and I look like the weather.

I always seemed to leave the summer behind at the seaside.

So I packed it away with the sandals, and told myself that was what winter was for.

Then I saw it on a friend at the bus stop

It was blowing a gale and spitting with rain, and Linda was standing at the stop in a hoodie with a great golden sun rising over the sea right across the front of it, waves rolling round the bottom and little stitched clouds over the shoulders. The whole queue was looking at her, and not one of them was cross about the bus. She told me it was the Miralle, from Nottingham Boutique, a little boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I ordered mine that evening.

What happened in town on Saturday

I wore it into town on Saturday under a sky like wet cardboard. Three different women stopped me to ask where it was from, one of them told me it reminded her of Cornwall, and my friend Sue told me I looked like I had made an effort, which I have decided to take as a compliment.

I came home with wet shoes and a smile I could not explain to my husband. It is a small thing, a bit of sunshine on a grey day. It changed the whole day.

Three things I have learned since

One. It goes with everything I already own. There is so much colour in the picture, gold and orange and pink and every blue of the sea, that it sits happily with navy, grey, denim or cream. It is not loud, it is cheerful, and there is a difference.

Two. It is the easiest thing in my wardrobe. A relaxed pullover with long sleeves, room underneath for a top, a hood with colourful drawstrings for when the wind gets up, and a big front pocket that my hands go straight into on a cold morning.

Three. The stitching is what makes it. The whole picture is done in a quilted look, with little stitched lines following the sun, the rays and the curls of the waves. Up close it looks like something somebody made, not something printed, and people do come up close.

About the price

When I saw the price I was suspicious. Something with this much detail, I assumed, would either cost a small fortune or look cheap the moment it arrived.

The Miralle is £39.95. It was £80.

There is no catch. They have their autumn sale on, delivery is free, and it arrived looking just like the pictures. It comes from a UK 6/8 right up to a UK 22/24.

I did go and read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some sites, which if I am honest made me trust it more. One woman had written, "It is like wearing my holiday. Everyone at the bus stop wanted to know where I got it." That was the one that decided it for me.

What I would tell you if we were friends

If you came round and we sat out on the porch with a cup of tea, this is what I would tell you.

Do not leave the summer at the seaside. Bring a bit of it home with you. The grey months are exactly when you need it most.

It does not look like it was made for somebody half my age, and it does not look like I have given up either.

Caroline