Friday's Fave Five - 17/7/26

My poor computer is feeling neglected.  Today is the first day I've turned it on since 14th June!  Which was just before we went on holiday.  We had a lovely time and I hope to blog about it soon.  We came home to find that our daughter and her family (wife and 2 children) were still here while there were works going on at their house.  Long story short, they went home on Tuesday evening.

We have also had an extended heatwave and while they were here we also had their cat which is an indoor cat.  It made keeping the house cool difficult and I think the cat (Milo) should be renamed Houdini because he became very good at escaping, usually to the garden but on a couple of occasions he was on the flat roof of our kitchen/diner extension.  It's been an eventful time and I really felt like I had no mental capacity for blogging.  I've even struggled with reading.

However, there are always things to be thankful for and Susanne reminds us each week to share our thoughts and link up here.

1)  Firstly I'm thankful that we had a lovely holiday visiting our son and his family in Vermont.  It was so good to see them all.  Thanksgiving when we last visited was a long time ago!

2)  Thankful that we had safe travels there and back.  

3)  Thankful that I'm retired during this current heat wave as I'm sure I would find it hard to work.

4)  Thankful that we were able to host our daughter and family while their works were ongoing.  It took longer than we expected but I think they're pleased with the results and it will make a better use of their living spaces.

5)  Thankful that the temperatures have dropped in the last couple of days, particularly at night so sleep has been easier and I've had more energy during the day.

We hosted our elder son and his family here last night before they left to visit our other son in the US today but now I'm looking forward to having a quiet weekend with no visitors.  I really need some quiet time.

Have a good weekend all.

Read then Write - 11/6/26

Well I have managed to finish Heartburn by Nora Ephron.  It was ok but I wasn't overwhelmed by it and as someone who's just completed 42 years of marriage it's hard to empathise with someone who's going through a marriage break up.

The afternoon book club met this week to discuss Three Things About Elsie.  Someone had brought along a set of questions for us to work through but that was a bit hard going, especially as one member hated the book lol.

Our next read will be this one:

The evening group will be discussing Heartburn next week but we'll be away so I will miss that.  We've already chosen the next book though and it's this one:

But....at the weekend we browsed some charity shops and I came home with these:

There are not enough reading hours in the day!

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 10/6/26

Joyce provides the questions each week and we prepare our answers and then the link up is here.

Thank you Joyce.

1.  How would you define 'the good life'? 

The good life to me means being happy with my lot and having enough of the things I need.  I have "the good life".

2.  What's the most used app on your phone (and are you proud of that)? 

Well before I checked I would have said WhatsApp and I would be okay with that because that's how I keep in touch with family and friends.

When I checked, the NYT games app was top.  I usually start my day with Wordle (we have a WhatsApp group for those of us that do it daily) and then work through the various games on the app.  So it's probably not that surprising it came out on top.  

WhatsApp was 3rd on my list last week as apparently I used Facebook slightly more.  I didn't think Facebook would be that high as although I do usually browse it to see what people are up to I'm not very active on it.  However it is easy to go down rabbit holes on it.

3. 'Every rose has it's thorn', 'everything's coming up roses', 'looking through rose-colored glasses', 'it's no bed of roses' or 'stop and smell the roses'...which rose idiom best relates to something in your life currently. Explain. 

Probably everything's coming up roses as we just celebrated our 42nd anniversary and next week we're off to visit my son and his family in Vermont.    The rose bush at the front of the house is also in full bloom

4. How do you feel about floral flavourings in food or drink (rose, hibiscus, elderflower, lavender)? 

Not a big fan although I do like an apple and elderflower juice that we buy.

5. Over the course of your life what have you probably spent more time pondering than anything else? 

What to cook for dinner!  Even though Hubby now does most of the cooking I still do a lot of the organising of what we're going to eat.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

It feels like we're back in April - the weather is much cooler and we've had some heavy downpours today - even thunder and lightening.  Can we have summer back please.

In the News this Week - 9/6/26

                        

London couple survive 42 years of marriage.  The secret?  Give him a guitar and teach her to knit.

We went out for our anniversary to a new to us Italian restaurant just one stop away by train.

We shared a starter - fried calamari, prawns, arancini, mushrooms, courgettes and broccoli which was huge.

For mains Hubby had Tagliata:

And I had Porchetta

Both were delicious but we couldn't finish them after such a big starter so we skipped dessert.

I did consider getting a portion of Tiramisu to go but decided against it.  We were both full.

If we go again we need to make sure we're extra hungry!