Weekly Photos 8th-14th February 2026

And I've managed another week of photos!

Top left (Sunday) is the bag for Ella - the main parts were finished on Sunday.  Since then I've also made the horns and ears so now I just have to sew it all together.

Middle top(Monday) is the chart I'm using to keep track of taking the collagen supplement I'm taking.  Too soon to see if it's making a difference but so far the chocolate flavour hasn't triggered any migraines and I think taking it in warm milk before bed is actually helping my sleep.

Top Right (Tuesday) is the book I was reading at the beginning of the week which I've since finished.

Middle left (Wednesday)  I took this when out walking. The local secondary school is being rebuilt and it looks like the demolition stage is almost complete.

Bottom left (Saturday)  Spot the difference!  The light doesn't make it easy and that's my excuse for pairing them incorrectly in the first place.  I have a nephew who delights in wearing odd socks but not me.

Bottom centre (Thursday) this is the next book for the evening reading group I'm in which I'd collected from the library.  I read The Miniaturist by the same author and wasn't as mad about it as the hype suggested I should be.  Hopefully I'll like this one more.

Bottom right (Friday)  I finally put my wool winder to use.  I bought the wool over a year ago and a pattern to make a jumper for me.  I just have to finish a (few) WIPs first but at least the wool is now ready to use.

I realised after I'd put the photos together that I'd got the layout slightly wrong - that's the problem with being retired I often have to check what day it is!

#SoCS - 14/2/26 - Love

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “love.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun, and happy Valentine’s Day!  To join in the fun go here.

Well of course Love is an appropriate word for today being St. Valentines Day.  

We don't make a big thing of it in our house.  I did get a card from Hubby - well he tried to sign it anonymously but it was a bit of a give away that it was left on the bed for me to find.  I don't need big displays of affection or expensive bouquets of flowers to know that he loves me.

I know that he does in the way that he supports me especially when things are difficult.  He's always there for me when I need him to be, holding my hand when the children arrived.  Helping me through loss when my Mum passed away.  Ready to listen when I need to talk but not pushing too hard.

Stepping up when he needs to.  (Although he might need a little reminder here or there lol)

He has never let me down.  And of course I love him for all of that and so much more.

He's great with the grandkids too! 😂

Friday's Fave Fives - 13/2/26

It's Friday so time to look back on the week and find the blessings.  Susanne hosts this blog hop here and keeps us on our toes each week.  Thank you Susanne. 

1)  Lots of family time last weekend with my daughter and her family.  They all ended up here for lunch on Saturday and then we went to them for a Sunday roast.  

2)  A few spells of sunshine this week.  We still didn't get a rain free day but just a glimpse of the sun always makes the day feel better.  On Wednesday the rain held off long enough for me to walk down to the library and walk back through the park.

3)  A good meet up on  of the evening book club I'm in.  7 people attended and we'd all read the book so there was a good discussion on that.

(Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris.)

4) Progress on the crochet bag for granddaughter Ella.  All the pieces are done.  I just need to put it all together.

5)  Appreciation at the Foodbank.  As volunteers we help out because we want to and we get satisfaction from knowing we're helping a lot of people in the local community.  But it's always nice when someone makes a point of saying thanks for doing a good job.

Have a good weekend all.

Read then Write - 12/2/26

Not a bad week for reading.  I finished The Names by Florence Knapp:

The Names by Florence Knapp
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found the premise of this book interesting - how does the choice of a name affect our lives going forward? The book follows Cora's baby son who is named either Bear, his 9 year old sister's choice, Julian (Jules) his Mother's choice, or Gordon after his Father and Grandfather.

The story is told from those 3 POVs and moves forward in leaps of 7 years starting in 1987 and ending in 2022. It is beautifully written - the author definitely has a way with words. However it felt a little bit disjointed to me and although some things were covered in detail, others were not.

The name choice also isn't what really affects the life of the baby but rather the effect Cora's decision has on her marriage and the events that follow. It should be noted that the marriage is an abusive one for anyone who likes to steer clear of domestic violence.

Overall it's a good debut but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's great.

I also attended a Book Club meeting on Tuesday evening where we discussed The Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris.  It was a good evening as we had seven people there who had all read the book.  Most people liked it.  I was on the fence.  There were things in it I felt didn't quite gel together.  It was a bit slow too.

This week I've also managed to finish this book:

The Guardians by John Grisham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't think I've ever been disappointed by a John Grisham book. Of course there are lots of similarities in many of them - based around the American legal system, often involving injustice and frequently drug cartels and conspiracies.

This one was a bit slow initially and there are several storylines to get your head around as we follow Cullen Post, an innocence lawyer and minister as he tries to prove the innocence of convicted criminals and get them exonerated.  The pace picked up and I really enjoyed it.

I now have 2 books to read for the book clubs:

 and 

I have the Cotterill one on my Kindle App and I have a physical copy of The Muse.  There's a few weeks before the clubs meet again so I have plenty of time to read them.  Hopefully I'll like The Muse more than I did The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton.  I found that quite hard going.  I haven't read anything by Cotterill so that may or may not be interesting.

Of course I'm trying to match these Book Club reads to the 52 Book Club Challenge list of prompts wherever possible but I'm not sure where these will fit yet.  I'm sure I can fit them in somewhere but it may be at the expense of books from my TBR pile! Thankfully I've managed to not add any more books to that pile so far this year.  For anyone who missed it these are just some of those books:

I'm not going to check how many unread books there are on the Kindle App lol.