A-Z Challenge 2025 - H is for Hogwash

Hogwash is another nonsense word although it's not one I'm in the habit of using.  Although it's probably more recognisable compared to some of the ones I've found when googling.

Apart from nonsense it's also used to describe pig feed or hog feed I suppose originally but I'm not sure the word hog is commonly used for pigs.  Hopefully any farmers out there won't be shooting me down in flames for my ignorance.  Much as I think little piglets can look quite cute, full grown pigs are not exactly pretty.  I should probably also confess to eating a lot of bacon and pork chops.

Thinking about it I have actually been to a couple of hog roasts but thankfully there were no heads in view.

Right lets move on ....to the H countries:

• Haiti
• Honduras
• Hungary

Although I don't officially have a theme but to have something linking my posts I thought I'd see how many countries in the World I've visited or might visit.

Not many again today and I haven't visited any of these and I can't say that any of them are jumping out at me.  Possibly Hungary - not as far away as the others.

So I'm still at 7 out of 197 countries then - the list I'm working from can be found here.

And 8 out of 26 letters done.

A-Z Challenge 2025 - G is for Gobbledegook

I love the word Gobbledegook.  I'd like to think I'm an expert in it having got 6 grandchildren and been fortunate to have spent a lot of time with some of them during their early years.  Translating what a toddler is trying to tell you is definitely an art.

Mind you Hubby is very good at talking nonsense too or just switching letters in words although of course that's spoonerism.  Now here's an example of gobbledegook:

ty3178ibr92n agggghhhh

I tried to type the quick brown fox.....etc with my fingers on the wrong keys but having been taught to touch type when I was 16 I couldn't do it!  It just felt so wrong.

Hmm let's move on to the G countries:

(Although I don't officially have a theme but to have something linking my posts I thought I'd see how many countries in the World I've visited or might visit.) 

• Gabon
• Gambia
• Georgia
• Germany
• Ghana
• Greece
• Grenada
• Guatemala
• Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Guyana
• 
  

I've been to a Greek island (Kos) back in 2019 with 3 of my cousins.  I blogged about it here.  We had a great time.  Lots of laughter and just a great relaxing time.  It was hot, but not too hot, and sunny!

I have also been to Germany.  Hubby's family (on his Dad's side) originally came from Germany and over the years there has been communication with some of the distant relatives that are still in Germany.  Some of them have been over here and one year Hubby and I took a drive across to them and spent a few days exploring the area where his Great Great Grandfather came from.  Unfortunately I don't have photos - we're talking pre phone cameras.  There are probably some "proper" photos somewhere but as I haven't done much advance prep for this challenge I haven't tracked them down!

That's 8 out of 197 countries then - the list I'm working from can be found here.

And 7 out of 26 letters done.

A-Z Challenge 2025 - F is for Flapdoodle

Oops I've slipped a day in my progress. I was 2 posts ahead of myself but now only 1.  I must have been flapdoodling!  Yes another word for nonsense.

Actually I was doing my regular Friday's Fave Five post, lots of washing, walking round the lake and doing an impromptu school pickup.  I was also trying (not very successfully) to visit the bloggers who'd taken the time to visit here.  How did I ever manage to find time to work? 

Thankfully no post is needed for tomorrow so I might find time to get back ahead of myself.  I knew I was going to be winging it this year but I'm flying a bit too close to the wind already.

Right, on to the F countries:

• Fiji
• Finland
• France

Only 3 and I've been to France! So a 33.3333333 % success rate!

We've actually been to France quite a few times.  It helps when you have a sister-in-law living there.  One of Hubby's sisters went over to study I think, many years ago, met a nice French man and the rest is history.  It's quite easy for us to get to them as they live in Dunkerque so we can drive to Folkestone, take the Eurotunnel and be at her house within about 4 hours on a good run.

We also used to take holidays on the Atlantic coast of France with one of Hubby's other sisters and her family.  We were quite the campers for a while.  Unfortunately my command of the French language is still extremely limited despite having studied it at school.

Finland appeals, although part of it is a bit too close to Russia for my liking and I can't see us ever getting to Fiji.

That's 6 out of 197 countries then - the list I'm working from can be found here.

And 6 out of 26 letters done.

A-Z Challenge 2025 - E is for Eyewash

Well I'm on a bit of a roll for words that mean nonsense or are related to waffling which I'm very good at.  I seem to have found a theme without really trying.

Anyway apparently Eyewash is a synonym for nonsense.  Who knew?  Not me.  Eyewash for me conjures up images of Optrex and eyebaths for when my eyes are sore, usually because I've rubbed them too much.  I often find myself rubbing my eyes - not a good move when wearing mascara of course.  Although I don't do that often so Panda eyes are not usually a problem.  Panda eyes are usually present the morning after the night before when I've worn mascara and not cleaned it off.  I suppose that nonsense could be called Eyewash.  Hmm....anyway

On to the E countries

• Ecuador
• Egypt
• El Salvador
• Equatorial Guinea
• Eritrea
• Estonia
• Eswatini
• Ethiopia

Although I don't officially have a theme but to have something linking my posts I thought I'd see how many countries in the World I've visited or might visit.) This was before I realised I could spout a lot of nonsense!  

Sadly I haven't visited any of the E countries.  Thankfully I did know that Eswatini used to be Swaziland but I still haven't been there.  I think if might be interesting to visit the Pyramids in Egypt and Estonia might be another small possibility but sadly I don't think I'll be visiting the others.

So I'm still at 5 out of 197 countries - the list I'm working from can be found here.

And 5 out of 26 letters done.

Friday's Fave Fives 4/4/25

Well it's Friday - just!  Time to look back on the week and list the five things I'm grateful for.  And then link up with like-minded bloggers here.  Thanks to Susanne for hosting and reminding us each week.

1) Family time - we spent Sunday afternoon at my daughter's for an afternoon tea.  It was Mother's Day here in the UK.  Then on Monday we were back there for a roast chicken dinner and birthday cake - Grandson Nathan turned 8.  How did that happen?

2)  Summer time!  Our clocks went forward last weekend and, although I don't like losing the hour of sleep I do love having the longer daylight hours.  It's even begun to feel a bit summerlike with lots of sunshine this week and it's warming up.

3)  Following on from that I was able to get washing dry outside this week too.  I do like drying it outside when I can and the forecast was for dry weather all week.  Nothing worse than getting it all hung out and then seeing rain clouds gathering.

4)  The Egyptian goslings seem to be doing well despite the swan attach and the female parent's wing is looking better.  I took a walk around the lake this afternoon and spotted them.

5)  We had a visit from some children from one of the local schools at the Foodbank this week.  They had been collecting food on our behalf and brought it with them.  They had labelled everything before they brought it and then helped to put the food which was mainly canned items away in our stockroom.  I'm grateful that local schools are collecting for the Foodbank as funding from the local authority that started during Covid has now ended.  Sadly the need for the Foodbank continues but we have been fortunate to source some alternative donation points but it will be hard to cover the donations we used to get from the local authority.

Have a good weekend all.

A-Z Challenge 2025 - D is for Drivel

D is for drivel - another synonym for nonsense.  While I can quite happily waffle on about a lot of things I would hope that I don't use too much drivel.

Reminds me of the word dribble, something that babies are excellent at doing but sadly something that we can slip back into as we age.  I don't like getting old aging. But of course it's something we all do.  Some better than others.

My hubby is providing me with a dilemma.  He will be 70 this month and is not looking forward to that and certainly doesn't want a fuss made about it.  Well that's a shame because I've ordered a cake which has 70th birthday on it and I'm probably going to get some big balloons.  4 or our 6 young grandchildren will be here to celebrate with him and they will expect cake and balloons, and presents.

But that's my dilemma. What do I get him for his birthday?  We're at the stage in life where we're fortunate enough that if we want or need something we will most likely just get it.  For example for Christmas he treated himself to a new electric pick up on his guitar.  It was actually quite expensive but playing guitar and taking part in local open mics gives him a great deal of pleasure.  He will of course tell me not to worry about presents but it's hard not to.

I will ponder on that.

Now onto the D countries.

Although I don't officially have a theme but to have something linking my posts I thought I'd see how many countries in the World I've visited or might visit.) 

These are the D countries:

• Denmark
• Djibouti
• Dominica
• Dominican Republic
• 
  

Of those I have only been to Denmark and only because we set off from there on a cruise along the coast of Norway.  We flew to Copenhagen and then transferred to the port to board the ship.  I don't think we even saw much of Copenhagen but I'm still happy to say I've been to Denmark, albeit briefly.

Of the others visiting Dominica would be good.  I have a good friend who comes from there and I'm sure she would make an excellent guide and probably still have family there we could stay with.  I can dream.

That's 5 out of 197 countries then - the list I'm working from can be found here.

And 4 out of 26 letters done.

A-Z Challenge 2025 - C is for Codswallop

Codswallop is another word for nonsense or drivel that you will often find here on my blog.  The nonsense and drivel that is - I don't often use the word codswallop but I have been known to.

I think it often applies to the words politicians spout.  There are quite a few prominent examples I could quote but between some of them I fear we could already be approaching WW3 and I don't want to add fuel to the fire.  

Interestingly codswallop doesn't seem to be such an archaic word that I thought it would be.  There is an interesting article here from the Oxford English Dictionary that talks about its origins.  It wasn't added to the dictionary until 1972 having been around since the 1960s.  I feel it sounds like a much older word, the sort of thing Shakespeare might have used but I'm sure they have scoured all his works and come up with a blank.  I wonder what AI would make of it but as I have no intention of going down that road you'll have to try that one yourself.

I'm very wary of AI.  I'm sure in some instances it's a useful tool but I'm also sure at times it can generate a load of codswallop!

Now onto the C countries.

• Cabo Verde
• Cambodia
• Cameroon
• Canada
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Chile
• China
• Colombia
• Comoros
• Congo, Democratic Republic of the
• Congo, Republic of the
• Costa Rica
• Cote d'Ivoire
• Croatia
• Cuba
• Cyprus
• Czechia

Although I don't officially have a theme but to have something linking my posts I thought I'd see how many countries in the World I've visited or might visit.) 

From the Cs I have only been to Canada.  We did a trip there back in 2018 on our way to celebrate Thanksgiving with my younger son and his American in-laws.  We stayed with former uni friends of my Hubby in Montreal for a few nights before travelling on to Vermont.  I blogged about it here.

Realistically Cyprus is probably the only other C that we might visit.  

That's 4 out of 197 countries then - the list I'm working from can be found here.

And 3 out of 26 letters done. 

Despite having no theme I'm beginning to wonder how many alternative words I can come up with for waffle!

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 2/4/25

Joyce provides the questions each week and you can join in the fun here.

1. No foolin'! April is here. What's one fun thing on your April calendar? 

Hubby turns 70 on Good Friday so we'll be celebrating at home with an afternoon tea with my daughter, our elder son and their families.

2. It's often said, 'A fool and his money are soon parted'...what's the last thing you wasted money on? 

I signed up for an online fitness programme but thankfully didn't waste any money as I cancelled before the free trial period was over.  But I have never been bombarded with so many e-mails, many of which were trying to get me to sign on up for extras and so on.

I did waste money on paying a penalty charge notice my hubby incurred when doing a friend a favour recently.  He agreed to take some rubbish to the main rubbish and recycling centre but unfortunately he drove through a stretch of road that is for buses only and, of course, they have cameras in place to catch any offenders.  I was really annoyed at that.

3.  April 2nd is National DIY day. Are you a do-it yourself kind of person or maybe you're married to one? If so, what's the last thing you DIY-ed. If you're not a DIY-er what's the most recent job you had to hire someone to complete? 

Ha well my husband is so not a DIY person.  In fairness he probably could just about assemble IKEA furniture but not on his own lol.  I'm much more likely to tackle a DIY project but nothing too complicated.  We recently had people in to make storage/display units in our living room which we're really pleased with.

4. Do you eat lamb? If so do you have a favourite dish that calls for lamb? 

I do eat lamb and we often have lamb steaks but a roast dinner with lamb is one of my favourites.

5. Do you fit a stereotype in some way? Explain. 
Well I hope not but I wouldn't be the best judge of that.

6. Insert your own random thought here.  
Answers on a postcard please. (or comments lol)  What do you get a 70 year old for their birthday when they don't want to acknowledge they're turning 70?  My current dilemma.

A-Z Challenge 2025 - B is for Balderdash

Well continuing on with no theme I'm probably going to be writing a lot of balderdash over the next month, especially as I'm winging it this year and I don't have many posts planned in advance.  Actually if I get this post finished tonight I will be one ahead of myself as it's the 31st March today and I do have my A post complete and ready to publish tomorrow.

Of course I could end up getting side tracked.  Balderdash is similar to Boulderdash, an arcade game that I used to play many moons ago.  Out of curiosity I googled it tonight and......drumroll - you can play it online.  I just tried.  I wasn't very good though.  Took me a while to work out which keys to use to move the little man around.  (The arrows on the numeric keypad on my laptop - once I'd turned the NumLock key off!)  Took me a few minutes to remember what I was actually supposed to be doing too - collect the diamonds without getting a boulder falling on you and then find the exit.  I had a few tries and once I managed to collect all the required diamonds but ran out of time just before I reached the exit.

I was tempted to try again but reason prevailed.  I need to get this post done.  Tomorrow is a busy day with an early start so I might not get another post done and then I'll be playing catch up on Wednesday.  I need to at least be one step ahead to reduce the level of angst I wrote about yesterday.

Moving on to the list of countries beginning with B 

(I mentioned yesterday that although I don't officially have a theme but as a bonus I thought I'd see how many countries in the World I've visited or might visit.) 

• Bahamas
• Bahrain
• Bangladesh
• Barbados
• Belarus
• Belgium
• Belize
• Benin
• Bhutan
• Bolivia
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Botswana
• Brazil
• Brunei
• Bulgaria
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• 
  

Of those I've been to Belgium although more on a passing through kind of visit rather than the destination.  We passed through a couple of times when travelling to the Netherlands and we've also been there when staying with relatives in northern France.  We did actually make a trip to Bruges now I think of it.  The chocolates were divine.  Mmm maybe that's a good word for C.

That's 3 out of 197 countries then - the list I'm working from can be found here.

And 2 out of 26 letters.  

I'm pretty sure which is going to have the higher percentage come the 30th April.  Of the remaining B's Barbados is the only one jumping out for me as a possibility.

A-Z Challenge 2025 - A is for Angst

Well I did say I would be winging this year's challenge and I'm not off to a great start.  I'm preparing this post on the eve of the challenge.  I don't think I've ever left it so late in the past.  I also don't have much of a clue as to what I'm going to write about for A or any other letter come to that so I'm definitely feeling the Angst.

Ask anyone and most of them will agree that I'm usually an organised person.  I have things planned down to the last detail.  I'm the one that will have printed out boarding passes, tickets etc which of course are also on my phone.  But what if my phone dies, or worse gets stolen?  I do like the convenience of our automated lives but I worry about the possible scenarios of things going wrong.  All the possible scenarios.

Like how, although when I hit publish on this post I'll be underway but, what about Wednesday's post.  I have a busy day tomorrow.  When will I get B done?  I might have to do that when I've finished with this one.

Right now I'm counting how many words I've typed already - I noticed on someone's theme reveal post that ideally we should be aiming for at least 100 words per post.  I hadn't even noticed that so another cause for angst.

Well of course I didn't actually count them - I copied the above into Word and I was at 232 words so I've met that target at least.  I probably should prepare my posts in Word first then word count would be one less thing to worry about.

Anyway I don't officially have a theme but as a bonus I thought I'd see how many countries in the World I've visited or might visit.  The A countries are as follows:

• Afghanistan
• Albania
• Algeria
• Andorra
• Angola
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Argentina
• Armenia
• Australia
• Austria
• Azerbaijan

Of these I have been to Australia and Austria.  Austria was our honeymoon destination back in 1984 and we visited Australia in 2017 with our daughter, daughter-in-law and our first grandchild Nathan who was only 8 months old at the time.  That was an experience.  

Of the remainder we might think about visiting Albania and possible Andorra if we ever decide to visit Spain via France but I can't see us making it to any of the others.  I've never been particularly drawn to Africa and anywhere towards the Middle East is definitely a non-starter.  I couldn't cope with any more angst.  

That's 2 out of 197 countries then - the list I'm working from can be found here.

And 1 out of 26 letters.  I'm off to think about something for B now.

Book Review - How to Kill your Best Friend - Lexie Elliott (2025 #19)

How to Kill Your Best Friend by Lexie Elliott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

You suspect your best friend of murder - so why don't you feel safe now that she's dead? From the author of The French Girl comes a novel full of secrets, suspense, and deadly twists. Georgie, Lissa and Bronwyn have been best friends since they met on their college swimming team. Now Lissa is dead - drowned off the coast of the remote island where her second husband owns a luxury resort. But could a star open-water swimmer really have drowned? Or is something more sinister going on? Brought together for Lissa's memorial, Georgie, Bron, Lissa's grieving husband and their friends find themselves questioning the circumstances around Lissa's death - and each other. As the weather turns ominous, trapping the guests on the island, it slowly dawns on them that Lissa's death was only the beginning. Nobody knows who they can trust. Or if they'll make it off the island alive...

Well I definitely liked this book. It was quite the page turner and although I predicted some of the ending there was still a twist that surprised me. However I couldn't give it 5* as, although it only switches between 2 main characters POVs throughout the book, there are several other characters to contend with and sometimes I found it confusing as to who was saying what. I found myself re-reading conversations several times to clarify what they actually meant.

View all my reviews 

Book Review - Gallows View - Peter Robinson (2025 #18)

Gallows View by Peter Robinson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks has recently relocated with his family to the Yorkshire Dales from stressful London, but soon finds that life in the countryside is not quite as idyllic as he had imagined.

Three cases come to the fore: a voyeur is terrorising the women of Eastvale; two thugs are breaking into homes; and an old woman is dead, possibly murdered. As the tension mounts, Banks must also deal with his attraction to a young psychologist, Jenny Fuller. And when both Jenny and Banks's wife are drawn deeper into events, Banks realizes that his cases are weaving closer and closer together...

I’ve watched the TV series based on this and subsequent books and I think it spoilt me a bit. I found this book a bit underwhelming. It’s also quite dated. But it was an easy read and it ticked a prompt on the 52 book list challenge. No real surprises though and I won’t rush to continue the series – too many other books on my TBR pile.

View all my reviews 

#SoCS - 29/3/25 - In Awe

It's Saturday (just about) so I'm joining in with the SoCS challenge hosted by Linda here.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “awe/aww.” Use one, use both, use ’em any way you’d like. Bonus points if you fit them both into your post. Enjoy!

Well regular readers will know that I'm planning to take part in the A-Z challenge which starts on Tuesday.  I've signed up and yesterday I tried to work my way through the list of people that signed up on the Theme Reveal list.  Well I am in awe of the people that haven't only signed up but also seem to have all their posts prepped and ready to go.

Anyone who read my post on Thursday (see it here) will know that my prep leaves a lot to be desired.  I am beginning to panic big time and I know I will be scrambling all through April to get my posts done and published.   All together now, say aww.

Hmm maybe not quite awe inspiring but it will have to do. 

Friday's Fave Five - 28/3/25

Thank you as always to Susanne who blogs here for reminding us to look back and share the things we've been grateful for during the week - or in my case today - two weeks!

1) Last week we had a lovely visit from my younger son's in-laws, Paul and Crystal.  They flew in on the Tuesday and were with us until Saturday.  We get on really well with them and enjoyed some walks, some good food and some fun evenings playing cards.  We were glad to be able to host them as they were excellent hosts to us last Thanksgiving.  They flew on to Spain on Saturday and will be returning to the US this weekend.

2)  I got back to my keep fit class on Tuesday - I'd missed 2 weeks so it was nice to get back into the swing of it and of course a catch up with friends afterwards at a cafe.

3)  One of the highlights of Paul and Crystals visits was trying out a new to us restaurant in Chingford.  The Forest Hotel has recently been completely refurbished and only reopened just before Christmas.  We'd been meaning to try it out so we took Paul and Crystal there last Wednesday.  It didn't disappoint and we'll be going again.  It's perfectly placed for relaxing and recharging after walking in the local area.

4)  Better weather!  Much more sunshine and definitely warming up.  I can walk around the lake in my trainers now instead of wellies!  I was also glad to see the goslings are still surviving.

Hard to tell from the photos but there are 4 goslings.  Unfortunately the male swan was attacking them last week and the female goose has an injured wing.  The rescue people are aware of it and are monitoring.  Hopefully it will heal and the goslings will continue to thrive.

5)  I got to see Nathan in his school's production of "Roll Back the Stone" on Wednesday which tells the Easter story.  He was a Roman soldier and although he didn't have a speaking part he knew all the words to the various songs and did well.  

So that wraps up my last two weeks.  Our clocks go forward this weekend so we'll lose an hour's sleep which I'm not looking forward to but on Sunday it's Mother's Day here so we'll be joining my daughter and her family for afternoon tea.  That is something to look forward to - after all who doesn't like cake?

Enjoy your weekend.

Prepping - 27/3/25

Well, I have signed up for the A-Z Challenge again (see here for more details) so I thought I would (make that SHOULD) do some prepping.  As you can see from the pic above I have a draft post in place for each letter.  (Trust me - you can't screen shot the whole list but all the letters are in place.)

Going backwards and forwards to the challenge page with the letter icons takes time and, at this point, I would usually schedule the posts to post on the correct day for the challenge.  So the A post would need to be scheduled for next Tuesday - 1st April.

I haven't scheduled any posts yet because they all look like this:

Yep they have the letter icon and.... nothing else.  The blue hand seems to be taunting me.  As in "hey, you need to add some content here!"

I'm trying not to panic.  I did say I was going to be "Winging it with Waffle", my area of expertise.  I think I might end up burning the midnight oil too.

Wish me luck!

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 26/3/25

Joyce provides the questions for this and you can join in the fun here.

1. Spring has officially sprung (in the northern hemisphere anyway)...did she roll in more like a lion or more like a lamb in your neck of the woods? What needs more of your attention in terms of a good spring clean this year-your house or your garden/yard? 

Well she seemed to roll in quickly earlier this month but then retreated.  Definitely back now though but like a lamb.  

Well the house had a good clean prior to visitors being here last week but the garden definitely needs some work.

2. What's put a spring in your step lately? 

Having visitors here - we did a lot of walking and went out for a meal at a venue new to us.

3. When you were a kid, what was the best snack to find in your lunchbox? If you didn't do the lunchbox thing, tell us what was your favourite after school snack. 

I know I had a lunchbox for some of the time I was at school but I really don't remember what was in it other than some sort of sandwich.  I also remember that school dinners were not as good as they are now. (Although there's still room for improvement!)

4. In what area of your life are you planting seeds ? 

I'm trying to take care of my body a bit more - building in an exercise routine and trying to eat more healthily.  The seeds haven't really taken root yet though lol

5. Why do you live where you do? Would you consider living somewhere else? Why or why not? 

I was born and bred in London and I haven't wanted to move away.  We did move to a different area back in 2020 and we tried to tick a lot of boxes when we did that.  Mostly we succeeded and pretty much future proofed ourselves in terms of the facilities close to us and the size of the house etc considering we are not getting any younger.  

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Watched my Grandson in a school performance today for the first time.  His school did a version of the Easter story.  He didn't have a starring role but he knew all the songs and did really well.  I'm a proud Nanny!

Review - Missing Pieces - Tim Weaver (2025 #17)

Missing Pieces by Tim Weaver
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rebekah Murphy knows too much . . .

She knows she's alone on an abandoned island with a killer on her trail.
She knows that to get home, she must live to understand why this is happening.
She knows someone tried to kill her for a secret.

What she doesn't know is what that secret is . . .

Detective Frank Travis doesn't know enough . . .

He doesn't know where to find Louise Mason.
He doesn't know how and why she vanished into thin air three months ago.
He doesn't know the identity of the man last seen talking to her.

What he does know is that he retires in one week - and if he doesn't find out where Louise went, no one will . . .

What neither Rebekah nor Detective Travis realize is that each holds a missing piece from the same puzzle - and it will cost them everything to finally solve it . . .

I enjoyed the previous book I'd read by this author (I am missing) but I found this one a little confusing - it moves between present and past a lot. The explanation of what led up to Rebekah being stranded on an island was a bit underwhelming for me. It also didn't ring true that there hadn't been much of an effort made to find her.

View all my reviews 

Review - Hold My Girl - Charlene Carr (2025 #16)

Hold My Girl by Charlene Carr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For fans of Jodi Picoult, Kate Hewitt and Ashley Audrain, a heart-wrenching novel about two women whose eggs are switched during IVF

Katherine is a woman full of obsessions. Everything clean, everything perfect, all the time. After seven years of trying—and failing—to conceive, she finally gives birth to Rose, her IVF miracle child. But she’s afraid that Rose may not be her daughter; her pale skin doesn’t match Katherine’s own.

Tess never got her happy ending. She took on IVF alongside Katherine and a group of hopeful mothers, but her daughter, Hanna, was stillborn. After a series of poor choices, she’s divorced, broke and stuck in a job that’s below her skill set.

Ten months later, Katherine and Tess get a call from the fertility clinic that reveals shocking news: the two women’s eggs were switched. While Katherine’s perfect life beings to crumble around her, for Tess it’s the glimmer of hope she needs to get her life back on track. But it will take a custody battle to decide who deserves to be Rose’s mother, a battle that will push both women to the brink.

With themes of racial identity, loss and betrayal, this emotional novel centred around a difficult moral question beautifully explores the complexities of motherhood.

I'm on the fence on this book. Parts were good but there was a lot of repetition in places and the main characters were too extreme at times. Certainly a difficult subject to write about and the court process didn't feel like it had been adequately researched to me.

View all my reviews 

#SoCS - 15/3/25 - Crackle

The stream of consciousness prompt is given to us by Linda each week and all the details of how this works can be found here.

Today's prompt is "Crackle".

Well I'm sure many participants will have thought of the cereal "Snap Crackle and Pop" otherwise known as Rice Crispies.  Sorry but if you're expecting some originality then this is not the place to come.

I was going to check to see when Rice Crispies became a thing but that would rather defeat the aim of SoCS so I didn't.  However I did check how many cereal products are now available in my local supermarket.  194.  Yep I counted them.

Of course not I checked on the app.  The choice now is mind boggling.  I didn't stop to see how many of them were chocolate based but I'm sure there are plenty to keep a chocaholic like me happy.  I have 2 different varieties in my cupboard as I write.  For the Grandkids I hasten to add.  

My breakfast of choice these days is usually some variety of eggs with bacon, occasionally baked beans, mushrooms or if Hubby (who is the main cook in the house) decides to prepare an omelette it will often be a surprise.  He likes to throw in green things.  Not my first choice of food at breakfast but, as he nearly always makes it I'm not going to be picky.

Doesn't usually crackle though, although sometimes he will put oil in the pan and get distracted and then the smoke alarm starts going.  Thanks goodness for the smoke alarm - I'm sure he would have burned the house down by now without it.

We don't often get a sizzle either because we have an air fryer which takes care of the bacon and other things like sausages if we have them.  Yep I do like a full English breakfast - but I'll pass on the black pudding thank you.  (I would eat it if put on the plate.)

Sorry if I'm making you all hungry.  I haven't had my breakfast yet this morning but Hubby has just surfaced so it should arrive soon.  I hope so anyway.  

P.S. he's doing hash browns this morning!

Friday's Fave Five - 13/3/25

Well I'm sticking with Spring flowers even though it was very cold again today and Hubby insisted that the rain we had today (Thursday) was more like sleet.  But there are still good things to look back on during the week and then shared at Susanne's site here.

1)  A fun time with our Daughter, DIL and grandkids Nathan and Ella on Saturday - we went bowling and then to a cafe near them for lunch.

It's a long time since I've been bowling and this was reflected in my score lol.  It was a bit hard for Ella (although she had a guide rack and bumpers) but Nathan enjoyed it.  It was a bit noisy even though there wasn't that many people there, certainly not when we arrived anyway but the game itself can be noisy and there were lots of arcade style games & machines there with lots of noises and flashing lights.  A very stimulating experience lol.

Lunch was nice though.  I opted for a jacket potato with tuna and it was huge.

2)  Sunday we spent quite a bit of time helping them clear out their shed.  It's a job we've been meaning to do for ages but it involved taking stuff from the shed at the bottom of the garden and then through the house so we needed a dry day.  We made several trips to the local recycling centre.  It was hard work, and thankfully spiders don't worry me but it was satisfying to get it cleared and swept out so that they can start to use it properly.  Of course the grandchildren wanted attention too so we were there for several hours.

3)  A clean oven.  I must confess my oven was long overdue a thorough clean.  It took a lot of cleaning supplies and elbow grease and, while it's not perfect, it looks so much better.

4)  Daffodils!

I love having them in the house.  I have some on my kitchen window sill and the others are in the living room.  The whole lot were quite cheap in the local supermarket.  They're in full bloom now but hopefully will last for another few days at least.

5)  Book bargains.  Someone on a local Facebook group was getting rid of a lot of paperbacks at just 50p each.  I'd picked out 8 that I thought I'd like and arranged to go and collect them.  I'm trying not to buy books this year but that will now have to be trying not to buy NEW books this year.  It was clear the woman selling them has similar reading tastes to me as she had a lot of books I'd already read but I did get 6 from her (the other 2 I'd picked had already been taken) and one of them has been slotted into a prompt for the reading challenge.  The others have been added to the TBR pile.

Have a good weekend all.

Book Review - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie (2025 #15)

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Roger Ackroyd is a man who knows too much. He knows the woman he loved poisoned her first husband. He knows someone was blackmailing her – and now he knows she killed herself.

When Roger Ackroyd is found murdered, the famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, is called in to find out who the killer is.

 

I'd picked this book out to fit a prompt for the 52book challenge and ordered it from the library. What I didn't realise was is that it's the edition for readers where English is not their first language. These versions are shorter than the originals and have been edited to make the language simpler.

It definitely felt short and consequently rushed. I read it anyway but I didn't enjoy it. Hopefully I won't make that mistake again.

View all my reviews Start here

A-Z Theme Reveal 12/3/25

Well I have been sitting on the fence about this one.  I managed to complete a January challenge this year but it was hard getting something posted everyday.  The A-Z challenge is even harder because there are no prompts given (apart from the letter each day) so it's all down to us bloggers to come up with a theme, ideas, etc etc.

Of course I've had some thoughts about the challenge but unlike other years, when I've done much more forward planning, this year I will be "Winging it with Waffle!"

I have loose plans for some of the letters but I will be mainly thinking of a word relating to each letter and waffling on about it.  So probably a bit of Stream of Consciousness going on, definitely not a lot of highbrow content, hopefully it might be entertaining. Just don't get your hopes up too high - my standards are low.

I hope to see you here soon.

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 12/3/25

Joyce provides the questions, we provide the answers and you can join in here.

1. March 15th is known as The Ides of March, the date on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C....have you ever been to Rome? If so what did you love most about the city? If not, is this a place you'd like to visit? 

I haven't been to Rome but yes I'd like to visit.

2. 'Rome wasn't built in a day.' What project/activity/improvement (of any kind) do you have going on right now to which this saying might be applied? 

Well I've been making a blanket for a lonnnnnnnng time which thankfully is almost finished. So that's one thing but I also have a lot of things in my house, many of which are not even mine, that need to be moved on.  Either given away, sold, taken to a charity shop or the tip!  (Rubbish dump).  The trouble is sorting all of this is time consuming.  It's a work in progress.

3. Let's do a little this or that with some Italian foods...

• Caprese salad or Prosciutto with melon? 
• Bruschetta or Antipasto? 
• lasagne or ravioli?
• bolognese or Carbonara?
• Risotto or gnocchi? 
• tiramisu~gelato~cannoli? 

4. Of the colours red, white, and green which would I find most prevalent in your home? Which one do you think is most flattering to you in terms of your wardrobe? Have you ever had your colours done? Is that something you'd be interested in doing? 

Well there is a lot of white in the house - doors woodwork etc but I do have green in my kitchen and dining room.  I've also added red accessories in one of the bedrooms.

As for my wardrobe I do have some green in there and some red but I've never had my colours done.  Not something I've ever thought about doing.  I have used a personal shopper in big department stores a couple of times and bought things I would never have looked at if I hadn't been persuaded to try them on.

5. Life would be boring without____________________?

Grandchildren and books to read.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

There's nothing like expecting guests to kick start your spring cleaning.