Getting back in the swing of things....7/10/25

I'm trying to be more present here but I'm also trying to get back into the routine of walking - the summer, despite being lovely with various trips and visits, has played havoc with my schedule.

Anyway I managed to walk on Sunday on my own and yesterday with Hubby.  Sunday was the first time I'd been around the lake for a while so although I'd read about the fire at the boat house I hadn't seen the aftermath in person.

The fire happened on 24th September and although the fire brigade responded quickly the building was gutted.

You can see in the bottom photo where the area in front of the boat house at the bottom of the lake has been fenced off.  Hopefully it won't remain fenced off for long as a lot of the ducks, coots etc come there to be fed.  I did actually see two people cross the fencing to the right (not shown in my picture) with bags of bird food.  The fencing has fallen down so it's easy to get past it.

Yesterday Hubby and I did what I call the "golf course loop" and we both overdressed - it was really quite warm thanks to the sun. 

Today it's been mostly grey and cloudy but no rain.  I made it to my Keep Fit class and then coffee with friends.  It won't be the highest step count of the week but I do at least feel I've moved!

Hubby rushed back from his exercise class today as he thought he had a blood test booked for today only to find the appointment is tomorrow.  He was not best pleased!

More on books! - 5/10/25

I only managed to finish 2 books in September:

The Midnight Rose by Lucinda Riley and

Nobody Told Me - by Hollie McNeish.

I normally love a family sage that contains a mystery and is set in different locations and at different times.  Lucinda Riley is usually a good writer of such a saga.

The Midnight Rose follows Anahita’s early life in India and then her time in England where she was educated as the companion of an Indian Princess.  It followed her subsequent move into nursing, during WW1 and her love for Donald, the Lord of Astbury Hall.  Donald’s Mother is a scheming busybody and consequently Donald marries a rich American heiress and Anahita returns to India.

I was enjoying the book but then there is a subject introduced into the book that made no sense to me at all.  It seemed totally unnecessary and wasn’t handled very well at all.

There was also another event mentioned in the epilogue that didn’t ring true to me either.

The story of Anahita and Donald was enough but in trying to add another layer to it I feel Riley went too far.

Nobody Told Me is a very different book but I loved it.

Hollie kept a diary from the start of her pregnancy until her "Little One" reached the age of 3.  But more than just a diary, it's also full of poems.  She really captures the ups and downs of parenthood and manages to convey in words so many of the trials and tribulations and the joys of becoming a Mother.  Great poems but her prose is beautiful too. 

I also started another book in September but I didn't finish it until yesterday:

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Violet is 38, she is also single having lost her fiancé in WW1.  This books charts her life as she attempts to make a new start in Winchester, away from her domineering Mother.  Life is not easy for her as “a surplus woman” after the war but Violet is determined. 

She signs up for the embroidery group that are making kneelers and cushions for the Cathedral and she also meets Arthur, a bell ringer.  They become friends despite Arthur being married.

I must admit I found this book very slow. It was interesting to learn about the embroidery processes and the details about the Cathedral are clearly well researched. But Violet is a complex character and not particularly endearing.

The book is a good study of how hard it was for a single woman to make her way in the world in the time between the two world wars and also the difficulties of family relationships. But the book did not grab me. The blurb on the book says “when whispers of another world war surface, she must live with a secret that could change everything….” So misleading. I was waiting for something earth shattering to happen but the secret was not dramatic and although it did result in change for Violet and others, it was small.

There was also one part of the storyline that I felt totally unnecessary.

I probably would have only give it 2* were it not for the detailed descriptions of both the embroidery projects and Winchester Cathedral.

It will be interesting to hear what the other members of the book group think of it as it was the afternoon library book club choice.  We're meeting on Wednesday to discuss it.

As always you can see all the books I've read/want to read/reviews etc on my Goodreads page here View all my reviews 

Friday's Fave Five - 3/10/25

Each week Susanne reminds us to look back on the week and find the blessings/things we're grateful for.  You can find out more here.

1) I missed last week because I was here:

Dunkerque!

We spent the weekend at Hubby's sister & brother in law's house with 2 of his other sisters, one with her husband, plus their 2 daughters, one partner and 3 children.  One of the French nephews was also home for the weekend. 

We had a lovely time and although we've been to visit them many times I've never made a point of visiting the memorial for the battle of Dunkerque during WW2.

 

Quite hard imagining my Dad being on that beach waiting to be rescued.  But thankfully he was otherwise I wouldn't be here!

Still can't take a decent selfie though lol.

The picture below is (L-R) Henri (French Nephew) Jean Marie (French BIL) Voldi (BIL) and Ellis who is Voldi's daughter Natalie's partner.  Ellis is so helpful to Voldi and his wife Clare who are both blind.  He and Voldi made their way to Dunkerque on Voldi's tandem.  They cycled from Voldi's home to Stratford International Station and then got a train to Dover.  They then made their way to the ferry port and crossed to Calais.  Henri and Jean Marie met them there and guided them on to Dunkerque.

Anyway we had a lovely weekend, Anne Marie (Hubby's sister) is a great hostess.

Other good things this week:

2)  I got my flu jab on Wednesday.  My arm has been a bit tender but other than that it's all good.  I definitely don't want to get flu!

3)  It was Knit and Natter time on Wednesday evening and despite all the nattering I think we all made a little bit of progress on our WIPs.  This is mine:

It was actually something my daughter started (she made the granny squares) and now I'm trying to make it into a blanket.

4)  There seems to be a glut of carrots at the moment - we had so many at the foodbank that volunteers were encouraged to take some so I made carrot and coriander soup today.

It was delicious and there is a little left for tomorrow and a good sized portion in the freezer.

5.  Today was a productive day.  I was up and ready for the day reasonably early - didn't want to greet the person delivering our shopping in my nightwear lol.  Apart from making the soup I managed to get all the laundry done and hoovered and cleaned all the upstairs floors.  Being retired it's very easy some days to fritter away the day so I'm glad to have a day where I can look back and think I've achieved something.  I also managed to do a bit of tidying up in the front garden during the week - the Christmas tree that came with the house got a good trim.  Hopefully I haven't cut it back too much but it seems pretty healthy.

I'm at the Foodbank in the morning and then we have my daughter and her family coming for dinner.  It will be nice to see the Grandkids as we haven't seen them much recently.

Have a good weekend all.

And a bonus blessing - our hosts for last weekend have just become grandparents.  Their youngest son and his wife are now the proud parents of baby Oscar.

Perks of being a volunteer - 2/10/25

I was at the Foodbank today as usual for a Thursday.

It was a busy morning - we had training first thing about looking after our own wellbeing which was interesting and useful.  Then we had our usual session.  There seems to be a glut of carrots at the moment.  The deliveries we've had from a local supplier for the last few weeks have contained LOTS of carrots.  More than we can give out even.  

We do liaise with other providers when we have this issue and there is another group that goes to venues on Friday and Saturday who will come and collect excess food from us.

However, as volunteers, we are also allowed to take surplus items home too.  Today I have come home with carrots (we still have loads to give out on Tuesday), a cauliflower and a couple of bread items.

Tomorrow I hope to be making soup!  And yes I've checked what I need and added a few missing things onto my shopping order which is coming in the morning.  Hopefully I'll be all set.

Although I might get started on one of these - bargains picked up on a Facebook local site.

Or try and finish assembling Daughter's granny squares into a blanket.  I've nearly got them all sewn together but then it will need an edging and all the ends will need weaving in.

And then there is still a book to be finished for the daytime book club......

I'm so glad to be retired!

Note to self - 1/10/25

Note to self - when planning to use up very ripe bananas by making Banana Bread, make sure you have all the other necessary ingredients.

Today I decided I had to make use of the over ripe bananas I had by making Banana Bread but .....

I only had ginger - no cinnamon.

I didn't have enough butter so I supplemented what I had with butter spread.

It turned out ok though.

Also, when going to the library to return a book try to avoid the "New Books" shelf when you already have books out on loan and a pile of books TBR.  Yes I came home with another book to read but it does tick a 52 book club prompt as it was published in 2025.  (Well the paperback version was so that's good enough for me.)

No picture of the Banana Bread - some has already been eaten and some went home with my daughter for her family.

The book is this one:

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 24/9/25

Each week Joyce comes up with a set of questions for the Hodgepodge and we share our posts on her blog here.

1. Fall officially rolls into the Northern Hemisphere on Monday (9/22)...what's your favourite thing about fall?

Well I'm not a great fan of fall - next stop winter which means shorter days and colder weather but I do love watching the trees change colour.

2. What's one thing on your real or proverbial autumn bucket list? 

We're aiming to visit our son and family in the US again for Thanksgiving this year.  That's still technically fall season but there will be a good chance of snow by then.

3. Apples, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and cranberries are some of the top fall foods. Which one is your favourite and how do you like it prepared? Any on the list you don't eat? Which one have you had most recently? 

I love an apple pie or crumble.  We had an apple and rhubarb crumble when we were away with cousins recently.

I'm not a big fan of pumpkin but I'll eat the others.

4. 'Fall is proof that change is beautiful' is a popular sentiment. Would you agree or no? Elaborate. 

Well to a degree.  The changing colours of the trees during fall are beautiful but change can also be difficult, unexpected and unwanted.

5. Is there a spot near you where people go to see the leaves change colour? Will you try to leaf peep somewhere this fall? Lonely Planet lists the following ten places as the best for leaf peeping...of those listed which would you most like to visit? 

Stowe, Vermont~Shenandoah National Park, Virginia~Columbia River Gorge, Oregon~Zion National Park, Utah~Tennessee/North Carolina border~West Virgina~Northwestern Wyoming~Wisconsin Northwoods~Northern Nevada~Ozark Highlands Scenic Byway, Arkansas

Walking through the local forest is about as far as I'll go but of the above list I'd choose Stowe in Vermont as it's close to our family there.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Vinny (on the left) turned 5 this week which means we've been in this house 5 years now too.  Time goes too fast!

Let's Talk Books - 20/9/25

My blog is a bit like buses - nothing for ages then 3 at once!  (Although actually that doesn't happen as much these days as our buses will be instructed to wait at a stop if they are too close to the bus ahead of them!)

Anyway lots of books coming at you now - the last post I did about books was back in May and covered the books I'd read in April.  You can find that here.

I might not be consistent with my blogging but I do keep reading.

This is my current read:

Hollie is an award winning writer and this book follows her journey through pregnancy and the first 3 years of her child "Little One".

It's a very honest account and there are lots of poems in the book which is why I'm using it as the "Told in Verse" prompt of the 52 book club 2025 challenge.   Even though it's a long time since I was pregnant and my children made it to 3 I can still relate to so much of what Hollie has written.  It's funny in places but also poignant and I just love the way it's written. 

These are my next two reads:

These are the picks from the library groups I've joined - we finally seem to be gathering some momentum.  The evening group will be  reading the Rachel Joyce book next and we're meeting up on Thursday to discuss the previous book The Guest List by Lucy Foley.

A Single Thread is the choice of the daytime group and our next meet up is early in October.

I had a nice message earlier today from the facilitator of the groups saying "You are a fab member of the groups.  Thank you for pushing through!!"  Always good to feel appreciated.

Thankfully I can fit both of these to prompts in the 52 book club challenge - Character's Name in the title for one and Read in a -ber month for the other.

I still have a few gaps to fill in the prompts list but I think I'm on track to complete the challenge.

I'm going to list the books I've read since April but if you want to see any reviews you'll need to head to my Goodreads page here.

1. A Place Called Here - Celia Ahern **
2. Take my Hand - Dolen Perkins-Valdez *****
3. A Necessary End - Peter Robinson ***
4. Secrets - Freya North ****
5. The Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger **
6. The Street Party - Claire Seeber **
7. Vanessa Bares All - Vanessa Feltz ***
8. Dead Simple - Peter James ****
9. The Hanging Valley - Peter Robinson ***
10. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin *****
11. The Booklovers Library - Madeline Martin ****
12. We're Going to need more Wine - Gabrielle Union **
13. On the Run - Kerry J Donovan ****
14. Should I tell You - Jill Mansell ***
15. The People on Platform 5 - Clare Pooley ****
16. The Guest List - Lucy Foley **
17. The Great Alone - Hannah Kristen ****
18. The Midnight Rose - Lucinda Riley **

Where have I been - to the Forest of Dean!

We had a lovely break away in the Forest of Dean a few weeks ago.

This is where we stayed.  About Time Cottage.

There were 8 of us, my cousins Jill, Julie and Pat plus their husbands Simon, Pete and Martin plus me and Hubby.  Oh and Beanie (Jill and Simon's dog.)

The Forest of Dean is near Gloucester which is close to Wales.  In fact our route there took us on the M4 motorway from London, over the Severn Bridge into Wales and then north back into England to the village of Parkend where the cottage is situated.

There is a steam railway that runs between Parkend and the nearby town of Lydney and we could hear the trains running behind the house.

Pete, Me, Nick, Jill, Julie and Martin

As above but with Pat on the right.

Us girls keep in touch on WhatsApp quite regularly but we don't get to meet up in person that often but when we do we just pick up from where we left off.  

We had a wander around Lydney harbour.  We visited a place called Puzzlewood which is a very unique area of the forest and we also did a forest walk that included a sculpture trail.

We didn't do the whole trail as we needed to get back to the cafe before it closed for tea and cake.  We stop frequently for tea and cake!

We had a pub meal out the first evening and then the other two nights we had a very reasonably priced Indian takeaway and then fish and chips from a nearby shop which was also good.

We did a lot of chatting and played games in the evening and it was overall a lovely break.

Friday's Fave Five - 19/9/25

Susanne reminds us each week to look back and find the things we're grateful for and then we link up here.

Well at least that's the plan but I haven't managed to get here for 5 weeks!  So lots to look back on and be grateful for.

1)  A few nights away with 3 of my cousins and all our husbands so 8 of us in total.  This was the week before last and we went to the Forest of Dean which is near Gloucester bordering on Wales.  We had a lovely time.  We don't see each other very often but when we do we just pick up where we left off.  

2)  I'm thankful that my grandkids Nathan and Ella are now settling in to a new school together which is a state school so their parents will no longer have the financial burden of school fees.  Financially and logistically this should be a good move.

3)  I'm thankful that I finally seem to be getting over whatever virus I had last week - it had me coughing and feeling really low.  I even did a Covid test which was negative.

4)  A few nights better sleep.  Last week I couldn't sleep in my bed - as soon as I laid down I'd start coughing so I ended up trying to sleep on our reclining sofa.  It's reasonably comfortable but I didn't sleep well at all.  I think the tiredness contributed to me feeling so unwell.

5)  A nice visit to one of my SILs today.  The weather was warm and sunny so we were able to sit out in her garden.  And I got lots of washing dry.  I put up the autumn picture though as the leaves are already dropping.

Well there we are, short and sweet but I've really not felt like doing much at all this past week or so.  I did manage to finish a jigsaw puzzle but was very cross to find it had not 1 but 4 pieces missing.  It was a charity shop buy so can't really complain.  Can't expect them to check all 1000 pieces are there!

Have a good weekend all.

A week away - August 2025

It's the end of August so it's that time of year when we get together with Hubby's extended family here:

It's a converted Oast House in Kent and there were over 40 of us sharing. These pictures were before everyone arrived and we decended into chaos lol.

Sound horrendous? Well not to us it doesn't.  Yes we have to share rooms (but there are lots of bathrooms) and some of the kids are on the floors but we love being able to all be together.  The kids love the pool, we played a lot of games on the lawn, took walks to nearby Scotney Castle and generally had a good time.

We all mucked in with preparing food - each family group takes a turn to be responsible for the evening meal - and everyone helps out with clearing etc.  

We play board and card games, do karaoke, and generally just unwind.

I'd like to say I came home rested but with late nights and then early wake up calls from the under 10s sleep time is limited.  But so many memories made.

I didn't get to do a Friday's Fave Five but the word to some it all up this week would have been Family!

I also gained some more books!

My brother-in-law was having a clear out and a few people took a few books but I ended up with the majority.  I've read a few which I will put in local Little Libraries, and there are some that I'll probably pass on that I don't think I'd enjoy but the rest will be added to the "to be read" pile.

It looks horrendous but I recently added quite a lot of them to my Good Reads site and I think in the house there are about 50 books.  There are also about 30 in our garden room but given that I read over 50 books a year I will get through them sooner rather than later.

As long as I don't keep adding to the pile!

Hopefully I'll get around to catching up on blogs later today.  Apologies if I don't manage to leave many comments, I'm getting ready to spend a few days away later this week with 3 of my cousins and their husbands.  Organising food etc for 8 will seem easy compared to last week!

Friday's Fave Five - 15/8/25

Susanne reminds us each week to look back on our week and find the blessings and the things we're grateful for.  We join up here to share them.

1)  I'm thankful that whilst I am close enough to my daughter and her family to be able to help out with their children, our two sons also have good in-laws who do the same for them.  This week our eldest son and DIL celebrated their wedding anniversary and his in-laws took their two boys out for what looked like a fun day.

2)  Talking of helping my daughter out my DIL has her hands full during the summer holidays.  Grandchildren Nathan and Ella have a bit of a love/hate relationship at times so it's good to be able to take one of them for an hour or so to give her a break, which we did today - having Nathan here all day.  Particularly needed now because:

he has fractured a bone in his foot.  As you can imagine he is not happy about having to wear the boot!

3)  We had a short break away this week - staying in Marlow which is on the river Thames.

Our room - we were upgraded!

The bath was lovely - but we didn't use it

There was a very adequate shower in the bathroom!

Boats going through Marlow lock.

This is the Compleat Angler - just across the river from where we stayed and where we ate on our second night.

The bridge across the Thames

Marlow Church

The War Memorial - just in front of our hotel.

We stayed at The George & Dragon which is a Heartswood Inn which is the same chain as the Royal Forest near us which we've been to a few times.  The menu was quite similar but I'd say the food was slightly better nearer home.  The service was excellent though and the room was very comfortable with air conditioning.

4)  We were really glad of the air conditioning as it has been very hot this week so we didn't do as much sight seeing as we would have liked, it was just too hot.  Although of course we did browse the charity shops along the high street and I couldn't resist these:

The Crossword jigsaw is brand new - it will be a challenge though - it's double sided and both crosswords can actually be completed! (well hopefully lol)

I managed to load all my TBR books onto Goodreads today so that I won't end up buying books I've already got waiting to be read.  I used the scanning feature which made it quite quick.

5)  On our way home on Wednesday we visited Cliveden House, a National Trust property.  The House is actually leased out to a hotel group so tours are limited but the grounds and woodlands are lovely.  We took a long walk through the woods and down to the river (Thames) and then up to the House and gardens.  We stopped for refreshments in the cafe and then intended taking the easier route back to our car.  Somehow we got lost and ended up back down by the river.  Which necessitated another climb back up - it's a steep incline with lots of steps.  Thankfully my knees held out!

The views were lovely and it was reasonably shady through the woodland areas.

It was a lovely break and thankfully we made it home without being impacted by this:

Picture taken from the BBC website.

This was the scene on the M25 yesterday afternoon - a lorry caught fire and it was full of tyres, hence the black smoke.  Fortunately no one was hurt but the motorway was shut for 17 hours - resurfacing was required.  The M25 is London's orbital motorway and it's always very busy and closures like this cause chaos.  Fortunately we were able to leave it a junction earlier than planned and made an alternative route home without any problems.

Have a good weekend all.