Friday's Fave Five - 16/5/25

It seems an age since I was here this month after blogging every day in April so I was determined to join in with Susanne and others today to look back on the good things in the last week.  You can find out more and see other participants here on Susanne's blog.

1)  Celebrating our daughter's birthday.  Her birthday was actually on Tuesday but we went out for lunch last Saturday to a country pub.  The food was good and the dessert Hubby and I shared was delicious - a Biscoffi cheesecake.  Yum!

The birthday girl got her own special one!

2)  We finally have all the beds in the right place!  We've been changing them around so that we can accommodate the grandchildren better when they stay.  We got rid of one double bed - collected by our council.  We moved the other spare double bed into a different bedroom and now we have twin beds in one room.

This one is now fully assembled and made up.

3)  Also on Saturday I helped with the setting up of a stall for our Knitting group to sell yarn at a Vintage Fayre being held at the library.  We'd had lots of yarn donated and although it didn't all get sold they raised just over £400 which will be split between the local Food Bank and the Macmillan Cancer Support charity.

4)  Sunday was another busy day - doing a Yard Sale at home.

We didn't sell a great deal but it's helped us get a lot of sorting done so now I can get on with finding places to donate things to.  I found a local Baby Bank and dropped some things off today and there is a charity collection in this area on Monday so I'm planning to bag some clothes up for that.  Then we'll work on keeping the local "Little Libraries" stocked up with books.  

5) And there was some down time too this week - I got some reading done.  I managed a lake walk this evening and one lot of ducklings are doing well.  They're definitely bigger and there still seem to be 8 although I couldn't get a photo of all of them together.  Hopefully the other set are doing ok although I didn't seem them today.

Plus, I finally finished my knitted blanket:

It needs washing and blocking but I'm pleased to have finally finished it. 

Definitely a good week!

Have a good weekend all.

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 7/5/25

Joyce provides the questions, we provide the answers and we link up here to compare notes!

1. Let's compare this May to last May. What's changed? What remains very much the same? 

Essentially things are still the same here - Hubby and I are enjoying being retired and building our lives in what still feels like a new home although we've been here well over 4 years now.

The big change though is that our younger son and his family are now living in the US so the Other Side of the Pond.  Last May saw the beginning of that move when DIL Elizabeth and Grandson Rory left for Vermont in May while my son Michael and Grandson Vinny remained here finalising things before the family were reunited in July.

They had all been living with us since the beginning of May and we were backwards and forwards to their flat preparing it for renting out.  Vinny was only 3 then and although there were good reasons for splitting the family at the time it was hard for him to understand so it was hard for everyone.

But they are now happily settled in their own home in Vermont, both have jobs and the kids are settled in school and Kindergarten.  And of course we had a lovely visit with them at Thanksgiving.

2. What's something you may do this month? 

Finish sorting out the spare bedrooms.  We've been playing musical beds and changing the arrangements - switching a double bed for twin beds for when the family visit us.  The Grandkids are getting older and bigger - they've outgrown the toddler bed we have.  So far we have managed to get rid of the double bed - the council took it away yesterday.  Hopefully by the end of the month we will have bought the twin beds we need and got the rooms straight.

3. Mother's Day is approaching (in the US of A)...in what way(s) are you like your mother? 

I expect my kids would say that I share a lot of my Mother's mannerisms.  

4. Did you have a favourite book as a child? What was it and why was it a favourite. 

I had quite a few favourites:

Little Women,

What Katy Did (and the sequels)

Famous Five

Black Beauty

I've always loved reading.

5. Are you more of a tortoise or a hare? Explain. 

I think I'm a bit of both.  I can procrastinate a lot and move slowly on things - so like a tortoise but when something really needs to get done I can turn into a hare.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

After a long spell of good weather it turned really chilly at the beginning of this week.  I had to put a jumper on yesterday.  We did manage a walk around the lake on Sunday though and spotted another group of ducklings - we counted 13 but it was impossible to get a picture of all of them together they were moving around quite fast.

We also spotted these two ducks which we hadn't seen before - apparently they are Ring necked Teals.

Book Reviews for April 2025 (Books #20 - #27)

Well April passed by in a bit of blur while I was doing the A-Z Challenge.  Despite being busy I managed to read 8 books but I didn't get around to posting the reviews.  I've combined them all here in one post.  

My favourite of the month was "Not a Happy Family" by Shari Lapena and my least favourite was "Trial by Fire" by Danielle Steel.   Some reads were easier than others.

  The Last Bookshop in London: A Novel of World War II by Madeline Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

August 1939: London prepares for war as Hitler’s forces sweep across Europe. Grace Bennett has always dreamed of moving to the city, but the bunkers and drawn curtains that she finds on her arrival are not what she expected. And she certainly never imagined she’d wind up working at Primrose Hill, a dusty old bookshop nestled in the heart of London.

Through blackouts and air raids as the Blitz intensifies, Grace discovers the power of storytelling to unite her community in ways she never dreamed—a force that triumphs over even the darkest nights of the war.

This was a nice easy read, despite covering a very difficult time in London. Definitely a feel good book.

View all my reviews

Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In the quiet, wealthy enclave of Brecken Hill, an older couple is brutally murdered hours after a tense Easter dinner with their three adult children. Who, of course, are devastated.

Or are they? They each stand to inherit millions. They were never a happy family, thanks to their vindictive father and neglectful mother, but perhaps one of them is more disturbed than anyone knew. Did someone snap after that dreadful evening? Or did another person appear later that night with the worst of intentions? That must be what happened. After all, if one of the family were capable of something as gruesome as this, you'd know.

Wouldn't you?

Really enjoyed this book - kept me turning the pages. An horrific double murder brings to light many secrets shared by the Merton family and people close to them. Lots of possibilities as to who could have committed the crime some more credible than others. They are definitely not a happy family.

View all my reviews 

Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jackson Brodie has relocated to a quiet seaside village, in the occasional company of his recalcitrant teenage son and an aging Labrador, both at the discretion of his ex-partner Julia. It’s picturesque, but there’s something darker lurking behind the scenes.

Jackson’s current job, gathering proof of an unfaithful husband for his suspicious wife, is fairly standard-issue, but a chance encounter with a desperate man on a crumbling cliff leads him into a sinister network—and back across the path of his old friend Reggie. Old secrets and new lies intersect in this breathtaking novel.

This is my second book by Kate Atkinson and, like the first, it took a while to get into and I found the multiple characters a bit hard to keep track of but gradually I became hooked. Perhaps all her books are like that.

Anyway another enjoyable read and although the subject matter (sex trafficking) is quite dark it wasn't done too graphically.

View all my reviews 

The Girl at the Lion d'Or by Sebastian Faulks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In mid- Thirties France, seeking asylum from her past, a penniless orphan, Anne, turns up as a waitress at a tatty hotel by the sea. Befriended by the local landowner, Charles, Anne entrusts him with the highly charged scandal that in the Great War left her parentless. Her longing to be loved seduces him into tackling his own problems -- trauma at Verdun, decrepit estate, childless wife -- with a courage matching hers.... 

I feel I should be able to say more about this book after all Faulks is an acclaimed writer. But….it’s not my favourite of his by a long way. It felt slow almost to the point of boring. There is beautiful prose and great description (of some things) but I didn’t take to the characters and it just didn’t move me in the way that Birdsong did. The blurb above is also, I feel, a bit misleading. I didn’t feel Charles was particularly courageous at all.

View all my reviews 

A Dedicated Man by Peter Robinson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A Dedicated Man is the second novel in Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series, following on from Gallows View. A dead body. Hidden secrets. Banks will find the truth. The brutally murdered body of a supposedly well-liked local historian is found half-buried under a dry stone wall. But who would kill such a thoughtful, dedicated man? Young Sally Lumb, locked in her lover's arms on the night of the murder, tries to find the killer herself. But her good-intentions only leads to more danger. And when Chief Inspector Alan Banks is called to investigate he soon discovers that disturbing secrets lie behind the seemingly untroubled façade . . .

The second in the DCI Banks series and another solid crime procedural. Always a bit tricky when you've seen the televised versions of novels, especially when the main character doesn't match the image created in the book version. Will be interesting to see if subsequent novels align with the TV series. The ending of this one didn't feel that suspenseful to me.

View all my reviews 

Trial By Fire by Danielle Steel
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The life of a Parisian woman changes in a heartbeat when she’s trapped by wildfires in Napa Valley. Born to a French mother and American father, graceful Dahlia de Beaumont has been sole owner and CEO of the venerable family perfume business based in Paris since her early twenties, following the death of her parents. For twenty-five years, after losing her young skier husband in an avalanche, her life has centered on running Lambert Perfumes and being a devoted single mother to her four now-adult indecisive Charles, volatile Alexa, kind-hearted business visionary Delphine, and dreamy artist Emma. 

Now fifty-six, she has an “arrangement” with a married French man but has been questioning that relationship. Dahlia comes to San Francisco on a routine business trip to check on her stores in the States. But shortly after her arrival, brush fires ignite in Napa Valley. Watching the sweeping devastation on the news, Dahlia is moved to help. But doing so will bring unforeseen consequences that endanger not only her life, but her entire future. 

Forced to remain in San Francisco in the aftermath, she will make unexpected connections while also fighting to protect all she has worked for. What Dahlia learns will provide a new perspective of her life, forever changing what really matters to her and what comes next for her journey.

I last read a Danielle Steel book in 2019, before to that I'd have to look back prior to 2010. I don't think another of her books will make my list. I have certainly enjoyed her books in the past but this had so much repetition early on that I nearly gave up on it.

Plus points? Well it ticked the "Climate Fiction" prompt for the "52 book club" challenge - just! (There was a lot written about fires in California but not really much about them being caused by climate change or how that needs to be addressed.) Thankfully it was also a quick read.

Minus points? It needed much more editing. It was very predictable and it just felt formulaic to me.

View all my reviews 

The Boy from the Woods by Harlan Coben
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thirty years ago, a child was found in the New Jersey backwoods.

He had been living a feral existence, with no memory of how he got there or even who he is. Everyone just calls him Wilde.  Now a former soldier and security expert, he lives off the grid, shunned by the community - until they need him.

A child has gone missing. With her family suspecting she's just playing a disappearing game, nobody seems concerned except for criminal attorney Hester Crimstein. She contacts Wilde, asking him to use his unique skills to find the girl.

But even he can find no trace of her. One day passes, then a second, then a third.  On the fourth, a human finger shows up in the mail.

And now Wilde knows this is no game. It's a race against time to save the girl's life - and expose the town's dark trove of secrets...

Harlan Coben books have yet to disappoint me. This is another fast moving thriller with lots of threads to keep track of.

It starts with the missing girl, leads on to a missing boy and along the way there is an historic scandal affecting current lives in a complicated manner.

Lots going on. Perhaps my only criticism is that there might be too much going on – sometimes less is more but I still couldn’t stop turning the pages.

View all my reviews 

Friday's Fave Five - 2/5/25

It's Friday!  Time to take a breath and look back on the good things in the past week.  Susanne who blogs here reminds us to do this each week.  Thank you Susanne.

1)  Lovely weather - feels more like summer than spring - lots of sunshine and warm - it was 27 C yesterday.  It's set to cool down after today but with no rain forecast so I'm not complaining.

2)  Living so close to green areas.  I've walked the "lake lap" as I call it a couple of times this week and it's been lovely hearing all the birds in the trees and seeing the new babies on the lake.  I posted some pictures on this post if you missed it.  I just love that in only 5 minutes I can be in the forest and pretend I don't live in the busy city of London.

3)  I've also had lots of birds coming to the bird feeder in the garden this week and as it's been so warm we've had doors open.  The other evening the parakeets were having a lovely chat to one another. (You'll probably need your volume fairly high to hear them.)

4)  Knit and natter get together on Wednesday.  My blanket is almost complete!

5)  A date night with Hubby last Friday.  We went back to the restaurant we took our friends to recently.  They had changed their menu and I had a 25 % off code for food so we thought we'd give it a try.  It was very good and we had a nice evening.

So nothing extraordinary but just a nice simple week with lots of good things.  And I finished the A-Z blogging challenge!

Have a good weekend all.

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 30/4/25

Joyce is our host for the Hodgepodge and blogs here.  This is her 600th edition of the Hodgepodge.  That deserves a medal or at least a glass of champagne.

1. My very first edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge was published on November 10, 2010 (linked here if you're curious). Tell us something about your life from that era. 

I was working full time as a School Business Manager at the time.  Our kids would have been 24, 22 and 20.  Our daughter, the eldest, was sharing a house with school friends, the eldest son was back home after finishing university and was working for a bank in the city (London) and the younger son was at university in Bristol.  I was also keeping an eye on my Mum who was in a nursing home by that time with Alzheimer's.

2. What's a song you love that relates to time in some way? 

I am useless at remembering specific songs and links.

3. May is nearly upon us. When did you last need to yell 'MAY DAY-MAY DAY!!'? 

Well I don't think I've every yelled May Day but I have yelled help more than a few times.  One specific time at work was when a small child managed to climb through some bannister style bars in a play house and ended up suspended by his neck.  I ended up supporting his weight while yelling for someone to get the Site Supervisor to help with freeing him.  Fortunately we managed to do that and the child was fine.  My nerves were not lol.

4. How do you feel about food trucks? Is this a dining experience you enjoy?  Do you have a favourite What's something you've ordered from a food truck?

Don't often use food trucks although the few times we went to a weekend music festival we did.  We had things like jacket potatoes, or a roast dinner served in a huge (as in plate size) yorkshire pudding but I think my favourite would have been the freshly made pancakes. (With lots of chocolate sauce!) 

5. We're bidding farewell to April...what are three adjectives you might use to describe the month you're leaving behind. 

Busy, celebratory (Hubby turned 70) and sunny.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

It has definitely been sunny this week and I've done a "lake lap" a couple of times - there are lots of babies around.

The Egyptian goslings are nearly fully grown.

There was also a duck with at least 8 tiny ducklings but I couldn't get a decent photo of them.  I say 8, there might have been one of two more but yesterday evening they were moving around so fast it was impossible to count them!

The female swan is also nesting at the moment so hopefully we will have cygnets to look forward to as well.

Enjoy the rest of the week all.

A-Z Challenge 2025 - Z is for Zipping

Well I couldn't find any good Z synonyms for waffle or nonsense  so I'll just be zipping through this post.  I feel like I've been zipping through the whole A - Z this year.  A few posts were done in advance, when I had free time on a Sunday for example, but mostly I've been winging it and preparing the day before, or like today trying to get the post done and on my blog before the end of the day.

It's been good to push myself though.

Now, on to the Z countries:

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

There are 2 Z countries:

• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

It probably won't surprise anyone that I haven't visited either of these and am not likely too.

Which means, I think, that I've only visited 21 out of 197 countries - which is about 10 per cent.  Not very impressive.

My favourite trip has to be when we visited the US in 2014 for our son's wedding and also visited Philadelphia, Washington and New York.

Our trip to Australia in 2017 is also high on the list as is the Norwegian cruise we did.  

I'm sure we'll be back to the US at some point but there are still places in the UK to see too.  Our next planned trip though is to France for a family celebration in July - one of Hubby's sisters lives in Dunkerque.

Yay!  26 out of 26 letters done - and my 11th A-Z challenge complete.

A-Z Challenge 2025 - Y is for Yabber

Well I'm not sure if I Yabber. (rapid indistinct talk)  I mean I often talk fast but I don't think I'm indistinct.  Although Hubby would probably disagree.  He wears hearing aids in both ears and I must admit that I don't always talk at him so he probably does miss some of what I say.  I don't mean I talk at him in an inconsiderate way, just that I sometimes turn away when I'm talking to him and that makes it harder for him to hear me.

And then of course there's always an element of selective hearing on his part.

With his hearing and me talking too fast it's amazing we have any sort of conversation but trust me we do.  Although sometimes he complains I talk too slowly - which is usually when I'm trying to explain something to him and I'm trying to phrase things in a way that he'll understand but he gets impatient.  Definitely feel like yabbering then with words he would not want to hear! lol

Ok time for the Y country.

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

Yemen

is the only Y country. 

"FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) advises against all travel to Yemen

FCDO advises against all travel to the whole of the Yemen due to the unpredictable security conditions.

If you’re in Yemen, you should leave immediately."

If you did decide to go anyway don't count on making a claim on your travel insurance - travelling against the advice of the FCDO would most likely invalidate it.

I haven't been to Yemen and certainly won't be going. It would make visiting our son and his family in the US more complicated too as we'd need VISAs and not ESTAs.

I'm not sure how many other countries the FCDO advises against but probably quite a few on my lists.

Right I'm waffling now so time for bed.  Yay, Y is done, only Z to do!

A-Z Challenge 2025 - X is for X marks the spot

Well I couldn't find a word that meant waffling or nonsense beginning with X and there are no countries starting with X either.

X marks the spot - somewhere on the globe there must be a place that starts with X. Actually there are a few places, most of which are in China but there is also Xaghra in Malta and Xcaret in Mexico.  Who knew?

Short and sweet today.  I'm flagging but only 2 days to go!

#SoCS - 26/4/25 - Shake

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “shake.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Well the first thing that sprang to mind with the prompt was to give myself a mental "shake" and get on with writing a post that didn't relate in any way to a letter of the alphabet.  

Yes I've been trying to complete the A-Z challenge again this year and I've been hanging on by a thread.  I didn't have any posts written at the start of the challenge, we've had family staying over Easter so busy at home yet somehow I've managed to keep on track - just!

Actually giving yourself a mental shake is not a great idea.  The brain is not intended to shake inside your head - Hubby is testament to that as he suffered a brain injury when he was knocked off his bike many years ago now.  Thankfully he recovered well.  But so often that phrase is used in books.

Another phrase that has wound up a book group I'm a member of is "letting out the breath you didn't know you were holding" - there have been numerous Facebook posts quoting books with that line in and now we're working on books that "make your eyes roll".

Some things do need to be given a shake though - Martinis according to James Bond, as in "shaken not stirred".

Well I need to stir myself now and get on with the day - it's been a slow start here so I should "shake a leg" as the saying goes.

Thanks to Linda for the prompt.  Find out all the details etc here.

A-Z Challenge 2025 - W is for Wittering

Wittering - to talk for a long time about things that are not important

I can do this until the cows come home.  We used to have cows grazing on the land opposite where we lived in our second family home.  One of the first things I insisted on when we moved in was getting a proper fence and gates in place.  We only had a low wall and no gates in place so it wasn't unusual to get back from being out and find a cow in the front garden destroying the plants.

I think due to all the BSE problems the cows were removed from open grazing land but we had railings and gates by then.

More recently there have been attempts to reintroduce cows and in Epping Forest we have long horn cows.  More information on this can be found here.

We have seen them on our walks:

Right onto W countries:

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

Oh - no W countries according to the list.

Wait!  What about Wales!  I have to include Wales - my Dad was Welsh, born in hmm - I have to check this out.  I thought he was born in a place called Betws-Y-Coed a small place that was close to Merthyr Tydfil which is more well known.  But I've just looked at a map of Wales and they are no where near each other!  The plot thickens...

We don't know much about his early life - his parents separated and he was taken by his Father to Yorkshire.  He was sent down the coal mines as soon as possible and he opted to escape these by enlisting in the army prior to WW2.  He served during WW2 (including being one of the many evacuated from Dunkirk) but he spoke very little about that time.  Sadly he passed away in 1981 at the age of 63. 

I have visited Wales several times though so I'm adding it to my tally.

That's 21 out of 197 countries then.

And 23 out of 26 letters done.

Friday's Fave Five - 25/4/25

Each Friday I try and join with like-minded bloggers and look back on the things I'm grateful for during the previous week.  Our host for this is Susanne who blogs here.

1)  Family time at the weekend.  My eldest son and his family were still here until Sunday last weekend so it was good to have time with them and my daughter and her family on the Sunday morning.

2)  Quiet time on Monday!  I love having the family here but it is nice to then just have a quiet day without rushing around doing chores or cooking big meals etc.

3)  Ladies lunch on Wednesday with my former work colleagues.  A lovely relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

4)  Modern appliances - especially the washing machine and tumble dryer after having people to stay - all the extra bedding, towels etc.

5)  Good weather.  We have had some rain this week but the worst was overnight and I'm sure it was needed.  But it's been mainly sunny and of course our evenings are longer now - such a mood lifter.

Have a good weekend all.

A-Z Challenge 2025 - V is for Verbiage

Verbiage - language that is very complicated and contains a lot of unnecessary words

Another word I found while looking at synonyms for waffle or nonsense.  And of course I didn't look too deeply into the exact meaning because although I can definitely waffle and talk a lot of nonsense, I'm not sure the language I use is very complicated or, as other dictionaries state, "technical".

I absolutely cannot use verbiage today - I'm totally winging this post.  It's not been done in advance - it's already past midday so this is all you're going to get today!

But... still time to look at the V countries:

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

• Vanuatu
• Vatican City (Holy See)
• Venezuela
• Vietnam

I have visited none of these!  Vanuatu, Venezuela and Vietnam are out of my reach but, as a Catholic (albeit rather lapsed) a visit to Vatican City would be interesting.

That's still 20 out of 197 countries then.

And 22 out of 26 letters done.

A-Z Challenge 2025 - U is for (H)um and (H)aw

Well I'm scraping the barrel here with the take on Hum and Haw - which I found down a synonym black hole somewhere.  

"To procrastinate; to take a long time before doing something or taking a decision. We hummed and hawed before finally deciding to buy this house."

I would actually say "umming and arring" so it does fit with today's letter and we all know how good I am at procrastination.

Although not when it comes to house buying.  When we were looking for our first house to buy we did look at quite a few houses but then we saw one that had a more unusual layout to most of the ones we had seen and that was that.  It was the house I wanted.

The move to our second house wasn't even planned.  We were quite happy where we were, although we had 3 children by then so we knew a move would be sooner rather than later.  However an acquaintance lost the buyer for their house and we got chatting about that.  I went to look at the house and decided that I wanted to move there.  Hubby took a bit of convincing - and again we viewed quite a few other houses but he finally agreed and it was a done deal.

Our most recent move back in 2020 was hampered by the pandemic.  Having decided to move we had secured a buyer but then we were locked down.  When things started to open up again we knew we would have to move quickly to ensure the chain stayed intact but again when we viewed this house it ticked most of our boxes so it wasn't a hard choice to make.

I do think that you can just get a feel for the right house, but sometimes the circumstances aren't right for everything to fall in to place.  We were lucky.

Right on to the U countries:

• Uganda
• Ukraine
• United Arab Emirates (UAE)
• United Kingdom (UK)
• United States of America (USA)
• Uruguay
• Uzbekistan

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

Well obviously I've been to the United Kingdom - I live here (in London).  And I've visited Scotland and Wales.  We should try and get to Northern Island at some point.

I've also been to the USA, 3 times now.  We first went in 2014 when our son got married.  And we have visited for Thanksgiving in both 2018 and 2024.  Our son's in-laws make very good hosts and we've been able to host them on their trips here.

I don't think I'll be visiting any of the other U countries.

That's 20 out of 197 countries then.

And  21 out of 26 letters done.

A-Z Challenge 2025 - T is for Tripe

Well of course I think of tripe as another word for nonsense, which fits in with most of my A-Z posts.  Unfortunately it is also: 

the first or second stomach of a cow or other ruminant used as food

having googled it (as you do) it seems there are plenty of recipes for preparing it.  I suppose some of those could even make it taste edible.  But there is just something about it that makes it seem very unappetizing.  It's a bit like offal I suppose - another group of foods that don't have mass appeal although I have eaten liver and kidney in the past.  Not so much these days.  We also used to eat tongue that came in tins. (Although it might have also been available on the deli counter.) I don't think I fully comprehended just what that was at the time - I'm going back to my childhood here - and we also had spam.

Yes for any younger readers out there spam is not just rubbish e-mails it's also a canned meat product made with ground pork and processed ham.

I suppose it's a bit daft really that while I'm happy to eat meat (I try not to think of lambs or cows etc when doing that) the thought of tripe or offal or insects has a very negative effect on my appetite.

I did once plod through a pig's trotter dish in France - I thought I was ordering a piece of pork not a foot!  I did not enjoy it.

Anyway enough tripe for one day.  Moving on the T countries are:

• Taiwan
• Tajikistan
• Tanzania
• Thailand
• Timor-Leste
• Togo
• Tonga
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Tunisia
• Turkey
• Turkmenistan
• Tuvalu

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

I've only managed one of the T's - Turkey.  Hubby and I did a package trip one year, after the kids were old enough to leave home alone.  It was towards the end of the summer season so the heat wasn't too much for us pale and wan Brits.  It made a change for us as holidays with the kids tended to be camping trips or places like Center Parcs.  We stayed in a nice hotel  with a pool but the beach was only a short walk away.  

Hubby did consider going to Thailand - he has a former work colleague who moved out there and married a Thai woman who would definitely host us but it's not somewhere high on my wish list.  Tunisia is probably one of the few African countries I'd consider going to but, as our son and his family are currently living in the US our travels are focussed on trips to see them for the next few years at least.

That's 18 out of 197 countries then.

And 20 out of 26 letters done.

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 23/4/25

Joyce provides the questions, we provide the answers and we all compare notes here.

1. The Hodgepodge lands on National Picnic Day...will you celebrate? Do you enjoy picnics? Dining out of doors picnic or otherwise? What are three or four things I'd find in your picnic basket?

Ha you have a different calendar to me so no I won't be celebrating although I will be having lunch with former work colleagues today.

I do like to picnic and am happy to dine outdoors as long as there are no wasps around. My picnic basket would probably include sandwiches, something sweet, maybe wine oh and serviettes to clean up with.

2. A time recently where you felt 'antsy'?

Hmm we've just had a spell with my son, his wife and their 2 boys here and, although I love to have them there are the occasional moments when I just want my usual routine of being up first and enjoying the quiet. Of course this doesn't happen at all while they are here as the boys are always up first but they're usually not too noisy so although I often wake when they get up I can easily turn over and get a (little) bit more sleep.

They love playing games.

3. As the saying goes...'when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.' Do you like lemonade? When did you recently need to make lemonade out of lemons, figuratively speaking?

I do like lemonade but the shop bought version - home made is usually too tart for me.

Last week I had to rescue the cake I'd ordered for Hubby's 70th birthday. Despite being a little bit younger than him I obviously had a senior moment when ordering the cake as it had 50th birthday on it. Fortunately I was able to salvage it by removing the 5 and piping on a 7 and it wasn't too noticeable. Phew!

This was just after he'd blown the candles out. Not the best picture of the cake but it was definitely yummy.

4. Recently five 'celebrities' made a brief (ll minute) foray into space aboard Jeff Bezos Blue Origin rocket. Did you hear about this? Your thoughts? If money were no object is this something you'd like to do someday?

I did hear about it. Not impressed and definitely wouldn't want to do it.

5. Favourite thing about the 'space' you're sitting in right now?

I can look out into the garden and watch the birds feeding on the bird feeder.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Things were a little bit busy around here with the grandchildren visiting and I'm also trying to complete the A-Z challenge again this year so I feel normal blogging has taken a back seat. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and do more blog visits and commenting. Apologies for not getting around to everyone.

A-Z Challenge 2025 - S is for Shenanigans

Well we had lots of "shenanigans" going on here over the last few days 

not the "secret or dishonest activity or manoeuvring" kind

but the "silly or high-spirited behaviour or mischief. kind

With 4 of the grandchildren here at various times they were very high spirited although to be fair they didn't really get up to much mischief.  They do love seeing one another though.

They played a lot of football in the garden and they have used up all my supply of bubbles.  And between them they exhausted Nanny.

So, on to the S countries:

• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Samoa
• San Marino
• Sao Tome and Principe
• Saudi Arabia
• Senegal
• Serbia
• Seychelles
• Sierra Leone
• Singapore
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Solomon Islands
• Somalia
• South Africa
• South Korea
• South Sudan
• Spain
• Sri Lanka
• Sudan
• Suriname
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Syria

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

There are a lot of S countries but I've only been to 2 of them, Spain and Switzerland.

The Switzerland visit was many years ago when my knees could still cope with skiing. (And pre children!)  We stayed in Verbier and I didn't really enjoy it.  The weather wasn't great and, for the novice skier that I was (it was only my 2nd time) the runs were quite hard.

I visited Spain in 2023.  We went for the wedding of one of our nephews and it was a lovely trip - and a beautiful wedding.  You can read more about it here.

That's 17 out of 197 countries then.

And 19 out of 26 letters done.