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.