Wednesday Hodgepodge - 21/10/26

Joyce provides the questions for this each week.  We think up our answers and then the link up is here.  Why not join the fun

1. This week's Hodgepodge lands on 'Back To The Future Day'. October 21, 2015 was the date the movie characters (Marty McFly, Doc, and Jennifer Parker) travelled to in the future in the 1989 film Back To The Future Part 2.

Did you see the movie? Tell us a something about what was happening in your life in the fall of 2015.

I vaguely remember seeing the movie.  Back in 2015 I was still getting used to not being at work and preparing for this:

L - R Elizabeth, (son Michael's wife) Matthew (our son), his wife Amy, Nick, Rebecca (our daughter) her wife Vicky, Me, Maureen (my MIL, RIP) and Michael.

Our daughter's wedding.  They'll celebrate 11 years on Sunday.

2. Which -ber month is your favourite? (September, October, November, December). Explain why.

September is probably my favourite - it's often still warm like summer and the days are still fairly long.  I don't like it when the clocks go back and we have such short days and the weather makes it harder to get out of the house.

3. Red, yellow, orange, bronze...your favourite fall colour to wear? To eat? To see in nature?

Well of those colours I'm more likely to wear red but not very often.  I do love watching the leaves change through all those colours.  Not sure about a favourite food in those colours.

4. What do you miss most about being 20?

Not a lot although my Dad was still alive then - he died when I was 22.  Probably not having responsibilities.  

5. We're roughly three quarters of the way through the year. What's one goal, habit, or mindset you want to purposely carry into the final weeks of the year? Elaborate.

Less procrastination.  I have several things that make me get up at a reasonable time in the mornings, (foodbank, keep fit etc.)  but on the days when there's nothing in the diary I can find myself wasting time on unproductive things.  I need to start getting up at the same time each day, before the dark mornings are here when it will be even harder.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I don't usually do anything about Halloween but my Nottingham Grandsons will be here for it this year so I need to up my game!  I might even have to get some pumpkins.

Waffling on - 20/10/26

Not sure where the last few days have gone.

Saturday was quite busy - I was at the Foodbank in the morning and then in the evening we babysat our grandchildren Nathan and Ella.  Their Mummies were off out for a meal to celebrate their wedding anniversary which is next week.

We watched Strictly Come Dancing and the kids had a great time trying to copy the dance routines.  They were very excitable and very noisy but they were doing something together and having fun so I left them to it.  Hubby wasn't so impressed - he finds the noise levels hard to cope with but at least he can take his hearing aids out to turn it down lol.

I did manage to get them to sit for a bit before the end and calm down a little which I think helped with bedtime.  Ella can often chat for ages before going to sleep but I think all the dancing had tired her out so it didn't take too long for her to settle and drop off.

Nathan was still awake when the Mummies got back but I don't think he would have been awake for much longer.  At least I hope not!

Sunday was a fairly quiet day but we went out for Sunday lunch for a change.  I blogged about that here.

Yesterday I caught up on a lot of chores at home before we picked the grandkids up from school and dropped them home.

After dinner I went and picked up the foodbank donations from our local supermarket and then did my usual session at the foodbank taking in deliveries from other collectors.  Thankfully everyone got back to the Hub fairly quickly and we didn't have too much to sort out so I was home by 10 pm.  

Today has been more babysitting - the grandchildren both had parents evening at school so we picked them up at the usual time and brought them back here.  We then made dinner for all of us including the Mummies when they got back from seeing the teachers.  We just thought it would make their life a little easier if dinner was taken care of as they didn't get back until just after 6 pm.  All they had to do then was take the kids home and put them to bed.  Hubby actually cooked the dinner (bolognese sauce with pasta) and I'd made banana bread earlier in the day which we had for dessert with custard.

Tomorrow should be a quieter day!

Shots on Sunday - 18/10/26

Well this week I have taken even less photos than last week!  

I did take the obligatory screen shots when I was organising the pick ups for the supermarket donations on Wednesday which are incredibly boring.  I also took a photo of the pub quiz in the newspaper yesterday (and the answers) because we do that as a family but I won't put that on here because it's bound to be subject to copyright.  Oops.

Anyway we were out and about today so I snapped these:

This is the site of the former cinema that I've written about before.  Work was delayed during the summer because of the heat but now they have poured the concrete in for the foundations and this crane has appeared on site so hopefully we will begin to see progress on its transformation - it's going to be a new 2 screen cinema with flats behind.  

This was my Sunday lunch at one of the pubs near us - we decided to eat out for a change and give Hubby a break from cooking.

My dessert, there's a chocolate brownie under all that chocolate sauce and ice cream!

Hubby's sticky toffee pudding.The puddings were great but the meal was probably just on the right side of ok.  Definitely nothing special.  But it was nice not to have to cook (or wash up) at home and although it was chilly we avoided any rain.

Trouble is, when you've been trying to cut down on your portion size and don't usually have desserts at home, when we eat out now I end up feeling over full.  

We walked up to the pub and we probably should have walked home too to work off some of the calories but we compromised by walking half way and then getting the bus!

And, as always, we commented that we should do this more often!

#SoCS - 17/10/26 - Pitch

Linda provides the prompts for this and today's link up is here.

Your prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “pitch.” Use it as a noun, use it as a verb, use it way you’d like. Have fun!

Back in September our community held a "Picnic in the Park".  This is an annual event and will include a variety of attractions plus various local organisations, charities etc will have a space to pitch their stall in our local park.

The food bank that I volunteer at has a stall each year.  I volunteered to help transport tables, gazebo, goods etc to the pitch in the morning and help set up and then to do the packing up at the end of the day.  Consequently I was there for most of the day.  

I did take a break around lunch time to go home, have something to eat and a sit down before heading back.

However, at just after 3 pm Transport for London seemed to think I had taken my car through one of the tunnels under the river Thames.  I haven't yet mastered the ability to be in two places at once, a skill that would be very useful at times.

Anyway, I have an account set up with them to automatically pay the fee should I use either tunnel and as the fee is quite small, and I rarely use the tunnels, I don't always check the monthly statement I get.  This month I did check it and realised their error.  Naturally I emailed them to advise them of this.

A week later I got a reply saying that "having reviewed the evidence" they agreed it was a mistake and I would be refunded.  Of course the sensible thing to do would be to refund my account.  But apparently they can't do that.  Oh no.  They said they would send me a cheque!

Who uses cheques these days? I certainly don't.  Can't remember the last time I wrote one.  Anyway the cheque duly arrived in the grand sum of £1.50.  I'd love to know how much it actually cost to carry out this procedure, not to mention the postage.  A costly error on their part and they didn't answer my question of whether they had misread another car's registration plate or if my registration plate was actually on a different car, i.e. it had been cloned.  Hopefully not but I will be checking these statements more carefully in future just in case.

Thankfully I can pay the cheque into my bank via the banking app which I've already done.  It's a bit fiddly but I don't even know where my nearest bank branch is anymore to deposit it in person.  So many of them have been closed.  I know I could probably also do it at an ATM machine but that would require remembering my PIN.  

Does anyone else have trouble remembering PIN numbers now that we make so many payments using contactless?  On my credit card app I can view my pin if I need to but not the banking app.  Maybe I'll pitch that as an idea for them to develop.  The staff no longer working in branches need something to do!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend all.

Friday's Fave Five - 16/10/26

Each Friday a group of us look back on the week and find the blessings. We're reminded to do this by Susanne and then we link up on her blog here.  Why not join us?

1)  This week I'm grateful that our garden waste collections are included in our council tax and we don't have to pay extra for them.  Some councils only collect during Spring and Summer and you have to pay for them.  Our garden waste is collected year round with no extra cost.  We have two trees on the street in front of our house and because we have off street parking the leaves collect on our driveway.  My garden waste bin will be full of leaves when the next collection comes around. (It's fortnightly.)

2)  Sunny weather.  And it's still been quite mild during the day.  We have had some rain but it hasn't lasted long.

3)  Dinner with my daughter and her family last Sunday.  Good to get together and not have to cook.

4)  An alternative venue for our Knit and Natter session this week.  We have been meeting in the upstairs room of one of the local pubs but the room was double booked this week.  Thankfully we were able to meet up in the outside area of another pub nearby.  The outside area is roofed and it also has heaters so the weather wasn't a problem.  It probably wouldn't work in the middle of winter but it was a good alternative this week.  We did have to put up with being able to hear the bingo number calling though - it was Bingo Night in the pub itself.  But that wasn't continuous so it didn't really bother us.

5)  Another Great Niece - born yesterday. She hasn't been named yet as the couple were convinced they were having a boy!  Although they didn't actually know what they were having, choosing to be surprised.

Have a good weekend all.

Read then Write - 15/10/26

This was the one I was about to start last week and it didn't take me long to read.

The blurb reads:

A nerve-tingling and atmospheric thriller from master of suspense Nicci French about two families shattered by tragedy and the secrets that have been waiting decades to be revealed.

On the day of Alec Salter’s fiftieth birthday party, just before Christmas 1990, his wife Charlotte vanishes. Most of the small English village of Glensted is at the party for hours before anyone realizes Charlotte is missing. While Alec brushes off her disappearance, their four children—especially fifteen-year-old Etty—grow increasingly anxious as the cold winter hours become days and she doesn’t return. When Charlotte’s coat is found by the river, they fear the worst. Then the body of the Salters’ neighbor, Duncan Ackerley, is found floating in the river by his son Morgan and Etty. The police investigate and conclude that Duncan and Charlotte were having an affair before he killed her and committed suicide.

Thirty years later, Morgan Ackerley, a successful documentarian, has returned to Glensted with his older brother Greg to make podcast based on their shared tragedy with the Salters. Alec, stricken with dementia, is entering an elder care facility while Etty helps put his affairs in order. But as the Ackerleys ask to interview the Salters, the entire town gets caught up in the unresolved cases. Allegations are made, secrets are revealed, and a suspicious fire leads to a murder. 

With the podcast making national news, London sends Detective Inspector Maud O’Connor to Glensted to take over the investigation. Resented by her mostly male colleagues, she has no tolerance for either their sexism or their incompetence. And she will stop at nothing to uncover the truth as a new and terrifying picture of what really happened to Charlotte Salter and Duncan Ackerley emerges.

This was definitely a slow burner but I thought it was well written and it led to a satisfying end.  There was good coverage of the way the police investigations were handled but also the way the families involved reacted to the circumstances.

I'd be more than happy to look out for other books featuring DI Maud O'Connor. 4 stars for me.

I also managed to fit this one in this week:

 

Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no way to reach her husband, no phone or money, and a city left in chaos, she realizes there’s nothing to do but walk.

Making her way across the wreckage of Portland, Annie experiences human desperation and kindness: strangers offering help, a riot at a grocery store, and an unlikely friendship with a young mother. As she walks, Annie reflects on her struggling marriage, her disappointing career, and her anxiety about having a baby. She’s determined to change her life if she can just make it home.

This was quite a good debut novel.  It takes place on one day with Annie looking back on previous events while she walks.  It kept me engaged and I liked the style of writing.  In some ways though it didn't have enough depth and I didn't feel it was always very realistic.  The ending was also a bit predictable and left a lot of unanswered questions.

I'm still 4 books behind on my challenge of 52 books over the year and my next planned read is not going to improve that situation.  It's this one:

This is the Library book club choice.  I tried to start it yesterday and although I've only read a little I'm finding it really hard going.  I don't think I'm going to like it at all and am seriously considering abandoning it and reading something else.  Which is of course not what I'd normally do - I hate giving up on books but this one is nearly 500 pages and I know I won't read it quickly.  We're not meeting until next month so I might leave it for now and try and come back to it.

Anyone here read it?  Was it worth it?

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 14/10/26

Joyce provides the questions each week, we come up with our answers and then we link up here.  Thanks Joyce.

1. Do you think you're driven more by curiosity or comfort? Explain. 

Well I do like my comfort but I am also curious.  I definitely don't like feeling out of the loop but I probably wouldn't stray too far out of my comfort zone to explore things.

2. What non-food item is in your refrigerator or freezer? 

The only non food items are the ice packs that we take with us when we need to keep things cold.

3. Are you comfortable with silence? If you're home alone, do you like silence or do you need regular background noise? Do you seek out times and places to be silent? What's your favourite place to find silence/be silent? 

I definitely prefer quiet.  I'm happy in my home on my own with no background noise.  I like to sit in the garden when the weather permits with a book or my laptop.  It's never totally silent - our road is quite busy and because of the layout you can hear the traffic and occasionally if the wind is in the right direction you can hear the trains but those are the sort of noises that you tune out because you're so used to them.

4. Carpentry, electrical, plumbing, landscaping...which skill would you most like to possess and how would you put that skill to use today?

All of the above please.  Today I would probably start with landscaping.  Our side lawn is looking very sorry for itself after the hot summer we've had.

5. Do you lean more towards being too needy or too independent? Which do you find harder to deal with in others? 

I like to think I'm independent.  I was only 22 when my Dad passed away and my Mum was clueless about a lot of things so I had to step in and help her sort out finances and other stuff so that gave me a good grounding.  After I married I took a career break to bring up the children so I took on most of the admin connected to running a home so I think I would be able to cope if my Hubby dies before me. 

I find it harder to deal with someone who is needy than independent, although of course when the children were younger and wanted to exercise their independence that was sometimes a challenge!

6.  Insert your own random thought here.

I am slowly doing the "Spot the Difference" task on the jigsaw I completed recently - there are 100 differences between the jigsaw and the picture supplied with it.  I managed to take a photo of the jigsaw and now I'm marking them on the photo.  So far I have found 85! (It beats watching the news on TV.)

Waffling on - 12/10/26

It was a fairly quiet weekend here.

I did my usual session at the Foodbank on Saturday morning.  Despite the fantastic amount of donations we had from the Woodford Wells Harvest service last weekend there was still a fair amount of food sent in on Saturday.  Sally one of the other volunteers usually joins me so we're usually done in a couple of hours.  

I took advantage of the sunny weather and walked home via the lake.  It is definitely autumn here now.

Saturday evening I watched Strictly (Strictly Come Dancing) which is a favourite of mine.  Some stars are better than others but it is entertaining.

Sunday was relaxing although I did fit in another walk around the lake.  Then we went to our daughter's for dinner.  Our DIL had done a nice slow cooked beef dish but she wasn't happy with her sticky toffee pudding.  Fortunately we'd taken some of the banana bread I made on Friday which went well with the toffee sauce so all was not lost.

I dropped Hubby off at an open mic on the way home then watched the Strictly results show before getting hooked into a new series here "Winter".  

It follows forensic pathologist Dr. Ethan Winter and DI Lauren Bell as they solve complex murder cases in Bristol, blending weekly mysteries with an overarching personal storyline.  

I watched the first two episodes and could easily have watched more but my bed was calling me.

Today I have given in and put the heating on.  

Shots on Sunday - 11/10/26

I did try and post a weekly photo post of photos taken daily.  Problem is I'm not very good at remembering to take a photo each day but I have found it useful to have a routine to my posts.  Anyway today I just thought I'd post the photos I did take this week and rename the post as Shots on Sunday.  We'll see how long this bright idea lasts!

This was my shopping list on Wednesday.  I only ended up getting the birthday cards for my cousin (Jill) and my brother (John).  I never really intended to get the other items so they're still up there.  I also haven't got a card for my daughter and her wife for their wedding anniversary yet.  I'll probably have to look online for that.  Or try a proper card shop rather than the supermarket.

I took this one on my walk around the lake yesterday.  As you can see the ground is beginning to be covered with leaves although the trees are still looking quite green.  I haven't been walking in the forest much lately but now the weather is cooler I'll be trying to do it more often.

This is a photo of a recipe that my son in the US requested. (Macaroni with sausage meat and carrots.) We use it a lot as you can probably tell by the marks on the page!  It's quite easy to do, freezes well and makes a change from Bolognese.

The rest of my pictures were all taken this afternoon at the lake.  It was good to see that there are still 6 cygnets with their parents and they are really big now.  Hopefully the parents won't start chasing them off too soon but there is a great local team of volunteers who will help relocate the cygnets if it becomes necessary.

It was quite sunny today but the weather has definitely cooled this week - I've had to resort to extra layers and we'll need to put the warmer quilt on when we change the bed this week.  We haven't resorted to putting the heating on yet but I have used the electric fire in the lounge a couple of times when I've just been sitting watching TV.  Thankfully although we've had rain it hasn't been too much so I haven't had to dig my wellies out - yet!

#SoCS - 10/10/26

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “familiar.” 

Linda provides the prompts for these posts and the link up is here.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the idea of familiars if you've read the Philip Pullman books or anything similar.  Linda talked about naming a spider in her kitchen Mildred.  I followed that up with naming a spider in my spare bedroom Elsie.  

Well I'm not sure that Elsie actually exists.  I haven't seen her.  My son claims to have seen her while he was staying here but she's proved elusive to me.  To be fair I don't spend a lot of time in the spare bedroom so it's not surprising I haven't seen her.  She probably a bit lonely in there all on her own.  Unless she's brought some friends in to keep her company.  I do hope not!

Friday's Fave Five - 9/10/26

Susanne reminds us every Friday to look back on the week and write about the things we are grateful for.  Then we link up here.  Thanks Susanne.

1)  The smell of fresh Banana Bread.  I brought some bananas home from the Foodbank yesterday - we had lots that were not going to last until next Tuesday's session so volunteers were able to have some.  So of course I had to make banana bread with them.  

2)  The library.  I know I mention this one a lot but it does feature in my routine frequently.  This week I made a trip on Tuesday to pick up a couple of books I'd picked out for my 52 Book Club Challenge and then on Wednesday we had our afternoon book club meeting there where we discussed Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo.  We had a really good discussion about it although personally I was not a fan of the book.  And while I was there I was also able to pick up another book I only ordered in last week.  

3)  My Hubby.  He's always got my back and you will know that he does most of the cooking in our house.  He's not so good at remembering other chores, like putting the dustbins out but this week he even remembered to do that.  After checking which bins had to go out of course. 

4)  Chocolate cake.  My daughter and DIL hosted DILs brothers and families for lunch last Sunday.  They had leftovers and I was able to go over for a cup of tea and chocolate cake to collect some.

5)  Getting back into routines and hobbies. I've definitely been blogging more and I do enjoy the interaction with other bloggers.  I've also made time for reading so that is becoming a habit again and this week I did some knitting (we had a Knit and Natter meet up on Wednesday) and I've finally finished knitting the jumper I started an age ago.  I just need to sew up the sleeve seams, tidy up ends etc and block it.  You might even get to see me model it!  (Don't hold your breath lol.)  

Have a good weekend all.

Read then Write - 8/10/26

Well this has been a much better week for reading - I managed to finish Before the Storm by Alex Gray which I enjoyed.  

I've read quite a few in this series and they don't disappoint. This one is set in the run up to Christmas in Glasgow with DSI Lorimer dealing with a suspected terrorism threat, under cover officers having their covers blown and then a couple of murders. He's his usual calm and measured self, taking advantage of the skills of Daniel Kohi, a former Zimbabwean police officer, who finds himself a refugee in Glasgow following personal tragedy. It was wrapped up perhaps a little too neatly but this was an easy read following a couple of heavy book group reads. I gave it 4 stars.

My next read was Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent.  This was the book for my evening book group this month but it also ticks a prompt on the 52 Book Club challenge so that was a bonus.

For the most part I felt it was a good book. With echoes of "The Room" it does contain child abduction, abuse etc that wouldn't be to everyone's taste but it started off really well following Sally after her attempt to put her dead Father "out with the bins" and the upheaval that causes in her previously sheltered life. (Not a spoiler - it's in the blurb on the cover!)

Then we're given a very alternative viewpoint and initially I was still enjoying the book. However, for me it felt like the author had run out of steam and original ideas and then everything was wrapped up quite quickly and not how I envisaged it would end.  I still rated it 4 stars though as it was a good page turner for me.

And then finally I managed to read one of my own choices for a 52 Book Club prompt - Brooklyn by Colm Toibin.

As is often the case, despite this being an award winning book, I wasn't that impressed.  About half way through this book I realised I'd watched the film version which is why the book was sounding familiar. But I really did not like the main character Eilis. There were times I wanted to shout at her or give her a good shake. So young and naive and so contrary. I did like Toibin's style of writing but I didn't enjoy the content. Only 2 stars from me.

I have another book club read to get through, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy but before I start that I'm squeezing in another book that ticks a prompt - Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter by Nicci French. I've read quite a few of theirs (it's a Husband and Wife partnership) including all of the Frieda Klein series and enjoyed them so I'm sure this one won't disappoint.  At least I hope not lol.

I'm rushing this post so no pictures as it's getting late and I want to do more reading!

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 7/10/26

Joyce provides the questions each week. We compile our answers then the link up is here. Thanks Joyce.

1. Let's embrace it shall we? What's something you recently forgot to do? Is your memory these days more like a sieve or an elephant?

Well my memory is probably definitely not quite as good as it used to be. One thing that I often forget is to check our HelloFresh subscription. (Meal delivery plan with recipes and ingredients.) We don't tend to have it delivered every week so I have to remember to go in and skip the weeks when we don't want the food and also pick the recipes we'd like. I'm usually ok with skipping weeks but we often get a surprise with regard to the meals as they're the company's choices and not ours. Makes me try different things though so not all bad.

2. Share a trick/strategy you have to help you remember things you need to remember.

I do rely on my phone a lot with reminders, alarms etc although I do have a calendar on the wall and a diary too. We have a small white board on our fridge for noting down things we need to buy and I take a photo of that before going shopping rather than writing out a list.

3. What's your favourite fall vegetable to cook with? Do you prefer your fall veggies roasted, blended into a warm soup, or fresh in a crisp autumn salad?

Hard to pick a favourite vegetable but I do like roasted veg and soups but not so much a salad once it turns colder.

4. October 5th is/was National Do Something Nice Day. Did you? If so tell us about it. Or maybe someone did something nice for you, and if that's the case please share.

Hmm that was Monday and a very ordinary day here. I did get my breakfast made for me but Hubby does that most days so he doesn't need a National Day to do something nice. That day needs to be repeated - daily!

5. Nathaniel Hawthorne is credited with the quote "I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."

Do you tend to spend more time outside this time of year?

I probably don't as it can often be wet. It's raining as I'm writing this and I think that after the long hot summer we've had (often too hot to be outside) we're probably going to get a lot of days like this but I do try and get out and walk when I can especially if it is dry and sunny.

Do you actively pause to soak in fleeting moments of beauty in your daily routine? Elaborate.

I would say no. When I'm out walking I probably do but during the day I'm either busy doing chores or if I'm relaxing it would be reading or another hobby keeping me occupied. Although I do enjoy seeing a colourful sunset through our kitchen window.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Thinking about the "Do something nice day" made me think about something we were often told when growing up - "If you don't have anything nice to say keep quiet!" I don't always remember that lol.

#SoCS - 3/10/26 - Breeze

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “breeze.” Use it way you’d like. Have fun!

These prompts are provided by Linda who blogs here.  Pop over and see who else is taking part.

Well looking out of my window there is not much of a breeze going on which is annoying as I have a whole load of washing out and I don't think it's going to be much drier now than when I put it out.  Although actually Hubby put some of it out for me earlier.  Pretty obvious from the way it's pegged!

image courtesy of Magnific

There must be some sort of breeze going on because the clouds have gathered and it looks like we will probably get some promised  rain soon.  I should probably get the washing in and put it on the indoor airer.  Wish I'd done that in the first place.  

Don't you hate it when you end up doing something twice?  Doing the washing is definitely not a breeze on days like today.

Friday's Fave Five - 2/10/26

Well I couldn't let another Friday go by without joining in with Susanne's weekly gratitude blog hop.  Susanne reminds us every week to post about the good things that have happened during our week and the link up is here.  Thank you Susanne.

1)  Firstly, although I've used the autumn leaves picture and the leaves are definitely turning and dropping here, it has been so mild this week with lots of sunshine.  There was rain as well but mainly overnight and of course we needed it.

2)  Family time last weekend - one of Nick's sisters Helen turned 70 last Friday and her son, aided by her other 3 children hosted a get together for all the family.  Helen hates being the centre of attention but I think she really enjoyed having everyone together.

3)  The safe arrival of a great niece - Freya also on Saturday.  Always good to know that a baby has arrived safely and mother and baby are doing well.

4)  Retirement and time to pursue hobbies such as doing jigsaw puzzles.

I've just completed this one:

It has the added challenge of finding the 100 items that are on the jigsaw but not the picture that came with the puzzle.  (A bit like Where's Wally?) So far I have found 39 but I've only been studying the right hand side.  I'll look for more tomorrow.

5) Family time with our daughter and family.  Our DIL is trying to do a family meal on Fridays where they all sit down together and we were invited to join them.  During the week the children often eat earlier than the parents but of course it is good to all sit down together and we enjoyed a lovely meal with them.

Plus a couple of bonus items: a video chat with Grandson Vinny yesterday - he just wanted to call his Nanny.  No Foodbank duties tomorrow so I can have a lie in.

Have a good weekend all.

Read then Write - 1/10/26

Well considering it is 2 months since I last did one of these posts (30th July) you'd think I would have lots of books to write about. Sadly I only have 4!

I was reading Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood back then and I really enjoyed it. It's a collection of short stories.

This starts with 3 stories involving Tig and Nell. The first covers the aftermath of an accident at home requiring Tig to drive himself and their daughter to A & E and Nell coming home to a scene of blood and no one home. It moves on to ponder how things have changed while they are undertaking a First Aid course.
Next we read about John and Francois, two very different men who become friends in France and Tig and Nell’s involvement with them. (Renting a house.) And the third story in this initial section details the demise of Nell’s cat Smudgie and her rewriting of Tennyson’s Morte D’Arthur to fit the dead cat scenario. Although it’s actually more about the passing of Tig.

My Evil Mother This story is about a woman and her Mother who may or may not be a witch and their troubled relationship. Coming full circle to the daughter becoming a Mother herself.

The Dead Interview is an account of an interview with the late George Orwell which is very cleverly done and references his works.

Impatient Griselda is about an alien being telling a story to a group of earthlings and contrasting their differences.

Bad Teeth is a about two friends Csilla and Lynne. Csilla is a seasoned liar and insists that Lynne had an affair with a Newman Small who had bad teeth. Csilla couldn’t understand how Lynne could go with someone with such bad teeth. Lynne is convinced the affair did not happen. Which it hadn’t. Csilla just likes to make mischief but despite all that they remain friends.

Death by Clamshell is the narration by Hypatia of Alexandria of her death by clamshells which is quite graphic. It’s portrayed as being told to someone in the present time.

Freeforall Is set in the future when a sexually transmitted disease has swept through the world and people have adapted by keeping uncontaminated women and men apart until a marriage between a couple is arranged so that uncontaminated children can be born and humans continue.
Freeforalls were prisons for affected people. Supplies were dropped in but the inhabitants were left to themselves.

Metempsychosis (or the journey of the soul) This is the story of the soul of a snail coming to inhabit the body of a young woman and the ensuing battle between the two souls to co-exist.

Airborne: A Symposium This is about a meeting of 3 older women who are trying to set up a scheme for empowering more women creatives. Airborne is the name of the book written by one of them. Probably the story I liked least.

Tig and Nell:
A Dusty Lunch
In this story Nell reminisces about Tig’s Father – the Jolly Old Brigadier who served in WW2. Nell is going through his things and comes across poems written while he was away at war.
The poems are poignant and this story resonated with me as my Dad fought in WW2 and he would never talk about it.

Widows – This comprises 2 letters that Nell (now widowed) writes in response to a letter from a friend asking how she is. One is a detailed version of how she really is and what widowhood entails. The second which she will send is a sanitised version and bright and breezy.

Wooden Box – this story is about Nell coming to terms with widowhood and going through things at their cottage.

Old Babes in the wood continues Nell’s journey through grief as she visits the family cabin by a lake with her sister.

I found myself making notes about each of the stories as it was a book group read and I wanted to be able to remember them for when we discussed it. I hadn’t realised that Atwood had written so much, including books for children. The stories of Nell and Tig could easily have been a volume on their own with all the other stories, many of which are truly weird, being a separate volume. Atwood certainly has a vivid and diverse imagination.

The next book I read for the same book group was Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Not a book I would choose so I did find it a bit of a slog. Adichie is certainly a talented writer and the subject matter - the war in Nigeria when Biafra wanted to become a nation in its own right - was dark. It did give me a better understanding of what went on though. I can remember seeing pictures of the starving Biafran children on TV but I was too young at the time to really understand what was going on. The British Commonwealth has a lot to answer to.


I decided to read something that met a prompt for the 52 Book Club challenge next - Gloria Don't Speak by Lucy Apps.

Gloria has a learning disability. She's nineteen, and there's nothing to do except wander the local parks, look for friendship and keep out of trouble - or go round Jack's. Jack needs Gloria's company, but he's unpredictable and angry at the world. After an act of violence, their friendship has to end. Now Gloria's on her own. But when she hears Jack's out of prison, her whole world is turned upside-down. Heart-breaking and beautiful, Gloria Don't Speak is an insightful portrait of a woman dealing with vulnerability, violence - and the desire for connection.

I didn't really enjoy this one although as I said it ticked the prompt "Author related to another Author" as Lucy is the sister of Peter who wrote "Show me the Bodies" which was about the Grenfell Tower disaster. It was interesting in that it was set in the area where I used to live so many of the places were familiar and Lucy and Peter went to the same schools as my kids but this was definitely no masterpiece in my opinion.

The final book that I've just finished was Girl Woman Other by Bernadine Evaristo.

Despite there being various links between the characters in this book it felt very disjointed to me. There were a lot of characters to keep track of too, none of which were particularly likeable. The lack of punctuation was also annoying at times. It was shortlisted for the “Women’s Prize for Fiction” in 2020 but I can’t honestly recommend it. It contains a lot of swearing and same sex relationships as well as transgender issues so it definitely wouldn't be to everyone's taste. Again this was a book group read which we will discuss next week.


I did skim a bit of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus as that was the Evening book group's read. I'd read it back in 2023 and loved it. It got a 5 star rating so I was happy to read it again but I didn't find the time to read it completely before our meet up. I'm hoping to find time to watch the TV series of it.

Currently I'm reading Before the Storm by Alex Gray. This is a crime thriller set in Glasgow and is part of a series that I've enjoyed reading in the past. It will tick a prompt for the 52 Book Club Challenge but it's a much easier read than some of the books I've been reading.

Regular readers here will know that I do like a challenge but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to complete the 52 Book Club Challenge this year - I'm quite behind and it's not always possible to slot the Book Group books into prompts. I'll see how far I manage to get but I might take a break from it next year and concentrate on reducing the pile of books by my bed! It's really hard to resist books in the local little libraries that are the sort of books I enjoy and I certainly can't visit any charity shops without coming out with a book or 2 (or maybe more) lol.

Have you read any good books lately? Shh don't tell me or I'll be looking out for those too.