Friday's Fave Five - 4/10/24

It's Friday again so time to look back on the week and remember the things I'm grateful for.  Our host Susanne reminds us to do this each week - her blog can be found here.

1)  Firstly I'm grateful that, despite having had a lot of rain this past week, I do not live in an area that is likely to be in the path of a storm like Helene.  I cannot imagine what it must be like for those who were, the devastation is dreadful.  I haven't followed it too closely - watching any news is quite depressing at the moment, but I hope that none of my blogging friends have been badly affected.

2)  Today we had sunshine.  It's a lot cooler and the leaves are dropping, definitely autumn, but the blue sky and sunshine were uplifting.

3)  Books, another favourite of my things to be grateful for.  A new one arrived by mail today as part of the subscription I was gifted by my daughter and DIL and the library had one that I'd reserved ready for me.

4)  Time with my daughter and her family this week as they celebrated Rosh Hashanah. (Jewish New Year)  My DIL made a lovely meal - we had lots of sweet things and afterwards I helped put the grandkids to bed.  

5)  Another grandson turned 4:

 Miles loves beans on toast!

He and his brother Noah also love jumping in muddy puddles!  My son sent me this pic today plus a couple of videos of them jumping in the puddles.  They are both in a right mess but the enjoyment they had was (hopefully) worth all the muddy clothing, boots and boys!

Have a good weekend all.

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 2/10/24

Woohoo I'm doing a Hodgepodge.  This is hosted by Joyce here where you can find full details, including who else is playing along.  Thank you Joyce.

1. Hey, it's October...what's one fun thing on your October calendar? 

Well I'm hoping to meet up with my "Ladies who Lunch" group this month and there is a visit to my brother and his wife planned too.

2. Thursday is National Poetry Day (first Thursday in October)...do you like to read poetry? If so, what's a favourite poem, or whose poetry do you especially enjoy? 

Nope not a great reader of poetry although I did read it more as a child - I still have a couple of books with my stash of children's books.

3. Tell us about something you've seen recently that could be described as 'poetry in motion'. 

Hmm that would probably be the squirrel managing to get food out of the supposedly squirrel proof bird feeders!

4. What's one song on your autumn playlist? Do you have an autumn playlist? If not, pretend you do. If yes, then feel free to share more than one. 

I am rubbish when it comes to music.  If I do have the radio on it's probably a news programme I'm listening to not music.  I do play music when I walk but it's just a random selection from Spotify that's entitled "Walking Music".  It works for me because it keeps a steady reasonably fast walking tempo.

5. Share a quote that inspires you this time of year especially. 

Again I'm not great at quotes.  Keep calm and carry on is probably a mantra I try and follow but more recently I decided I should Just Beam as in Be A Madeleine.  Madeleine was my SIL who died recently and she was a great example to all of us on how to cope with terminal illness but also how to live your life.  She was good at making sure those who needed them got visits and keeping people on track.  She could strike up conversations with anyone and make them feel listened to.  Definitely a people person and a great believer in paying it forward.

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

And another Grandson turns 4

Miles loves beans on toast so his birthday tea was beans on toast with sausages.  I am assured though that the cake tasted a lot sweeter than it looks.  My DIL is a saint making all those "beans"! 

An update on the 52 book challenge 2/10/24

Firstly, thank you for all your kind words on my previous post, following the death of my SIL.  

Now, onto books:

Designed by Freepik

At the start of the year I mentioned that I was attempting the 52 book club challenge.

The aim of this challenge is to read 52 books over the year with each book matching a prompt provided by the club.

Well I've actually read 55 books already this year but only 42 matched to the challenge prompts which are these:

So 10 books to go by the end of the year.  Doesn't sound too hard does it?  Except that some of the books I've lined up for the remaining prompts are not easy reads.  For example I've just started David Copperfield for #22 and I have Demon Copperhead lined up for #23.  Over 1400 pages between the two books!

I've planned to read a chapter a day of David Copperfield so I should get through that by the end of this month while I carry on with reading other books too.  I'm not sure I can handle reading Dickens any other way.  I may be wrong but my only other experience of him is A Christmas Carol which is of course considerably shorter.  I'm making notes as I go so that hopefully it will be more committed to my memory.  Dickens does like to have a lot of characters in a book!

My September reads were:

The Midwife's Confession by Diane Chamberlain (4*)
I would put Chamberlain in the same mould as Picoult - she tends to write about a moral/ethical dilemma - but not to quite the same level as Picoult.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (5*)
I can't believe I didn't read this as a child.  Such a delightful book.

Grace after Henry by eithne shortall (4*)
An easy read about a woman grieving for her fiancé who meets his twin brother that no one knew about due to adoption.

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout (4*)
I love Strout's writing.  She captures the essence of her characters so well.

Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin (3*)
This was slightly disappointing.  Rankin has written many books about a detective (Rebus) based in Edinburgh but this one, set just after Rebus has retired didn't quite grab me the way some of his other books have done.  It also wouldn't work well if you hadn't read any of the other books in the series.

3 of the above fitted prompts and I'm currently reading Sweet Caress by William Boyd which has proved interesting so far.  Another reasonably long book at 450 pages though but it does fit a prompt! (#28 a yellow spine)

I certainly love a challenge!

Friday's Fave Fives - 27/9/24

It's Friday so time to look back on the week and find things to be grateful for.  Our host Susanne keeps us on track and can be found here.

Well I have a few weeks to look back on so here goes:

1)

So grateful to have had this wonderful woman in my life.  Madeleine was  one of Hubby's sisters and sadly we said goodbye to her recently and her funeral was yesterday.  Diagnosed with breast cancer 9 years ago she had many ups and downs during her last years but she was always positive.  Always supportive of other people.  Reassuring us when the end was close - she wasn't afraid of what was to come.  She passed away peacefully with her children and siblings with her.  She was 59.

2.  Thankful for a beautiful service for Madeleine which was attended by so many people, close family, extended family and friends from all areas of her life.  At least 200 people in the Cathedral and afterwards at the wake with so many happy memories to share.  She hadn't wanted us to be sad or feel we had to wear black.  It was sunny as we went into the service but as we came out the heavens opened.  The rain was torrential but when we arrived at the venue afterwards we spotted this:

3.  Going back a few weeks we had our annual family break away in Kent and Madeleine was well enough at that point to join us.  We made our own special memories that weekend as we knew she wouldn't be with us next year.  Her karaoke song brought many of us to tears. 

4.  Grateful that my eldest brother seems to be doing a bit better.  He also has a lot of health issues relating to cancer but is home again after another spell in hospital and they seem to have got his pain relief sorted out and his chemo can continue.

5.  Ending on a more cheerful note.  Grandson Vinny turned 4 last week.

This was taken just as his cake was being brought in and everyone singing Happy Birthday.  Lovely to see the joy on his face even when we're not there in person.  

Have a good weekend all.