Friday's Fave Five - 16/9/16

It's Friday so it's time to join in with Suzanne's Friday's Fave Five. 
 
It's a place to come on Fridays and think back over your week and just post about 5 favourite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favourite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc.

If you want to take part or visit other Fave Five posts, click on the picture above to go to host Suzanne's site and check out the linky list.

Here are mine:

1.  Spending time in the garden in the sunshine.

2.  Cooler weather.  Although the sunshine was lovely it has been VERY hot here but overnight and this morning we had a lot of rain and the temperature is noticeably cooler.  Hopefully we won't have too much rain but it's been so hot it's been hard to get anything done.

3.  Good results from my eye test.  I still need my glasses but I'm less short sighted than I was and everthing looked fine as in no signs of glaucoma or anything else you wouldn't want to have!

4.  Lunch with friends.  Our usual four got together again today and our host Mary provided an excellent lunch.  We had a mediterranean style starter, followed by salmon, rocket, creme fraiche, avocado and sun dried tomatoes on Italian flatbread followed by lemon drizzle cake with strawberries.  All delicious.

5.  An impromptu visit from one of our french nephews.  Henri has been living in Brazil for over a year and has just come home.  He's been in England for the last week catching up with all his english relatives and he called in to see us early this evening. He has matured into a very personable young man.  It's nice to see all our nieces and nephews growing up but it does make me feel old sometimes!    

Have a good weekend all.

Wednesday Hodgepodge 14/9/16

Wednesday's Hodgepodge is brought to us courtesy of Joyce at 

 From this side of the pond

Pop over there to see other posts and if you want to join in add the link to your Hodgepodge blog post to the Linky List at the end of Joyce's post and don’t forget to visit at least your neighbours on the list.

Have fun!

1. What's changed in your life, home, or community since your last birthday? 

Well my birthday was only back in June so not many changes since then, oh except that all my kids are now married.  Had to get a wedding mention in somewhere!

2. September is Classical Music Month. Do you like/listen to classical music? If so what's a favorite piece and/or who is a favorite composer? 

I do like to listen to classical music but I don’t do it that often.  Certainly not often enough to have a favourite piece or composer.  The place I probably listen to classical the most is in the car.

3. Besides The Bible, what's a book that has positively changed your life, relationships, career, or perspective? How so? 

I can’t say that any immediately jump out at me.

4. I read (here) these ten hobbies will make you smarter...play a musical instrument, read voraciously, meditate regularly, work out your brain (puzzles, sudoku, board games, etc), exercise often, learn a new language, write your feelings down (blog, journal, just write), travel to new places, cook different kinds of meals, participate in sports actively

Are any on this list your current hobbies? Which hobby on the list would you be most inclined to try? 

Ok, well obviously I blog and I sort of journal (I keep a log of day to day stuff)  I read and definitely give my brain a work out every day.  I also try and get out and walk every day (although not when it’s 27+ degrees outside as it is today).

I would love to be able to play an instrument but sadly my musical ability is probably contained in one hand not two.  Age means starting a new sport would probably be detrimental to my joints and I’m not a great traveller.  However, I would love to be able to learn French and I am trying to be more adventurous with my cooking so hopefully I’m not totally a lost cause.

5. What sports traditions does your family have? 

None that spring to mind.

6. In a few words, weigh in on the current football/National Anthem brouhaha. Keep it family friendly please. 

I totally support someone’s right to protest about what they may see as an injustice.  However, I think you need to think carefully about how you make that protest.  I understand that sometimes a massive raise of awareness is needed and shock tactics will be required.  But, you also need to get people on side, not annoy them.  For example, I understand why there is a Black Lives Matter campaign and why it is catching on here in the UK but the slogan, in my opinion, won’t endear some non-Blacks to the campaign.  Also, the two most prominent protests here in the UK caused chaos at Heathrow and London City airports.  This caused problems for ordinary people.  Again, although this will have raised awareness of the campaign it won’t have endeared those people affected by the chaos the protest caused.

7. Where do you have loads of patience, and where do you most lack patience? 

I like to think I’m quite a patient person, especially now I’m not part of the rat race.  I’m especially good at solving puzzles, unravelling knots etc and usually with people.  I most lack patience at my husband’s determined ignorance of his deteriorating hearing. YOU CAN IMAGINE WHY! 

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

The last comment about my hubby was quite truthful.  He has insisted for a long while that there is nothing wrong with his hearing and that I don’t speak loudly enough.  (He may have a point there as I’m not one for talking loudly.)  But today he is going for a hearing test.  I’m praying that if this determines he needs a hearing aid he will embrace that idea and not continue pleading ignorance.

Have a good week all.

Book Review - Fire and Rain - Diane Chamberlain

Fire and Rain by Diane Chamberlain

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I usually love books by Diane Chamberlain but this one took a while to grow on me.

Set in Valle Rosa in southern California, an area beset by drought and fires the story centres around Jeff Cabrio who arrives in the area and manages to convince the Mayor, Chris Garrett, that he can make it rain.

Chris's ex-wife, Carmen Perez is intrigued by Jeff who comes across as very myserious. As a reporter on a local network TV station, Carmen is trying to rebuild her career and sees an opportunity to help that by exposing Jeff's secrets.

Chris and Carmen both have their own secrets, as does Mia who works for Chris. Mia lives next to the house Jeff is given to stay in while he prepares his rain-making equipment and they gradually develop a relationship.

The book details Jeff's efforts to make it rain and Carmen's determination to find out exactly who he is and the consequences of that discovery.

I ended up enjoying the book but it did feel a bit disjointed at first.




View all my reviews

SoCS 10/9/16

SoCS is brought to us by Linda Hill at Life in Progress

The main concept of SoCS is that your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.  Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

For full details of the rules etc and to link up with other participants click here to visit Linda's blog.

Today's prompt is view. 

It was suggested that the prompt could be a photo or song but I’m glad Linda decided to keep it as a word.  I’m definitely not a great photographer and although I enjoy music I’m not a music fan.  I don’t remember who sings what, where or when unlike my husband.  We have different view points on music.  On a lot of things actually but then they say opposites attract.

We were on the same page with a view earlier this week though when I dragged him out for a walk that included a hill leading to a viewpoint in Greenwich looking north over the Thames to the city of London.  The view wasn’t as good as it could have been because despite the lovely warm (hot even for this time of year) weather we’ve been enjoying the day was quite overcast.  The Shard was even disappearing into the clouds. 

This was something one of my friends commented on as being a good thing because she doesn’t like the modern skyscrapers that have crept into the London skyline.  Certainly the view of the skyline today is very different from that of 1666 when the great fire of London took place. 

Just last week as part of the 350^th anniversary commemoration of that event a model of the city as it would have looked at that time was floated on the Thames and set alight.  Personally I think it would have been good to keep the model, although I can understand why it was symbolic to burn it. 

I wasn’t asked for my point of view though and sometimes it’s good to know when to keep our view point to ourselves.  As in when a good friend asks “Does my bum look big in this?”  The view in the mirror isn’t always what we want to see.