The Year in Books - June

Joining in with Laura at A Circle of Pines for The Year in Books.

In May I read three books  a page turning crime novel called Natural Causes by James Oswald (link in my side bar) which I mentioned in my post for May's book and the two books below.

I loved reading both of these books, both so well written they flowed along in a perfectly seamless way from beginning to end.  

Trains and Lovers - The Heart's Journey by Alexander McCall Smith is about four people sitting together on the train journey from Edinburgh to London.  They start talking to each other and each tells their story of a love that has affected their lives.  It isn't though a book of romance but rather a book about human nature told in a warm and sympathetic manner.  This book was very different to the Isabel Dalhousie and 44 Scotland Street novels which I love but even so I found myself immersed in the story very quickly.

How Many Camels are there in Holland? - Dementia, Ma and Me by Phyllida Law is about how she dealt with her mother's increasing dementia whilst still working at her acting career and with the help of her two daughters the actresses Emma and Sophie Thompson.  As Phyllida flies and flits between her mother's home in Scotland and various film locations across Europe she writes with great humour about her own life and with dignity and  tenderness about her mother's struggles and those of her family to cope with the awful condition of dementia.

One of the books I will be dipping into in June is Wild Wales by George Borrow which I picked up for a modest sum from a second hand book shop.  Written in 1854 it starts with a railway journey from East Anglia across the country and into Wales.  I've read a little into it already and George Borrow, his wife and daughter have journeyed as far as Chester where they are spending a few days before travelling into Wales.  I love the details of the journey and the humour of the writer so far and we haven't even got into Wales yet!

I have two books reserved at the local library including the latest Cooper and Fry novel by Stephen Booth, which I can't wait to read, but I am way back in the queue so I may seek out something else to read for June whilst I am waiting. 

Happy reading!

The Year in Books - May

Joining with Laura at A Circle of Pines for this month's The Year in Books

Well, of course as the saying goes 'the best laid plans of mice and men' does apply to my reading this month.  The books I highlighted as waiting to be read in my April post are still unread because a book I had been waiting for  arrived at the library so I've been reading Balancing Act by Joanna Trollope.

Balancing Act is set here, in the Potteries and is the story of a family business going through the motions of change, it is about a woman's place in the home, in the family and in the workplace. It is also about mens' places in the life of the family too. Susie Moran started the Susie Sullivan Pottery when she was in her twenties and built up her empire despite all the pressures on her.  Now the business needs to change to survive in today's exacting market place and her three daughters Cara, Ashley and Grace are wanting more power within the company.  Grace is a designer in the factory in Hanley in Stoke-on-Trent and the other two daughters are based in London at the firm's main offices.  Jasper Moran, Susie's husband is a jazz musician who was happy to stay at home to look after the girls as Susie built up her company.  Now he wants to return to the music he loves.  Susie's father, Morris who left her as a small child  to be brought up by her grandparents returns from Africa.  How will Susie cope with all these changes?  Will business or family take over.  Can she really have both?

I loved reading this book not least because it is mostly set locally to me but also for the way it is written, for the sympathetic depiction of family life and the sincerity of her characters.

I've also been reading the two books on Mow Cop by Philip R Leese.  The photo on the top one inspired me to write a story which I sent to a friend who does creative writing to read.  He has written another story set about 40 years later using my original characters and creating some more and now I'm going to 'move it on' again into the 1960s. Another family saga is emerging!  It is a great way to get the creative juices flowing again as it is about 5 years since I last did any fiction writing.

So for May I still have the books I mentioned in my April post to read if I get around to them.  Yesterday I started to read a book I bought from a second hand book shop on holiday.  

So far I'm enjoying this crime novel set in Edinburgh a city I've visited only once - I'd love to return one day.

The Year in Books - April

I'm a few days late with this post so I'm rushing straight in with a few comments about the books I have managed to read in March and which books I hope to read in April.  

My first March read was the book I wrote about in my March's The Year of Books post.  The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths was as absorbing and unputdownable (is that a real word?) as I thought and hoped it would be.  I love this series of books about forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway so much.  I had this book from the local library so it isn't amongst those in the photo above which divides into the two sections of have read and to be read.

My second read for March was A Common Place Killing by Sian Busby.  Set in the dusty and dirty bomb wrecked streets of London in the heat of July 1946 the underlying theme is of a general disillusionment and hopelessness of living in deprived conditions where long queues for food and rationing coupons were still the norm and the criminal undercurrents caused by black marketeering spivs and a struggling, understaffed police force made life bleak and sometimes dangerous.  The author, who died in 2012, was the wife of the BBC Economics editor Robert Peston.  After her death he transcribed the last chapters of the book from her hand written notes.

My third March read was by another of my favourite authors Imogen Robertson. Circle of Shadows is the 4th in her series about the detecting skills of Harriet Westerman and Gabriel Crowther.  I find these novels, set in the 1780s both intriguing and atmospheric.  They are well written and well researched.  This book is set in the fictional Court of Maulberg where murder is the order of the day.  Masked balls, automata, secret societies, spies and alchemy all add to the intrigue within this very closed society.

There are links to the above three books in my sidebar.

For April I have just started reading one of the books in the photo above namely The History Room by Eliza Graham so far it's ok but the one I'm looking forward to reading for this month is How Many Camels are there in Holland? by Phyllida Law.  I adored her book Notes to my mother-in-law so I'm hoping this one will be just as funny, touching and heart warming as that.  After that I may just get to The Dinosaur Feather, a Danish crime novel by Sissel-Jo Gazan.  I have books reserved at the library so if they become available first I may change my plans.

Joining in with Laura at A Circle of Pines for The Year in Books

The Year in Books - March

In March I'm reading The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths, the sixth book in her crime series featuring forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson.  I started reading this at the weekend and as always I'm straight into the story and don't want to put the book down.  I love the characters of Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson, not to mention Flint, Ruth's cat, daughter Kate and Druid friend Cathbad and the descriptions of the lonely salt marsh where Ruth's cottage is situated.  This book is set around an archaeological dig in the grounds of Norwich Castle and already I'm intrigued by the story and it's link back to an earlier book.  Along with Stephen Booth, Ann Cleeves and Susan Hill with her Simon Serailler novels,  Elly Griffiths is one of my favourite modern crime writers at the moment.

I enjoyed reading February's book Summer in February so much so that I've downloaded it onto my Kindle to read again later this year as the book I read had to go back to the library.  Other books I read in February are, as usual, on my sidebar.  

Linking with The Year in Books at Laura's  A Circle of Pine Trees blog

The Year in Books - February

Joining in with Laura at Circle of Pine Trees for The Year in Books this month I will be reading Summer in February by Jonathan Smith.

I'm looking forward to reading this novel as it is set in Cornwall in February 1909 and it's about the community of artists known as the Lamorna Group.

According to the blurb  .....'Summer in February is a disturbing and moving re-creation of a celebrated Edwardian artistic community enjoying the last days of a golden age soon to be shattered by war.'

I'm still on the waiting list at the local library for the book I had hoped to read in February, the one I mentioned in my post about January's book,  so I've just started reading this one whilst I am waiting.

Books and Reading

I've decided to join in with The Year in Books blogging challenge organised by Laura at a Circle of Pine Trees.  I noticed this reading challenge on Kathy's Amanda's and Louise's blogs and thought that it sounded like a good idea.

I've read four books so far this month so I thought I'd share some of them with you and tell you more about one of them.  I will also continue to place the books I have read in my sidebar and list the whole year's books as separate pages at the top of the blog.

At the moment I have three books on loan from the local library, two of which I requested the third, the Secrets of Armstrong House, I saw on their 'quick choice' shelf near the check in/out machines and thought that it looked interesting.  

I'm still reading the A. O'Connor book but the other two I've read and thoroughly enjoyed.  I love the DI Vera Stanhope books by Ann Cleeves  Harbour Street is the latest and it didn't for one moment disappoint.  I found it intriguing, atmospheric and hard to put down.

January's Book

In contrast The Secret Rooms is non-fiction (but still very much a detective story) and is written by Catherine Bailey author of the equally interesting and readable book Black Diamonds.  The author went to Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire initially to research the lives of the men from the Belvoir Estate who volunteered to serve in the Midlands Regiments at the outbreak of WW1.  What she found and eventually wrote about was an intriguing mystery surrounding John, the 9th Duke of Rutland.  What was in those secret rooms?  Why had they been closed up for so many years?  Why had the 9th Duke elected to spend his final days in there destroying huge swathes of correspondence from three distinct periods of his life?  Follow the author as she gradually pieces together, using the Belvoir Castle and Haddon Hall archives as well as many other sources, a story that is both astonishing and ultimately quite tragic.

Next month I'm hoping to read The Outcast Dead the latest novel in the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths.  I have it reserved at the library and I'm sixth in the queue so hopefully I'll be able to read it in February.

52 Weeks of Happy - Weeks 51 and 52

My last two weeks of '52 Weeks of Happy' are together in one post as I ran out of time to do week 51 separately.  Here are some of the festive images that have  made me smile over the last couple of weeks

Week 51

1.  Window Shopping - at Bridgemere Garden World, their festive displays were lovely, and having done all our shopping it was nice just to wander and look.

 

2. Little Moreton Hall - we had a great time as always listening to Piva and wandering around the decorated hall (see my post of 22nd December for more photos)

 

3 and 4  Just the little things - a reindeer at our local garden centre which we visited with my brother-in-law and nephew when they came to visit the Saturday before Christmas, the thrush visiting our garden every morning again, Christmas cake iced and ready, the colour of clementines - so festive, opening the doors on the advent calendar and Christmas morning breakfast for us and the cats.  Which brings me to.......

Week 52

 

1. Christmas Day at Home - safe, warm, good food, lovely cards and presents.  I treasure being at home on Christmas Day.

2.  Boxing Day Walk - at a very misty Ilam (see my last post for more photos) as much as I love spending Christmas day at home it is good to get out and walk the day after.

3. Joy - two magpies = 'two for joy' according to the old saying and we had a joyful time visiting friends in South Lincolnshire on Friday and Saturday.  The only thing that caused any problems was the road closure at Kegworth due to a water main bursting so we had to hit the M1 and take the Loughborough ring road to get back on the route we always take via Melton Mowbray.  It was lovely to meet up with old friends and talk and catch up over a very leisurely lunch and afternoon.

4.  Friendliness - on our way back from Lincolnshire we stopped to take some photos of churches in a few Nottinghamshire villages, I think I told you in a previous post that Paul is taking photos of the churches with connections to his family name for his one-name study site?  Well, one of those villages was Epperstone in Nottinghamshire.  It was our first stop of the morning and the village was very pretty but what struck me most was how busy it was people walking, cycling and chatting on corners.  We were greeted by the postman with a jolly 'good morning' and every one we passed smiled and greeted us in the same way.  What a friendly village it seemed to be!  

Well, that's it for '52 weeks of Happy' - I think I missed a couple of weeks when we were on holiday in the summer but I've done most of them and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.  I hope you've enjoyed some of my 'happies' too.

Welcome to my new followers and thank you to all of you, friends old and new, for being with me throughout the last year.  Wishing you all a happy, peaceful and joyous New Year.

For the last time linking up with  Little Birdie  where  '52 weeks of Happy' started. Each week you find just four things that have made you happy to share.

'A multitude of small delights constitute happiness'
Charles Baudelaire 

52 Weeks of Happy - Week 50

Well, here we are at week fifty already just two more to go in this year of searching for the small things in life that make us happy and that make us smile.   My four happies from the last week are..........

1.  Birds - (again) - on Sunday we visited the Blackbrook Zoological Park to see how they were getting on since our last visit as there was talk a while ago about them having to close due to lack of funds.  Things had changed quite a bit some for the better and others not but all in all we had a great morning taking photos of some of the super birds in their collections.  At present they are charging just 99p per person for entry and you do see lots for your money.

2.  Meerkats - also at Blackbrook - so cute and always guaranteed to make you smile!

3.  Festive Windows and Lights - three seasonal windows I've seen over the last week.  The one on the left in Getliffe's Yard in Leek, the top right in Ashover, Derbyshire and the bottom one in Shrewsbury.  Below left a huge stag in Shrewsbury town centre, I bet it looks wonderful in the dark and the festive lights at Ashbourne.

4.  Pomanders -  I always enjoy making them - the ones in my photo need finishing off.  I love the seasonal smells of the oranges and cloves, it always seems like Christmas is on the way when I start pressing the cloves into the orange skin and that wonderful scent wafts under my nose and coats my finger tips. 

Linking up with  Little Birdie  where  '52 weeks of Happy' started. Each week you find just four things that have made you happy to share.

52 Weeks of Happy - Week 49

Here are my four 'happy' moments from the last week - things that have made me smile............

1.  Stone Carvings -  the carvings in the roofless lay brothers' dormitory at Rufford Abbey, Nottinghamshire (see my last post) made me smile

2.  Sunrise - On Friday, the day after the storm, we woke to a most beautiful, calm sunrise

3.  Coffee for two - at the Emma Bridgewater Factory shop. They bring your order to you in a wonderful mix of patterns and styles of pottery.

4. Maypole - I know it is December not May but I love the maypole on the green in the Nottinghamshire village of Wellow.  Photo taken last Wednesday on our way to Rufford Abbey (see my last post)

Linking up with  Little Birdie  where  '52 weeks of Happy' started. Each week you find just four things that have made you happy to share.

52 Weeks of Happy - Week 48

It's time for '52 weeks of happy' again.  Week forty eight already!  Here are four things that have made me smile this week

1.  Willow Christmas decorations - a new trail around the lake at Trentham gardens.  We had fun spotting them and they made me smile.  Such a simple and clever idea, there are three others which I haven't included in my collage as it was getting too busy - a reindeer and the words 'Love' and 'Noel'.

2.  Day out in Nottingham - we had a lovely walk around part of the city centre (see my previous post for photos) before joining friends for lunch.  As we were walking round I took the photo above - I love the Art Nouveau windows of this shop front now Zara - I think it used to be Boots the Chemist.

3.  Sunday morning stroll - we walked at Consall Country Park down by the canal, steam railway and river and I took the photo above of the reflection of the sun and trees in the river - it looks as if I took it in black and white.

 

4.  A visitor to the Garden - sorry cats again!  Most of my happies seem to be either cat or bird related at the moment but this one was worthy of a photo.  It is a large cat - when we first saw it dashing through the garden we thought it was a little dog - and only comes to to the top of the garden where the raised beds are and sits under the gooseberry bushes.  It has such bright blue eyes.

Linking up with  Little Birdie  where  '52 weeks of Happy' started. Each week you find just four things that have made you happy to share.

52 Weeks of Happy - Week 47

I can't believe a week has gone by since my last post.  I had intended to write a post in between the '52 weeks of happy' ones but the photos I took for the blog post I'd planned didn't turn out so well and the features of the building I'd intended to write about were distorted by the bright sunlight and heavy shadows.  I will go back and take photos again in the not too distant future as it isn't very far away.  So, here are four of the things that have made me smile this week............

1. Snowfall - we woke up to snow on Tuesday morning.  I don't mind snow if I'm staying in but the happiness I felt about this downfall was really that it didn't last;  by late afternoon it had all gone.  It was one of the first signs of winter though and the temperature has got noticeably cooler over the last few days.  Fortunately that has brought about my second happy!

2. Garden Birds - the colder weather has brought them back to the garden to feed.  I counted twelve goldfinch in one visit to the feeders.  The thrush has returned as have the tits and chaffinches.  It's lovely to see them back.

3.  Blue skies and sunshine - the sun glints on the 'Burslem Angel' a weather vane which sits on top of the town hall in the centre of the town. Although always referred to as the Angel it is in fact, Nike, the goddess of victory, placed there when the Town Hall was built in the 1850s to represent Civic Victory. Some people think that this is where Robbie Williams got his inspiration for his song Angels, others say 'not so'.  He did grow up just down the road from the statue though and it would have been a familiar sight.

The parish church of St James the Less in Longton looking good in the sunshine when we walked by last week.

4. Cats - happy, cosy cats.  Two of them ours one of them I think would like to be.  I keep finding Casper on the table in the conservatory.  He makes me smile as he is such a sweet cat but he does have a lovely home to go to so I'm afraid he gets put outside again!

Linking up with  Little Birdie  where  '52 weeks of Happy' started. Each week you find just four things that have made you happy to share.

52 Weeks of Happy - Week 46

It's 'happies' time again, week forty six already!  How the weeks fly!  Here goes with my four happy things for the last week.  The following four plus a new series of Borgen on TV are some of the things that have made me smile recently.

1.  Cake and Pudding  - for that seasonal event coming shortly!! The cake was made a couple of weeks ago and this is its second 'feed' of brandy. It smells so rich and spicy.  The pudding too has been stirred, steamed and stored.

 2. Lapwing - on the edge of Carsington Water.  it wandered around for ages whilst we took photos.  I love its colours and the tufts on its head. Lapwings or peewits as we used to call them as children in the small Derbyshire village I grew up in have been designated 'red status' by the RSPB as their populations are declining.  We saw a small group of them from the Wildlife Centre at Carsington.  Apparently a group of Lapwings is known as a deceit.  This possibly derives from the fact that at nesting time the lapwings, whilst guarding their vulnerable young, will feign injury themselves to divert the hunter or predator into taking them instead of their young.   It could also be from the words of Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote 'false lapwynge full of treacherye'  in his poem The Assembly of Fowls.

3.  Stag - hiding in the long grass across the River Trent from the lakeside at Trentham, he looked quite ethereal in the pale grass and morning mist.  Seeing him made me smile as I remembered years ago, when I lived in lodgings at Wollaton in Nottingham, I was with some friends walking back in thick fog from an evening out, we heard a snort and looked up to see antlers and flaring nostrils - we thought we'd come face to face with the devil himself - but it was a stag from the herd at Wollaton Hall staring at us through the railings, he ran off - just as startled by our presence as we were by his.

 

4. Reading - two really good books from the library to read in the evenings when there's nothing much to watch on television and two lovely magazines to flick through with my morning coffee.  I don't usually read two books at the same time as my elderly brain can confuse the stories but as one is fiction and one non-fiction I really can't conflate the two.   

 Linking up with  Little Birdie  where  '52 weeks of Happy' started. Each week you find just four things that have made you happy to share.

52 Weeks of Happy - Week 45

Time for those 'happies' again, how the weeks are flying by now! Here are four things that have made me smile during the last week

1.  A Walk from Baslow  - On Wednesday we went over to Chesterfield to visit my sister. We decided to have a walk on the Chatsworth Estate at nearby Baslow.  The weather was damp and drizzly but the autumn colours in the trees were wonderful.

2.  The Yards - The yards is an area of narrow passageways and individual shops and cafes in the centre of the town of Chesterfield.  Up high along the walls are sculptures of gloved hands holding a variety of different objects relating to the businesses nearby.  The reason for the gloved hand is because of one of the former trades of glove making which took place in the Yards during the 18th and 19th centuries when it was full of cottages,workshops and outhouses.

3.  A visit to Sudbury -  Saturday was such a lovely morning that we decide to go to Sudbury and walk in the grounds of the Hall.  We didn't go in the Hall this time as we'd  visited last December for the Regency Christmas (post here) so this time we went into the Museum of Childhood which has changed quite a lot since our last visit. 

4.  Wall Art - I was fascinated with the paintings and decoration on some of the walls in the Museum of Childhood.  I particularly liked the mouse pictures - I think they were depicting five differing ages of life, unfortunately a couple of them were behind a display case so I couldn't photograph them all.

Linking up with  Little Birdie  where  '52 weeks of Happy' started. Each week you find just four things that have made you happy to share.

Almost There!

Well, it's week 44 already of the '52 weeks of happy' challenge I first saw on Louise's blog. We are almost there, getting to the end, only 8 weeks to go!  I've missed a week here and there due to holidays and the virus I had in October but mostly I've kept it going. This week it seems that the things that have made me smile the most have all been to do with nature and the seasons so here goes.............

1. Pumpkins and Hallow e'en - I wasn't going to buy a pumpkin this year but couldn't resist.  It was carved on Wednesday and first lit as it went dark on Thursday.  We had lots of little 'trick or treaters' knocking at the door and we had sweets ready in a witch's hat for them to take away.  The flesh of the pumpkin was used to make a couple of jars of chutney.  The decorations in the window I bought whilst we were in Wales at the beginning of October from a little shop in Beddgelert, I took the photo of their shop window at the time.  The display of pumpkins we saw in the nearby village of Caverswall.  The whole of the centre of the village, even the bus stop, had been decorated with cobwebs, spiders and other ghoulish delights.

An extra photo - Chloe and the pumpkin

2. Autumn Leaves - photos taken in and around Trentham Gardens and The Brampton, Newcastle-under-Lyme - isn't it a wonderful time of year for colour?

3. Geese - on the lake at the JCB factory, Rocester, including Egyptian and bar-headed geese and a few I can't identify.  I love geese, I love their shape.  We've been watching them flying in skeins over the lake at Trentham gardens - I love the sound they make as they fly overhead.  I find it quite magical and it reminds me of when we lived on the Fens in South Lincolnshire.

4. Toadstools - Fly Agaric - photos taken at Trentham Gardens.  This season has been tremendous for fungi - we've seen loads of different kinds on our walks.

 Linking up with  Little Birdie  where  '52 weeks of Happy' started. Each week you find just four things that have made you happy to share.
 

52 Weeks of Happy - Week 43

Oh dear, I've missed a couple of weeks of these 'happy' posts but aim to catch up if I can.   Here are four happy things from this week and last.

 1.  A tram ride - on a Glasgow tram which used to run up and down Sauchiehall Street - it cost us an old penny each to travel as many times as we wanted during our visit to Crich Tramway Museum.

2. Green Man - a sculpture we found in the woodland walk at Crich.  I thought it was wonderful.

3. The King in the Car Park - The Discovery of Richard III  - we attended a wonderful, interesting and lively talk at the Potteries Museum given by Richard Buckley, Director of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services and Project Manager of the Greyfriars Dig during which the body of Richard III was discovered.  I've used one of my own photos of the dig taken when we visited on my birthday in 2012.  The dig started on August 25th and we went three days later to take a look, little knowing that even then they had uncovered the bones that would later be proved to be those of Richard III.  The lecture started with a background history of the city from Roman times onwards which added much to our understanding of the context of the situation of Greyfriars and the present findings and how they worked out where to dig and also worked out the layout of the priory.  Mr Buckley told an amusing tale of how on the day they began to uncover the bones he was busy with some visitng experts on medieval building when one of the team came and said 'I think you will want to see this' - he said something on the lines of 'Go away, I'm in a meeting - come back later' and the team member whispered 'curvature of the spine' 'wound hole in the skulll' - he said his following words weren't repeatable but from then on the dig became not just local, not even national but international as the world's press descended.  He also said, at the beginning of the project, that if they did find the remains of Richard III he'd eat his hat. One of the last photos of the talk showed him eating a piece of cake that someone had made in the shape of the type of yellow, hard safety hat worn during the excavation.

4. Wet, Wellie Walks - sunny, misty, breezy, damp at different times but never cold, I haven't felt that autumn chill yet as the weather still seems mild but we'll see what the next week will bring.

Linking up with  Little Birdie  where  '52 weeks of Happy' started. Each week you find just four things that have made you happy to share.