What I’ve been reading in September

 

I enjoyed reading this book, it was easy to read and I warmed to all the characters. After breaking up with her boyfriend Jo travels to London to look after her uncle’s stationery shop while he recovers from illness.  Intrigued by the snippets of life that her customers share with her,, she finds that she is enjoying her time there more than she expected. She expands the selection of fountain pens and enjoys collecting the short notes that her customers scribble whilst testing the pens.

An unlikely friendship evolves between Jo and two of her customers, Ruth (the Runaway Vicar) and Malcolm. They unite through their quest to help Malcolm research a book that he is writing, which results in them imagining the unlikely relationships that may spring up between the ghosts of the people buried in Highgate Cemetery.

I would recommend this book, I enjoyed the relationships that grows between the characters and looked forward to reading at least one more chapter each evening.

For the first time in a while, I have only managed to read one book this month!  I have started this one, and am enjoying it but still have a quarter to read.

If you have read any Marian Keyes books before, you will already know the Walsh family but you don't need to have read the earlier books to enjoy this story.  

Anna Walsh has returned to Dublin from America and is recovering from the car crash which killed her husband and left her scarred.  Despite living a highly successful life as a PR in the beauty industry in Manhattan she has tired of her time there and to the surprise of her family - I mean, who on earth would walk away from a job which offered so many high end cosmetic freebies - she hopes to find a new beginning back in Ireland.

With no job and no home of her own she agrees to help out her friends who are finding much local opposition to their plans to open a luxury coastal resort.  They ask her to use her PR experience to defuse the anger and vandalism being caused by the locals of the small town.  However, the other person who has been asked to assist her is an old flame, Joey Armstrong. 

There's always a lighthearted storyline behind the main situation and with Anna, it is finding herself in the middle of menopause without easy access to HRT.  Something that was freely available without question in Manhattan is surprisingly difficult to have prescribed by the Irish doctors she approaches.  Needless to say this has an effect on Anna's hormones and they way she feels she is seen as a woman in her 40s.  

Marian Keyes has such a turn of phrase, and such a down to earth humour that she manages to mix the amusing with the serious in a very clever way.  The family drama that accompanies the Walsh family is cleverly done and I'm looking forward to finishing the book to see how Anna's story concludes.

So that's it from me this Monday, I have to crack on with tidying the house and preparing food as we have friends coming for lunch in a couple of hours!

Have a good week!

#WBOYC in September

 

Once again I am joining in with the What's Been on Your Calendar theme, hosted by Deb (normally in Australia, but currently in the UK!)

S

Southwold, one of my favourite places and a lovely location for a long weekend away with Coco. 

E

Enjoying more normal routines after the six weeks school holidays - ah the bliss of four mornings to ourselves! There's still two school pick ups and a day of looking after Olive but that is much more relaxing than the holiday schedule.

P

Putting summer clothes away and returning winter outfits to the front of the wardrobe.  Also time for warmer pyjamas!

T

Thinking about what I can wear to a Masquerade party in December. Suggestions will be very welcome.  I'm thinking some wide leg silky trousers with a gold sequin top and a very fancy mask with feathers but that could all change!

E

Emptying out the freezer to defrost it ready for the Christmas goodies. Not a fun job but boy does it feel good when it is done and any suspect out of date bits have been cleared away.

M

My wedding anniversary!  Forty four years - doesn't that sound a long time? We went to Maldon for a picnic on the green there and went to friends in the evening for drinks. Our proper treat to ourselves was our long weekend in Southwold the following weekend.   

B

Blood tests done as part of our annual health check. There's always something slightly out of range that gets shown up. There’s a bit of a question mark over my cholesterol levels 😬

E

Enjoying joining in a Knit & Natter group. Through spending two or three hours in a creative atmosphere means I have finished Rachel’s jumper and started knitting a baby cardigan to send to Ukraine via a local charity drive.

R

Replacing the shower unit in our ensuite.  The existing one was 20 years old so we've had our monies worth!  It isn't until you replace old with new that we realised how discoloured the shower tray has become.

Reopening of our town park, there has been a lot of tidying up, renovation of the coffee shop, planting of wildflowers,archaeological digs, building of skate parks and extra play equipment. It’s a lovely place to visit and walk along the River Stort and it was a lovely sunny afternoon at the beginning of the month for the ‘ribbon cutting’ ceremony.

So all that is left to share is my month so far in pictures, 1 Second Everyday

Me on Monday

Slightly later with my post this week and I am typing with slightly frozen fingertips!  I found myself with a free morning and decided that now would be a good time to defrost the freezer in our kitchen.  It isn't overfull at the moment and it gave me the opportunity to clear out any slightly suspect packages that may have been in there a little too long, make room for Christmas goodies and do a stocktake of all the things I had forgotten we had put in there!  I'm feeling very virtuous 👼

Now we need to have a quick drum roll ... I have finished my daughter's jumper!  

I'm not wearing the ideal clothes to show it off but you can get the idea.  She seems very pleased with it and I did enjoy making it but I am pleased to have it off my hook. 

It was my turn to host the Knit and Natter group on Friday and one of the group is collecting hand knitted garments to send to Ukraine.  So I decided to start a baby's cardigan.  It's been a while since I did any knitting, it took a while to get back into the swing of things.  It's nice to work on something small for a change.

So this week holds a haircut, a day with Olive, two school pickups, a Zumba class and lunch out with a friend.  Before we know it the weekend will be here!

Have a good week x

Sunny Southwold

 I missed posting yesterday as we were travelling home from a glorious long weekend in Southwold. It’s one of our favourite places and a great place to unwind, relax and enjoy a wonderful stretch of the English coastline. Why do we like it?

Let me show you around …

There’s a quirky pier jutting out to sea

There’s some of the best chocolate and gelato shops

The town is watched over by a historic lighthouse

There’s a beautiful beach for early morning dog walks

And sand dunes 

It’s extremely dog friendly

Beach huts, I love a colourful beach hut, usually I take a picture of the front of them but this day I sneaked a photo of the roofs peeking out over the sand dunes. 

Did I mention the gelato?

And the quirky water feature on the pier, when the clock strikes the figures drop their shorts and squirt water

There’s some fascinating buildings 

And the best fish and chip shop

Just look at that intricate brick work.

Have I convinced you that you need to visit as well?  I am available for guided tours 😊

Me on Monday

 Hello! How are you this Monday morning? 

We had a busy week returning to our old routines as the grandchildren all returned to school. It was nice to have days to ourselves again, three full days of childcare for six weeks was pretty tiring! 

There was an anniversary to celebrate - 44 years! Our celebrations were pretty low key.  In the evening we went for drinks at a friend’s house, and in the day we packed up a picnic and went with Coco to a town called Maldon which is on the Blackwater estuary.  Most people living in our part of England will have heard of the sea salt which has been produced there since the 1800s.

 

This week sees us preparing for a few days away in Southwold.  We’ve stayed there a few times now as we really like it there. I can already predict fish and chip suppers, walks along the beach and a wander along the pier.

We have unexpected guests arriving very soon; friends we haven't seen in person for about 12 years.  Not totally our fault, relocation for work in Qatar put quite a spanner in the works for meeting up!  They have been spending the weekend not too far away from us and sent a text last night to ask if they could pop in on their way home to Kent.  It will be lovely to see them again, but I really ought to be giving the lounge a quick tidy before they arrive rather than writing a blog post so - bye for now!  Have a good week.

What I've been reading in August

 This was the first time in months that I have been able to get hold of the Book of the Month for our online book club hosted by Leslie.  

Nora is a writer of screen plays, the kind of thing that you find on the romance channels.  There's a formula to them, and not particularly hard to write but they are a reliable source of income.  When her husband Ben leaves the family home, she decides to write a totally different type of story and turns their unhappy experience into a script which happens to be picked up for a big screen production.  She is amazed to find out that the director wants to film some of the story on location at her house and as they are paying so well, she agrees on the proviso that they are only there for a few days.

The filming comes to an end, but Leo - the handsome actor playing Nora's ex-husband - asks to remain for longer.  Nora is reluctant but when he offers to pay her a thousand dollars a day in return for staying a week in her summer house, it is an offer she finds hard to refuse.

Her children are thrilled, Bernadette is bowled over by the thought of a handsome superstar living in their home, and Arthur is excited to have a real life actor helping him rehearse for his part in a play at school.  Seven days isn't that long to have him stay is it? 

Leo's stay becomes extended and his relationship with Nora changes, his presence in their lives grows until he is called away to audition for another film.  I can't say any more without giving away spoilers but what I can say is this - I really enjoyed this book!  I felt that I knew, and liked, the main characters and could understand the reasons why they acted the way they did.  Would I recommend it?  Yes! 

📗📘📙

I'm a great fan of the podcast 'Older and Wider' which is hosted by Jenny Eclair and Judith Holder and so I decided to try 'Moving', a book written by Jenny for my next book choice.

This is the story of Edwina, a lady in her late 70s who has made the difficult decision to move from the house where she lived with her family for many years.  The large house is much too big for her to manage on her own and she now only lives in a small portion of it.  As she shows the young estate agent around her home, each room brings back memories of the family life she is leaving behind.  We learn about her twins from her first marriage, Rowena and Charlie, and also her second husband and stepson, Lucas.  The estate agent is merely seeing the house as a potential sale property but Edwina realises that each room has it's own impact on her life.

So as we close the door on Edwina while she puts her house on the market we move onto Fern, a university student living in Manchester where she shares her house with a real mix of people, one of whom is Charlie, one of Edwina's twins.  Charlie is not quite the kind of character you would expect to be Edwina's son to be and we start to see an alternative side to Edwina's memories.

Next we meet Lucas.  Edwina's stepson who has always been the apple of his mother Barbara's eye.  He does not fit into Edwina's family in any way so it is interesting to hear his side to the stories that we have already heard.  As always, there are two sides to every story and Lucas' version of events is interesting to read.  There has been no love lost between him and Edwina, especially after being seemingly instrumental in Charlie's downfall.  

It is interesting to see how these very different people have had their lives intertwined and while I really thought I wouldn't like Lucas, I could see the reasons why he behaved as he did and towards the end of the book, it is nice to see that he has a crisis of conscience and does the right thing towards Edwina.  It will never undo what has gone before but it means that she can leave the house with a lot of loose ends tidied up.

There were parts of this book that I felt could have been made shorter, but overall I enjoyed the storyline, and there remains one little mystery twist in the final chapter where the reader will have to make their own decision as to the truth in Fern's answer!