Books, books, books

 It's been a while since I've shared what I have been reading.  I had become obsessed with the Seven Sisters books and need to find something different to read.

This month's book club choice was Theo of Golden by Allen Levi.

I really enjoyed this book, although it did make me cry a little close to the end.

A mysterious elderly man arrives in the town of Golden and pops into a local coffee shop where he is entranced by a display of over 90 pencil drawn portraits which are hanging on the walls of the shop.  Intrigued by the talent of the artist and the personalities shown in the portraits he decides that they should escape the confines of the coffee shop and be handed back to the people they depict.  He buys a few of the drawings and begins his mission to hand them to their rightful owners.

By talking to the owner of the shop he is directed to a building where he may find someone who could help him contact the people concerned.  In doing so he also makes a new friend and finds somewhere to live for the time that he is in Golden.  

No one knows the surname of Theo, he is skilled in redirecting conversations with those to try to find out more about him.  His only clue that he is willing to share is that he originates from Portugal.

One by one, he distributes the drawings.  People are initially suspicious of his reasons for doing this but gradually those he meets are won over by his charm and generosity.  

The book weaves a story which encapsulates those whose likenesses have been captured and the town falls in love with Theo.  So did I!  What an example of goodness he is to everyone he meets.  And what characters have been drawn by the artist.

After finishing the book, which ultimately shares the story of Theo's life before he went to Golden, I firmly believe that we should all try to follow his example.

📚

So onto my next, very different book. Curfew by Jayne Cowie which has an alternative title of After Dark.

I know we sometimes say 'things would be so different if women were in charge' But let's now imagine a world where that has happened.  A female government has decided that most harm done to women is by men, and the only way for women to be safe is for boys are fitted with an electronic tag at the age of ten which they will wear for the rest of their life.  No male is allowed out of their homes after 7pm until daylight in the morning.  Women are able to walk the streets late at night in safety, not scared to be out alone in the dark.  In order for a couple to live together, they have to be interviewed to ensure that the man is not considered to be a danger to his partner.

One of the side issues of this is that men cannot have a job which involves evening work, they cannot have a social life outside of the home in the evening.  So the traditional role of the woman being the homemaker is reversed.

Sarah works at the department where tagging is carried out.  She lives with her daughter Cassie in a house completely accommodating women.  Sarah's husband is in prison due to breaking curfew, and Cassie is hostile to her mum, believing her to be the reason he was outside in the evening as she had thrown him out of the house and would not let him back inside.

Cassie hates living in a world which places such restrictions on men, and is finding life as an 18 year old very difficult, especially in respect of not being able to have a normal social life or relationship with a boy because those in power believe that the only way for women to be safe is to restrict their presence. She is becoming rebellious and unable to accept the fact that these rules have been brought in for the safety of womankind.

So when a horribly assaulted body is found in the park one morning, everybody is convinced that the murderer must have been a woman.  How could it be anything different when men's tags ensure that any movement outside the home is being monitored?  A curfew tag is the ultimate proof they were not outside.  Or is it?  

Two very different books.  I would probably give Curfew 3 out of 5 stars because it made me wonder what life would be like if women were in charge of everything but it didn't leave me with a very uplifted feeling!

My post has been prompted by reading Deb's What's on your Bookshelf challenge!

 We are officially 3/4 of the way through the month and thankfully the days are gradually lengthening.  I don't like January and am always pleased when we have turned the page into February.  

Talking of turning over pages, I've just finished reading this month's book club choice.  Theo of Golden by Allen Levi.  What a lovely book.  Although there was one sad chapter towards the end.  If only we could all be like Theo the world would be a better place.  If you are looking for a heartwarming book to read this month, I suggest you give it a try.

My knitting group have a new project.  We are making poppies to send to the charity Standing with Giants. They need about 37,000 to use in installations at the British Normandy Memorial later this year.  I've only just found the pattern that I will be using, I have been working on four different ones! 

I don’t know how many we will make, but every little bit helps!

In other crafting news, the scarf is finished and has been worn several times already.  

We are off to a Music Quiz at the weekend which is being organised by my Zumba teacher.  Historically we don't ever win any quizzes we take part in, maybe this will be the one which is our turning point.  We have also been invited to a barbecue by one of the guys who plays badminton with my husband.  Yes, you read that right.  A barbecue.  In England, in January.  The weather forecast says it will be drizzle with a gentle breeze and a high of 7 Celcius.  I am hoping that the plan is for him to cook the barbecue outside and then we will eat the food inside!  I will report back next week.  I will be dressing in layers, just in case!

What do you have planned this weekend?

Starting anew

 I feel like I need to reset and start the year anew as the first week of 2026 was such a sad one.

I am realising that I need to keep as busy as possible and to shake up routines so that I'm not constantly thinking of what I would normally have been doing.  Easier said than done when the weather is miserable and you really don't feel like moving from a warm, comfortable arm chair.  So I am cracking on with the scarf that I am knitting.  It's incredibly hard to photograph as it gets bigger as it is a triangular shape knitted on circular needles!

I've been knitting it while watching the Harlan Coben drama 'Run Away'.  I'm six episodes in and I'm finding it hard to predict how it will end.  Ruth Jones, who wrote and starred in 'Gavin & Stacey' is a private investigator in it and is so very different to 'Nessa'!

I'm reading our book club's choice of book 'Theo of Golden'.  I'm nearly half way through and am enjoying it a lot.  It's very different to the last books I read which were the Seven Sisters books.  Oh my goodness, they were so cleverly written and the final one about the man who adopted the girls is incredible.  How was he in every book and I didn't realise?  

The latest series of The Traitors is airing in the UK and I am hooked!  What a bunch of characters.  There has already been a reveal of a mother and daughter and also a girl and boyfriend but there is a theory that the whole group are couples in one way or another.  One of the guys, James, is a personal trainer in a village about 4 miles from me but I know nothing about him so can't reveal if there is anyone else in there that is already associated with him.

Have you heard of an Analogue Bag?  Apparently it is gaining popularity with younger people.  It's just a bag in which you keep things like knitting, a book, crossword puzzles or a journal.  Anything that you could dip into instead of scrolling through social media.  What a brilliant idea!  I always keep either a book or a kindle in my bag if I have an appointment somewhere in case there is a delay.  Does this mean I was actually ahead of the trend for once? What would you keep in yours?

Sad news

 Those of you who know me on Facebook will already know that on Tuesday we had to say our last goodbyes to our darling Coco.

She had been diagnosed with a heart murmur some years ago and was on medication for mitral valve disease but she seemed to be defying the odds and was still really healthy in all other ways. So it was still a shock when she suddenly collapsed and a scan showed that the valve had torn and there was nothing they could do for her. An hour earlier she had eaten a good breakfast and had a lovely long walk over the park. So I will be forever thankful that she was living a good active life up to the end.

We are heartbroken and our house feels quiet and empty. So I wanted to record some of the fun of living with her for over 14 years.

She was very good at giving you the pleading puppy dog eyes when you were eating something that she thought you should be sharing with her. Yesterday I found myself holding back some macaroni and tuna from Olive’s lunch and this morning I automatically cut off some poached egg ready to give her at the end of breakfast, it will take a while to change those habits.

There is a cupboard in our kitchen that will be forever known as Coco’s cupboard. It was where her food and treats were stored and was her first port of call after returning for a walk or if we had left her on her own even for a short space of time.

During lock down I took up crocheting and we have about six blankets stored in a basket beside the fireplace. About 8 o'clock every evening she would rouse herself from her place on the sofa, drag all the blankets out and choose one to lay on for the rest of the evening. Never the same one two nights running!

We rarely left her on her own as she got older but if we did go out for the evening she would punish us by waiting until we had been in bed asleep for a couple of hours and then wake us up to make us let her out in the garden for a wee. Even though she had been out as soon as we had come home. 

Her favourite place to lie down during the day was at the top of the stairs, quite literally taking up the whole space.  We used to say that she was planning our demise trying to trip us up and send us flying.  She was so speedy going up the stairs and you would often find yourself halfway up carrying a basket of laundry and feel the brush of fur running past you in a race to the top.  It was always my concern that she would send one of us toppling down the stairs.

We thought we were going to have to call the fire brigade to rescue her once.  Goodness knows how or why she squeezed into the small gap behind our shed.  She had never tried to get down there before and there wasn't really room for her to get there and we could not work out where she had gone.  Then we heard a rustling and there she was.  Stuck.  With the stem of a vine type plant wrapped around her paw where she had tried to turn round to get out.  There was no way for us to get in there but I managed to squeeze myself sideways and grab the upper stem of the vine to try and release her.  It finally worked but I had bruises on my chest for weeks afterwards.

Every bedroom holds a dog bed.  When she was younger we always insisted she slept in the kitchen.  Then in 2015 we had our kitchen replaced and so she was temporarily allowed to come upstairs and sleep in the study.  Temporarily?  Huh, she was never going to sleep downstairs on her own again! She would start off on the floor of our bedroom and then during the night she would be on the roam, either to the official bed she was supposed to be in which was in the study, a bean bag in our son's old room or when she was feeling super cheeky, actually on the bed in our daughter's old room.

Taking her for a walk was always a bit of an unknown quantity.  She had firm ideas about where she wanted to go and it wasn't always the same route. She may have decided that day to go on a long walk, maybe it would be short, we never knew.

If you have read this far, thank you.  I wanted to jot down just some of the things that were typical of Coco to look back on. She will never be forgotten and was known and loved by so many.  Maybe one day I will be able to read this back without crying.  We have so many happy memories.  We loved you so much darling girl and we were lucky to have so many years of you loving us too.

Happy New Year!

 The weather app on my phone tells me that it is -2 outside but the wind chill means that it feels like -8.  We have a dog that does not worry about weather apps, all she knows is that she likes a long walk in the morning and would we please get a move on so she can go out.

It does look pretty out there.  There's a soft layer of frost on cars and pavements and I noticed that when I let Coco out in the garden earlier, the sparkly frost covered blades of grass gently crunched as she walked across the lawn.

Today is the day that I will be taking down the decorations and dismantle the tree.  It always looks so bare after all the colour has been packed away for another year. One person who will be pleased to get things back to normal is Coco as the tree is positioned in her favourite corner where she likes to have a doze in the evenings.  Every night she has walked towards it and I can almost see her shake her head and think 'oh, it's still there then.  When can I have my corner back?'

We do have a little extra colour as the amaryllis bulb that I planted weeks ago has burst into flower.

I've been watching that stem grow and grow, seen a flower head swell and then burst through the top leaves and slowly unfurl into a beautiful flower.  It's now too big to be on my kitchen windowsill so has been invited in to take pride of place on the sideboard in the dining room.

I don't think we can put off that dog walk any longer, it's time to bundle up in wooly scarves, hats and winter coats.  Talking of scarves, let me end by sharing my latest knitting project.  

It's a triangular scarf, knitted on circular needles.  It took a little while to get my head around how it was going to evolve from a straight line to a triangle but now I've worked it out it seems to be growing into the right shape. I just hope I get it finished before the temperatures start to rise!