#WBOYC in May

 

In theory this month should be easily summed up as there are only the three letters in May!

M

Meals out with friends three times.  

Missed the Northern Lights that were experienced where we live while we were away for the weekend 🙄

A

A weekend away in Whitstable with Coco.

A week off from Zumba as it was the school's half term holiday at the end of the month, however there was more childcare that week as both my son and daughter work full time, so I feel as though I did just as much exercise, just in a different way and without the music! 

Y

Yearning for some settled weather - we have had whole weeks where we have one good dry day followed by one wet one and I am more than ready for continuous warm dry weather! It really hampers making plans that involve anything open air.  

It feels as if I haven’t had much of interest to report this month, it seems like there were a lot of routine days apart from our four days away. Here’s the proof, my month of May - 1 Second Everyday

Linking up with the other Deb over at Deb's World in Australia, her month was much warmer and busier than mine!

Me on Bank Holiday Monday

 Another Bank Holiday Monday!  Although when you aren't working, every Monday is a non-working Monday.

I nearly had an unpleasant experience this morning while taking Coco out for her walk.  You know how horrible it is if you open the front door and take a step outside without realising that there is a cobweb right in front of the porch way?  That horrible feeling of cobweb on skin that you can't get rid of?  Well, now imagine that but with caterpillars on a thread. Our route took us around the country park at the back of where we live and as we approached the lake I could see something moving around in front of my face.  I stopped abruptly and saw that it was groups of threads reaching from the branches of a tree, all the way down to the ground and it was covered in caterpillars!  

Not a brilliant photo but it was windy and I had visions of the other columns of caterpillars blowing into me from all directions! Apparently it is a moth that is covering some of the trees in the park in caterpillars and munching their way through the foliage.  Lucky I saw it or I would have been imagining caterpillars in my hair for the rest of the day.

I'm making the most of a quiet day at home today as we have extra childcare duties this week as it is the school half term.  I've stocked up on a few craft supplies to try and keep them occupied and hopefully that will keep their interest.

This is pre-holiday week so hair cuts have been had, packing lists are being made, manicure appointments booked and no more meals out arranged.  I may have/ definitely didn't eat particularly healthily last week as we ate out a few times which inevitably ends up with eating more rich food and well ... just more food in general than I would have if we were at home!  So good intentions for ultra healthy home cooked meals are in place this week to undo that damage.

Have a good week!

Me on Monday

 Last week saw a lot of work in the garden (mostly for Paul with me in more of a supervisory role 😉) This is a great time of year to be out there and I think we have reached that stage where the plants have established themselves and are happy to do their own thing once spring has arrived.  I cannot take the credit for all of this, Paul is the one who spent a lot of last week tidying, planting up pots and mowing the lawn.  I was happy to admire his hard work at the end of the day!  The red shrub in the first photo has excelled itself this year, it's a weigela and its sister plant with the pale pink flowers and variegated leaf is in the second photo.  Last year I was ruthless with my cutting back after they had flowered but boy has that paid off, this is the best they have ever looked.

The third photo shows the right hand side of the garden where we had to remove our flowering cherry tree last year.  I actually think it looks much better and the plants that were beneath it are enjoying all the extra light and sunshine.

So, weather permitting we will be doing a bit more tidying out there before the rain returns although first I have to go to the shops to buy some new gardening clogs; my old ones completely split down the front when I was wearing them at the weekend.  Again, much of the work will be down to Paul as I am meeting some friends for lunch and will probably be out for much of the time that he is gardening!

Have a good week x

Whitstable weekends

 We are just back from a long weekend in a seaside town called Whitstable, which is in the county of Kent. It's just under two hours from us but involves the M25 motorway and bridge crossing which can be notoriously bad for traffic problems.  We were so lucky to have no holdups in either direction which can be considered a minor miracle!

We rented a very dog friendly Airbnb flat which was the whole ground floor of a house very close to the seafront.  The beach there isn't sandy, except for one long stretch which is only visible at low tide, but it makes for ideal conditions for catching oysters. Whitstable oysters are famous, but I can't bear the thought of eating one.  I guess you are either an oyster fan or you aren't!

There are lots of little alleyways in town, apparently used in the past for smuggling  and this one has a fun name

Apparently the local policeman was a rather portly gentleman and mischievous children would run down this narrow alleyway knowing he couldn't fit in it to chase them!  We discovered it shortly after enjoying a delicious freshly cooked doughnut in one of the cafes along the front and fortunately I still managed to fit between the walls!

Whitstable Castle was very close to our house and we enjoyed a lovely walk around there in the sunshine.  Boy were we lucky with the weather!  My shorts were seen out in public for the first time this year 😉

We didn't venture too far as it was just so nice to wander and explore the town.  We did go to the next town along and caught a beautiful sunset.

The only other place we visited was Reculver where there are the ruins of a Roman fort.  When it had fallen out of use, a monastery was built in its place in 669 reusing the brickwork from the original structure.  It's a very imposing structure even now it is derelict and a lovely place to walk around on a sunny afternoon.  

So that was a lovely break from our normal weekend routine.  It's so nice to live fairly close to so many coastal resorts.  I need to get the map out and choose our next destination!

Busy Bank Holidays

 Isn't it strange how one extra day at a weekend can make such a difference?  Even stranger when you are retired and every day should, in theory, be the same.

We had such a mixed bag of weather this weekend and unfortunately the day that we had invited all the family over for lunch (yesterday) was the day it rained.  No chance of getting the children out into the garden to run off some energy!  I still find catering for ten a bit stressful, but decided to reward myself by baking my favourite dessert - lemon meringue pie 😀

It was a weekend of sweet treats actually as we popped into a new local bakery on Saturday and discovered that they sell pastel de nata, which we love when we go to Portugal.  Coco was disappointed to find that we had only bought two and neither of them were for her!

It's a different week for us as we are going away for a couple of days, more on that next week!  But even though it's not for long and in this country, my packing list seems to be growing daily and most of the things on it are for Coco.  If only our weather was more settled and you didn't have to pack clothes for all eventualities!

I'm off to have my nails done very soon, I'm so pleased with the BIAB nail polish/gel that I've had this year and it doesn't seem to be spoiling the condition of my nails, in fact they look and feel very healthy.  I'm so glad I got back into the routine of having them done properly, I got out of the habit in the Covid years, which now seems quite a long time ago doesn't it?  

Hope you have a good week and I will probably be writing my next post in a week's time rather than my usual Me on Monday.

What I've been reading in april

I read three books this month - two I would recommend and one which I wouldn't. 

 I started off the month with a book I picked at random on Amazon Kindle, The Wrong Daughter by Dandy Smith.

Caitlin and Olivia are excited about the prospect of being able to spend the night alone while their parents go out for the evening.  But unbeknown to them, they are being watched and in the middle of the night an intruder breaks in and kidnaps Olivia.  Caitlin can only watch in horror as a man in a Venetian hooked nose mask drags her older sister at knifepoint down the stairs.  The police are unable to solve the crime and Olivia's body is never found.

Many years later Caitlin receives a phone call telling her to come home immediately and she can hardly believe her eyes when she sees her sister in the family home with her parents.  Olivia refuses to be drawn into what has happened to her in all these years and is adamant that the police should not be involved.  Caitlin is immediately suspicious of Olivia and believes there is more to the mysterious reappearance.

In between the chapters is a second - seeming unconnected - storyline of siblings, Elinor and Heath Ledbury,  who live together in a stately home under the guidance of an unpleasant uncle who has control of their family trusts until they come of age.  I couldn't work out how this was going to be relevant - but it was!

For the first 3/4 of this book I was really enjoying it, but then it took a bit of a dark turn and I wasn't sure where it was going. It really is a tense psychological thriller but the last few chapters made me feel a bit uncomfortable so I'm afraid it's not one that I would recommend that you rush out and read.  

So I tried to find something that would be a much lighter subject matter -

No 23 Burlington Square by Jenni Keer.

Set in 1927 we meet Agnes Humphries, the landlady of 23 Burlington Square who has a vacant room to let. There are three applicants to consider. Stephen - a respectable banker who seems very sensible and almost too good to be true, Mercy Mayweather - a war widow who appears to be running away from something or someone, or Clara - her high spirited niece who drifts through life with no responsibility or interest in anything other than enjoying an exciting social life. Having brought scandal to her parents, Clara has been thrown out of home and Agnes feels that she must help family first and so offers the room to her.

Clara is very much the typical socialite of that era but finds that a chance meeting with Jemima, who lives in the basement flat of the house with her husband and young family, makes her question her life and stirs up the question of inequality for women at that time. An impetuous action by Clara damages that fledgling friendship and also makes Clara face a very difficult realisation about her true self.

Just as we have seen Clara move on with her new perspective on life the second part of the book begins.  We are transported back to 1927, with Agnes needing to let her vacant room.  This time Agnes chooses Stephen as the lucky tenant.  But just as we thought, Stephen is too good to be true and he may have been economical with the truth during his interview with Agnes.  He befriends one of the other lodgers and feels that his influence could help him turn things around.  Suffice it to say that Stephen's future is changed beyond his wildest dreams by the end of his stay.

Part three begins again back in 1927, but this time Agnes has chosen Mercy Mayweather to be her lodger.  The quiet widow is definitely hiding some secret and is constantly worrying that her family will find where she is and make her return to the homestead.  One thing is for sure and that is that no one is quite what they seem.

I really enjoyed this book.  I like the way that we witnessed how life would have panned out whichever one of the lodgers took the room.  I especially liked the ending which showed us that no matter who took that room, life for Agnes will never be the same!

Onto the last book of the month which was recommended to me by my daughter.  None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

Two women meet while out celebrating their 45th birthdays - birthday twins but their lives could not be more different.  Josie had married a much older man when very young and has two grown up daughters.  One who ran away from home when she was a teenager and the other who stays in her bedroom all day and night, gaming on her computer.  Alix is a podcaster who lives in a beautiful home and has two young children and a husband who has a drink problem.  

Josie becomes obsessed with Alix and approaches her with an idea for her podcast where she would tell her story and describe how she is about to dramatically change her mundane life.  Alix agrees to a trial interview and gets drawn into the dark chapters of Josie's life.  Josie gradually manipulates her way into Alix's life and even into her home.  

But are the stories that Josie discusses true?  Has she infiltrated Alix's life through a web of lies?  By getting involved in Josie's life has Alix put her own family in danger?  Oh boy, this is a page turner!  

So I would definitely recommend the last two books but not the first!

#WBOYC in April

 

Hello and welcome to the round up of my month, linking up with Deb.

A

Appointments - my least favourite kind - dental.  I did have to cancel the one that had been booked six months ago (details below under I)Also hair and nails - isn't it nice to have a bit of pampering when you haven't been well?

P

Pet sitting.  The return of Daisy the Daschund.

She wasn't too much trouble but she is a very needy dog - constantly wanting to sit on your lap which is nice if you are looking for an excuse to sit down and read a book or watch the tv but not so good if you just want to eat your dinner in peace.  Coco was ticking off the days until her family returned from holiday!

R

Reliving my youth at an Average White Band concert.

Yes I did remember all the words, which isn’t bad considering I first heard them 50 years ago!

I

Ill.  What a way to start the month.  I spent the first few days of the month staying very close to home and had to cancel not only a dental appointment (which I didn't mind) and a lunch out with friends (which I definitely wanted to go to).  My son was ill too and the finger of suspicion is pointing to his son who brought germs home from school with him at the end of term!  

L

Looking forward to having a reason to wear my new prescription sunglasses and also to planting out some new plants that we got at a local garden centre.  Are you listening Mother Nature?  I'm relying on you on both counts!

So that is April, almost done and dusted - just time to show you how it unfolded - 1 second everyday!