No Further Words needed.

 

Chrisxx

A Very Good Read

Oh dear I cried and cried through this book. 

An author I hadn't read before and I'll read another by her.

When Ellen  visits home for her father's birthday, her planned life path changes.  

Essentially this book is about how relationships change within a family, when one member becomes ill and is need of care. The novel's greatest strength is in its characterisation.  Ellen is a successful young New York journalist, so different from her homebound mother, the wife of small town English Literature Professor. 

She is called upon to take care of Kate, her mother, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. So, she is driven to abandon her chosen life path and confronted with caring for her mother, running a house and she sees first hand, the unequal partnership that is her parent's marriage and with mortality itself.

We learn right at the beginning of the book that Ellen is being questioned about her mother's death and is suspected of 'a mercy killing.'

With the inevitable death of her mother, Ellen comes to realise something she hadn't acknowledged previously in her life, and she changes into a person with a heart. The one true thing was 'love.'

I can't express how moved I was by this book, I was entranced from page one and raced through it. 

What I thought was a sadness for Ellen, was that her successful father wasn't the man she thought he was, and that her mother who was 'only a home bound wife,' was the strong one, the one, with whom she never really identified.

A touching portrayal of a mother and daughter's relationship which will not leave you unmoved. I loved it.

Chrisxx

4 Flowers!!

 We bought this from the store that took over Home Base in Bridgend.. its huge and  perfect for walking when its wet. Known for its cheaper priced items, B&M has become quite a favourite of ours when its wet.

We bought this just before Christmas and I planted it up after Christmas on Boxing day. The huge buds opened last week and aren't they beautiful, there are 4 flowers, white with the pink lines on them.

I'm very, very pleased with our buy.. did you get an Amaryllis this year?

Chrisxx

Would you be ready?

Wind up radio.  

               

Survival flint and steel to start a fire

 Portable solar battery.

Compass.

First Aid Kit, plus pain killer tabs and your own prescription tabs.

Bottled water +++

Tinned food plus several tin openers.

Dried food stuffs, like rice pasta and flour, yeast and packet foods, that have a heating element

Water proof clothing and extra warm clothing.

And?? Who knows??  And would we have these things to hand or should we be buying them now? 

Just a few people scaremongering on the internet, if there was to be WW3.

Personally I'd rather stay in my home and go out with a bang!

 Reading these has reminded me of the Nevil Shute book, 'On the Beach' When there had been a nuclear war and the last surviving people in Australia, were waiting for the fallout to reach there and die, altho they had been given pills to end their lives..Did that book shock me as to what might happen in my life time? Not at all, I had never even considered that it could happen, ever!

But the way that Trump talks, his unfiltered words, he could talk us into a war every time he opens his mouth. He seems to think he can talk Russia into peace, if only Ukraine will cede the land already occupied to Russia! And why should Ukraine give it up, its their land.. and if they don't Russia has implied that the Europeans including UK will be next. 

Would you be ready?

Chrisxx

Nail Bitting.

 Once again Dh and I have been gripped by the TV  programme 'The Traitors.'

How Rachel kept so cool in those last few episodes amazed me.  Several players started to suspect her and she was voted for by three 'Faithfuls' and was tied with James and then by chance got the saving Shield, How she kept looking so cool was amazing, how did she do it?

The final scene with Steven, Jack and Rachel was nail biting.  Jack had voted for her and then the hesitancy of Steven was agonising, would he stay faithful to her and vote for Jack too or vote for her, which would give him all of the prize money, close on £100,00?  Whew, he acted it well and kept her guessing too. I don't know who was more relieved when he turn his slate around with Jack's name on it, Rachel or myself!

So the two Traitors walked away with £47,875 each, and it was well deserved. They fooled the others in the game and kept faithful to each other, right up to the end.

Its been a fantastic programme again, with some unbelievable tasks for the players to do. The last one where they had to climb up a reservoir wall on a rope ladder and then run down it, wow that took some strength. I wonder if they have to take some tests before they are accepted as players in the game?

Overall in my opinion this 2026 Traitors is the best!

Did you watch it?

Chrisxx

So pretty and something to do on wet afternoons.

It seems there are more people in the younger age bracket these days, that watch you tube rather than live television. Dh and I are license payers and watch BBC and value it. We've recently notice that often after a BBC programme, there is an announcement saying, ' this has come to you and paid by you.'  

But I watch you tube videos that demonstrate how to do something mostly, and quilting is one of my favourites.

I love watching these quilting videos and I have made things from watching them, but not this one...but I'd like to.

Perhaps my next project!

Its very pretty!

Chrisxx

Happy Day

 This should be my mantra when I open the curtains and see rain. I just hate getting wet, and damp. So I have to think happy thoughts and believe the words on this........

Chrisxx

UFOs

 Have you heard of or read of 'analogue' bags? Its the opposite of digital. Some thing ready for you to do instead of being on line? It could be a book or an unfinished item or something new to sew or knit. I have 3 unfinished  knitting projects all stopped by my broken arm. All my cross stitch unfinished items went to a charity shop last year. It wasn't easy to let them go and I tried a few times to stitch, but my arm just wouldn't do it.

So it was time to let them go and perhaps I could do the same with the knitting, free myself of the guilt of not completing them and free up some cupboard space..so before the end of January that's what I intend to do!

Chrisxx

Snowdrops and Snow!

 This is a snowdrop walk  open to the public in Gloucester .

A friend and I went on one like it a few years ago. We made a weekend trip away, going on the Saturday and staying over night.  It was so pretty and I hadn't seen so many snowdrops and there was a scent as we walked along. Then we had a lovely Saturday afternoon going round some shops in the little town, we even treated ourselves to a Cream Tea. 

Our B&B was very comfortable , and I was pleased we had booked it, but we were very surprised when the lady running it asked if we wanted to stay on the Sunday night, because we had only booked it for the one night,  as we had work on the Monday.  She thought it might snow, but there was no sign to us that it might.

 But Sunday morning, when we looked out, it was white everywhere, it had snowed heavily in the night and the little road in the town was blocked and it was still snowing! 

Locals said it would be difficult driving and we were advised not to drive and wait to see if it would stop. It didn't and gradually got worse. Mid afternoon we both phoned our schools to explain the problem and that we wouldn't be there Monday morning. 

I arrived in school by Monday afternoon, and was astonished to see that there was no snow in Essex...but I had photographs to show I had indeed been snowed in, it was very deep and crisp and even!

Chrisxx

I'm so proud!

 These are from our front garden picked 15th January, would you believe it, still January!!

Quite a few years ago, when I was still working as a  teacher, I always wore a daffodil on March 1st, St David's Day.

The one year none of the shops in Billericay had any, and none in my garden either, not even a leaf. So I wore a silk one.

The following year, round about the middle of February I dug up a daffodil bulb, that had just a crown of leaves breaking through the soil. 

I balanced it on a slim jam jar with water in it, so that just the roots were in the water and kept it in the kitchen in the warm.

I had a sort of bloom by March, although I had to forcibly open the bud, but I did have a daffodil and of course that year every supermarket in town had bunches galore!!

What flowers have you flowering early, snowdrops?

Chrisxx