Author: Cathy

I may have retired from work but there's no way I've retired from life! 'So what do you do' someone asked me. 'I live, love and laugh' I replied. 'oh and travel as much as possible' Come along and join in my life and travels - I'll be happy to have you there with me. http://cranethie.com
Posted on

Things going on…..

There’s been a few….

The last month of the year started on a low…..another day of very low temperatures. It was winter wooly and ‘I don’t care what the date is’ I’m putting the heating on time as it only managed to get to about 11°c plus it poured here most of the day which didn’t help
AND
Look what happened just 2.5hrs up to road.
Yes it snowed- not the first time it’s happened up there…..after all it is a ski resort…..it’s just not really what you expect to see there on the first day of Summer

We’re not sure where Spring has been for the past three months but we didn’t expect Winter to return and say hello!
NOW
Just to show you how strange our weather is here’s the forecast for the rest of the week. Look there are 20s and even a 30. Warmth at last!

The roses in the bottom garden have been spoiled with all the rain, hopefully these warm days coming up encourage a few more buds to open. I’ve missed seeing them on the outside table so am happy ‘The Triffid’ (The Golfer’s pet name for a very lanky Buddleia that’s growing near the deck) is flowering again. The first blooms are usually enormous and very showy, once they’re spent it’ll be cut back closer to fence level ready for the next growth spurt and more flowers.

I haven’t seen many butterflies around it yet- but then with all the changeable weather (plus a cantankerous uncooperative spine causing me grief) I’ve been in more than out, have sort of withdrawn from life this past couple of weeks – .book in hand, cup of tea close by, keeping my chair company
Enjoying two old crime mysteries plus a couple of modern Novellas
(for November)

Murder isn’t Cricket – Edwin Radford 1946
A Studyin Scarlet – Arthur Conan Doyle 1887
*******
The Girls on the Shore – Ann Cleeves
The Catch – Mick Herron


Today (dry, sunny, warm) was not a day to be moping around inside so as the wedding planned for January isn’t going to happen because an unplanned baby will be arriving in April I worked on a little first size cardigan to give grandson and mum to be…..a ‘surprise Christmas gift’ …..in white because ‘we want him/her to be a surprise Grandma’.

The Eye Surgeon surprised The Golfer last week by returning his driving and short walks privileges, result – a much happier Chappy who is bearing up well with restrictions still on golf or gym. Life had another surprise for him this week (which could have had disastrous consequences) but I’ll leave that for another day.

So what’s been going on in your life? Anything interesting?

Posted on

Good on ya Opal….

I had a little bit of a giggle when I saw this old Pickles cartoon the other day……since his eye surgery The Golfer hasn’t been allowed to lift anything so it’s been me bringing all the shopping in from the car.

I think that might be my final answer as well 😎

Posted on

Just one of those months…..

Not the best of months as I sort of knew it would be but we survived……

Thankfully The Virus and all it entailed that had me low for a while has now moved on its merry way – a month ago The Golfer (who doesn’t deal well with sickness in any form) was driving and back at the golf club a week after his first cataract operation – then last week had his second eye surgery…

The day started with an admission time of 7.30am in a day procedure clinic about 25kms from home, take it from me I wasn’t too impressed when the heavens opened just as I reversed up the drive. Contending with early morning traffic while its bucketing down isn’t my idea of fun…..there’s always that one driver who wants to get ahead of everyone else and lane hops all the way up the road….so there was a big sigh of relief when we finally arrived

….it was a more complicated procedure than the first….A Vitrectomy which means I’m still on ‘drops duty’ ….4xdaily for one – reducing frequency for the other – and he is certainly not happy after learning the restrictions on this one could last a while. e.g. no flying, no driving, no golf, no gym, no gardening (digging) or lifting anything heavy – these are just a few- until the inserted ‘air bubble’ has disappeared.

But look, there’s been some laughs…..putting his spectacles on and wondering why one lens was all fuzzy – forgetting his sight on that side had been ‘restored’ – then trying to wrangle the very well secured lens from the frame. With luck (fingers crossed) new ones won’t be needed as there was cataract surgery on the 2nd eye as well

Another good thing to come out of all this sitting around keeping him company is I’ve used up several lots of excess wool ….Voila..…36/20x20cm knitted squares…..with (as requested) long ends left for sewing together to make a large sized cot blanket. Win/Win situation!


Our weather has been changeable revolting…..Spring has been ghastly – Summer starts in two weeks time ……hopefully some dry sunny days will turn up and I’ll not need to turn the heating on again

Last Sunday (Nov. 9) was a miserable cold wet day just right for more bingeing on outback noir…….so after introducing TG to audio books on Libby I set to and enjoyed some of Garry Disher’s ‘Peninsula Crimes’ series where Detective Inspector Hal Challis plays the lead role.

Most of the action – and there’s plenty of it – takes place south of Melbourne on the beautiful Mornington Peninsula..(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Peninsula)….
an area enjoyed by the rich and famous as well as ‘ordinary Australians’.

📘 The Dragon Man
Peninsula Crimes #1
📘 Kittyhawk Down
Peninsula Crimes #2
📘 Snapshot
Peninsula Crimes #3

November is Novella time so I’ve a couple lined up to see the month out

The Girls on the Shore – Anne Cleeves
(A very short tale featuring Matthew Venn)

The Catch – Mick Herron
(A little bit of spying going on)

Plus
Walk the Blue Fields – Claire Keegan
(Very short stories about life)

See you soon!

Posted on

📘 Recommended by….

Now many of us (and I bet you’re one of them as well) make a note of ‘interesting sounding books’ we see or hear about- especially those read by other bloggers. And sometimes we forget to note the place or a name (guilty as charged 🤭)
October is a good month for me – the start of a new birth year – so what better than to look at my list and read all things new to me. Authors as well as series

(Being laid low for weeks with a virus wasn’t on the cards though. I’m still not right , coughing like crazy, dozing at the drop of an eyelid, feel as though I’ve been run over by a truck. I did manage to keep my eyes open to read recently (and prepare a couple of posts)……stayed away from SM & blogs – but am not planning ahead for this month)

So, at the beginning of October I picked these three up from the library – with no idea of where or by whom the recommendation came

We all want impossible things – Catherine Newman
Who knows you better than your best friend? Who knows your secrets, your fears, your desires, your strange imperfect self? 
* I’m sorry but I couldn’t get past chapter 2…..there must be plenty who enjoyed it but as the saying goes ‘Just not for me’

Rites of Spring – Anders De la Motte
Southern Sweden: Beautiful countryside, endless forests, coastal walks, dark days – and even darker nights. But beneath the beauty lies a dark heart . . .
* It seemed a good idea – a ‘new to me’ author recommended as a good crime writer. Unfortunately…..yes, another that didn’t hold my interest. It’s actually available on Libby so maybe I’ll have another try sometime- the book font was quite small so with online adjustments it could be easier to read (and absorb)

A month in the Country – J. L. Carr
This haunting novel, set in the summer of 1920, is the story of a war survivor who spends a month in the quiet of the English countryside, living in a church in the North of England, uncovering and restoring an historical wall painting.
* So so good….so so short…..just over 100 pages of a peaceful summer with so much more included…..enough to remind you of the horror of war, the losses that come with it – both physical and mental – plus the overwhelming desire for attitudes to change as well as things to be better afterwards. One I’ll definitely be rereading – please try to find a copy, you won’t be disappointed

There was a film adaptation (1987) starring Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh in the lead roles which if interested you can watch HERE
(Original English dialogue- just ignore the Spanish subtitles)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Month_in_the_Country_(novel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Month_in_the_Country_(film)

*******

I moved on to a couple of easy comfortable reads (located online) that were also ‘on the list’ followed by one passed on by hand

Tea on Sunday – Lettice Cooper
Alberta Mansbridge has invited eight people to have tea but doesn’t open the door when they arrive……..because after a police forced entry she is found at her desk – strangled
* Now this was one I certainly enjoyed.
Written (and set) in the 1970s it seemed to have an older feel to it. Each chapter allows Inspector Corby aided by Sergeant Newstead to methodically learn more about the lives, loves and relationships of each of the suspects. Just a little bit of right/wrong – true/untrue facts are revealed as the chapters pass by….…. enough to have you wondering. I was still wondering right up to when I twigged during the last chapter. Good read!

Ordinary Life: Stories – Elizabeth Berg
In this superb collection of short stories, Elizabeth Berg takes us into pivotal moments in the lives of women,……….
* And that’s what it was- a really good collection of short stories featuring women. Thank you whoever it was who recommended this author, I’ll be on the lookout for more works by Elizabeth Berg

The Reading Group – Elizabeth Noble
Its members are as different as the books they read. But each woman has secret hopes and fears – for a new lover, a straying husband, an ailing mother, a tear away teenager…… and each woman finds laughter and support in the group’s monthly meetings.
* This is the ‘oh, you must read this – you’ll love it’ book I spoke about a couple of weeks ago, now I really don’t want to give up on it but it’s hard going with so many characters (young and old) appearing right from page 1,
It’s bitty (a bit about this one – a bit about that one) so trying to keep track of what’s going on in the life of each of those people is confusing plus as mentioned in the earlier post there’s an awful lot of different relationships and situations to get my head around.
I don’t dislike it……I’m just putting it to one side for now

Trying to work out how the characters ‘relate’ to each other

📘📘📘📘

Then I remembered reading/hearing others (not sure where/who) saying……
”Oh if you enjoy XYZ, you really should try this….you’ll love it”
So going on those words decided to try these new to me series

📘This Side of Murder – Anna Lee Huber
Verity Kent Mysteries #1

📘Unforgiven – Sarah Barrie
Lexie Winter #1

📘Cutters End – Margaret Hickey
Detective Sergeant Mark Ariti  #1

📘Dead Simple – Peter James
Roy Grace #1

Of the four I will probably (at some time) continue with the Roy Grace series. I read the other three but there was just something about each of the main characters that didn’t appeal. But then as they say……nothing ventured – nothing gained…..other books in those series might make better reading than the first one did

Linking with Share your Shelf

Posted on

Dad’s fun but spooky poem….

My dad loved his daughters…..didn’t matter he longed for a son to carry on the family name…..he welcomed us all equally.
(He did eventually get a son – 4 years to the day our ‘little sister’ was born)
Everywhere we went he was up for fun – hauling us up onto the big gun for a photo in Ward Park Bangor had mum complaining we’d get dirty. Doesn’t matter he said, they’d had a bit of fun and would remember it

I think I’ve mentioned before he was an Irishman who loved to sing….I’ve never met one who doesn’t – I wonder if the breed exists??
We grew up in a house full of music
Never knowing when Dad would burst into song
or what would come out when he did

Belting it out at the pub

He could croon like Bing Crosby and Mum would pretend to swoon
There’d be the fun Irish songs
and then some days he’d come out with something by one of his favourite singers
Josef Locke
*********

Now not only did he sing but he was a dab hand at recitation
And what I was going to tell you about is what we used to call his spooky poem
One he performed with just the right amount of emotion and flair…..one we loved yet had us curled up together, retreating into the chair, anticipating what would come next

It began like this…..
Up the hairy mountain
Down the rusty glen……
Oh no, that’s not quite the way it goes but to very young ears that’s the way it sounded🤭

The Fairies – 1850
William Allingham 1824 – 1889

Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren’t go a-hunting
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl’s feather!

The first verse is what we usually heard but now and again we were treated to the full poem. Which didn’t please mum as she said it upset us. Not quite true, we loved it – even if it is a little confronting for some children……..dad had fun reciting it and seeing our reactions to the words. It’s just right for Halloween!

Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes
Of yellow tide-foam;
Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain-lake,
With frogs for their watchdogs,
All night awake.

High on the hill-top
The old King sits;
He is now so old and grey
He’s nigh lost his wits.
With a bridge of white mist
Columbkill he crosses,
On his stately journeys
From Slieveleague to Rosses;
Or going up with music
On cold starry nights,
To sup with the Queen
Of the gay Northern Lights.

They stole little Bridget
For seven years long;
When she came down again
Her friends were all gone.
They took her lightly back,
Between the night and morrow,
They thought that she was fast asleep,
But she was dead with sorrow.

They have kept her ever since
Deep within the lake,
On a bed of flag-leaves,
Watching till she wake.

By the craggy hillside
Through the mosses bare,
They have planted thorn trees
For pleasure, here and there.
Is any man so daring
As dig them up in spite,
He shall find their sharpest thorns
In his bed at night.

Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren’t go a-hunting
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl’s feather!

Irish poet William Allingham ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Allingham

Published in book form by Thomas de La Rue. Illustrated by Emily Gertrude Thomson
Fabulous photographs and text from the book can be found HERE

The book can be found HERE at Internet Archive (https://archive.org)

Posted on

It’s been a bit cloudy and grey recently…..

My waiting time view at Costco car park

*****

Out the front

******

On the way to Healesville
A quick snap from the car coming home from Healesville – the blue sky over the newly growing vines gave a false sense of security

Because this is today’s forecast.
Certainly not cold but very grey and miserable……with a ‘promise’ of things to come

I took time in yesterday’s afternoon sunshine to calculate how many more squares I’d get from the ‘left over’ yarn. These have been easy (portable) knits which is what I’ve needed recently. Those in the group who do the putting together say they like 36/20x20cms all the same weight so I’m about half way through at the moment……adding more colours once these are done.
Making one now and again has been calming, only having to remember to stop increasing at a certain number then begin to decrease…….oh, and remembering once decreasing has begun not to count the stitches then begin to increase again because you think you hadn’t reached the target figure. You end up with a funny shape doing that🤭

Then a quick look at a ‘oh, you must read this – you’ll love it’ book.
Take a newly formed book club, the lives of the female members plus their families and the storyline starts there. I’ll see how I go but there seems to be an awful lot of relationships and situations to get my head around and that’s just in the first chapter

Pop over and see who’s been visiting Kat — Unraveled Wednesday

Posted on

Hidden benefits…..

Your know some of that time spent sitting around watching tv during the lockdowns (all those years ago) did actually have hidden benefits.

According to some paper notes found during a clear out I’ve just discovered that the old adage about never being too old to learn is true

Courtesy of Millionaire Hot Seat  one evening, in the short space of one hour I learnt that:-

  • Polar bear females are called sows, not cows
  • Young turkeys are called Jakes and Jennys
  • Mangos are in the same family as Cashews and Pistachios
  • The stumpy bits on a giffaffes head are called Ossicones
  • Dolorous means sorrowful

And….

  • If I want to go on a really really long trip, the distance from Earth to the Sun is about 150 million kilometres.  How many days drive do you think that might be??

Maybe I’d better hang on to the bit of paper I jotted it down on because how long I’ll retain all that information is anybody’s guess
—————

It’s Monday Morning here, I’m enjoying my early cup of tea but it won’t be long ‘till breakfast time when The Golfer will join me. We’re on day4 after his cataract surgery – eye drops are a feature of the day (5 times daily) so like when Mummas were ‘on call’ because new babies had to be fed regularly I can’t go far as I have to be around to do these…..because he found he couldn’t see where the drop was going.

Out of curiosity I’ll bring up the subject of the lockdowns (6 here in Victoria- 262 days) with him over breakfast and see what he remembers. I know what one of his answers will be…….he couldn’t go to golf for what seemed like an eternity 😊

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Victoria

Posted on

Who said that…

It seems strange that the next book I picked up to read is this one by Geraldine Brooks.

An historical novel and love story set during a time of catastrophe, on the front lines of the American Civil War.  March, an idealistic abolitionist,has gone as chaplain to serve the Union cause. But the war tests his faith not only in the Union—which is also capable of barbarism and racism—but in himself. As he recovers from a near-fatal illness, March must reassemble and reconnect with his family, who have no idea of what he has endured.

Considering all the recent and ongoing problems in the world this is almost topical.  Relating to a time when it seems men were men and women were women  (and not all were equal) it covers history I’m not too familiar with.

We learnt a small amount at school but didn’t go into depth – ask me about kings, queens and relevant battles of the British Isles and I probably would have the answer, unfortunately the whys and wherefores of American history are a mystery.

Yes I know it is about a fictional character …..the absent father from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women…….taking that aside maybe I’ll ‘learn a little’ from reading it.

It’s been a while since I actually read Little Women although I’ve seen big and little screen versions which maybe glamorised the whole period but I loved the thought of sisters banding together helping their mother, worrying about their father, tolerating the rich aunt, doing good deeds, falling in love, accepting sickness.and gaining a little bit of independence.

So when I found this quiz online …..me,  usually wary of this sort of stuff, had a go; I didn’t get all the answers correct but then as I said it’s been a while and my memory isn’t quite what it used to be

Little Women – Which March sister said it

Why don’t you have a go and see if you remember the dialogue from the ‘well loved book’

Oh, and lovers of Mr Darcy and The Bennet sisters might be interested in this

Pride and Prejudice – Which Bennet said it

*********

Today is Friday – so lets have some Friday Fun with a Fun Quiz just right for the day we set aside to forget all the worries of the week

Don’t forget to tell me how you went!

To comment please click on post title and scroll down

Posted on

Coming in threes….

Sometimes I wonder about that old saying about things happening in threes – good things come in threes, accidents and deaths come in threes, we say third time lucky and three cheers.  I’m not saying I don’t believe those thoughts but I really sat up and took notice and began to think about them recently……

I’ll start by saying years ago I read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.

The story about a man who hears an old friend of his is very ill and decides to walk to another town quite a way from where he is living in the hope that she will still be alive when he gets there.  Long and at times a bit ho hum it tells of how he copes with the journey, his attitude and feelings to the hardships he experiences also the people he comes across on his way and how he is a changed man at the end of it.

Later that year while we were away overseas I mentioned the book in passing to a friend and she suggested another book with a similar title.  Called What the Psychic told the Pilgrim by Jane Christmas this is not a novel but a tale (true recording) of the pilgrimage she made in Spain along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela (try saying that in a hurry lol).  So very different (much easier to read) and yet quite similar to the other pilgrimage book, this deals with similar hardships and attitudes and feelings Jane has to her fellow pilgrims as Harold had to his.  They both wanted to give up their treks but continued without all the fanfare around them and by the end both had ‘found love’.

That was the year Simon Reeve’s Pilgrimage documentaries were released
Simon Reeve retraces the adventures of our ancestors, and learns about the forgotten aspects of pilgrimage – including the vice, thrills and dangers that awaited travellers.
We watched but like many things these days I can’t remember a thing about it🙁

******

Fast forward to last week visiting the library what do I see on a display stand but the Harold Fry book. Curiosity got the better of me and I looked along the C shelf wondering if Jane Christmas’s book was there……that would have had me giggling if it was.

No not there but it turned up on a free internet site (https://archive.org) when I was looking for something else……and look what else I found😊

I’m now wondering how long it’ll take me to finish reading the books I brought home – then I can set to ……reread both books, then rewatch the different episodes of Simon wandering the world

Posted on

This goes with that…..

https://www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/Our-services/Waste/What-can-I-put-in-my-bin

Two years on the council is still trying to ‘educate’ rate prayers

Remember the little stickers I mentioned here the other day
The supermarket says they need them to identify the item/fruit so the consumer is charged the correct price.

Here’s the latest letter box drop that came from the council on Wednesday- guess what they’ve singled out as a No No

Those pesky little fruit stickers!
They are plastic but they’re the the wrong sort of plastic to go in the recycling bin so they have to go in the household rubbish
It seems the consumer is saying……I’m fed up trying to work out what goes where so I’ll just leave them on and let ‘them’ sort it out

So now we have three bins with various coloured lids each with its own scheduled pick up week…….thankfully all on Monday morning .
Spare a thought for Sue in Suffolk (in the UK) plus those around her because most of them are soon going to be responsible for 5 – yes, five bins. Where on earth would you house them all
https://attheendofasuffolklane.blogspot.com/2025/10/all-change-in-village.html

Posted on

🧶 Bright is right….

Yes, that’s what she said……”Bright is right”.

I never fail to marvel at the connections people involved in charity ‘work’ have. I’m not talking about large so called Not For Profit ones where they’re all competing for your donation dollar (monetary or in kind) but small local groups like my knitting/craft one.

My social worker acquaintance that I helped out previously (here and here) has made contact with and approached our leader with a request for simple woolies for slightly older babies. Her young mums and bubs group are struggling financially and are worried about not having warm jumpers/cardigans for next year.
Second hand is all they have known – tiny sizes are passed on more frequently because babies grow so quickly but not so for, say, 12/18 month because they will usually last a season. And that’s the size her little ones will be when it starts to cool down again.

Could you make them bright please she said, bright is right…..
the brighter the better
My ladies have enough ‘dark’ in their lives.
And if you could manage a bit of fun, that would be good😊

Lovely to enjoy flowers on the deck again

There had to be a reason I was gifted those balls of Orange. They’ve been sitting there for a long time….now is their time to shine.
I have plans for fun…..later!

*******

And then there is this…..
something else that was gifted to me a while ago. Overlooked when I packed for Bowen so now’s its chance to entertain me. Self published so not a lot online except the back of the book blurb:-

A Handful of Pebbles is a mystery-thriller where consequences of events occurring during the final months of World War Two shatter the peace of the early fifties. Innocent people, and a small ship trading along the south coast of England, are engulfed in a web of smuggling and murder, bringing lies and deceit, which makes the truth hard to find…at any price.

Should be good…..I’ll find out soon

******

What do you have tucked away in the background of your life that needs to come out of hiding and shine

Sharing with Unraveled Wednesday

Posted on

End of season….

We’re definitely coming to the end of the Mandarin season here and all of a sudden the fruit & veg department in a certain supermarket seems to be flooded with a single variety. I have never tasted this variety so I’m not judging the fruit itself…..my favoured one is Imperial which is available just for a short while early in the season.

Anyway you can buy this particular fruit loose (complete with its own little plastic sticky identifying label) from the market style displays doted around the fruit & veg dept. The fruit is as it comes from the supplier – as picked, various sorts of sizes so you’re free to choose how many you want/like the look of.
Keep that $3.90 kg price in mind…..

If you want your fruit all the same size and don’t want the hassle of picking through and choosing, just wander to another section and you will find these there. For just a little more you can have all the same size bagged ready to pick up and pop in your trolley….


But hang on, did you noticed the weight. It’s only 750gms not a kg……
……..which if you look at extra price on the label (mandatory unit pricing) means it works out to $6.43 kg

I wonder if the actual fruit inside the peel tastes any different to those that cost about $2.40 kg less

Posted on

Playing the waiting game….

My little car is just the right size for me…..most of the time

The Golfer uses it occasionally but prefers his own, which we use if we’re off somewhere together. There are times though when it’s the other way round and I’m the one driving him in my car

Now….
I don’t mind playing chauffeur (as I’ve done for the last two years) when The Golfer needs a lift to the eye specialist even though he squirms around muttering about small seats.

I don’t mind waiting around an hour on average because it’s not worth while driving home and coming back

With several specialists consulting at the same time the waiting room gets crowded so I wait in the car

Where I can eat and drink to my heart’s content – listen to the radio – or read while I knit at the same time

The thing is….
It’s a bit of a tight squeeze trying to set things up with a steering wheel and gear lever in the way so one time I tried sitting on the passenger side……more leg room and nothing in front of me – but it just didn’t feel right…..so I moved back to the driver’s side which for some reason is more comfortable

Tuesday morning- 30 September

The nearest (free) undercover car park is at Costco – out of the blazing sun and pouring rain. It’s close to the railway station plus a huge shopping centre so there are large ‘we are not a public car park’ signs so if I’m challenged I’ll just produce my card and say ‘I’m waiting for someone’. Not actually a lie is it…..waiting….not for someone turning up with a trolley full of groceries but for a ‘I’m ready’ text from someone 🤭

With several more appointments (plus two surgical procedures) coming up over the next couple of months I reckon I’ll be dab hand at the waiting game by Christmas

Posted on

A little glimmer….

You know those things that take you out of yourself and help you realise things aren’t quite as bad as they feel…..

Glimmers are small moments that make us feel a sense of calm, connection, peace, and safety. They are the little things we notice that instantly elevate our mood, even when we are feeling down or are in the midst of a bad day.  Source

Well, visiting friends with acreage at Silvan up in the hills last week, this appeared on the horizon.

A little zoom in and those distinctive colours ‘rainbow’ colours became more apparent

Much much better when visible in real life….not a full arch but enough to put a smile on my (and my friend’s) face…..and forget all our troubles and woes😊

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet – almost but not quite

Posted on

📘 Crossing them off the list….

It looks like I spent an awful lot of time with my nose in a book this past month – well you’d be sort of right…..but the truth is most of these (apart from one) were fairly short, easy to read or ‘gallop through the pages’ page turners

Starting with a Seasonal Read, followed by Travel – Crime – Passion.
All of them published a while ago

Spring in September – Ursula Bloom 1983
Timeless Classics Collection
* When Janet meets a fascinating older man, she thinks he is the answer to all her problems. But they are only just beginning

What you might call a ‘sweet read’ following along as young Janet – just finished her final term at boarding school with her life opening up in front of her – finds out that all is not as it appears when our ‘grown up’ ideas don’t pan out the way they should have…..a coming of age story with a happy ending

The Accidental Tourist – Anne Tyler 1985
* How does a man addicted to routine – a man who flosses his teeth before love-making – cope with the chaos of everyday life

A twisty turny humourous tale – my first Anne Tyler read – which I thoroughly enjoyed

Death of an Airman. – Christopher St. John Sprigg 1934/2015
* In full view of a half dozen witnesses, the flying instructor of the Baston Aero Club goes into a tail spin, crashes, and is killed.

I usually enjoy these old ‘golden age’ crime novels but this one was a slog. The first few chapters flowed along nicely but then it seemed like too much was going on and the reader ( me) became quite confused – once an international drug smuggling operation entered the plot it got even more confusing so that in the end I never really cared how George Furnace came to die ( because it wasn’t the way it seemed in the beginning)

Harnessing Peacocks – Mary Wesley 1985
* Living happily alone in a seaside town in Cornwall, lovely Hebe supports her son at an expensive boarding school by cooking and discreetly making love for profit, until the unexpected happens

Witty and unconventional is how I’d describe Mary Wesley’s writing – never fails to please me. The 1993 ‘made for TV film’ (John Mills) is based on the novel…..similar but not the same.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harnessing_Peacocks

****

Then onto ‘the next instalment’ which reignited my completist leanings……I’m determined to finish those series I’ve begun – recent ones as well as those begun a few years ago and left floundering in the TBR spreadsheet (of which there are quite a few!)

I had a serving of tartan noir last month (Stuart MacBride) – this month I’ve been bingeing on outback noir…….continuing with more from Garry Disher’s ‘Hirsch’ series featuring Constable Paul Hirschhausen’s life in a one-man station in a small, dusty South Australian town where amongst the ordinary day to day some very extraordinary can appear. If you can find them – pick up and enjoy.

📘Peace
Hirsch #2
📘Consolation
Hirsch #3
📘Days End
Hirsch #4

*******
My next was one of those elusive books, the ones you look for but can never find – the first of a series I began quite a few years ago now. A surprise find at the library when I popped in to pick up a reservation. What’s the betting all the others turn up now – I read somewhere recently they are all now available online so that might be my next move

And to be able to finish another Australian series, I’ve just begun the last of Jane Harper’s books featuring Aaron Falk. Unlike many in my ‘reading group’ I didn’t exactly rave about the first two so I’m hoping to find this one holds my interest.

  • Exiles – Jane Harper
    Aaron Falk #3

*********

And this 👇has been my thoughts over the past few weeks

Do you ever feel that way?

Sharing with Share Your Shelf

Posted on

🧶 But for the want of…..

Not a nail but those two little balls of brown wool!

If I’d remembered them – If I had put them with the rest of the garment then Mia’s present would be finished. Looking on the bright side there’s only a little more work needed (apart from making up and the neckline) and then it’s finished. And there’s plenty of time between now and Christmas to do that.

Lookee here my friends- what did get finished while we were away is this – sized for a 4yr old (24”) rather than the larger one I’d planned. Not intentional- just a case of realising (after working several rows) I’d cast on the wrong amount of stitches – so decided it was easier to carry on rather than faff about adding more😊

And here’s the next one – in the same design ….because I forgot to put the other patterns in (sigh) …..finished apart from making up and doing the neckline that is

🧶📘🧶📘🧶📘

Now all you crafty ones – what about this for a new hobby!
This came home from the library so I could find out what it was all about. There were lots of instructions – easier to read if enlarged

A little bit of fun but I’ll give it a miss – somehow it just doesn’t look as calming as conventional needle knitting…also, what do you do if you need to go to the loo in a hurry????

🧶🧶📘🧶📘🧶

Pop over and see who’s been visiting Kat — Unraveled Wednesday

Posted on

I have….

been going through one of my ‘want to be alone’ times since we came home. It might be Spring and although some days have been quite pleasant there’s been an awful lot that haven’t so basically Warm Weather Withdrawal Symptoms are what I’ve been suffering from. ‘The Back’ playing up hasn’t helped matters so it’s been easier just to retire (with a book) to my own little world for a short time

A session in the warm water therapy pool always helps….just have to remind myself to check the pool availability chart. I didn’t realise the Fathers and Babes class was weekly so twice I’ve turned up and half the area has been blocked off. Not so bad when there’s only a few others in the water but things got a little tense as more arrived and ‘room to move’ became limited

Then there was the nuisance factor in coming home to this…..courtesy of a very windy (like gale force we were told) storm – one demolished blind. Admittedly it did already have a small tear and was to changed anyway but what a way to go. One quick trip to ‘the big green shed’ aka Bunnings and we were back to the way we were

Nice new one in place now

Being ‘topped and tailed’ has helped – Cutting of the hair and toe nails happened 😊.
The hairdresser and podiatrist appointments were already in the diary but not until a week after we got home…..which was good really because it gave me a chance to work some of my misery out of my system before getting the boost I needed.

Then there was a bit of a laugh when I finally got the urge to go grocery shopping. Prices seemed to have soared again but this one stopped me in my tracks…..until it dawned on me the price was for the 30 eggs above and not the dozen below 🤭

By Friday emotions seemed to have come good and I ended up not canceling a planned lunch – one where I’d be surrounded by oodles of women – because the lunch was with other View Club members and that is an organisation solely for women. I knew when I sat down, each person in the room was comfortable with the other ‘ladies’ at their table and via The Smith Family there was a common interest and solution to helping some disadvantaged Australian children cope with problems of education.  Voice, Interest Education of Women.

http://view.org.au

After lunch speaker had us amused and interested in her recollections of a trip to Antartica – she spoke about Shackleton’s expedition and how they (well some of them) finally ended up South Georgia and how she herself ended up visiting there – on a cruise ship…..chosen because it was on the itinerary.

I’m now back in the business of life again, trying to think positively…..yes it’s not summer yet but it’s not far off – the Spring equinox has arrived, the clocks change soon, the temperature will rise (we will then complain it’s too hot😊) and …..’The Back’ doesn’t feel quite so uncomfortable at the moment.

How about you- how do you cope with the changing seasons ?

Website Built with WordPress.com.