End of January already

 I think January has gone quite quickly, perhaps because we've been busy doing things around the house and starting to get those jobs ticked off.  The kitchen has been painted but I'm waiting for window blind to arrive and for Mark to put up a shelf at the weekend, and we are still waiting for the flooring to come in stock, (fingers crossed in a couple weeks), so not quite complete.  In the meantime, the shower/utility room prep and painting can be started next week, It's probably a good thing that the flooring wasn't in stock because now we can have them both fitted together and save the cost of two fitting charges.

I've managed to read five books this month, two on my Kindle and three physical books.

 I've taken to sitting with a coffee at lunchtime and reading a chapter or two, I don't normally read in the daytime but I've enjoyed having that hour sitting quietly so I'm going to try and keep it up.

A Midwinter's Tale - Lili Hayward was our Book and Pudding club choice, (not the one I voted for).  It was ok but I generally don't go in for cosy reads, It was all very predictable and neatly tied up at the end.

I'm continuing to work my way through Jodi Taylor's Chronicles Of St Mary's series, What Could Possible Go Wrong is book six. There is never a dull moment as you follow Max and her colleagues travelling back in time to witness key events in history.  This time Max is responsible for training the new recruits and we travel with them to the great pyramids, to witness the burning of Joan of Arc and the battle of Bosworth. And In true St Mary's style, If something can go wrong It will.  These books are proper adventures and have a bit of everything, never a dull moment, and the fact that this is the second time around of reading the series just shows how much I love them. 

The Psychopath Next Door - Mark Edwards. Ethan and his family have moved to a new area for a fresh start, and when Fiona moves in next door she seems nice, friendly and she and Ethan's daughter, Rose, get on really well. What they don't know it that Fiona is an ex prisoner who has an agender and see's something of herself in Rose.  It was an easy read and It kept it's pace all the way through.

Our Beautiful Mess - Adele Parks.  Connie is looking forward to having her three daughters home for Christmas, Fran, the oldest is the last to arrive with her new boyfriend, Zac in tow and announces she is pregnant.  Connie Is wary of Zac, there is something in him that reminds her of the man she had an affair with early in her marriage.  The story then unfolds with Fran and Zac mostly at the centre of It.  I enjoyed it, the pace was fast enough to keep you interested, a couple of the characters could have been developed a bit more but on the whole a good read.

Animal Farm - George Orwell has been on my TBR shelf for a long time, I think most people or aware of the book, a farm taken over by it's overworked and neglected animals In the hope of bettering their lives, but all things can never be equal, can they? I think this book is a relevant today as It was back when It was published in 1945.  I did (do) have a problem with talking animals though, lol.

My library book club book was a DFN, I managed to read about a quarter and then questioned why I was wasting my time reading something so uninteresting, I wasn't alone, only one person finished it and apparently we didn't miss anything so I'm glad I didn't waste my time.  I used to feel I had to finished a book I'd started, not anymore.

Do you re-read favourite books? and have you read anything this month that you would recommend?

-X-

Bargain finds

I am trying to drastically declutter this year, you know, the things you don't use or have multiple of, so I could probably have done without a browse around charity shops yesterday.  In my defence, the items I purchased were bought with purpose, (with one exception), so I think I'm ok?

Firstly, this Agatha Christie puzzle.  

I'd been looking at these in Waterstones at the weekend, there are various book related ones, as you are completing the jigsaw there are clues to spot or solve, I wasn't even aware that these existed and I was very tempted to buy one, but as the price tag was £16.99 I resisted, so you can imagine my delight when I spotted this one in the charity shop for £3.95 😁 

A little wicker planter for £1 - which was the perfect fit for the pot of narcissi's I bought in the supermarket a couple days before

A little chopping board for £1.45

I've been on the look out for a smallish board for a while to use for a cross stitch finish, the stitched piece has been patiently waiting for three or four years at least.  

 I wasn't sure If the board would be too small, but look, it will be perfect! ( I bought the little gingerbread man topper with this finish in mind a few years ago).  

No excuses for not fully finishing this one now!

This Moroccan style dish had to come home with me for £3.00 - it will make the perfect place to keep fruit instead of keeping it hidden in the cupboard, it might even encourage me to eat more fruit as I can see it, lol.

My last find does not have a use, and I definitely don't need it, but priced up at £2.49 I thought It was cute enough to rescue.

Now Its not a design I would stitch, I think it's very typical of the English designs from the 1980's but I have a thing for houses, and wouldn't you just love to live in a little thatched cottage like this?

I was quite happy with my 'finds'

How about you, have you found any bargains lately?

-X-

Ridiculous! (bit of a rant)

I popped our nearest Aldi yesterday and this is what I found.

No there hasn't been a zombie apocalypse warning, but the media did hype up the weather warning, and what does everyone do?  They buy bread of course! Personally I've never understood why bread is the first thing to sell out, we only buy it very occasionally, I could happily live without it altogether.

They also cleared the shelves of vegetables, meat and eggs and coffee and tea!

What is wrong with people!  Hording and stockpiling food doesn't sit well with me, I just can't understand it, buy what you need and perhaps one extra, you are not going to starve! perhaps then there would be enough for anyone else who couldn't get to the supermarket until after work.

All this was because the media said we were due the biggest snow fall for ten years, at least a foot or more in our area they said.

And yes we have had snow, this much when I got up this morning.

Nowhere near the amount that was predicted and as I'm typing this it has mostly turned to slush and I wouldn't be surprised if it's all but gone tomorrow.

I wonder if all those who raided the Aldi yesterday are feeling silly now they have umpteen loaves of bread to get through.  More importantly, how much of what was bought will go to waste?

-X-

2025 in books

 I completed my Goodreads challenge on 26th December, early for me this year, I did adjust my read aim down to 55 from 60.

These are my stats according to Goodreads -

Books read - 55

Pages read - 19,402

Shortest book  - Death Row by Frieda McFadden

Longest book  - It, Steven King

Average book length - 352 pages

Most shelved book - Ugly Love, by Coleen Hoover.  3,935,968 also shelved this book

Least shelved book - The Cure, Eve Smith. 480 people also shelved this book.

My average rating was 3.3

Highest rated on Goodreads - The Mercy Chair by M.W Craven. (not a surprise his books are excellent)

My two favourite books for this year were Ugly Love and Yellow Face.  Both very different books but I couldn't put either one down.

My least favourite was The Shadow Key.

I read 2 on my kindle

15 on Audible

5 library books

25 from my own shelves

8 for book clubs

I see my reading challenge as a bit of fun, certainly not a competition, I do like to see the stats at the end of the year and seeing what was popular on Goodreads.  I did well with reading from my own shelves and I still have plenty on my TBR shelf to keep me going this year.  I've also got Kindle Unlimited free until the End of February and have downloaded a few books already, (might be more than a few, it might be a lot, lol).

I'm always up for book recommendations, so do tell if you have read anything good lately, I will have a go at most genres although I generally avoid fluffy romance or anything labelled as a 'cosy read' and I'm not a fan of horror.

What are your favourite books from 2025 have we read any of the same?

-X-

 wa

Happy New Year

Our Christmas decorations came down yesterday and everywhere had a good deep clean,  The place seems a little bare but so much lighter without the Christmas clutter.  

While I was still in the cleaning mood I cleaned the oven, tidied the panty and the larder unit and cleaned out the fridge this morning, it feels good to get things back in order again. 

  

I've been busy making a list of things to get done around the house over the coming year too.  

We've made a start on something that we kept putting off last year first, painting the kitchen.  Mark has sanded everything down and is going to paint the ceiling tomorrow and I will carry on with the walls when he is back at work next week, I'm happy to do decorating at a slower pace these days, it still gets done but without burning ourselves out in the process.

No other plans really, I don't set New Year resolutions although it would be nice to find my stitching mojo at some point, I lost it earlier in the year but I daresay it will come back of it's own accord when it's ready.  I have got my eye on a couple patterns I would like to knit and like many people I'm going to try and use what I have rather than add to the stash, I did pretty good on that last year so I'm hopping I can carry that on in 2026.

I'd like to wish all those who follow or read my blog a Happy New Year. 

I hope 2026 brings you health and happiness along with many reasons to smile and be thankful.

 

We are looking forward to some exciting things in 2026, I just know it's going to be a very happy year.

-X-

Boxing Day

 After all the madness of the weeks and day's leading up to Christmas I was glad to have a quieter day today.  The sun was shinning lovely so I took off to a local park for a walk and to feed the ducks.  It was nice to get some fresh air and be in the sunshine after weeks of rainy damp weather.

A pair of herons were on the furthest bank of the pond, lovely to see them back again.

And a friendly robin sat long enough for me to get a nice photo, I usually take some bird food with but I'd forgotten, I feel sure he would have come closer if I'd had some.

I had an hour in the garden, just a general tidy up, there are still lots of leaves in the boarders but I'm not too worried about those, they will be harbouring some tasty bugs for the birds. 

Christmas Day is always busy and yesterday was no different We go to see the children and grandchildren and take the presents Santa has left at our house, seeing the kids opening their presents does make it all worth while, I love seeing how excited they get.

We went out for our Christmas dinner this year, Stevie and Darren came with us, the meal was ok, it's never quite the same as your own roast dinner is it? but it saved cooking and I just wasn't up to having all the mess with cooking this year so I enjoyed it.  We had a 1.30 sitting and it was nice to come back and just chill out for the rest of the afternoon.

Tomorrow is my birthday, not sure if we are doing anything yet, if the weather is nice again it would be good to get out for a bit, we'll see.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas day and are now enjoying some relaxation time.

-X-

December book clubs

 My last two book club meetings of the year fell in the same week this month.  Pudding and book club was Wednesday evening and the library book club on Thursday afternoon.

The book with the most votes last time at P&BC was A Bird In Winter by Louise Doughty.  She was also the author of Apple Tree Yard which I read a few years ago and enjoyed, so I had high hopes for this one.

The story is about Heather, (aka bird), who works for the secret service, supposedly MI5.  While in a meeting one day her boss says something that makes her feel as though she is in danger so she gets up and leaves the room and makes her way out of the building and collects the bag she has packed ready to leave should the need arise.  We then follow her journey out of London and up through Scotland where she has maid arrangements to travel farther afield.  The information on why she went on the run is drip fed in stages and I found the time line very hard to pin down because of the chopping and changing between past and present within the chapters.  It's described as a thriller and although It started off well enough it just didn't really develop, if anything there were more questions than answers at the end.

It did however make for a very good discussion, most people chipped in with their interpretation of the ending, but on the whole we agreed that we would have liked more character development and a clearer timeline.

Jen, who took over running our B&P club a few months ago is a great host, at our October meeting she made some Boo baskets as raffle prizes, this time she made Christmas baskets for the raffle.  She also wrapped a book for everyone and handmade crackers.  There are 45 of us now in that group so she put in a lot of hard work for our last meeting of the year.

My wrapped book

Book Club Christmas raffle prizes

  Shall I tell you how just lucky I am?   

Well, there was three of us sat at a table last month, myself and two new ladies, one of them, Elaine,(such a lovely person and so funny), sat opposite me won one of the book prizes.  

On Wednesday I sat with those same two ladies plus another new member.  

Yet again I missed out, the other lady who joined last month won one of the Christmas baskets!

That's just about my luck😒

The next day was the library book club.  There's a very different vibe to this meeting, all the ladies are older and we very often go off on a tangent, which is ok up to a point but sometimes it can get way off track (and one of them gets very uppity when that happens, lol).  There is also one that dominates the discussion, which can be a bit overbearing sometimes but on the whole it's alright.

Our requested book didn't come through last time so we got this one off the main reading list.

Now if they had given this book out this Thursday I might have given it a go but we only had three weeks to read it and it was just over 800 pages long!   Wasn't going to happen, not with everything else to do at this time of year.   

I did say at the time that there was no way I was even going to attempt, but it would make a nice doorstop.  

As it happened there was only myself and Wendy on Thursday, all the others had messaged to say they weren't going to make it for one reason or another, and hadn't read the book anyway.  But fair play to Wendy she had managed to almost get to the end!

Perhaps is was best that there was only two of us this time it would have been upsetting if everyone had turned up because one of our members, Sue, passed away suddenly just a few days after our November meeting.  

It was such a shock to everyone because as far as we know she hadn't been ill.  She had been a member of that reading group since it started, so 15 years or more perhaps?  I've only known her for perhaps four years but she was always friendly, she will be missed by everyone.

The first meeting in January will be strange without her.

-X-