The Things We Do For Love

 One thing about getting yarn from charity shops and from people who no longer want it, is the mystery that is sometimes involved. often there's no ball band so I have to guess about exact fiber content, although doing the burn test will tell me some basics. For example, acrylic and other man-made fibers will burn easily and leave a hard black bead at the burnt end. This is why making pot holders from acrylic yarn isn't a good idea. Cotton, linen, and other plant fibers will leave ash behind and will also burn easily. Wool and some other animal fibers will not catch fire easily and when they do will burn out, leaving a kind of crumbly black residue. To go back to the potholders, I made mine from wool. The information I get from the burn test is quite enough for me to go on.

Sometimes, in addition to the mystery of the fiber content, there's a little work involved to get a particular bit of yarn into a usable form. Recently, I was given some yarn which included a pull skein of a lovely grey-black variegated yarn that is all or mostly natural fibers. It's gorgeous to touch--very soft, squishy, and has a bit of a halo. It's also a bit slippery. This was a good sized skein and either full or very close to it--probably the latter for reasons which will become clear. As is so often the case, someone didn't want to pull from the middle when using this yarn, so they removed the ball band, found the outside end, and tried to do whatever they were doing with it. I get it--it's frustrating to start a center-pull skein sometimes. You pull and a big clump of yarn comes out because of the way it's twisted around inside (some people charmingly call this clump 'yarn vomit' 😶). But it's usually fairly simple to deal with that small bit of yarn and proceed with the project. Often people try to avoid this by starting on the outside and depending on the yarn, this can work. I happen to find that very annoying so I don't do it, but it doesn't matter much of the time--it's just personal preference. But with a slippery yarn like the one I had, doing this is almost certain to end in tears. As one pulls on the outside end, the skein rolls and flops around. With slippery yarn, twists, tangles, and bunches occur, as was the case here. It wasn't usable as it was. I wonder if that's the reason its original person didn't want it any more. Well, I love it and I do want it, so I sat myself down on a quiet afternoon and I started untwisting, untangling, and slowly eliminating the large clumps and bunches, just following the strand of yarn and letting my mind wander. Two hours later, I was close to the end, but I had other things to do so I set it aside. The following afternoon, I worked on it for about another half hour and then I had this:

I didn't have to cut it once. 🎉🎊It's ready to go whenever I'm ready to use it. I don't yet know what I'm going to make with it, but I'm very glad it ended up with me instead of in a trash can somewhere.

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Notebooks

 When I walked into the art gallery on the first day of my cloth journal workshop a couple months ago, someone handed me two bags of yarn. They were from the home of her partner's mother, who had recently passed away. Some members of her family were starting the process of going through her things. No one wanted the yarn, but this person said she knew someone who would and she brought it back for me. Inside one of the bags were two granny squares that this woman (I assume) had made. I set them aside and considered what to do with them. Then it dawned on me--duh!--I was tutoring a cloth journal class and my journal was dedicated to the textile and other work done by women from previous generations. I suspect that this woman was probably not older than me, or if she was then not by much, but I knew I'd add these squares to my journal. I decided to make a small notebook with them and then attach it to a page in the journal. 

I crocheted the squares together across one side, then cut some paper slightly smaller than the size of the attached squares side by side. I happened to have some heavy-ish, good quality blue paper, which belonged to the woman who knitted the sleeve I made into a journal page so I used that. I simply sewed it into the notebook with crochet thread and then sewed the back onto the journal page.

I used some of the yarn in the bags and some novelty yarns given to me by friends to make another notebook. First I wove two squares on my pin loom. On one square, I wove with some smooth acrylic and some novelty yarn and on the other I wove with the smooth acrylic and did some surface crochet with the green eyelash yarn. Then I crocheted a small yellow flower and sewed it on along with a plain button. Yellow and green are Donegal colors, so I think of this as my Donegal notebook. Inside I used some scraps of card stock and some mixed media paper.

i'm calling this the front

i'm calling this the back, but it really doesn't matter yet

Finally, I saw someone's tiny scrap cloth journal constructed in such a way that it kind of folds closed. I liked it, so I dashed off an experiment. I haven't finished the inside yet--I think I'm going to put paper inside, but I could change my mind. The one I saw was all fabric scraps and embellishments inside and out. I really like this format and will do a neater, more careful one soon, possibly woven or crocheted.

closed (the front embellishment was inside the button band of a shirt I got at a charity shop)

opened--the square in the middle is the back when the flaps are closed

partially closed (the flap on the left is the back of the front)

I brought all of these examples in to show the workshop participants so they could perhaps get some ideas for their own work, now or in future. I mentioned that these could be a fun way to add little photo albums to their journals. I suggested that if they have photos they can take photos of the photos and then they'd have digital copies that they could manipulate if they wanted or they could leave them as is. These could then be printed out at a pharmacy, many of which have kiosks where digital photos can be printed. Then either glue them to the notebook pages or used those little adhesive corners to stick the photos in. 

I do plan to make more of these. I will probably do collage in some but I plan to use them primarily for writing. It's possible that I'll do some combination of writing and photos as well. Who knows how they will evolve! I do know that they're fun to make and a great way to use scraps of stuff--yarn, cloth, paper, and more. And you know how I love to play with scraps 😏

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A Lovely Start to the Process

 Today I went with a friend from here to Killybegs with a load that consisted mostly of books. She came over last evening with her son so he could load them into her car and this morning I added some lightweight stuff in the nooks and crannies. I'd prepared for the loading of her car--or so I thought. 

In addition to these, there were a few more bags and other boxes of books that I could grab if there was room, but I didn't think there would be. Boy was I wrong! I was grabbing books and sticking them into bags as fast as I could. Almost all our books are now in their new home waiting for us. But since there's work still being done on our new cottage and our lease here isn't up until June 4, it'll be a few weeks until we go. So now we are kind of in a waiting mode. We will have a few things we can do later this week or next week, but other than repotting plants and possibly going to donate books to a charity shop, we will be in waiting mode--we have a bit of calm before the next rush, which is very welcome.

We got there midday and I introduced my friend from here to my friends there and of course had some quality time with little Finn (Bill stayed home because we could fit more into the car if that passenger space was free). I knew my friends there and my friend here would get along well and they did. We chatted for a while and then started unloading the car and bringing stuff upstairs. I left the books that were in boxes, but the ones that were in backpacks and bags were removed so I could bring the empty bags back to use for other things. Then we went back to my friends' house and had a lovely 'tapas luncheon.' The food was yummy, the conversation never stopped and the company was wonderful. I was very content. I even had a caramel square--my friend had gone into a bakery in the town to get some because as she said, 'We can't have Shari here and not have caramel squares for her!' I do love a good caramel square and these are very good indeed. They bought extra so I could take some home. I might even have to nibble on another one later.

Bill and I are both shocked at how much was moved in one trip. We're very grateful for friends. We have no furniture, so the slow cooker is really the only heavy item we have left. 

It was a long day, but I hope to be able to read more of the next Palliser novel tonight. I read the first 100+ pages last night and I'm into it now so I should be able to read some in spite of being quite tired. As I mentioned in my book post yesterday, I want to donate the complete series before we move and I have two books left. I'm off now to make a cup of tea, put my feet up, and pick up my book! It's been a lovely start to our moving process and I'm so grateful.

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Second Half of April Reading Wrap-Up

 April came and April went. I was reading. My thoughts on the books I read in the first half of April can be found here. My thoughts on the books I read in the second half of the month are below.

Japanese Paper Yarn: Using Washi and Kami-ito to Knit, Crochet, Weave, and More by Andra F. Stanton (borrowed from the library)

This was quite an interesting book, which contains instructions for making and using paper yarn, beads, and more, but also includes beautiful photographs of art created with these materials and short essays on the history of paper in Japan, the importance of paper in Japanese culture, the uses of paper in Japan, and the ways in which paper is made to meet the needs of people. I enjoyed the instructions on making paper yarn and beads, but I was also aware from the start that I wouldn't be trying this. Knowing myself and how I create, it was clear early on that this wouldn't be for me. However, in spite of the fact that I am going to neither buy nor make paper yarn, some of the projects and photos did give me inspiration and ideas for my own work with 'regular' yarn and cloth. I found the short essays fascinating and definitely worth reading. I think for mixed media and textile artists, this is a worthwhile book worth getting from your library, perhaps. If you're someone interested in making art materials from paper, it's a great introduction to making and using paper yarn, beads, and more.

The Haiku Anthology by various poets and edited by Cor Van Den Heuvel (borrowed from the library)

This is a collection of over 800 haiku and senryu written by a wide variety of poets. I'm a big fan of short form poetry and there was much to enjoy in this book. Here are a couple of examples:

long meeting

I study the pattern

embossed on the napkin

   ---Miriam Borne

One reason I love that senryu is because I can relate to it--sitting there listening to people drone on and on and needing to find something to focus on--I've been there. And like the poet, I will usually find myself drawn to pattern somewhere, looking at lines and shapes and thinking about how I could incorporate that into my textile work.

Snow at dusk

our pot of tea

steeps    slowly    darker.

   ---Betty Drevniok

This one is puts me right in that place and brings me a feeling of calm and peace--a winter night with dusk falling early, cold, wet, snow falling, then the warmth and pleasure of savoring a mug of hot, strong tea. Bliss!

The Barbizon: The New York Hotel That Set Women Free by Paulina Bren (borrowed from the library)

I requested this book from the library after reading Erika's thoughts about it on her blog, BioArtGal. Her review of the book is here. Although the book is organized around the hotel and there are descriptions of the physical structure itself and the way it was furnished and decorated, that is primarily a way to describe what the evolving cultural and societal norms and expectations about the proper place of women from certain classes. The hotel gave women a safe space from which to explore the world beyond the places they grew up in and to explore themselves and what they wanted from life. The hotel gave them the freedom to make better choices because it allowed them to widen their experience. There's a lot of name dropping in this book as women who later became famous lived there for varying lengths of time. But the author goes into more depth about women who never became famous and their stories were fascinating to me. I enjoyed reading about their backgrounds their hopes and dreams, their fears and courage, and what they discovered about themselves. That was the best aspect of the book for me, but I also found it quite interesting to read about residential hotels and why they were popular for a time. I'm so glad I read this book, so thank you Erika for sharing it on your blog!

The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope (personal copy)

This is the third novel in Trollope's Palliser series and revolves around (surprise!) a diamond necklace. When the book opens, we meet Lizzie, a beautiful, poor, young orphan who is living with a harsh aunt. We're told right away that Lizzie is not the heroine of the novel. She wants money and status, so she connives her way towards these things by playing with Lord Florian Eustace. He is easily played. She sees him as an excellent opportunity because he's older and unwell, has money, and can give her a title. By the end of the first few chapters, Lizzie has become Lady Eustace, a widow, and a mother, in that order. Before he died, Lord Eustace realized his mistake in choosing that particular wife, but never changed his will. Nonetheless, Lady Eustace isn't as happy as she might be with the terms of that will and decides that she will keep a diamond necklace that is, in fact, a family heirloom and not hers to keep--or is it? Needless to say, Lizzie makes up stories about how she came to have the necklace and what her husband said to her about it. When the family's legal representative, Camperdown, tries to get it back, the contest is underway and runs throughout the book. There are also other storylines about various people connected and unconnected to Lizzie Eustace. After a time, Lizzie decides it's time for her to marry again and she's torn between wanting someone who can give her more wealth and/or status, or what she calls her Corsair--Lizzie is fond of romantic poetry. This tension runs throughout the book as Lizzie plays around with various people and in the end, realizes that some people are playing around with her too. I enjoyed this book a lot--there's a slight element of mystery involved as I wondered what would become of the necklace. I read on through the almost 800 pages hoping all the while that Lizzie would get her comeuppance and I never got bored. 

This book is placed between the Phineas Finn novels in the series--Phineas Finn precedes it and Phineas Redux follows it. Although this book can be read as a standalone and does have a satisfying conclusion, the story of Lizzie is a part of the story in Phineas Redux as well.

Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope (personal copy)

I've had all 6 of the Palliser novels in my book collection for years now--we got them during pandemic lockdowns--and since I do not plan to keep them, I thought I'd donate them all together. I'm hoping to finish the series before we move so I can do that. So as soon at I finished The Eustace Diamonds, I jumped into this book (and I plan to start the next one, The Prime Minister, today). This book takes up the story of Phineas Finn. I shared my thoughts on that book in my reading wrap-up for the first half of the month, which can be found at the link above. I won't go into certain details of this book for fear of spoilers in the first book. The book begins a couple of years after the end of the first Phineas book. It can be read on its own--details from the previous books are summarized seamlessly through the narrative where appropriate--but I'm glad I read both Phineas Finn and The Eustace Diamonds before I read this one because I enjoyed it far more than I would've otherwise. The Pallisers are featured more prominently in this one than they were in the previous couple of books and stories progressed and become intertwined. There's the beginning of a mystery in the second half of the book, but Trollope doesn't really develop this, and gives the answer a few pages after it's introduced. This served to redirect my attention to how things would be resolved rather than wondering what had happened. 

I'd say that if anyone is interested in this series, Phineas Finn, The Eustace Diamonds, and Phineas Redux are best read in order. The first book, Can You Forgive Her? divides space between one storyline and that of Lady Glencora and Plantagenet Palliser. The Pallisers recur throughout the books and I think will play a prominent role in the next one, but the people from the other storyline in that book, have only been superficially mentioned in one or two of the other books. I'm glad I read the first book because it gave me the background of the Pallisers which informs my reading of their relationship in subsequent books, but so far anyway, I wouldn't say that it's crucial to read the first book. And for anyone interested in starting with Trollope in general, here's a video from a booktuber I enjoy watching who discusses her thoughts on the topic. I agree with her that The Way We Live Now is a fabulous book and definitely worth reading. There is (sadly) much that is still current described in that book. 

So that wraps up the second half of April. On we go into May. I am currently deciding which books to take to my future home so they can wait for me there and which to keep with me so I can read them while we're in the process of moving. I have the last two Palliser novels to read and possibly another couple that I don't plan to keep so those will stay with me. I'll decide about the rest as the process unfolds. Happy reading, everyone!

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The Next Big Project

 Here we are on the last day of April. We know how we're spending May as our next big project commences. Not sure exactly how it's going to go, but I guess we'll find out. It starts this weekend as I get some books boxed up so they'll be ready to load into my friend's car and brought to what will be our new home in Killybegs. Our lease here ends at the beginning of June and we'll be out of here by then. I gave notice today, but we've known for a few months that we'd probably be going. To be honest, I was not letting myself get too attached to the idea until recently, because this wasn't imminent and stuff happens, so I waited patiently. My friends here were puzzled about my lack of excitement at first, but they kept telling me, 'I'm excited for you.' I will miss being around them and I will miss the yarn group at the library. 

It was all quite unexpected. We weren't planning to move, nor were we looking for a place. My friends were concerned about the damp in this cottage, and expressed their concerns to me repeatedly. One even started looking on our behalf, although I didn't know this at the time. It's not like we had options so we just dealt with it and although we would have pursued any possibilities as they arose, we weren't actively seeking anything. But after we got back from taking care of our furry friend in February, another friend brought up the possibility of us moving into a property she owns. We jumped at it. So now we'll be neighbors with our furry friend, Finn, and when she needs someone to care for him, we'll be right there. 

When we moved here, we didn't know we'd be taking care of him so we signed the lease which was very clear that we were not to have a dog. After we went to his house for a month to take care of him and knew we would be caring for him again a couple months later, I contacted the manager to ask if we could have him here on a temporary basis. He checked with the landlord, who wouldn't allow it. So we went back to Finn's house for a month. Shortly thereafter, our friend offered us her property to live in. We've lived in that neighborhood before and I have always loved it. I would've never left, but there were circumstances involving the landlord at the time and his manager that made it difficult to live there. That won't be an issue this time. 

There will be a few things I miss about being in this area, but overall, It'll be much better for us there in so many ways. I'm looking forward to being there and being with my friends there once again, both human and canine. Not sure exactly what the move itself is going to look like, but we start this weekend! I'm excited now, even though I'm not looking forward to moving. I'm greatly looking forward to having moved though. Off we go into a new chapter!

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Peanut Butter Cup Bars

 I was thinking about the Snicker-ish date things I made earlier this year--as you do. The first time (back in January), I made stuffed dates . The next time (in February), I decided to make them in such a way that I could cut them into bars. Same ingredients but less fussy. This time I decided to try making a sort of peanut butter cup thing that I could cut into bars. I'm happy to say that these were quite successful!

Here's how I made them:

I placed some dates (pitted) into a bowl and covered them with boiling water, letting them sit for about 15 minutes. After that time, I scooped them out with a slotted spoon and out them in the bowl of my food processor fitted with the blade, leaving the soaking water in case some of it was needed. Today it wasn't, but when I make them again it might be. I dumped in some ground almonds and a few heaping spoonfuls of natural peanut butter. It was a newly opened tub so I was scooping from the top, which is very runny and perfect for this kind of thing. I whizzed everything up until it looked crumbly but would hold together when a bit was squeezed. I had to scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times. I lined a container with baking paper and pressed this mixture in very firmly. Then I broke up a bar of dark baking chocolate (150g), heated it in the microwave for about a minute, stirred until it was all melted, and added another couple large dollops of peanut butter. I mixed this together well, spread it over the top of the mixture in the container, and put it in the fridge to set. As soon as the chocolate was firm enough to cut, I had to try a piece. Yum! We're both fans, so this will be something I make again.

I don't have any measurements to give--this is one of those things where it depends on how much you want to make, how soft the dates are, how much the ground almonds absorb, and how runny the peanut butter is. It's also not something that can go wrong. If the mixture was too crumbly, I could have added a bit of the date-soaking water, some more peanut butter, or maybe some almond milk--just a smidge at a time. It's probably not possible to make it too wet, as putting it in the fridge will firm things up anyway. If peanut butter isn't your thing, you could use any nut or seed butter that you like. 

So I'm glad I gave these a try. They are yummy. And with summer coming up, I like the fact that no oven is required!

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Veering Off in an Unexpected Direction

 Yesterday when I was out with a friend, our first stop was the Dunfanaghy Country Market.

My friend told me it was small, but excellent and sent me some info about it the day before. After reading about it, I was looking forward to checking it out in person. The guy in the middle is one of the mobile greengrocers. There were people selling plants for outdoors, both flowers and veg starts. There was a guy selling succulents in handmade pots. There were women who crocheted amigurumi, weavers, and knitters. It was a lively place with a great vibe. When we got there, my friend pointed out the green tent and told me that's where the baked goods and other goods things were and suggested we get over there before people started buying up the goodies. I followed along and took my time choosing a couple of desserts for Bill and myself in the days ahead. I had a very hard time because there were so many things that called to me and everything looked scrumptious. I did try a cookie sample when it was offered and it was yummy, but in the end I decided on a lemon cheesecake and two pieces of flourless raspberry-pear cake. We had the latter last night and it was wonderful. Further down the table, there were some homemade jams and a few baggies of assorted garden produce. I nabbed a bag of chocolate mint, some of which I have placed in water to root. I'll be able to plant it and enjoy it with my apple mint and lemon balm. As I was waiting to pay for my goodies, I suddenly found myself in conversation with a woman from Germany who has lived here for many years. She told me how great my socks were! As often happens in situations like this, I have to check to remind myself what sock/hat I am wearing. I bent down to look. Because it was a warm day, I'd put on a pair of crocheted lacy socks that I made ages ago out of sock yarn scraps.

They're handy because the toes stay warm but there's air circulation. The bottoms are solid because I don't think it'd be comfortable to walk on the lace. Anyway, a rather lengthy conversation about the socks ensued. She was telling people to come look at the socks and asking me how I made them. She doesn't crochet, but she is a knitter so I explained the general construction of the socks so she can develop her own knitted version if she wants. We talked about using scraps and other things. A dog came up to me and wanted to be petted so I spent some happy moments talking socks and petting a beautiful dog. 

After getting some stuff from veg man, we went to deposit our things in the car, then went back to look at more stuff. I was looking at the stall of a woman--another knitter--who had some yarn on a table that she was trying to sell. I stopped to look. She started asking me about my hat and my bag. As we were chatting, someone came up and told her to look at my socks. She asked if there was a pattern for them. I said I'd made them up. I'd already grabbed a decent sized scrap ball of yarn that she wanted 20 cents for (and purple, no less--of course that was coming home with me!). She had some basic acrylic in a few colors and a couple of skeins of novelty yarn. I chose one and bought that too.

She asked me what I'd use it for, maybe some kind of trim? I said I wasn't sure yet--possibly trim, but more likely pin loom weaving or kumihimo with the novelty yarn. Not sure about the purple ball--will have to do the burn test to get an idea of fiber content. As we were leaving, she told me to keep on stitching. 'I know you will,' she said. She is so right. 😉😀😏

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A Visit to Marble Hill

 Had a day out with a friend today and one of our stops was at Marble Hill beach. We were there early enough that she easily found a parking space right by the stairs down to the beach and across from The Shack, a place that sells coffee, tea, ice cream, milkshakes, baked goodies and possibly more. I didn't spend much time looking at the menu, just ordered my iced latte, which was perfect on this warm and sunny day. We sat in the car to enjoy our beverages and then carefully walked down the stairs to the beach. 

At the bottom of the stairs we turned left, towards the hills you can see in the top photo. The sea was calm, with tiny waves lapping onto the shore. On another part of the beach some people were in the water, but it wasn't very deep at that time of day. There were some dogs enjoying the beach too.

I quickly became interested in the patterns and textures I was seeing. Here are some examples:

And the patterns and textures under my feet:

We were on our way from somewhere to somewhere so we didn't stay long, but it was a lovely place which I enjoyed visiting.

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Catching Up

 It looks like spring is springing this week. We've had rain and grey skies with a sunny day or two sprinkled in, but this week is supposed to be warm and sunny. I'm of two minds about this. It will be helpful to catch up with the laundry--because I'll be able to put it outside it'll dry faster than it does inside this damp cottage. On the other hand, the transition to spring has really been kicking my butt this year and I've spent too many days functioning through a fog and being very tired. I'm not looking forward to the increase in pollen counts and fungal spores of a certain type, but there it is. It'll end. Just a couple of months until solstice. I always feel a bit more hopeful when we're losing daylight again. I'm trying to get as much rest as I can both so I can function on a day-to-day basis and so I can have some energy for the large project that we have coming up. There's nothing I can do for that just yet, but it'll soon be a bit of a mad dash, so I'm preparing myself.

My textile journal class came to an end a couple of weeks ago. It was a fun and interesting experience and I might be teaching it again in a different location later in the year. Each participant created a different kind of piece. There were books of different kinds and a pouch with pockets to put things in. The themes and intended purposes were different as were the approaches to the project and the stitching. We shared stories and examples of other work that we do. It was a different kind of teaching experience for me because in the past, whether it's been a university class, a continuing education class, a class in a yarn shop, or individual instruction, there's been a path and a clear goal. I knew what it was that I wanted to communicate and of course, I adapted how I did this based on the questions and needs of my students, but there was a more concrete goal--teach people how to needle tat or crochet, or provide them with a basic grasp of the subject matter, for instance. Here it was very open-ended. There was a concept. I showed them an example. They took off in their own directions. It was great! My job wasn't to tell/show them what to do in a step-by-step way, but to help with ideas so they could get the results they wanted. So each week I came in with a new example based on what they said they wanted to do or just to show some possibilities they might want to incorporate. I ended up doing a fair bit of work outside of the class and I got some fun ideas for myself as well. I did find myself thinking about it a lot in between class meetings, which was interesting. I found myself pretty much focused on that for the entire time the class was running, so once I was done, it took me a few days to sort of slip back into my normal mindset, especially since I was dealing with the seasonal crud and everything just takes a little bit longer at this time of year.

A couple weeks ago, I discovered a crack in my slow cooker crock. I was bummed. I love my slow cooker. On Friday, I rode with a friend to a nearby town where she goes every week to do her grocery shopping and that of a couple of elderly friends who don't drive. She drops their groceries off for them along the way, which is so kind. She took me to the recycling center so I could recycle it. Then last night my induction hob decided that almost 5 years of near daily use was enough and it stopped working. It was kind enough to wait until I was done making supper, though. So there's another electrical item for the recycling. I hope that'll be it for a while! I made pancakes this morning and had to use the stove, which was just weird. It seemed so low. Fortunately, this one works OK. I had one once that took 20 minutes to boil a small pot of water. When I told a friend this, he gave me the induction hob and I used that and loved it. It will be replaced. Oh, and the slow cooker has been replaced. It was cheaper to buy a new one than to replace the crock.

I was quite excited on Friday to find Swiss chard seeds in Lidl. Chard isn't something I can find in the grocery store or at the veg men, when we've had them in various towns and villages. The only place I can get it is in bagged salad mix, which contains baby chard. Now I can grow my own. 

Also on Friday, the smoke alarm in the living room started chirping in a weird way. Three quick chirps every 30-40 seconds. I was up on a chair trying to balance whilst getting the thing off the ceiling so I could see what kind of battery it needed. I got the thing down, it was wired in, and I couldn't get the plug thing out. Then I couldn't get the thing back up. I left it hanging there and sent a message to the manager, although by this time the noise had stopped. The handyman came while I was out with my friend and he struggled with it for a while before he managed to replace the battery with a new one that said it was good until 2030. Later on, the alarm started chirping again. It went on for over an hour. I messaged the manager who didn't get back to me until 10:30 that night, saying he'd send an electrician. I don't know whether that's needed--it does seem like a battery issue or a defective alarm because when the chirping didn't stop, I climbed up onto the chair again and turned off the circuit for the smoke alarms. Then I went back into the living room and onto the chair to get the alarm down again--because it was still chirping. I got it unplugged this time and handed it to Bill. It was still chirping. The cover for the battery compartment wasn't easy to remove, but he got it off and took the battery out. The chirping ceased. 

The knitting and crochet group at the library continues to be fun. We're a small group but the conversation is always great and the time flies by. It's fun to see what everyone is working on and there are always goodies. Playing with yarn, chatting with friends, having tea/coffee and chocolate/biscuits, all while surrounded by books. I don't know how it could get any better!

I remain grateful for my quiet, simple life, even as I am not the biggest fan of this particular time of year. I hope you're doing well and enjoying the season in your neck of the woods.

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Mid-April Reading Wrap-Up

 Halfway through April already--I can barely keep up. 😐As always, I have been reading. Here's what I've been immersed in so far this month. Someone asked if I could post pictures of the book covers in these posts, so I will do so where possible. Just bear in mind that covers may be quite different where you are and depending on the edition of the book.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson (personal copy)

I love Kate Atkinson, but I wouldn't place this in the top tier of her books. It's Kate Atkinson, so it was a good read, but I didn't love it to the same degree I've loved some of her other work. This is not a sequel to her previous WWII novels, Life After Life and A God in Ruins, but it is set partly in 1940. The book opens in 1981 with Juliet Armstrong lying in the street after being struck by a car. She begins to think back to a couple of different times in her life, so readers are quickly whisked back to 1950 where Juliet sees someone from her past. This person isn't interested in acknowledging her, though, which she finds puzzling. The story moves backwards a decade where we learn that with the death of her mother, Juliet is alone and is soon recruited to be a transcriptionist for M15. Eventually, her duties expand. The book moves back and forth between 1940 and 1950 before circling back to 1981 again. These 1981 moments serve as bookends of sorts, with a few pages at the beginning and again at the end. I enjoyed the book--the perspective and subject matter was different to other novels I've read that are set in that time period. If new to Atkinson though, I wouldn't start with this one.

Wasp on the Prayer Flag: Haiku and Senryu by Maeve O'Sullivan (borrowed from the library)

I don't have a picture of this cover, which was simply royal blue with white text. It's a delightful collection of haiku and senryu written by an Irish author and situated in an Irish environment. I enjoyed it very much.

Continental Christie by Agatha Christie (BorrowBox audiobook)

This is a collection of 12 short stories, all taking place in continental Europe. There are various readers--mostly Hugh Fraser, but others as well. This was a very fun listen. Although I would've read all of these stories at some point, most of them were slightly less well known. There was a Miss Marple, several Poirots (many from The Labours of Hercules collection), a few featuring Mr. Parker Pyne, and some featuring Mr. Satterthwaite and Mr. Harley Quin. With the exception of a couple, I didn't really remember these stories so it was nice to sit, stitch, and listen.

Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope (personal copy)

This is the second novel in what has come to be known as Trollope's Palliser series. I first read this series 46 years ago. Needless to say, all those years and thousands of books later, I don't really remember it, so it's like reading it again for the first time. A few years ago, I read his Barsetshire series, which was structured around church politics. This series, first known as the Parliament series, is structured (loosely) around government and, well, Parliament. While in the first book, politics was there, but not central to the plot. Here it plays a very large role. Phineas Finn himself is the son of an Irish doctor. He comes from a small district in rural Ireland, but has been studying for the bar in London. His family is not wealthy, so he's expected to start earning his way. When at his club one day, he's encouraged to run for a seat in Parliament from his district. This idea grows on Phineas, but there's a catch--MPs get no salary. His father tries to discourage him as does his mentor, who wants him to make a career in law first and then try for Parliament as he himself is planning. Phineas decides to go against all this advice and runs. Plot ensues from there. Of course, this being Trollope, Phineas finds himself enmeshed in various dramas involving power, class, gender roles and expectations, and relationships, whether romantic, friendly, or hostile. Phineas also contends with issues involving the situation of Ireland which was at that time, still colonized by the British (I acknowledge here that for some Irish people, the colonization will not end until the six counties of Northern Ireland are no longer under British control). 

I do love Trollope and enjoyed this book immensely. I started the next book in the series last night. There are six books in the series altogether, but so far I don't see any reason why one would have to read them in order. Both of the first two work perfectly well as standalone novels and the third, although I'm only a couple of chapters in, seems to be going off in yet a different direction. There are some characters that recur in this book and there is progression from the first book, but nothing that would be problematic if one read this book without reading the first one.

Furies by various authors (personal copy)

This book was published to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Virago, a feminist publisher. It contains stories by current authors, each one titled using one of the words on the back, traditionally used to describe strong women who disturb cultural expectations about how women are supposed to behave--harridan, muckraker, spitfire, vituperator, churail, termagant, fury, warrior, virago. The stories range across cultures, time frames, and genres. There's even a graphic short story. Some of the stories were weird and I found myself off-balance as I read them. There were a couple I didn't really care for and a few I loved. The rest were good stories that I enjoyed reading. I don't think I'd read the entire book again, but there are stories I will revisit in future, so I plan to keep this one.

Finally, I read a book to be published soon--thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital review copy.

Tree by Aya Koda (translated by Charlotte Goff and to be published on May 14, 2026 by Penguin Press UK/Penguin Classics)

As Aya Koda navigates her 'golden years' she thinks about her relationships with trees over the course of her lifetime. From her childhood, she's always felt a connection to trees. She realizes that as she ages, her time to learn all she can about trees is growing shorter and she sets out to take something of a tree tour of Japan. She initiates some of her experiences and others come to her and she accepts the invitations to view and earn about particular trees and their habitats as they arise. She visits Ezo spruce, wisteria, hinoki cypress, poplars, cherry blossoms, cedar, and others. She's open about the difficulties she has in some places where reaching the trees requires more physical stamina than she has and she's grateful for the help she receives in these cases. She's also grateful for people who patiently explain things about trees to her, even as her memory falters and it's harder for her to take notes. Her descriptions of the trees involve physical attributes, information about habitat and what changes in it do to the trees, and about her own emotional responses to the trees and their situations. In one case, she starts out feeling upbeat and hopeful, but in learning about the trees, becomes gloomy. She does anthropomorphize the trees quite a lot. For example, in one instance she writes about how she sees the trees as 'kimono-wearers.' I wasn't quite sure what I thought about that. On the one hand, I think it's good to see trees and the natural world in general as valuable in their own right, not just as something to be used, conquered, and destroyed. And having read a bit about the possibility of plants having some form of consciousness, I have to admit that I just don't know. I suspect that if plants do have some sort of consciousness though, it's their own and not the same as that of humans. Then again, we all interpret things based on our own experiences and the cultures in which we grew up and lived in. This question is an interesting one for me and one I'll continue to think about. Beyond that, I found the book to be a fascinating read which combines memoir, tree science, Japanese culture, environmental issues, and more. It's a slim volume that contains so much. It's definitely worth a read.

On to the second half of April--plenty of reading awaits!

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End of March Reading Wrap-Up

 High Wages by Dorothy Whipple (borrowed from the library)

Another winner from Whipple. This is the fourth of her novels that I've read and there isn't a dud in the bunch so far. In this book, which begins in the years just preceding WW1, Jane Carter is not very happy. Her beloved father has recently died and she has no choice but to continue living with her stepmother and half-siblings, which is stressful for all as they don't really get on. She's young, but knows what she wants, so when she happens to be in a different town and walking by when a help wanted sign is placed in the window of a draper's shop, she walks in and applies. She's thrilled when she gets the job because it means leaving her stepmother's house and the small town where she was living, since it's a live-in position. She's still excited when she sees the dingy, not very clean, tiny room she is to share with her co-worker. The pay isn't great and the owner's wife takes pride in feeding the young women as little as possible so she and her husband can eat well, but Jane sees it as a start. Gradually, she becomes less pleased with her position as she's cheated out of commissions, but she has excellent business sense and good ideas that bring in more revenue--and bigger profits for the owner. She knows her worth, but she also knows that the owner has power over her, so she picks her battles and has a few small victories. She makes some friends. War comes. War ends. Jane's life changes in various ways, both good and less so. Through Jane and the other characters in the book, Whipple places readers in this time and place when large changes were happening in London and surrounding areas. One kind of society was fading away as new ideas grew. Some welcome the changes and adapt, some fight for a different kind of change, and some cling to the past. Around the time the book opens, department stores were becoming a thing and people started buying ready-made clothes instead of buying fabric in draper's shops and taking it to a seamstress to be made into clothing. War impacted everyone in one way or another. The accepted roles of women in society were evolving. Jane understands much of what's going on while others don't and as readers follow Jane moving through her life, we discover how they all get on in a changing world. Dorothy Whipple is quite skilled at describing class and gender issues and societal change and how these affect people by writing about the everyday activities that make up the days of ordinary people. I am so glad to have discovered her and very grateful to Persephone for republishing the work of Whipple and other women who have somehow fallen off the literary radar. Apparently Whipple is near the top of the list of their bestselling authors. I'm not surprised. And now to decide which of her books to read next!

Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf (personal copy)

This was a re-read for me. The first time I read it in installments on the Serial Reader app (this was about a year and a half ago). This time I read it as part of my personal project to read Virginia Woolf's novels in publication order. I found I preferred reading it 'all at once' rather than in installments. 

The book is about Jacob Flanders, from childhood to his death, but it's not a straightforward narrative. It meanders a bit (deliberately) and jumps ahead, so large chunks of time are not described. Readers are very much inside Jacob's head for much of the time, except when the narrative jumps to the head or actions of someone within Jacob's orbit. In spite of that, I never felt that I got to know Jacob. My feelings about this book are ambivalent. I think I admired it rather than liked it. Woolf is great at her craft and that shows here. It reminded me of her earlier book, The Waves, which I also wasn't in love with. I loved The Voyage Out and Night and Day, which were different kinds of books. From here on in, my Woolf novel reading will be re-reading, although for a couple of them, it's been decades since I read them.

the witch doesn't drown in this one by Amanda Lovelace (BorrowBox e-book)

This is a collection of feminist poems. They're a bit in your face as they engage with reality. 

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson (personal copy)

Earlier in the month I read Life After Life, centered around Ursula Todd. This book is centered on her brother, Teddy. Atkinson has said she sees this more as a companion novel than a sequel, and I think that's a good way to describe it. It stands alone, so you don't need to have read the earlier book to read this one. Teddy was a bomber pilot in WWII. This book follows his life through childhood to death (interesting that I've read two such books within days of one another). This is not at all linear--it jumps around in time and sometimes describes a scene from earlier in more detail or from a different perspective. Teddy is not the main focus of every chapter. We read about his wife, daughter, and grandchildren. In between these chapters are chapters about his experience in WWII. In the author's not at the end, Atkinson said that when she originally decided that she wanted to write a WWII novel, she found it becoming a bit long. So Life After Life is mostly about Ursula's experiences in the Blitz and this book is about Teddy's fighting in the war. I loved this book and when I had to put it down, I was eagerly looking forward to picking it up again. I've said before that Atkinson is probably my favorite contemporary author and that still holds true. I have another of her novels n my pile that I think is also a WWII novel, but I don't think it involves anyone from these novels. She has a new novel coming out in September and I can't wait!

Finally, I read a couple of books that are going to be published soon. 

How to Lay an Egg with a Horse Inside by Brian Bilston (to be published on April 16, 2026 by Pan MacMillan)

My introduction to the poetry of Brian Bilston was through BorrowBox, when I borrowed and listened to his collection of Christmas poetry. What a delightful experience! I laughed all the way through it. So when I saw this title on NetGalley, I jumped at it. I was not disappointed and once again, I laughed my way through the book. It's a great read and a perfect way to consider how poetry can be a part of your life in a playful and creative way, whether as a reader or a writer. Bilston's approach is refreshing. He's not pretentious or trying to impress with obscure references and forms. It's not like he's dismissing form altogether--he uses form as appropriate. Sometimes his subject matter is serious and about important issues, but he doesn't hit readers over the head with it. In addition to making me laugh, many of his poems made me stop and think. I've known many people who have told me that they'd like to read poetry but they just don't understand it. Now I direct these people to the work of Brian Bilston and tell them that he's quite accessible, very entertaining, and very much worth reading. Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a digital review copy.

Murder at the Spirit Lounge by Jess Kidd (to be published on May 21, 2026 by Faber and Faber)

Former nun Nora Breen loves to start her day with a walk along the beach. In the first paragraph of the book, we read that, "Nora Breen walks the shoreline, along the length of the deserted December beach. It is some form of lunacy that has her up and out at first light, every morning, traipsing along the tide's ragged hem, whatever the weather, whether the sky is a crisp laundry-day blue, or dawn arrives dark and drear. Wind-lashed, rain-drenched, frozen to the bone, she doesn't care. It's an exhilarating communion. Herself, braced against the elements, slipping over shingle, blown sideways, abraded by sand. Her head filled with the boom and hiss of wave over shale and the scream of gulls as they dip and jibe above. Then back to the boarding house with chapped lips, wild hair, a face like a slapped arse, and a thirst for hot coffee." On this day, however, the hot coffee will have to wait because as she's walking home, Inspector Rideout pulls up alongside her and asks her to accompany him to the home of Doreen Chimes, a clairvoyant, who has reported the theft of some property. She's having a seance that very night and she invites Inspector Rideout to attend. Her seances are by invitation only and as Nora learns when being shown around the house, there are always 5 'guests' and Doreen herself. (Note: on Goodreads she's called Dolores, but in my copy, she's Doreen). Also invited is Captain Fulford, another guest at the boarding house where Nora lives. Rideout attends the seance but things don't get very far before the lights go out and Doreen is dead. Was she the only target or are there more deaths to follow? Why would someone want to kill her? Who else was at the seance and why? Nora and Rideout proceed to look for answers to these questions while trying to prevent more murders.

I loved this book as much as I did the first one in the series. Although this is the second book in that series, it's not necessary to have read the first one to enjoy this one. It stands alone quite well, I think, but the first one does lay out more of Nora's backstory and her history in the boarding house and her life before, as well as that of some of the other recurring characters. In the first book, Nora was more unsure of herself in some ways, being in the outside world for the first time in decades. In this book, she's found her footing a bit more and although there are some things she still doesn't understand completely right away, she does draw on her experiences at the monastery to deal with people in ways that sometimes cause them to be taken aback. There is also humor in this book, which I quite enjoyed. I laughed out loud at times. The mystery is somewhat unusual, although I did see some things coming. The setting is beautifully done--as you can see from the paragraph above, Jess Kidd really places readers in the time and place and I was happy to spend time in 1950s England with her. The conclusion was interesting but satisfying. There's much to love in this book and I am already looking forward to the next book.

So that's it--another month of reading in the books 😏I hope your reading month was a excellent as mine was. Here's to an amazing April!

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Mid-Month March Reading

 Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

In February, 1910, in the middle of a snowstorm, Ursula Todd is born. The umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck and she is stillborn. In February, 1910, in the middle of a snowstorm, Ursula Todd is born. The umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck, but the doctor has just arrived so is able to save her and she lives--until she dies. In February, 1910, in the middle of a snowstorm, Ursula Todd is born. She lives a little longer before she dies. In February, 1910, in the middle of a snowstorm...

With this beginning, I embarked on the journey that is Life After Life, written by the woman who is probably my favorite contemporary author, Kate Atkinson. I've never read a book of hers that I didn't love and his one is no exception. I often feel my mind expanding and experiencing small explosions when I read her books--sometimes I even get goosebumps. This was the case with this book as well. I knew the basic premise of the book--that Ursula Todd lives many different lives. As I commented to Bill halfway through the book, I was expecting a different structure--one that's more straightforward--with succeeding sections describing the next life of Ursula Todd. This was silly of me because it's Kate Atkinson! Of course it's not going to be straightforward and linear! No, we jump around forwards and backwards in time as various scenarios play out. Things happen in one lifetime that are avoided in another by a chance decision or unexplained feeling. Then she takes us back to the beginning and we see Ursula going down a different path. I guess you can tell that I loved this book. I'll be thinking about it for a long time. I'm thrilled that I have more of her books to discover and that she has a new one coming out in September, which is shaping up to be a very good publishing month indeed!

Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi (personal copy)

In 1937, mathematician Grant McAllister wrote an academic paper on the mathematical possibilities of mystery story structures. He was interested in what features were required to make a story a mystery story, what the permutations were, and how many possibilities there were. He then constructed a book of 7 stories that illustrated his theory. Then he disappeared from public life. Decades later, Julia, an editor, has tracked him down to talk to him about the book which is going to be republished. The chapters in this book alternate between the stories and the conversations between Grant and Julia. I recently picked this book up at a charity shop. It will be re-donated. It was OK in parts. It was an interesting structure and an original idea. The author has a PhD in mathematics. It started off pretty well for me. I though there was something a bit off about the short stories although I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. They became darker and more gruesome as the book went on though. Every chapter involving the conversations between author and editor began with the editor repeating the last lines of the previous story. I guess in the end I didn't think the book was particularly well written and by the time the big reveals came at the end, I no longer cared. I can't really recommend this one.

Murder at Mount Fuji by Shizuko Natsuki, translated by Robert Rohmer (borrowed from the library)

Jane is travelling to a wealthy neighborhood on the slopes of Mt Fuji to stay with her friend's family for the New Year festivities. There's a lot of snow, but she arrives safely. Things go downhill from there. Jane is doing a study abroad year and needs some extra income, so she is tutor to Chiyo, who is studying English literature and needs help with her final paper, which must be written in English. The visit will be a working one. Chiyo's family has several members and much tension. It's a wealthy family and there's some tension about the family business as well as interpersonally. It's not much a a surprise when the patriarch is killed on the night Jane arrives, but it is surprising that Chiyo says she did it. The cover-up begins and Jane participates. The police begin their investigation and plot ensues. This author has been described as the Japanese Agatha Christie, which is why I requested the book. I've tried a couple of other classic Japanese mysteries and didn't get very far before deciding they weren't for me. This one wasn't really for me either, but I did finish it. I found it very repetitive and the dialogue felt stilted. The latter may have worked well in Japanese or it could be a translation issue. But there were several times in the book where someone basically gave a synopsis of where the case stood at that point, covering the same ground numerous times. The solution was credible. The ending was rather abrupt. If you like Japanese mysteries, by all means, give this one a try, otherwise I'd give it a miss. Not terrible, but there are other books to spend time with.

Second Fiddle by Mary Wesley (personal copy)

This was another charity shop purchase and it was another book that I thought was OK. Claud has come home to his mother's house in the country having broken up with his girlfriend and failed his accountancy exam. He's decided he's going to write a novel. At a charity concert with his mother, he meets Laura and becomes slightly obsessed. Laura decides she'll help him cope with life so he can write his novel. She's 20 years older than him and has a mysterious background. Her mother lives in the area in an old rectory. An uncle lives there too. There's another family that Laura grew up with and there are rumors about who her father is/was. Laura spends a great deal of her time in London, where her business is located and she has a flat. And so the story follows Claud and Laura as they go about their lives. There are other people as well. There were funny bits in this story, but as it progressed, it got darker and eventually we learn why Laura behaves as she does. There's not a lot of plot in the story and there were some things I found off-putting. The book was published in the late 1980s, which I am old enough to remember and it did feel of its time. I've read a couple of other Mary Wesley novels and I have to say this was the one I liked the least. Had it been longer, I might not have finished it. I have her most well-known novel and a biography of her, both picked up at charity shops, so we'll see how they are at some point.

The New House by Lettice Cooper (borrowed from the library)

Originally published in 1936, this is a book about change--societal, cultural, personal change. It's about how people deal with change, both those who embrace it and those who resist it. It's about how some things are passed down in families, sometimes in surprising ways. It's about the often difficult task of determining how much you owe to others and how much to yourself. It's about fining the courage to be yourself even when familial and cultural expectations try to keep you in a box. It's about expectations met and unmet. It's a book that surprised me as there were parts of it that could have been describing my own life, both as a child and an adult, even though the book was published a few decades before I was born and is set in England and I was in the US. 

This gem of a book is set in one day--moving day for the Powells. Mother Natalie and daughter Rhoda are moving out of the home Rhoda has lived in her entire life. At 33, she's not keen on this move at all. Neither is Natalie--and Natalie has been spoiled her entire life, so she's used to getting what she wants. Not this time, though, no matter how much she whines, cajoles and feels put upon and victimized. There's no choice really, since Tom, the husband and father, has recently died and the money to keep up a large house and grounds simply isn't there. Tom was the head of a steel company. That position now belongs to son Maurice. The business wasn't doing very well even when Tom was alive due to changes in the culture, which made it harder for small businesses to compete. Maurice is married to Evelyn, but they've drifted apart. Their daughter, Tatty, who is only three, is caught in the middle. Delia, the youngest, moved away from home a while ago and works for a lab. She's going to marry Jim, a scientist, and they're going to start their own lab. She wants to help her sister escape from a life of servitude with their mother. Delia comes from London to help with the move. Maurice and Evelyn are involved. Natalie's sister, Ellen, who is the model for what Rhoda does not want to become, also helps. The story takes place on one day, but we get background history as we go from one character to another, reading their thoughts and memories as the day progresses. I found this aspect of the book fascinating, although the main tension in the book is the question of what Rhoda will decide when Delia suggests that she move to London and take her place at the lab when she leaves to marry and work with Jim. Rhoda goes back and forth in her mind about whether she can, whether she wants to, or whether she'll be 'allowed' to. At one point, she thinks about a time from her childhood when the three siblings were at a frozen pond learning to ice skate. Maurice and Rhoda were ever so careful. Delia raced out onto the ice. Rhoda remembers that while she and Maurice were very slow and afraid to fall, Delia fell several times, but she learned to skate before either of them. I won't divulge what Rhoda decided here. I will say that I loved this book and will be looking for more by this author in future. The edition I read is a republication by Persephone Books (I LOVE Persephone Books!) and contains a preface by Jilly Cooper, herself an author. Lettice Cooper was Jilly Cooper's husband's aunt and it was quite interesting to read about Lettice Cooper's work and what the influences on it were. It's an excellent book all around.

Tyler's Row by Miss Read (BorrowBox e-audiobook)

Back when we first got to Ireland, I blogged about a book I'd been given by the librarian, who thought I might like it. It was by Alice Taylor, who writes mostly about Irish village life. The librarian said Taylor reminded her of her own childhood in a different part of Ireland. I loved the book, read it in an evening, and went back the next day to check out everything they had by Taylor. The librarian was thrilled. A retired English professor I knew back in the US suggested that if I liked Alice Taylor, I might like Miss Read--she did. Turns out I did too. I read what was available at the time. In the last several years, BorrowBox has added several Miss Read titles and I listened to them as they appeared, including a very enjoyable memoir. They've recently added more that I haven't read or listened to, this being one of them. As always, it was a great read/listen. These are very charming sorts of books, narrated by the village schoolteacher, Miss Read, who describes all of the village activities both in the school and beyond. This book does involve the school, but that's not the primary focus. Instead, most of the action (such as it is) takes place in Tyler's Row, a small compound of four cottages. When the middle two go up for sale, a couple from a nearby town consider buying all four. But there's a problem--the two tenants at either end. They dislike one another intensely and they cannot be removed from the cottages. Plot ensues from there. I thoroughly enjoyed this listen, sitting in bed, drinking tea, and stitching while I did so. There are some serious issues addressed within the book, but mostly it's a light-hearted and very pleasant book, narrated by Gwen Watford who played Dolly Bantry in the Joan Hickson Miss Marple series years ago. I kept picturing Dolly Bantry as I listened. She does an excellent job as a reader of these books and I enjoy her and the books very much.

So the first half of March is a wrap. I've got a growing pile of books here and another one to pick up at the library this week. I'll have no trouble finding reading material to see me through the rest of March. Hope it's the same for you!

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