Over the years I have read a large number of Anita Shreve's books and as far as I can remember I've enjoyed them all greatly. Strange Fits of Passion was no different in that sense. What was a bit different though was the style in which it was written. Rather than being a "straight story" instead the book is a collection of statements from the key people involved in the story and interview notes from the journalist who was writing about it. The final part of the book is then the final magazine article that came from all the statements and interviews. There are a few small ... read more
How warm is your house?
I've been meaning to blog about this for a few days now, but the warm weather outside has distracted me somewhat. It's hard to stay inside thinking about thermostat temperatures when you can be outside in the garden in the sunshine digging the veg plot over. I'm a bit of an obsessive as to what temperature our central heating is set to ever since we upgraded the heating in our (normally cold) 1928 semi to a system that has such a posh user control unit that it even has a "party mode" (I"m not sure what it does, but it has a picture of a martini glass next to the ... read more
It costs how much?
Sorry - I don't usually have a rant on here, but I'm afraid today I'm so stunned by something that I'm going to do just that. I'm quite a recent convert to Ecover products, but so far I have been pretty impressed with them all. The laundry detergent gets things clean and leaves a lovely fresh smell on our clothes, the delicates washing liquid isn't harsh on the hands when hand-washing wool, the washing up liquid is equally hand-friendly and the stain remover has been brilliant at removing even some of Little Miss C's worst stains. It therefore seemed ... read more
Beef stew with carrots
There has been a bit of a break in cookbook challenge entries lately - mainly because there's very little point trying out new things when no one is able to eat anything other than hot toast. Luckily we're over that phase now so this week has seen me pour through all my cookbooks as I wrote the weekly shopping list. It may have taken nearly three hours to cook, but tonight's beef and carrot stew from Apples for Jam: Recipes for Life was melt in the mouth perfect. I served it with a simple mashed potatoes which were a perfect accompaniment. The carrots provides a lovely sweet edge ... read more
Starting off the growing season
One really useful aspect of writing this blog is that I can look back and see exactly when I was doing things in the garden last year. It was the middle of March when I wrote about our very first steps at growing our own vegetables and at that stage my first tomato seedlings had started to appear. This year's went in today, and with a germination period of between 7 and 14 days I guess that means I'm right on track. In addition to some Gardener's Delight that came free with the February issue of Gardener's World magazine, I've also tried planting some leek. I've ... read more
Bedtime stories
As I've written before here I've always hoped the Little Miss C would love books as much as I do. When I first started reading her a regular bedtime story it was much more for her benefit than mine. Recently though there has been an obvious shift in purpose. I take LMC to the library most weeks for their Baby Rhyme Time session and started when she was just six weeks old. She very quickly started to respond to the singing and rhymes and if we now miss a session I find that we have to have our own little sing-song at home to make up for it. Whilst in the library I try to ... read more
Making the perfect cuppa
This afternoon I enjoyed tea and cake with a friend that I've made on a discussion forum. We'd not met before, so there was a small element of anticipation before she arrived. Not helped by having seen this wonderful film on Rattling On's blog. I was rather worried that my tea making may not be up to scratch, especially since I didn't know the six golden rules. Luckily I seemed to pass muster though. ... read more
The Happy Prisoner – Monica Dickens
Apologies to all of you who are sick of Monica Dickens by now. I promise that this is my last book from her for a little* while. I think I started reading The Happy Prisoner years ago and judging by where I found a bookmark I must have reached page 82 and then given up. Absolutely no idea why though! After the slight disappointment of Scarred I am delighted that this was a return to form. The story is very much a fly on the wall of a house where a soldier son, Oliver, has returned home from the war having lost a leg and with a slightly dodgy heart. His sickroom becomes the hub of ... read more
Vintage Maps
Sometime you find something small in a charity shop that really makes your day and that's exactly what happened today. I've always loved old maps and would love to get some old ones of where we live and other special places framed and put up on the walls. The cover of this little tin therefore really attracted my attention when I was looking along the shelves for books and I was pleased to find that it still contained some of the map stickers that it was originally sold with. Admittedly there are no where near the 200 tantalisingly promised on the tin, but some, even with duplicates, ... read more
Scarred – Monica Dickens
The Monica Dickens reading marathon continued with something a bit different next. Scarred wasn't published until 1991, not long before her death in 1992. All the Monica Dickens books I have read previously were written and set in a much older age. A time when everything had a certain, often wartime, quaintness about it. Scarred has none of that though and as a result seems to be lacking a certain cosiness. Don't get me wrong, if you were reading this book without any previous expectations about Monica Dickens books then I'm sure you would enjoy it - it's well written with some ... read more