I can't quite believe it - 29 October and we had snow! Mr C and I went out this evening to the St Albans Blog meet-up tonight and we had to trudge through snow to get there and back again. I certainly wasn't expecting that in October! ... read more
The Full Cupboard of Life – Alexander McCall Smith
I seem to be reading rather quickly this week and have already finished the next book I have in the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series: The Full Cupboard of Life. Yet another fantastic read with larger than life characters.Mma Potokwani at the Orphan Farm is once again taking advantage of Mr J. L. B. Matekoni's inability to say no to her requests and finds himself in the frame to do a parachute jump to raise money for the orphans - not something that him or Mma Ramotswe are happy about.At the same time the question as to why Mma Ramotswe and Mr J. L. B. Matekoni are ... read more
Tea cosy mania
I think there must be a bit of a tea cosy thing going on at the moment - I'm quite amazed by the number of people who seem to be coming to this blog having googled "tea cosy" or some similar phrase. I also seem to keep coming across mentions of tea cosies in pretty much every thing I read, especially on other people's blogs.I then came home from work today and found another of those Amazon e-mails suggesting something new to read - only today's was for Wild Tea Cosies by Loani Prior. Now I have to say that this book ... read more
Matilda Cake
I think today is going to be a baking day here. Firstly, I needed something to take along to this morning's WWA working party. There's one family cake recipe that I use time and time again for things like this - i.e. when I've left it a bit too late to put any proper thought into trying a new recipe. I've no idea where Matilda Cake got it's name from - and no it's not the chocolate cake from the Matilda books, although I have found a fantastic recipe for that though from Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer. I remember this as something that my Mum and ... read more
The Kalahari Typing School for Men – Alexander McCall Smith
My first experience of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series was when picked up a copy of Tears of the Giraffe from a pile of books that my mother in law had passed to me. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have been looking out for others in the series as I went round local charity shops. I then struck it lucky a few weeks ago when I managed to pick up three more from the series in a charity shop in Harpenden.I've just finished reading The Kalahari Typing School for Men which was chronologically the first of the three that I bought ... read more
Delia’s Frugal Food
At a time when the Credit Crunch is making quite a few of us tighten our belts and the press are full of the doom and gloom of the UK heading towards another recession, many people are looking back to how we coped in the past - both during the days of rationing and also how we coped through past recessions.I see that Delia Smith is no different, and according to this article she's even being green in recycling one of her oldest published cook books; Delia's Frugal Food. Now I have to admit that I haven't seen a copy of this yet, it hasn't even been published as a ... read more
Ribbon gift
Mr C and I met up with friends today for a day out at Waddesdon Manor. A fantastic day for catching up with old friends, and their adorable little son. I'll share some of the other pictures later, but had to share the little gift I bought myself in their gift shop.I completely fell in love with this ribbon - the red and cream colour were gorgeous - and loved the retro style that it has. I'm not yet sure how to use it, but decoration on a simple cream tote bag may well be an option. ... read more
Half way there
On the second attempt I've managed to get half way through my battenburg tea cosy, and I'm a quarter of the way through the second half as well.It's not looking as big as I expected, but then again the tea pot that the one in the book is shown on doesn't look much bigger than the tea cup next to it. It may well mean that it will be too small for my sister's tea pot, but then maybe I should just extend the gift so that it includes a new (small) tea pot as well. ... read more
On Green Dolphin Street – Sebastian Faulks
It may sound a bit strange, but Sebastian Faulks is one of those authors whose name I instantly recognise, but if you'd asked me to name one of their books I would have failed. That has changed though as if I look on my bookshelf now I can find four of his books. It was this realisation that made me think that it was about time to pick one up and actually read it. On Green Dolphin Street was the one that ended up on top of the pile and I have to say that it was a thoroughly enjoyable read, especially when I consider that it only cost 79p from a local charity shop.The ... read more
Knitalong
I get quite a few e-mails from Amazon and I have to admit that quite a few of them end up not being read properly. However, I am a big fan of the recommendations that they send out and have discovered quite a few good authors via this route. I've not really tried out the system for non-fiction books, but having now bought quite a few knitting related books I'm starting to get some interesting recommendations into my inbox. One that arrived recently that I took advantage of was Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together by Larissa and Martin John ... read more