Wartime Christmas

I'm  hoping to do some Christmassy posts this month...........So here is   a Wartime Christmas from Chesterfield Borough Council.

This is the  link ..................... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYE5eBul2i8 in case the above doesn't work.

In my collection of books about the Home Front in WWII I have some about Christmas at that time.

It's  interesting to read how people coped when so many men and women were in the forces and away from home. Food was basic - no extras - everyone was glad to eat whatever was available. Many factories and businesses had been turned to war production and taxes were high to fund it all.

Typical wartime gifts in a child's Christmas stocking.

There wasn't much money to spare for Christmas in wartime and people were pleased with even one gift, often home made or recycled. How things have changed in the 80 years since. Maybe we all expect too much now.

R is for Recipe Books

I had far too many cookery/recipe books, considering that most of the recipes I use are in a tatty old ring binder in tatty plastic punched pockets.

They were taking up most of one shelf in the living room and when I brought home a dozen books from the two charity book sales that I visited recently something had to be moved out to make room for them.

A sort out was definitely needed.

For instance, how many books about preserving does a person need?

I've only got one Delia book and one Mary Berry

But way back, many years ago, these penny saving books were used a lot.

A dozen books went off to the charity shop and made me a space for the books bought from the charity book sales but  I still kept 18 recipe books- just in case - probably still too many. 

(Thanks to Penny who suggested this back in October when I asked for ideas)

Back Tomorrow

F is for Fundraisers

 For every group, every charity, every village,  fundraising is key to keeping things going. My favourite sort of fundraiser is a charity book sale - of course!

 I miss jolly old jumble sales which was the way most fund raising was done in the 70's and 80's with a special Christmas sale each December - Father Christmas in attendance. With Scouts we also had a wonderful summer fete with a knobbly knee competition  and plate smashing was always popular too, and we were one of the first places to run a car boot sale.

For many years I travelled down to Colchester each October for the giant NSPCC book sale, but this year I just couldn't be bothered- even though it's the last one they were going to have after 20 years - and here is the problem in so many places - it's  often retired people who keep things going and they get older and run out of energy. There was a worrying message on a local Facebook page that the village hall where we have our Keep Moving Group urgently needs more people for the their management committee, as the treasurer and bookings clerk have been doing their jobs for years and would like a break. 

Where are the 30 and 40 year old's with energy? 

So I didn't go to the big Colchester book sale to start November  but I did visit one in Suffolk, a fundraiser for their Village Hall, they always have a nice lot of books. These are what I found. No grey cover Persephone books again but these below are interesting and there at the bottom of the pile is one to add to one of my other collections - The Little Toller Nature Classics series. I've read the one on the top of the heap but don't own a copy and it's a war time mystery so will be a good one to keep.

Just like the shops who have to make much of their profits at this time of the year, the run up to Christmas is peak time for fundraising for villages and groups too, hence the huge number of Christmas Fairs coming up.

There is a lovely list of local Fairs to visit to cheer up my November and December weekends, I might not spend much but I do need to find a few Christmas gifts this year as it's not been a successful year for finding things at boot sales.

My diary has filled up with ideas for places to visit....................

November 8th Monks Eleigh or Stuston; 

15th/16th Diss or Stowupland or  Eye;

 22nd/23rd Haughley or Otley;

 29th/30th Burgate, Stoke Ash, Thorndon, Debenham, Finborough or Stowmarket.

 December 6th/7th Cotton, Wetherden, Stonham, Mendlesham, Thornham Walled Garden or Rickinghall.

Then everything comes to a halt!

How many can I manage to get to? Will I have coffee and cake at some? - Not all! that would be silly.

Are there as many Christmas Fairs and sales in other places or is it just here?

Back Soon

C is for Crime Fiction

 I mainly read crime fiction - you may have noticed! But Why?

I think it's because  they have a proper ending and don't make me cry. I prefer police procedural and nothing too cosy or psychological. Quite choosy really. I abandon anything that I don't like quite quickly and love to find a good  author that I've not read before who has already written several books. 

One good thing that has happened is the reprinting of books from the 40's, 50s and 60's by publishers like British Library Crime Classics. So many authors wrote good stories that were lost and never reprinted at the time.

Below is my 'Emergency Supply' of crime fiction on my shelves. These are in case I run out of library books or I need something that I know can be read without great mental effort!

I long ago decided not to tackle anything  'heavy',  classic, highbrow etc - I can't be bothered to improve my knowledge even though some people class crime as light and easy reading- it suits me.

Hope the mobile library will bring me another good collection of mainly crime fiction next week.

Back Tomorrow 

Out and About Last Weekend

 It's the start of the Autumn Fayre season. Fundraisers for villages all around. From November they will be called Christmas Fayres, but basically the same thing! 

At the first one I went to in the United Reform Church in Debenham I found a crime fiction new-to-me author, I've read it already as I was out of library books. It was slightly cosy-crime but readable. Also bought a home made lemon cake to take home which has lasted me all week.

At the second Autumn sale in Thornham Magna village hall, I just bought a jar of lemon and lime marmalade from a local small business but it will be the last one I buy from them as they're now using 8oz jars whereas they used to sell in 12oz jars, but charging the same price for the smaller. As well as selling at all the craft/autumn/Christmas sales, they've just opened a shop in a unit at the hardware/gift place - maybe they had to put prices up to cover that.

Lots of people selling Christmas bits at last Sunday's boot sale. I have enough really now I only do a Christmas tree and the seasonal bits on the bookshelf but I liked this Christmas Goose and bought it for £1. The man had a whole box full of these and similar new tree decorations, originally from The Range and originally priced at £1.99 or £2.99. Maybe he bought them in the January sales last year? 

Also splashed out 20p on another crime fiction which I wasn't sure if I'd read or not as there are a whole series of these short story collections. Luckily it's one I've not  read  so that's added to my shelves for reading 'emergencies!'

I do like to get out and about at the weekends while I can.

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A Surprisingly Good Book Find

 This is a book I picked up at the Sibton church book sale back in May. At first glance I thought it was fiction as the front cover is very similar to many of the recently written wartime fiction books, but on reading the back cover I found it was a proper wartime diary, covering the years 1935 - 1947, so it came home with me.

It's actually quite a treasure and different to any other WWII diaries I have. There are plenty of wartime diaries by people living and working in towns and cities, through the blitz etc or by people in the forces but I've not come across another one by the wife of a soldier.

Evelyn Shillington was an army wife, married to Rex who was a career soldier, working in Army Ordnance (now called Logistics) and retiring as a Brigadier. They had no children and all her married life she had moved wherever Rex was posted, either living in rented accommodation, married quarters, hotels or with friends.

The diary starts in 1935 when Eve (then aged 42) and Rex are just returning, by boat, from Hong Kong where Rex had had a 3 year posting. During their time there Eve's mother Emlie Clifford (a well known playwright of the time) in England had died and Eve is dreading the return home without her mother being there. Evelyn is one of those people who is able to make friends anywhere she is and will keep in touch with all she befriends forever. Consequently many entries in the diary are about friends made from many parts of the country and overseas, relations and friends of her mother but luckily there's a list at the front of 'Evelyn's People'.

As well as the book being interesting with a well informed view of life during those years -from the abdication of Edward VIII to the end of the war, it also has an complicated and equally interesting story of how it came to be published.

After Evelyn's death in 1981 a trunk of papers and the diaries were left to a much younger cousin - Elizabeth and after Elizabeth's death in 1997 they were inherited by her daughter Jacy Wall.  Jacy remembers meeting her mother's cousin just a couple of times in the 1970's.

In  the early 2,000's Jacy was contacted out of the blue by someone researching the history of Roger Quilter who had written the music for Emlie's (Evelyn's mother) best known play Where The Rainbow Ends and had tracked down Jacy as a relative of Emlie. This makes Jacy rummage through the trunk of papers that had been stored in an attic for many years but she didn't take any notice of the diaries. 

A few years later Jacy is moving house after the death of her husband and decides to send the trunk of papers off to auction.

Luckily at auction the papers were bought by Shaun Sewell, an author who had an interest in old diaries and he realised what a treasure they were. He managed to track Jacy Wall and an editor - Barbara Fox, who had also published books about wartime and together they were able to edit and publish the diaries in book form in 2017.There is also a page at the end of the book telling what happened to Evelyn and Rex after they returned to England and Rex retired.

A really good story.

Back Soon

All Over for Another Year and Just One Book

 I'm bereft!! The weeks of tennis watching are over for another year. It was sad to see Alfie Hewitt and Gordon Reid lose their wheelchair doubles final on Saturday and then AH must have been exhausted as he lost his singles on Sunday. Good to see wheelchair tennis becoming more important at Wimbledon, playing on main courts with big crowds.

Then it was the men's final, just like the final at the French Open five weeks earlier it was a really good game and this time Jannik Sinner came out on top. The first Italian to win the Wimbledon men's championship.  I think this is how it's going to be for many years ahead - two brilliant young players battling it out at every tournament.

 I went to the Saturday boot-sale early and it was already huge and crowded, it started cloudy but then the sun came through and it was suddenly Very Hot.

Many of the people selling are there every week, so by now I've seen most of the junk about twenty times before.

But I hadn't seen this book before so just spent 50p, nothing else and by the time I'd been three quarters of the way round I'd had enough - it was getting hotter so home for breakfast.

I'd not come across this book anywhere and it turns out to be a collection of short stories "inspired by remarkable trees" written by students of the University of Suffolk Creative Writing course.

Might be interesting or it might not! It's been added to the shelves with my other Suffolk books to read sometime.

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Most People are Good People and The Missing Library Van but It's OK.

When you read about the terrible things some people do to others it's lovely to know that on the whole most people are good people. That's what everyone agreed after yesterdays post. Thank you again Lisa.

The grandchildren were here yesterday and very excited to visit the library van with me  - except it didn't turn up! Later I found out that due to illness it was off the road. They had emailed but the connections were so bad yesterday morning that the email didn't get to me until late afternoon. I should have been collecting 15 books - aaaaagggghhhhh .....NOTHING TO READ!

 (Poor connection might explain why the French Open tennis on TV wasn't working properly most of yesterday too) 

But as Granddaughter said "Nanna you've got about 5,000 books at home!" - she's exaggerating........... ..................fortunately or unfortunately?!

However there are four more than there were a week ago as these were the books I found at the charity book sale at Sibton church last Saturday.

 

Top of the pile is book by local author Olivia Laing it's all about her new garden and other gardens. I could borrow it from the library but then I'd probably not get round to reading it as there are usually so many crime to read and I have to be in the right mood for non-fiction, so it will be waiting for when I'm ready.

Pleased with the copy of Seal Morning by Rowena Farre as I wrote about re-reading her other book in March, its years since I read this book and the library don't have a copy.

From the cover Eve's War looked like fiction but it is a genuine WWII diary - another to add to my collection.

Someone somewhere - probably one of the book bloggers - mentioned The Far Country by Nevil Shute quite recently and I checked the library but they didn't have a copy. I read all his books way back in my early library days but that was 50 years ago. I looked on abebooks and even put a copy in my 'saved for later' list. It was £4 plus postage and I thought I'd wait a while and what a good thing I didn't buy it.

The book at the bottom I picked up as it has photos of hundreds of small metal things found by Metal Detectorists - Bronze age through to Tudor times, I though Son might like a look at it - it might not be something he wants or he might have seen it already. (He hadn't seen it before so was very interested to take it home yesterday)

After conversations with someone in the library office in Ipswich I'm hoping that my 15 books can be put on the delivery van and dropped at Stowmarket library for me to collect. Otherwise it's going to be a long wait until the end of  June. 

 

Back Soon

Sue

A Book Find, The Mystery of St. Servatius Day and other unknown Saints

At the Bank Holiday Sunday car boot sale, just as it started to rain and everyone covered their stuff  I found the first book of the year, with a very apt cover.  

Another book about weather sayings and folklore to add to my collection for £1............

The author has also put together collections of sayings in books  on Gardening, Cooking and House and Home.

 I thought the book would have many of the weather lore sayings that are in my other books, and it has but also some lore and stories that I'd not come across before.

This is  one...........

Who shears his sheep before St Servatius' day

Love more his wool than his sheep.

St Servatius?? No mention in my book of Saints but this book above says he was a fourth century bishop of Tongeren in Belgium, with his Feast day being today the 13th. He is one of the so called Ice Saints, whose feast days fell between 11-14th May, traditionally a spell of cold weather - but not here this year!

I'd not heard of the Ice Saints either but apparently the others are .......

11th May - St Mamertus, a fifth century archbishop of Vienne in France

12th May -  St Pancras - the patron saint of children who was martyred, aged just 14, in Rome in AD304. Relics of this saint were sent to England and an early Anglo-Saxon church was dedicated to him in Canterbury (and the area of London and then the station too).

CANTERBURY – ST PANCRAS CHURCH, SUGGESTED SITE OF KING AETHELBERT’S PAGAN SHRINE

14th May - St Boniface, an Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monk, baptised as Winfrid at Crediton in Devon who was martyred in Germany after becoming archbishop of Mainz in AD 754.

According to wiki and my Saints book his special day is June 5th , and even accounting for changes in calendar it doesn't explain the May 14th day.

So no idea where the author found her dates for the book, but I suppose any tales from 1400 years ago are bound to change with time!

Thanks for comments yesterday, I'm glad it made a smile for a Monday morning.

Back Soon

Sue

Cuckoo Day?

Today is St Tiburtius Day and traditionally the first day to hear a cuckoo - according to two of the folklore books on my shelves.

The Cuckoo sings from St Tiburtius day to St John's day

BUT unless you are lucky you probably won't hear one now and even less likely to see one. They were very common in the 50's and 60's - we all knew the rhyme 

The Cuckoo comes in April and sings his song in May

In June he changes his tune and in July he flies away

In the 80's Colin used to come home from bridge inspecting out in the countryside with news of the first cuckoo every year. Even in the early 90's we would hear one from the woodland close to the smallholding.

Now I can't remember the last time I heard one. 

So who was Saint Tibertius? According to the legend of St Cecelia  Tibertius was the brother of Valerian, to whom Cecelia was betrothed by her parents. Cecelia was determined not to marry so as to devote herself to God. On their wedding day she told Valerian and was so persuasive  about her faith that he was converted to Christianity and persuaded his brother Tiburtius too. They set about showing their conviction by collecting the bones of Christian Martyrs and giving them a proper burial. When caught they refused to change their belief and were both taken outside of Rome beaten and beheaded.

If you are lucky enough to hear the cuckoo remember to turn the money in your pocket to ensure future prosperity.

Turn your money when you here the Cuckoo and you'll have money in your purse till he comes again.

It's unlucky if the Cuckoo arrives too early before the leaves on the trees................

When the Cuckoo sings on an empty bough,

Keep your hay and sell your cow.

When the Cuckoo comes to the bare thorn,

Sell your cow and buy your corn.

I've certainly never seen a Cuckoo but here's the illustration by Carrie Ackroyd from my lovely book ' A Sparrow's Life's as Sweet as Ours'.

Back Soon

Saturday 29th - Clocks go Forward

 The last Saturday in March and time for the clocks to go forward by an hour overnight.  Just makes it more difficult to get up early for car boot sales!

Another of the illustrations from the Angela Harding book. Orford is over on the Suffolk coast, the strange buildings to the right were left from the 'Cold War' out on Orford Ness. Boats cross from the quay to visit the nature reserve in summer.

Orford Hares

Reading:-

After finishing ' A Time From the World' by Rowena Farre that I wrote about during the week, I read another book from my shelves - 'Apricot Sky' by  Ruby Ferguson. It's a Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean St Press reprint from a book first published in 1952. Set in Scotland in 1948 it is a lovely story of a family and their visitors and preparations for a wedding. Similar in a way to D.E.Stevenson but very witty and good descriptions of the countryside and weather. 

 They've stopped the 'suggestions to buy' page on the library website due to the changes happening in June - and not knowing what Suffolk County Council will do about anything at the changeover. I wonder if it will mean a whole new computer system - more money wasted.

Watching:-

On the 4 catch up channel I've been watching Jack Irish - a rather violent thing from Australia dating from 2016-2021 starring Guy Pearce - who I remember best from the early days of Neighbours.

Gardening:-

My three veg beds are almost completely covered by the wire-netting frames (which turn into fences later) to keep the neighbours cat off. Before I did this I removed half a bucket of cat s**t, I thought about chucking it back into their garden but of course I didn't.

Now about  a hundred sycamore seedlings have appeared under the frames so I'll need to take them off and hoe out. It's funny that there have never been so many before but now the tree has gone they've all rooted this year, almost as if they know they've got to replace the mother tree - weird.

Pepper seeds germinated eventually, they are growing slowly, should be plenty, and three aubergines. Grass cut again, garden waste bin two days late being emptied but then I pruned some dead bits off the ceanothus and half filled it again.

Socialising:-

 15 people at Keep Moving Group this week which is really good. An odd thing happened. When I was looking in the car glove box to find the book thing for the repair shop to stamp after the service and MOT, I came across a piece of paper with a printed list of exercises that we did with the organisation that started our group in 2022. I must have had it without knowing all this time as I don't remember it being given me.............and why in the glove box? Anyway I'm now going to write out a new sequence  of exercises for us to do for a bit of variety........... as soon as I get a new sharpie pen.

Over 60's group and a guy who volunteers at a workshop for adults with disabilities came and told us all about the workshop and the wooden things they make. If I still had a house with land they make bird-boxes for every type of bird you can think of and I'd have one for each - and bats!. I visited their workshop on a pre Christmas Open Day a couple of years ago.

Eating :-

I got the freezer defrosted on Monday, so that job's done for a year. I'd half forgotten about some of my own raspberries from the summer - better get them eaten - they are a bit sharp when frozen, always better fresh but there were so many last year I froze a few. Shall I mix with meringue and cream and call them a variation on Eton Mess - probably rather too many calories!

What a useful thing a quiche is to make - four days meals without having to think - tuna and sweetcorn this time served up with something different each day it doesn't matter that that it's the same thing for four days.

50/50 Granary/ White bread in the bread maker this week - my favourite.

And that's my week.

Have a good weekend, I'll be back next week - if I have something to write about?

Rowena Farre

 Rowena Farre wrote this, her second book in 1962. Her first book -'Seal Morning' - had been published in 1957 and had become very popular, translated into several languages.

At one time both 'Seal Morning' and 'A Time From The World' were thought to be works of fiction rather than autobiographies and no one really knows much about the author and her life.

Different people have pieced together some of her story. She was born in India (although one source says London) in 1921 (or 1922 or 1930!), her real name was Daphne Lois McCready and she was the daughter of an Army Medical Officer. She was sent to Britain to live with an aunt when she was about 10 years old. 'Seal Morning' is the story of her life with her Aunt on a remote croft in Sutherland, Scotland. They lived with all sorts of pets including the seal. BUT later when people tried to find the croft or people who had known the Aunt and Niece - nothing was found. When her Aunt married Rowena moved south and became a typist.

During World War II, according to some sources she was in the WAAF, although if she was born in 1930 and not 1921 she would have been too young.

Then at some time in the 1950s she got a grant to go to Art School but spent much more time and all the summers travelling and working with the gypsies around Scotland, Wales and the west counties of England, the story of this time is the subject of 'A Time From the World'. She met a gypsy man and fell in love and moved in with him but after a while felt she couldn't settle to one way of life, she wanted to travel more widely and to write.

She went back to London and moved from job to job, living in lodgings and writing. When 'Seal Morning' was published she left the lodgings and disappeared for almost 4 years to avoid the journalists and the fame. Her publishers eventually tracked her down after advertising in the personal columns of newspapers, she was spotted on a ship and HERE is a newspaper report about her being found.

She wrote one other book 'The Beckoning Land' in 1969 which is about a spiritual pilgrimage to Ceylon and India.

She died in Canterbury in 1979. A very private person and estranged from her family, her life is much of a mystery.

Seal Morning was made into a TV series in 1986 with the location moved to Norfolk.

I first read 'Seal Morning' and 'A Time From the World' way back in the 1970s when I started work in libraries. The copy of  'A Time From the World' that I have now was reprinted in 2013 by Little Toller Books. The front cover photograph is by Bert Hardy from 1951. Inside are illustrations by Alice Pattullo.

The book is a wonderful look at a time completely gone when gypsy travellers were welcomed at farms all through the season for fruit and hop picking.

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Orchards and Apples

 I picked up the book below from the shelves in the village hall where we have the Keep Moving Group. They have all sorts of books in the entrance way shelving for people to buy, borrow or swap.

I think it's a book that I owned once and got rid of in one of the moves. I've donated several books in it's place.

It's not so long ago that supermarkets had very few varieties of apples for sale, and for several years Golden Delicious prevailed. Things are a bit better with usually more choice now. Yet there are several dozens named in another lovely book that I've had a while, that are never seen available to buy. 

In this country 2000 years ago the apples growing were crab apples, impossible to eat raw but they would have been fermented or cooked. It was the Romans who brought their knowledge of grafting and pruning with them and used them to improve the native stock as well as bringing trees over from the continent. Italy was one huge orchard according to the poet Horace (65BC - 8BC). Fruit trees even had their own God - Pomona. The ancient custom of feasts for Samhain coincided with celebrations for the God Pomona ( and later both were taken over by Christianity as The Feast of All Souls and All Hallows Eve.)

Apples have so much folklore connected with them and magical reputation in many countries. 

An Apple a day keeps the doctor away 

A bloom on the tree when the apples are ripe, is a sure termination of somebody's life

Sun shining through the Apple Tree branches on Christmas day foretells a good crop 

Orchards for cultivating fruit came here from the continent with monks and all monasteries would have had orchards of native fruits for eating and for making cider. Records of these have survived at Ely, Canterbury and Battle Abbey.  There were substantial orchards at royal residences too.  Later, farms would have had their own cider apple orchards as farmworkers were often paid in part with cider. After 1485 with the Tudors, things became more settled and orchards appeared more often in villages and towns with gentlemen gardeners in their country houses beginning to breed different varieties.

Here in my small garden I planted 3 Minarette Ⓡ apple trees. These grow straight upright and side branches are pruned with apples growing on these side spurs. This season was their third and only one, the Falstaff, had apples. This tree also had a few in it's first year of 2022 and they were so delicious that I bought a young ordinary tree which produced a few fruit this year - it's second year here. The other two Minarette are Charles Ross and didn't even flower this year, hopefully they will do better next year

Falstaff are a James Grieve X Golden Delicious, bred at the Institute of Horticulture, East Malling. Introduced in 1986 They are described as having a pretty red flush with stripes. Fruity, well balanced; crisp and juicy. Planted commercially small scale in Kent. Often heavy croppers .Picking - early October, will store until December.

I should have thinned the fruit early summer, I would have got less fruit but they would have been bigger so I'm having to eat two small for my 'apple a day' - something I've been doing for years - and I don't get many colds so maybe it works. Although it's probably more likely to be due to living alone and not spending too much time in crowded indoor situations. I've still got some 'Cold Cure' soup in the freezer just in case and as I've got some cider vinegar in the cupboard I'm planning to make some 'Fire Elixir' too.

Back Soon

Sue

You Just Never Know.............

..............what you might find at a car-boot sale.

I don't remember the last time I found a book at a car-boot sale and this was a surprise when I spotted it. And even more surprised when I looked up how much it was on Amazon (£17) as I bought it for 50p!!

I knew what it was as I've watched her youtube channel occasionally in the last 5 years when she talks about her beautiful, quiet and mindful life in a cottage in a valley on the edge of mountains in Washington State. She moved there alone to recover from illness and enjoys each season in such a calm way.

But I just discovered she has finished the channel due to having a baby. Quiet mindfulness and small babies probably don't go together!

By the time I've finished reading I shall be so calm you won't know me! 

(but before I could start it the outside covers had to have a good clean - goodness knows where it had been but it was horribly sticky and dirty)

Back Soon

Sue

First Book For Autumn Reading the Seasons.

 Someone mentioned this book when I said there are a shortage of books with Autumn in the title but  there was no copy to borrow at the library.  I've read several others by Barbara Pym so didn't mind buying a second-hand copy and Abebooks had one for a couple of £s.

So this is my first for Autumn for the Reading the Seasons 'not really a challenge'.

 

1970's London and four elderly single people work in the same office but live separate and lonely lives. This is the quiet story of their day to day life, the things that annoy them, which seem so trivial and the things that worry them as they get to the end of their working lives.

Like most of her books this explores relationships with a touch of humour and sadness too.

Published in 1977 after a 15 gap this was her 7th novel and was originally turned down by her publishers. She almost gave up but in 1977 the Times Literary Supplement had a list, written by writers and academics, of the most underrated authors from the last 75 years and Pym was mentioned twice. Interest in her was revived and Quartet in Autumn was published and nominated for The Booker Prize.

She died in 1980,  when cancer returned seven years after treatment, she was aged just 66.

Back Soon

Sue

 

Tulips Again, Shopping and Books

 The daffodils at Aldi looked as if they'd been packed in a box for weeks so I left them where they were and dithered by the flower stall on the market. Daffs or Tulips, Tulips or Daffs?

The tulips were gorgeous colours - so tulips it was. If it's grey skies all week I have a bit of colour right beside me in the living room.

Second shopping trip in February and another week of replacing things used, to build up a useful store in the freezer and cupboards (prep for being snowed in for weeks or WWIII!?) Cabbage, tomatoes, pears, apples and grapes. Butter and Willow spread, cheese and milk. I'm building up a stock of ground coffee to use in my new machine, so 3 different packs. I looked for savoury biscuits to eat with cheese that had the fewest ingredients and came home with Aldi oatcakes. Also there are a packet of cashews, two sachets of cheese sauce powder, a jar of olives and the tube of 'guilty pleasure' Pringles....sometimes I just crave something crunchy!

Not in the photo are two packs of frozen sweet potato chips/fries - they went straight into the freezer.

 Still  no meat as I'm still eating mostly my batch made meals from the freezer, and only a couple of things that could be called a UPF. Total spend £30.17

I picked up two books from the For Sale shelves in Stowmarket library. They sell off old books and get books donated to sell too.. On the left Rumer Godden - Peacock Spring. I know I read Greengage Summer many moons ago and I just liked the cover of this one. On the right is a follow up to Ring of Bright Water, which I was sure I'd read but it's not in my Book-of-Books-Read. Maybe we read it at school?  But I have read Island of Dreams by Dan Boothby which is all about Maxwell and his home and writing.

Wordle Tuesday = SCRAM in 2 = well chuffed! 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

The Slightly Foxed Literary Review

 I knew I'd enjoy the 4 Slightly Foxed Literary Review publications that I found in a charity shop at the end of January because books about books are always good. 

 

I started with the Summer 2022 edition

These are the books and authors that are written about in this issue

I found that I owned 2 of the books written about in the summer 2022 issue as well as Pevsner's Suffolk (it's Pevsner biography from 2011 that's reviewed here)

I've written about Copsford HERE back in 2019 when I discovered there was a new edition. What I found interesting in the review in Slightly Foxed was that the writer, Grant Mcintyre had known Walter Murray much later in his life long after he moved away from the almost derelict home where he gathered and dried herbs to sell. Murray married his 'music teacher' and went on to start and run a small private school for 40 years until 1963, which Grant attended. Miki at Farms On My bookshelf has a post about him HERE and I discovered The Green Man of Horam by Tom Wareham is a biography of Murray. I suggested the library buy a copy - but had an email straight back to say they won't be buying.

That leaves Arthur Ransome's  We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea (I've got most of his books - son read them all and I kept them despite all the moves) which I'm not sure I ever read when I read some of the other Swallows and Amazons books. I have read it now and reminded myself just how much detail there is about sailing in his books and how much I loved them and enjoyed visiting the museums in the Lake District that tell the story of Ransome and his books and boats.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Charity Shop Finds

After months of finding nothing in charity shops I had some good book finds in Bury St Edmunds when I had a morning  there last week

 Found this for 50p, it's yet another book that I owned once when there were over 1,000 books on the shelves and regretted getting rid of it later during one of the moves.

And I've added to my small Little Toller Books Collection with this for £2.99. Thought I'd not read it but it's in my 'Book of Books Read' from many years ago. Can't remember anything about it so it will be interesting to read again.

And finally a very unusual find for £2.50 were these - 4 copies of a quarterly publication,  a literary magazine by Slightly Foxed who reprint books from the past and sell other books too. Described on their website.............

Slightly Foxed is the quarterly magazine that introduces its readers to books that are no longer new and fashionable but have lasting appeal. Good-humoured, unpretentious and a bit eccentric, it’s more like a well-read friend than a literary magazine. Every issue of Slightly Foxed includes fiction and non-fiction, books that have stood the test of time and have left their mark on the people who write about them. It’s an eclectic mix, and our contributors are an eclectic bunch too – some well-known, others not so, but all passionate about sharing their enthusiasm for a book or author.

From £56 per year, with subscriber discounts and benefits.

All 80 back issues are available from them for £1,160! and lots are on Amazon for around £4 or on Abebooks for £2 each. My 4 copies at £2.50 were quite a bargain and plenty of interesting reading. Books about books are always good.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

A Book and a Bag of Fruit and Nuts

 All my library books have now been finished although I still have the huge book about the Great Bardfield Artists to look through. 

What to choose off my shelves?

I picked A Lost Lady by Willa Cather , which is one of the books I found at the big Colchester Charity Book Sale in October.

I've read O Pioneers and My Antonia by her previously. This is the note about the book from Wiki

A Lost Lady is a 1923 novel by American writer Willa Cather. It tells the story of Marian Forrester and her husband, Captain Daniel Forrester, who live in the Western town of Sweet Water along the Transcontinental Railroad. Throughout the story, Marian—a wealthy married socialite—is pursued by a variety of suitors and her social decline mirrors the end of the American frontier.^[1] The work had a significant influence on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby.^[2]

It's very well written and I enjoyed it, it will be added to my very small collection of Virago Modern Classics to keep, rather than pass on. 

I was listening to Radio 5 Live while writing this post and heard about how well England did in the first of the cricket test matches in India. Colin would have so enjoyed it. The first time India have lost  at home while having a 100 run lead, I think they said, and England hardly ever win much abroad.

 But I was really listening to the final of the Australian Open Tennis which was incredibly exciting even on radio. I'm thinking I need a subscription to a sports TV channel now that so little is on terrestrial TV. If I bought fewer books I could easily afford it!

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This is my way of using a 200g, 59p bag of Essential Range mixed fruit and nuts from Aldi. "ideal for snacking" it says on the packet and they wouldn't take long to eat as a snack, but I use them a different way.

Separated into peanuts, raisons and almonds. The peanuts are enough for two batches of home-made peanut biscuits. The raisons will be chopped and used in the next loaf of spiced fruit loaf made in the bread-machine and the almonds will be blanched, chopped and used for almond biscuits with some drops of almond essence. Although last time I added them to the bag of mixed nuts when I made spiced roast nuts as one of my January treats - mustn't make them again until next January - they are far too more-ish!

It seems a good way to make use of them - better than snacking - (the recipe for the Basic Biscuits is on the separate recipe page - scroll down to almost at the end)

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Not on the To-Do List and Not Too Cold

I'm still hibernating at home - and loving it - which gives plenty of time for the jobs-to-do list and to do things that hadn't been added to the list including making another batch of cold-cure soup just in case of more colds this winter. The chili pepper was supposed to be a mild one and I didn't take care when chopping it up - which was much regretted later! 

I also remembered I'd bought a bag of mixed nuts to make some spiced nuts as another January treat. Didn't put them in the two hampers this time. So half the bag was roasted  - very delicious - probably a bit too more-ish  and too quickly eaten. I'll leave the other half for later in the month.

The actual To-Do list is shrinking and I finally got around to sorting the grandchildren's toys and craft stuff on the shelves in the small bedroom. Another few things went into the charity shop bag.

The weather forecast of icy cold didn't seem very accurate early in the week as both Sunday and Monday mornings were grey and damp instead, Tuesday there was a touch of frost on the car roof but nowhere else. The water company were working on a leak on Tuesday and while they were doing it lots of water ran down the road past the bungalow which might have caused a sheet of ice for Wednesday morning but luckily Wednesday was also not as cold as the forecast either.

As our weather mostly comes from the west I'm hoping we don't get the nasty stuff that's been happening in parts of the US.

Another book from my shelves has been finished before the library van comes round today bringing me at least 9 books.

Tom Morton has done many jobs in his life but now owns a small bookshop IN Shetland - and you must never say ON Shetland and they are never called the Shetland Isles. Also confusing is Mainland which doesn't mean the mainland of Scotland - just the largest area of Shetland!

There is very little about the  bookshop in the book, it's really just one man's look at his home and favourite place and the quirks of living so far north- a twelve hour boat trip away. It was an interesting and quick read.

Back Tomorrow

Sue