It's Beginning to Feel Like Christmas

as our village pub switched on their Christmas lights yesterday evening. 

Mulled wine was being served at the door

the pub was beautifully decorated

the choir were singing traditional carols outside

and then modern Christmas songs inside

the tree looked lovely all lit up.

The pub was heaving

everyone was in a festive mood and thoroughly enjoying the evening.

🎄 Be safe and well🎄

Polly x 

St Andrew's Day

St Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland and the day is a national holiday for celebrating Scottish culture, history, and identity. According to one legend, the Pictish king Óengus II vowed to make Andrew the patron saint if his army was victorious in battle, which was granted after a sign of an 'X' shaped cross appeared in the sky, representing the cross on which Andrew was crucified. The date officially became a public holiday in 2006, encouraging a resurgence of national pride and celebrations involving traditional food, music, and dance.

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x 

Thanksgiving

 Happy Thanksgiving

Stir Up Sunday

This afternoon saw my village hall full of eager people ready for a Christmas pudding workshop. 

We were given a warm welcome with a glass of mulled wine and then found our seats. All we had to take was a bowl, a wooden spoon and an apron, all ingredients and full instructions were provided, with the organisers on hand to help if needed.

First were the dry ingredients

We had a break half way through for tea/coffee and a fun chocolate tasting. We were asked to vote for our favourites. We had a brussel sprout dark chocolate with a white chocolate filling, a tiny teddy milk chocolate and a gold coin chocolate. I voted for the brussel sprout and the gold coin. The results were - the brussel sprout (Aldi) was the favourite, the teddy (also Aldi) came second, and the gold coin (Cadburys) was last.

after the break we added stout, brandy and eggs

and after the flour was added it went into a bowl ready for cooking.

I will steam mine in the slow cooker tomorrow.

Quite a few children were enjoying it too.

The cost was just £15 for what I'm sure will be a delicious pudding and a lovely social occasion. A bargain.

 Be safe and well 

Polly x 

A Good Read

After The War is Over by Maureen Lee

Liverpool, 1945. Three women, firm friends, return home from the war and try to fit back into their old lives. They've been thrown together by the war, and have shared all sorts of good and bad times. Now their old lives seem dull in comparison. But not for long...

The younger women, Maggie and Nell, are both twenty-one and are full of hope and excitement. Iris, on the other hand, is feeling apprehensive about returning to civilian life. At the age of thirty, her only wish in life is to have a baby.

When one of the women falls pregnant it sets in motion a dramatic sequence of events so far-reaching that the three friends' lives will become more intricately interwoven than they could ever have imagined.

I enjoyed this, it's a very good story.

∼ Happy Reading∼ 

Polly x

Poppies On The Pier

Poppies on the Pier is the UK's largest Remembrance art installation, created entirely from handmade poppies donated by people from across the world. 
Throughout November Southend Pier has been transformed into a sea of red as thousands of knitted and crocheted poppies are installed along its full 1.33-mile length.

Each poppy has been crafted by volunteers, from local knitters and crocheters, and from as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA. Some ladies from my WI and craft groups knitted over 100 between them. 

I visited on Wednesday.

It was a lovely mild day and lots of people walked to the end of the pier but some of my friends have mobility difficulties so we all took the train 

We had fun with the distorted mirrors!

We had lunch, the weather stayed glorious and we had a lovely day.

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x 

A Good Read

The 24 Hour Cafe by Libby Page

Stella’s cafe never sleeps, it’s a venue for the lost and lonely, the early starters, the late finishers and the night owls, everyone is welcome, it’s a place where life can be put on hold at the door. The colourful London cafe is full of interesting characters, many of whom put on a good show of hiding their problems, as many people do, and using the cafe as a haven.

Running the café are Hannah and Mona, best friends, waitresses and dreamers, their small kindnesses make a difference to the lives that they briefly intertwine with, but they long for the chance to leave the café and follow their dreams. Hannah is a wannabe singer and Mona is a dancer.

I enjoyed the book and liked reading about the customer’s stories. I had to keep turning the pages to find out more about them.

∼ Happy Reading ∼ 

Polly x

Remembering

A Nice Place To Sit

I've been working at the hospital for 2 years now and have only just discovered this lovely area right outside the main entrance! I enter the hospital via the car park so haven't really taken much notice of it.

It's a nice place to eat lunch or just sit. I only work 4 hours so I don't always have a break but this morning a robust hot flush sent me outside to cool off and that's how I discovered it.

 So, now and again, when the sun is shining I will head over with a mocha to sit and enjoy the fresh air for a few minutes.

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x 

A Good Read

An Unwanted Inheritance by Imogen Clark tells the story of three siblings and a suitcase full of cash.

When their father dies unexpectedly, siblings Max, Ellie and Nathan can’t even contemplate emptying his house - not least because he spent his last decade curating what feels like a museum, so it is Max’s wife, Caroline, who offers to make a start and finds the suitcase under a bed.

The source of the money is a mystery to them all, and each has a strong opinion about what to do with it. Ellie and her husband James have an expensive lifestyle to maintain and could do with their share of the windfall - James in particular, for reasons he doesn’t dare reveal. Nathan can’t be trusted with money, as the others all know; he’s desperate to get his hands on some (or all) of the cash. But Caroline is the one guarding the suitcase, and she’s insisting to Max that they keep everything above board and take it to the police.

The siblings have always been close. But now, with this money threatening to topple everything they thought they knew about their father and their family, nothing seems certain.

The story is filled with moral dilemmas and explores relationships between the siblings, as well as the couples.

I enjoyed it.

∼ Happy Reading∼ 

Polly x

Halloween

Hall🎃ween in our village pub last night

There were witches - B, me and G

Draculas, brides of Dracula, some mad blood spattered doctors, a ghost, Frankenstiens, cowboys, skeletons

and a crazy guy with a hatchet in his head!

An excellent singer provided entertainment

(I even got up on the dance floor a couple of times!)

Everyone had a great time

∼ Be safe and well ∼ 

Polly x

A Week Off

I have just had a week's holiday. "Where did you go?" I hear you say. Well dear reader I didn't go anywhere, I had a week at home doing nothing - no clubs, no swimming, no hospital volunteering, no church cafe, it was wonderful.

I know that being retired means I can do nothing all the time, but having always been an active person I wanted to continue doing things, and as we age I think it's important to be as active as possible. However much as I enjoy all my activities it was getting to the point where every day I would wake up thinking, "What am I doing today?" or "What time do I have to be out by?" I was permanently on the go, and I felt very tired. So now I feel rested with a fully charged battery, ready to resume my activities.

I think I will have a home stay holiday more often 😊

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x

A Good Read

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
     
On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…
   
The Lost Bookshop is a story about three strangers, Opaline, Martha, and Henry. It’s a mixture of historical fiction, mystery, and good old fashioned romance.
   
Martha has escaped an abusive marriage and finds employment working as a housekeeper to the eccentric ex-actress, Madame Bowden.

Henry is a Ph.D. student who is obsessed with an old manuscript, and is ready to do anything to locate it. He is convinced that Charlotte Brontë wrote a second book.

In 1922 Opaline flees her childhood home to escape an arranged marriage to a stranger. She finds refuge in Paris, where her love of rare books earns her an apprenticeship in a bookstore, the perfect training ground for a young woman who is also convinced that Charlotte Brontë wrote a second book, which is waiting to be discovered.

     

It took me a little while to get into the story because of the different timelines but once I did I enjoyed it.

∼ Happy Reading∼ 

Polly x

Rayleigh

Last week my U3a bus pass group had a trip to Rayleigh, a nice market town and civil parish in Essex. The name Rayleigh is Old English in origin deriving from rǣge ('female roe-deer or she-goat') and lēah ('clearing'), meaning "wood or clearing of the wild she-goats or roe-deer". 

First stop was at a pretty little tea room which also sold lots of lovely clothes, jewellery and accessories. I nearly bought a scarf but then decided that I already had more than enough!

The small museum was excellent, documenting the town from Prehistoric and Roman times up to present times

in this little cinema area.

Children's dressing up area

After lunch we visited the church, unfortunately it was closed, we thought it would be open all day.

Then on to the windmill before strolling back to catch the bus home.

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x