a cooling shower

We went off to the forest earlier and as usual madam found the mud and water!


Which resulted in a hose down after. "Oi watch where you're sticking that hose, dad!"


She actually loves the hose and was having a good drink from it too.

There, all done!

The 'burbs.

I came to a realisation last night. It occurred to me at about 8.30pm. The situation was quite bizarre really. I was sitting in a school hall watching the end of term concert by a local dancing school, surrounded by adoring parents, grandparents and various other family members of the performers. The age range of the children performing was 3 to 18-ish. There were various efforts from the tiny ones literally walking in circles to "Wee Willie Winkie" and looking cute, to older ones doing ballet or tap routines. My mum would have loved it. The thing is, we don't have any kids, and I wasn't a volunteer helper or anything. Sounds like I was having one of my frequent weird dreams doesn't it?

Our neighbours up the road have two girls of 10 and 8 years old who go to the dancing school and were performing. The grandparents couldn't go, so at the last minute we were asked if we wanted the tickets. "Ah, why not?" I said (it was free and Saturday telly is pretty dire!), so that's what happened. Oh, the realisation? I am an ordinary suburban housewife!

New Moon

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Halfway through the first book I didn't think I was going to carry on, it was all a bit dull. Then it picked up and when I'd finished it I decided I would carry on with the series.

I liked this book better than the first I think. It was obviously what was going on with Jacob and his friends though.

I felt that some bits of the book were only written as set up points for the next books, like the bits with Victoria. She is obviously going to crop up again. And Charlie's friend died just in order to set up a misunderstanding. But I guess that is called moving the plot forward. It did work in this instance as the plot completely changed then and there.

I thought the emotions Bella felt were written very well, and I could really imagine the pain she was feeling when Edward left her. The descriptions of this were very good.

So what is going to happen in book 3?


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Ack!!

Ok, I'll have a go at a catch up but I am feeling a bit grumpy-bum! I've only gone and got ANOTHER ear infection! In the other ear! It is at the "getting really painful" stage but I'm not messing about, I've brought in the big guns straight away this time and am taking the painkillers that they gave me in A&E last time. Boy, they're good. Make you a bit sleepy though. Luckily my GP agreed over the phone to give me the same antibiotics as last time, I didn't need to make an appointment to see him, so I'm on those as well. (And I swear a cotton bud has not gone near my ear since the last time!)

Talking of GPs, did you ladies out there know that it is not enough now to just have a "General Practitioner"? They are far too general. No, now you need to also have an "aesthetic practitioner"! I discovered this by reading the small print on the screen of a TV advert for an anti-wrinkle cream last night. It told me to consult my aesthetic practitioner. No-one told me about this before, who are these people? I'm assuming they must be the faux "scientists" in white coats that congregate in the cosmetic department of Debenhams or Boots and the like. Maybe I should consult one on how to make an infected ear look aesthetically pleasing with goo dripping out of it?

It goes without saying that I have been reading a lot lately. But as for knitting........ I have a few things on the go. I am making another Vegas Sands neckwarmer because the June sock yarn I got from Wild Fire Fibres was too lovely to wear out on my feet. The Firestarter socks are on hiatus but I have started another project which I can't show on here but you can see if you are a Ravelry member here. I am making it using stash yarn that I have had for a while. I liked the colour combination when Ysolda used it in her Whimsical Little Knits book. I am doing random amounts of each colour. (Sorry non-Rav members but the person it is for is not a Rav member).

Colin has been off doing his thing for charity. Last weekend he went off to Scafell Pike with 7 others and they climbed it in about 7 hours up and down. When they got to the top there was SNOW! In June!!

On Sunday morning he was marshalling at the Race for Life in Chester.

So.... Big Brother is back for the summer. The same old bunch of usual suspects, the same petty arguments over nothing, the same silly humiliating tasks........ah we love it don't we? I'm going to put myself on the line here and suggest Rodrigo as this year's winner. He is in the background at the moment but I think he may come into his own once some of the loud mouths get voted off. Angel is a bit odd, she was sucking a raw egg the other day, that can't be healthy can it?

Jamaica Inn

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Well I enjoyed this one. I know, shock horror I enjoyed a classic! Well it was a Virago Modern Classic so a bit more recent which helped.

It is set in the late 19th century and is the story of Mary Yellan who moves to stay with her Aunt and Uncle at Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor when her mother dies. It is not a typical inn though, there are no guests and the coaches pass on by without stopping. The landlord (Mary's uncle by marriage) is a wrong'un and is involved in smuggling, and her poor aunt keeps quiet to keep the peace with her drunken, violent husband. There are various unsavoury characters and you aren't sure at first who is on whose side.

Not to spoil anything but I did think there was something not quite right about one of the characters early on in the story and was right about them. This didn;t spoil the story though which had me gripped all the way through.

In fact I have even bought another 3 books by DuMaurier as I liked it so much!


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Life Support

Life Support by Tess Gerritsen

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was a fast paced medical thriller which I enjoyed.

When I first started reading it I wasn't sure because it seemed as if the author was just showing off their knowledge of medical procedures, but this doesn't carry on and the thriller aspect kicks in.

Basically there are very rich, elderly residents of a retirement home volunteering for experiments to prolong their lives, and at first this seems to be working, until they start dying of strange symptoms. It turns out that the doctors giving them the treatments are getting their "medicine" from questionable sources which haven't been screened against a certain disease. An ER doctor makes a connection and starts to investigate, putting her life in danger when she is discovered to be getting too close to the truth.

The story certainly kept me gripped but I did find the ending slightly rushed and there was no clear explanation of how they found out where to "rescue" her from when she was in danger. There was a bit of a leap there.

This was written in 1997 and some of it did seem a bit dated, although the "fountain of youth" concept does seem more plausible 12 years later.

I think I have read a previous Tess Gerritsen novel and would possibly read more.


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I just can't stop!

You would be forgiven for thinking this was a blog about book reviews, but I can't stop reading at the moment! I blame goodreads. Ever since I joined I haven't stopped because I like reading books and then making comments and reviews on the site, and joining in the monthly suggestions on one of the bookclubs on there. I am not however getting through my stack of "to read" books becasue although my reading has speeded up, my book acquiring has also speeded up at a comparable rate.

Knitting has fallen by the wayside a little. I started a pair of Firestarter socks last Wednesday so I would have something to take to knit group. But I haven't touched them since. The hot weather hasn't helped. And I'm not overly inspired by the pattern either, twisted cable stitches without a cable needle need a non splitty yarn and the one I'm using isn't it.

This loveliness arrived this morning though.

It is the June installment of the Wild Fire Fibres sock yarn club. 80% lambswool, 10% cashmere and 10% angora = smooshy! I don't want to make socks with it though so any suggestions are welcome. It is 300 yards and suggested needle size is 2.75mm to 3.5mm.

Human Croquet

Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is my second Kate Atkinson in about a month - the other was Case Histories. I have only read two of her books but there seem to be similarities between them. In both books there are dysfunctional families, child abuse, incest, a fatal stabbing, an axe as a murder weapon, hidden crimes and unrequieted love.

She certainly knows how to write unusual characters though. I'm not totally 100% sure what happened by the end of the book, not a lot seemed to happen until about 230 pages in, then it all got a bit weird, then it was all explained away in a "Bobby Ewing in the shower" kind of a way. I'm being a bit simplistic there, it was better than Dallas of course!

At times it was a bit confusing when it jumped back into the past and you had to work out which members of the family it was referring to and how they tied into the people in the present. I felt sorry for Eliza who should have had a totally different life to the one she ended up with. There were one or two characters which didn't really need to be there in my opinion, like Mr Rice.

I will read more Kate Atkinson but I'm a bit "literatured out" at the mo so I'm goingfor a nice gruesome medical thriller next - Life Support by Tess Gerritsen!

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