A Very Good Reason for Yoga...

You know those moments that stick in your mind quite vividly ...the ones you'd rather they didn't ?  Well hopefully you don't ..But I seem to be gathering quite a collection of them ..

Nothing major you understand just a trifle of social embarrassment  darn it .

Well the other day during a quick visit to the local Super Market I just needed a couple of things and as is often my way, I thought I could do without a basket. Yes I should've known better.

Suffice it to say I was heading for the till's whilst juggling my purchases when one broke free and hit the deck. I was just bending one knee (think elegant graceful move ...you'd be wrong... but I'd love you to think it) and stooping down when I caught the eye of a smartly dressed Chap who had started to come to my rescue. Our eyes met with the question and reply glance of the "Are you OK?" "Yes fine! " variety. and I completed the item rescue ...pretty gracefully for me.Which would have been fine if only that's where I could have finished our encounter.

If only I hadn't had to stand up afterwards... yep there I was elegantly (don't laugh..well not too much) clutching my goodies, One knee on the ground with the suddenly developing and unfortunately rather well founded fear that I was flippin' stuck and nothing short of a crane or a hands and knees crawl to the nearest shelf unit was going to get me back up right again.

Very rude words and strong thoughts of the "why the heck hadn't I watched the yoga DVD that is sitting on my shelf at home" variety. The shame of it ...After a very long moment ... from some where miraculously the ability to stand with out aid appeared Yes !

and I elegantly strolled away ...just kidding I staggered and floundered and made it up right and shot out of there as quickly as humanly possible ... Oh dear my red face ...

Now after a Mug of tea and a few chores I'm off to find my Yoga DVD.

January round up...

Unlike recent Months (Ok Years) I actually read (and listened to)  several books this January and was therefore off to a flying start for 2017

until distracted by a significant amount of News reading in the latter half of the month.

Still I have beaten my recent years 'no book' or '1 book read'  usual sad state of affairs....

SJ Bolton's 'Now you see me'  got me off to a good start (Thanks Liz) A Kindle Book ...New to me and I rattled it off

George Eliot's 'Silas Marner' was next (I've lost count of the number of times I have read this..the most memorable being reading it cover to cover on a flight from the UK to the USA where I was meeting the Chap who ended up being my husband.) -A Listen this time & an Old Favourite

Mary Ann Schafer & Annie Barrows  'The Guernsey Literary and Potato peel society (Thank you someone! Actually on checking I think it was Nan ... Thanks Nan!) A Listen

Agatha Christie's "The Man in the Brown Suit"  -A Listen  & an Old Favourite

Robert Bryndza 'The Girl in the Ice'  -Kindle Book  New (Thanks Liz)

Agatha Christie 'The Clocks'  -A Listen  & an Old Favourite

Martin O'Brian  'The Waterman'     -Kindle Book   New (Thanks Cath)


Radio Plays listened to ...lots haha
 especially enjoyed

The Stones of Muncaster Catherdral by Robert Westall  Listen here
 and another favourite
 'The Intercity Contract' by Rod Beacham  Listen or Download here
 from archive.org "A corrupt businessman hires a contract killer to dispose of someone who can expose him and ruin his career. The only problem is, he does not know who it is that is threatening him, man or woman, only that they will be on the Edinburgh sleeper train that night. As the passengers embark, who is the killer - and who the victim?"


& on the TBR for February

Martin O'Brian 'Jacquot and the Master ' Kindle Book
John Dickson Carr In Spite of Thunder  -Library Book
Laura Thompson 'The Six The Lives of the Mitford Sisters'  -Library Book
Felix Francis 'Triple Crown' -Library Book  (I love Dick Francis ..Felix so far ..meh but I haven't given up hope yet and think his last was a tad improved so I'm going to give this a go!)

February here we come!

THE STONES OF MUNCASTER CATHEDRAL Robert Westall radio play

Snow, Idleness and a toasted dog.....

I should be crossing off items on my to do list but so far this morning I'm having trouble getting started.. I get up Ok 5.45am and breakfasts and Lunches etc and the family off to school, walk the dog feed the pets , quick cup of coffee and on with the day. Today I've stalled at quick cup of coffee... it's become cups of coffee and nothing quick about any of them.

We've had more snow recently than the last two years combined (they were rubbish for snow) 43+ inches so far and most of it is outside at the moment. Yesterday I cleared, shoveled and brushed for about 3 hours, digging out paths to the hen and the woodsheds, clearing the snow off the Kayaks (again) clearing the driveway then the vehicles and then the driveway again ..actually it was quite satisfying work..I'm a medium sized snow shovel and lots of journeys kind of snow clearer ..(having learned that large snow shovels may seem quicker but really make you ache more..lol) and still  today I think a hot tub would be nice.

So I have read the news and browsed about, hauled the dog out from under the wood stove where he was  scorching....I really don't like the smell of singed fur...which is a shame because that's what I can smell now. The daft dog was unaware that he was toasting.

Yesterday the Waxwings made an appearance ..whole flocks swooping and chatting and checking out the many Rowan trees still laden with berries. We still have Nuthatches and a rather scruffy looking woodpecker visiting our bird feeder..I haven't seen the chickadees lately so I hope they are still Ok.
How the birds survive the frigid weather mystifies me. It's been dropping to -14f and below lately and staying in the single digits in the day.

The sidewalks have a narrow pathway cleared by a neighbour who has been kindly taking his snowblower around the block after each heavy fall of snow. The City snow plows push the snow into piles or berms at the edge of the road so walking the dog each morning I walk down a narrow (about 2'6" wide) clear path with straight snow walls about thigh high. The snow is very beautiful and sparkles and reflects the light well. A Moose now wanders the neighborhood....we haven't seen her in a couple of Winters the heavy snow tends to encourage them into town, where they prune the trees in peoples gardens,. Crab apples are a favourite. I've nearly bumped into her twice in the mornings when walking the dog so I now pay attention.. Moose like their space and I'm happy to give it to her. So far she's just eyed the dog and myself up and carried on munching and the dog has been sensibly discreet so all good.

At the moment the snow on the roads is thick and rutted and takes a bit of driving over ..some cars handle it better than others. On Saturday afternoon the police put out a request to stay at home unless your journey was really necessary as so many drivers were getting into accidents 144 I think in town(but only 4 involved injuries), and the main ( and only) highway out of the city to the North (all 6 lanes) was closed for a while. The bigger roads tend to have wide grassed central reservations that gently dip in the middle ...the idea being if you slide off then you end up in the dip not back on the road or over into the opposite lanes. They are on the sides too and catch a lot of cars in Winter. 'Ditch diving' it's sometimes called.

The snow plows clear the main roads and routes first after a Winter storm then declare a plow out and divide the city into small sections and aim to plow all the side streets in three days (if possible) you can check online and see whats going on ...today's map

We are blue So we're due to be plowed out tomorrow ..they let you know so you can try and avoid leaving vehicles on the roadway

During my browsing this morning I researched an author whose book I have enjoyed Robert Westall and find he was very fond of cats. On his web page (or a web page dedicaed to his life and work, as he is no longer alive) there is a poem he wrote called "Wind Cat" that I really enjoyed you can read it here http://www.robertwestall.com/robert_westalls_cats.html
if you are so inclined. There is an article about his work here https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2006/oct/27/rememberingrobertwestall and wiki has a page about him here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Westall

I was introduced to his work by the Radio play "The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral" and sought out the book which did not disappoint. The Story is about Joe Clark steeplejack  who unexpectedly gets a job repairing the stonework on a tower of Muncaster Cathedral  as Joe says " “There was something funny about the thing, something nobody wanted to talk about. Maybe my dream was a warning that there was something wrong with the tower: some steeplejack’s instinct that I couldn’t plumb. Something in the stone.”    It's a good story not a short story but not a full length book perhaps you'd call it a novella? anyway I enjoyed it.

Well I guess I better actually get something done ! or at least try wish me luck!

We wore Pink hats and Marched!

We tumbled out of bed and munched breakfast and then layered up in warm clothes, boots and mittens (with hand warmers) We then chose our pink hats (all knitted by Eldest daughter) and set off through the snow for the bus stop.
Perhaps we should've shoveled the snow first ....as it was we found it was rather deep outside the back gate and very keen to fall off the fence and the trees and down our necks and boots.... where it isn't piled we have a couple of feet of snow lying on the ground ..it must've been snowing all night. Where it's fallen off the trees it's deeper ...sort of thigh deep ..guess how we know?
A white out winter snow storm and we were marching ...well it is Alaska in Winter and we were darn well going , even if we thought some people might not make it ..they expected 2,000 and in the end believe over 3,500 made it! It was crowded ..in a nice way , we all milled about and looked at each others signs (some were rather funny) chatted, clapped and whooped, stomped (truthfully I stomped and clapped a lot to keep warm ..it's hard to hear in a snow storm ) The march around the park was slow because of the amount of people and we missed the after march meetup a. because there were more people than would fit and  because the girls feet were cold after an hour and a half in a snow storm. So we set off home...shook off most of the snow and caught our bus, negotiated the back gate warily this time and youngest still got snow down her neck and almost lost any sense of humour until I slipped and dunked my face into a snow drift ..when she regained it!
 This evening we are worshiping the wood stove and mugs of tea and cocoa and reading about all the marches. It was nice to be a part of something positive in such anxious times.

local News re Our March here 

Oldest daughter knitted all the hats here ..if we look a bit cold it was 14 f/-10C and snowing ...haha

Fog,Frost,Cold,Colds! and Lovely Books

The city is a sparkling frost covered Winter Wonderland at the moment ..it has been cold and still with many days and nights of freezing fog and as a result all looks magical..even chain link fences are transformed.

We got out of doors almost everyday over winter break, but have been thwarted since due to a family game of pass the parcel with a truly horrid cold..it's now my turn yuk...so indoors by the Wood stove and reading/listening time.

I'm actually on my 4th book of the year  3 listens and 1 read..this is most unusual for my recent self.
The first was a Listen and an Old Very Favourite at that.

Silas Marner by George Eliot ..unabridged read by Andrew Sachs.
I attacked the post Christmas chaos whilst listening and it certainly made the chores involved far more tolerable.... and despite my having read this book many times I still became aware of passages I hadn't noted before.
Mr Sach's made a good job, I don't remember any jarring moments. A pleasing listen.
If you are not familiar with the story- It was published around 1860'ish The central character is a single man, the Silas Marner of the title,  a weaver by trade. He is introduced as  a member of a strict religious sect and in the beginning we see him shunned by the sect over an incident that occurs whilst Mr Marner is overcome by a trance like state (he has catalepsy)
His dreams crushed and cast adrift in the World he settles in a Rural situation and lives in an isolated cottage by a disused quarry focusing on amassing wealth by working at his loom to the exclusion of anything else.
The loss of his hoard of gold and it's replacement with a lost child is the very centre of the story.
Which is in truth more valuable?  and which will lead to happiness?

Second ..a fast read "Now you see Me" [Lacey Flint book number 1] by S.J.Bolton (Thanks for the heads-up Liz)

I galloped through this book and generally enjoyed it, it was interesting if rather gory. Less gore would've been fine by me.
(The descriptions weren't scary as Val MacDermid's can be..she has written books that I have to put down in-spite of really enjoying most characters and wanting to know what happens)
The characters were mostly likeable and the story entertaining.
I had idea's of how it would turn out but didn't guess exactly. I didn't feel the need to read the final chapters midway through which was good as that's usually a sign that I'm not captured by the story and want to know if it's worth it (and is often followed by putting it down for good)  ...It seems I have little reading patience of late. So a fast entertaining read ...and I'll pick up the next in the series ...but probably at the library not as a purchase.



Third... a fast becoming Very Favourite... "The Guernsey Literary and Potato peel society" by Mary Ann Schafer & Annie Barrows

An epistolary novel, that is a book in the form of a collection of letters ( reminding myself here) in this case to and from Juliet , who I was going to say is the main character but really I think Elizabeth may be, who even though she is the subject of many letters there are none written by her.
It is an interesting and very charming book that works.
The setting is post war London and Guernsey and the correspondence begins when  a gentleman living on Guernsey writes to Juliet (who is the former owner of a book he most enjoys) and asks if this author (Charles Lamb) has written other books and if so, for the address of a book shop where he may buy them.
I read this first as a library book , last year I think and enjoyed it, bought the Kindle version $1.99 on offer (still is as I type) and this gives access to the reduced price audio book which I bought too. (you don't need an audible membership and it will play on my computer) It is a really very enjoyable listen ...the letters are read by a selection of different readers, so each person/letters voice  has there own distinctive voice! I was a little wary of what I would think of this ..but it works so well for me and has added to my pleasure in the book. This book is full of enjoyable moments .. "reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books" and I think the audio version is the icing on a very good cake.

Fourth ..an Easy Listen ... The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie read by Emilia Fox (unabridged)

A light fast entertaining load of  enjoyable nonsense.  It's a light romantic thriller rather than a detective novel . The main character being Ann Beddingfield daughter of Professor Beddingfeld, famous archaeologist. She is quickly orphaned in the first chapter and then decides that settling for a demure, respectable and boring life does not appeal to her adventurous and romantic nature. So the adventures begin. These involve deaths, diamonds, handsome men and a trip to South Africa! (also train journeys and surfing!)
Emilia Fox does a pretty reasonable job here ..I'm note overly partial to one of her "men's" voices (Harry Rayburn's especially) but they are not quite so grating as to make me turn off.... I just wish I could change that one voice! darn it (good job he's a relatively strong silent type is all I can add) Her normal reading voice I find pleasing.









Well I'm off to make another  mug of tea, will throw more wood on the stove and find something to listen too ...now where did I leave those tissues.....and I must find the lemons...

from wiki Thanks Wiki