March Library Book Photo

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday. Apologies for not replying properly - the day got away from me.

 Brought home from the library van this week, all books I'd reserved on-line. A drastic shortage of crime fiction!

Left to right.................Someone must have mentioned 'The Potting Shed Murder' - it sounds a bit cosy crime - I'll try it and see. When I did a blog post about smugglers pubs in Suffolk a couple of people mentioned 'Moonfleet' something I'd not read. Next is a book by James Rebanks 'The Place of Tides'. This is mentioned on a page of ideas for spring reading (I'll post about this next week). The very small book 'The Serviceberry' is from the US, not sure why I reserved it. Next is a very old reprinted crime book by Nicholas Blake 'The Abominable Snowman'. NB was the pseudonym of Cecil Day Lewis. Mick Herron is a new-to-me author to try. 'London Can Take it' is a book about the blitz by Valerie Braunston and finally a book I know I'll enjoy 'Appointment in Paris' by Jane Thynne.

I'll be reading from my shelves for sure, long before the van is round again.

Last month I collected this lot below and only read five of them - details on the Books Read 2026 page. I skimmed through a couple, abandoned one and hardly glanced at another. Not exactly a successful collection and I was glad to have other books here to read. 

Charity Shop Shopping?

 On one of the rainy days last month I was watching a few youtubers - I'd been looking at Railway Cottage Rebecca - she's so enthusiastic! Anyway I popped into a vlog of someone who setting out for a charity shop 'haul'. She said "I don't want to spend much............not more than £50!" Blimey! I love a good tour round the charity shops but I've never set out to spend money, definitely Not that much!

Perhaps she was buying to resell - I suppose it's still a thing, but with postage prices and so many others doing the same thing it must be difficult to earn much. I didn't stay to the end to see what she found - it was extremely boring to watch and  listen to.......as are many youtubers!

My tour round the 6 charity shops of Diss recently (there are 7 but I forgot about the Big C on my way out of town) wasn't a haul - just one thing - something that will be a Christmas present.

It's a very pretty tin holding  hand-creams for gardeners and was £4. I'd keep it myself just for the tin if I had a use for it but don't need it and the hand-creams are probably too scented for me so I will be good and put it in the cupboard for December.

 

How The Countryside Has Changed

This is such a well written book, I really enjoyed it once I got into it.

The story of Miss White, a woman who lived in the author's village 80 years ago, a pioneer who realised her ambition to become a farmer during the Second World War, and how she worked to become accepted within this community. Nicola Chester, too, dreamed of becoming a farmer but working with horses was the only path open to her. Was it easier for women to become farmers in the 1940s than it is now? Moving between Nicola's own attempts to work outdoors and Miss White's desire to farm a generation earlier, Nicola explores the parallels between their lives - and the differences. Miss White buys a derelict farm and begins to renovate and modernize it. As ghost (barn) owls flit between these two worlds, Nicola draws connections with farming and rural life in both times, from the role of women in rural communities in the modern day to Miss White's experience in the 1940s.

The difference between the wildlife on the farmland then and now is quite frightening. Nicola is fighting to help preserve the few birds that remain, fighting against Big Business - which is what most farms are now. Living as a tenant in a farm cottage neighbouring the farm where Miss White farmed during the war Nicola  finds all the information Miss White left in the record office and finds the stone that marks her burial in the churchyard.