Saturday Round-Up

Sunset out the back of the bungalow............too many houses! - luckily they're all hidden when the trees leaf up

How good it was to see the sun here in Mid Suffolk on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and a bit of warmth ....especially through  glass. Pity about Wednesday and Friday.

 I trundled off back to the opticians at the beginning of the week and had the tests that involve eye drops, bright lights and no driving for a couple of hours. No problems were spotted and I went and had a coffee and sausage roll  in the Co-op and read a book while waiting for the effects to wear off.  I'll now have a check every year instead of every two years which it was before.

We sometimes get up to 16 people at the exercise group but for several weeks in winter we've been down to just seven or eight . So I put information about the group on the facebook pages of some of the local villages and we got a shock this week when suddenly 8 new ladies, who all knew each other, appeared, all from the same village a few miles away. It was a bit overwhelming! Altogether there were 22 of us -  A record. Just have to see if any of them will  come regularly now they've started. The only problems is that it's difficult to learn names with so many new people all at once and we can't fit around the tables at coffee time!

It seemed like a good plan to keep the car topped up with diesel due to the 'happenings' in the Middle East which the UK seems to have been dragged into whether we like it or not. So even though I filled up last week I put in another  £16 worth  to top right up again  and according to the dashboard reading that should do over 500 miles - although I'm never sure how accurate that is. I'm glad I got the heating oil ordered before prices rise. Still waiting for delivery, they are probably suddenly extra busy. Someone said it's doubled in price in a week! - No price cap on oil - we're out in the country so don't count in the minds of politicians.

Once upon a time I used to write a little list of the  things I had been grateful for during the week. Why have I forgotten to do that for 17 months? 

I want to note the small good things - the opposite of the news we hear every day.

• A few days of sunshine and dry weather after the wet Winter
• A goldfinch on the birdfeeder
• The mobile library and good books for free
• The winter Paralympics are on TV now for the week - should be interesting to watch. 

Have a good weekend, I'll be back Monday

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.