3rd December - Advent Photos 2020

A little Christmas book  first published in  1987  by the author of many fiction, non fiction and children's books. 

 An account of a country childhood in Wessex a hundred years ago. Evoking the delights and surprises of Christmas and the mood of the countryside in the bleak mid-winter, this is a nostalgic and lyrical story.

 A quick and gentle read about a little girl sharing Christmas with her brother, mother and her Vicar father in Victorian England. 

 

The tree people came yesterday and took down the big Ash tree at the end of the garden. It was starting to get Ash Tree die-back although it probably would have been OK for a while longer.

 How do they do it? Moving about up there as easily as the rest of us move around on the ground.

Much safer now for new owners and next door neighbours' hot tub and new extension and BiL will come over sometime and collect all the decent wood for his wood-burner. They chipped all the smaller stuff and tidied up after them. That's the last time I'll have to worry about trees!

It was so good to get back to swimming yesterday and only 3 people in my 'slow' half. But I was really surprised at my lack of stamina after just 4 weeks, I felt tireder than when the pool reopened in July. I suppose in the spring and summer there was more gardening to do whereas through November exercise has been almost non-existent.

 I heard a man telling someone that the Lido at Beccles (the only open-air pool in Suffolk) is still open but isn't being heated. Brrrrrrrr! Must be this sudden craze of everybody wanting to do cold water outdoor swimming. When I say everybody, that doesn't include me!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

2nd December - Advent 2020

 This is one of Anne Perry's series of Christmas Novellas and was published in 2006. I think she produces one each year. Usually these little books feature someone previously mentioned in her two long series of Victorian crime but I didn't recognize the main characters in this book.

  Glad to escape his dreary London flat and a less-than-satisfying job as church curate, Dominic and his beloved wife, Clarice, set off for Cottisham where he is to be substitute vicar while the Reverend Wynter is away on a three-week Christmas holiday. 

But as Clarice soon discovers, she and Dominic have much more dire matters to worry about than what he is to preach on Christmas morning. It turns out that the Reverend Wynter isn't on holiday at all - and that something very sinister has transpired.

As a blizzard leaves Cottisham treacherously snowbound and the isolated village swirls with unsavory secrets, Dominic and Clarice suddenly find themselves in deadly danger.

 

A quick read. There are 18 of these Christmas  Novellas  and I've read 11 of them so several more to look out for.

Over the last two days I've done 3 house viewings. Number 1 was an old house in the village where son lives. The loud noise of the A14 which is about a mile away was a bit too much for me and the small twisting stairs would be hard as I got older.

Numbers 2 and 3 were closer to where I am now

Back Tomorrow

Sue

1st December - Advent Photos 2020

A Blogland tradition means that usually my  December posts are photographs of Christmassy things. If you want to see previous years. 2017 photos are HERE, 2018 photos are HERE ,  and 2019 posts are HERE,

This year for a change I thought  that each day would be a Christmas book from my shelves.  It was while sorting through books for ziffit that I realised I had several Christmas books both fiction and non-fiction, collected over many years and the all the fiction un-read.

Some are Ladybird books from when my children were young, some I had when I was a Cub Scout leader and needed ideas for the Christmas carol service, others picked up second-hand from charity shops over the years and a couple are more recent - second-hand from amazon or presents from my wish list.

I started to read all the fiction at the end of November and will be passing some on to any blog reader who wants one...........(more about that in a few days)

So Back Tomorrow with the first  book but meanwhile Christmas is on the mantel-shelf. (although it will all have to come off again when the chimney sweep comes in the week before Christmas!).

Getting back to a sort of normal.............there was confirmation on the library website that the mobiles will be up and running again this week so I will be getting a lovely load of reservations just a few days before Christmas and the swimming pool is opening tomorrow and I'll be there - hope they've got it up to the right  temperature!

Back Tomorrow

Sue