I just got an email from a local business headed "Good Riddance to 2022" which I rather hope is a typo and not a premonition. It is definitely good riddance to 2021 though objectively it was better than 2020. The first half of the year was a long slow slog but vaccinations came and then a bit more freedom. We did manage to meet friends and ( Read more... )

Not sure where this week has gone really so have a couple of links before I crack on with the meme.

A fascinating survival of a doomed queen.

And

Another fascinating survival of doomed people. I've just been reading The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper, a completely engrossing, though not for the faint-hearted, novel about prostitutes in Pompeii, so ( Read more... )

I really have nothing new to say. The one brighter aspect of today is that the weather is rather better after the past two days of unceasing rain. It rained so much that our garden, which usually drains quite well, started to develop some new water features. These are probably the work of a rather beautiful fox which seems to be living in the area ( Read more... )

Happy New Year everybody! We had planned to have a glass of champagne to celebrate seeing the back of 2020 but in the end J went to sleep, so we didn't. I did listen to Big Ben's bongs on the radio and told 2020 to leave and not let the door hit it on its way out ( Read more... )

I was going to write something yesterday but I was so tired I ran out of steam. It was revoltingly hot on Friday so it was hard to sleep anyway and then I was woken up at about 3am by a police helicopter circling round and round. I thought at first it was the air ambulance trying to land as it can land in a spot a couple of roads down from us as we ( Read more... )

I'm not going to do a round up post for the decade because sad things happened but last year was a good one personally (though not for the country). We did a number of very nice things, which I haven't written about, went on a couple of wonderful holidays, which I also haven't written about and generally had a very good time ( Read more... )

Sorry my LJ entries are so few and far between at the moment. I would say I'll try and do better but I'm afraid it will probably stay this way for a bit as I still have a dodgy shoulder. I'm thinking about getting an iPad which might help with the RSI but I can't quite bring myself to take the plunge. Anyway...

What I Just Finished Reading

A ( Read more... )

I don't seem to have done this for a while. I would have done it last week but last Wednesday I was in London having a very jolly lunch with archaeologist_d and camelittle and then on Thursday I was having a less jolly time at the optician. My short-sightedness is actually getting better, which ought to be a good thing, but isn't as it means I need new glasses. I had the ( Read more... )

I've had some good days out this week. On Sunday J and I went King's Place to see Martin Jarvis do a live reading of Just William with musical accompaniment by Richard Sissons. The story that he chose to read was one of my favourites The Sweet Little Girl in White where 11-year-old William meets his nemesis 6-year-old Violet Elizabeth Bott. The ( Read more... )

First the Book meme

What I Just Finished Reading

A Gentleman of Fortune by Anna Dean. The second in the Dido Kent series of mysteries and just as much fun as the first with possibly an even more engrossing mystery. Dido, an entertaining cross between Jane Austen and Miss Marple, attempts to solve the mystery of an old woman's death causing her ( Read more... )