Saturday 31 December 2016

Goodbye 2016

An oldie but a goodie

Goodbye 2016.

Good riddance, you have been dreadful from the start.  

The best bit of 2016 has been getting the dogs.

2017, you have a lot to aspire to.  Bring it on!

Sending you all best wishes for a fabulous New Year!

Kisses for everyone,  Sol xxx

Thursday 29 December 2016

Read a long number 3



How are we all?  We are doing well and Chez Sol.

I've already started Lolita.  It is a lot easier read than the first book.

What have you been up to?

Saturday 24 December 2016

Merry Christmas



Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, from our house to yours!

Love Sol xxx

Friday 23 December 2016

Yuletide



I missed celebrating the Solstice. We normally have some special food and have friends over.  It hasnt happened this year.  I kind of missed it all.  

{Winter is coming.}  Winter is here.

I could do without all of this fog we are having.  Batten the hatches {Storm Barbara} is coming.

Be safe everyone.

Wednesday 21 December 2016

A Christmas Carol - Review


I really enjoyed this short story.  A quick read that kept my attention and has made me want to read the rest of the Charles Dickens books bound in my copy.

I think I would like to read it again when I have a little more time and then make it a read every year in the run up to Christmas.  

I have learnt a few new words like, skreek and excrescence.  

Once again I am really loving the process of the read a long.  This time it was more enjoyable than when reading North and South.  

Tomorrow I will post a list of the parts I liked the best.

Till tomorrow, be kind.

Sol xxx

Tuesday 20 December 2016

Looking forward to tomorrows read a long!



I am looking forward to tomorrow.  Please leave a comment tomorrow, so I may read your blog post.

I cant wait to start to read Lolita.

I am trying to block out what has happened in Germany and Turkey.  My heart is very sad.

I hope you are all well and are keeping warm...

Be kind 

Sol xxx

Monday 19 December 2016

Oca Harvest 2016 = FAIL



From the 16 ocas I put into containers, this is the harvest.  That is a 20 pence coin.   2cms wide, just under an inch.  FAIL.  The culprit, I suspect is drainage, I think they may have been water logged.  Live and learn.  Maybe not a food source for us.

To make you all feel better here are Eric and Marta, because sleeping in your own bed is too much hassle.


Friday 16 December 2016

Coming Soon to a Blog You View!




World meet Marta.  Marta meet the world.

Marta is now 9 weeks old and is a {border terrier}.  Why have only one dog, when you can have 2 and a house full of chaos?

Thursday 15 December 2016

North and South #2



Part 2, carrying on from part 1, you can see this {Here}

A few of my favourite passages

'There was no particular need to tell them, that what he did not care to do for Reverend Hale, unknown in Milton, he was only too glad to do at the one short sharp remonstrance of Mr Thornton, the wealthy manufacturer.'

'... they, who havent the sense to see that, if we dont get a fair share of the profits to compensate us for our wear and tear here in England, we can move off to some other country; and that, what with home and foreign competition, we are none of us likely to make above fair share, and may be thankful enough if we get that, in an average number of years.'

'She was not sorry when, at ten o'clock, the servants filed in to prayers.  These her mother always read,  - first reading a chapter.  They were now working steadily through the Old Testament.  Whne prayers were ended, and his mother had wished him good night, with that steady look of hers which conveyed no expression of the tenderness that was in her heart, but yet had the intensity of a blessing, Mr Thornton continued his walk.'

'But how could I help it?' asked she of herself.  'I never liked him, I was civil; but I took no trouble to conceal my indifference.  Indeed, I never thought about myself or him, so my manners must have shown the truth.  All that yesterday, he might mistake.  But that is his fault, not mine.  I would do it again, if need were, though it does lead me into all this shame and trouble.'

He said to himself, that he hated Margaret, but a wild, sharp sensation of lovecleft his dull, thunderous feeling like lightning, even as he shaped the words expressive of hatred.

But she had no thought of penitbefore God; nothing but chaos and night surrounded the one lurid fact that, in Mr Thornton's eyes, she was degraded.

Hale! did it never strike you that Thornton and your daughter have what the French call a tendresse for each other?

*******************************************

All in all, I like the process of reading this classic, but not the content.  I found it overly long in the beginning, the language/accent of the Darkshire people very hard to read and had to read it a few times to get it.  Not such easy reading.  I am glad I read it, but I wont bother again.

Sorry I have been MIA.  Life has got in the way, 2016 has thrown us many challenges, we have lost too many family and friends.  Another funeral, longer working hours than expected (imagine 3 rooms 20 feet x 20 feet, filled with boxes floor to ceiling full of paper work and receipts.  Although I have found some amazing house keeping books from 1896, where the house keeper was extremely keen on the use of ledgers.  I have to sort through all of them.  Every box contains anything from something from the last 6-7 years, or even something from 50 years ago.  Every thing needs to be checked, stored/archived or sorted for the last 10 years.  Its all a jumble.  I havent even started to look at the quotes for the building works.).

There we have it.  



How are you doing with A Christmas Carol?  I have finished, I will be putting together the post and it will be scheduled for the 21st December.  I am really looking forward to Lolita the next book.

Hope you are all well.

Sol xxx