Maggie's Favourites

There's nothing like a good book to completely take you over for a while.

Since I've been sleeping on my own these last few months on account of Harry having to sleep in his bedsit downstairs, I've found one of the advantages of being by myself is that I can read for as long as I like and can switch the light off when I like. If I wake up and can't get back to sleep, I can put the light on again and read until I'm sleepy. No one will nag me about it and it's my own fault is I stay up too late and feel tired when I get up the next day.

I also read in the day time too, especially through the cowboy films that Harry has on TV during the afternoons.

During good weather, I take a book out with me to a park or open space and also to appointments.

I've recently enjoyed:

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry :- Rachel Joyce

The Secret Keeper :- Kate Morton

A Street Cat Named Bob :- James Bowen

The Forgotten Garden:- Kate Morton

Little Mercies:- Heather Gudenkauf

Starting Now:- Debbie Macomber

The Weight of Silence:- Heather Gudenkauf

The Snow Child :- Eowyn Ivey

The Horse Whisperer :- Nicholas Evans

Just Take My heart :- Mary Higgins Clark

Sold :- Zana Muhsen

Cellar Girl :- Josephina Rivera

Stalked :- Kate Brennan

The Last Runaway :- Tracy Chevalier

I must admit that *enjoyed* sometimes meant that I couldn't put the book down rather than having received contentment from it. Some of the above books are true stories that may be gruesome in content at times but have been compelling to read and took a lot of courage to write. I admire anyone who can turn their life around from a bad situation and often use it for good.

Has  any one read anything from my list. What is your favourite book?

Bits and Pieces

Two more 1000 piece jigsaws have helped to keep me amused during winter weather. I usually have one on the go in the front lounge where I often hide away when Harry is watching football or films that I don't like in the back room, which now is his bedsit.

He is still waiting to hear from the hospital about his shunt. Nothing gets done very fast over here.

Very soon, I shall be busy making the garden tidy as the weather steadily improves. Already the days are lengthening and it is still light at five pm now, which is much better than it was around Christmas when it started to get dark at 3.30. 

My snowdrops did emerge a couple of weeks after I complained that they seemed to have disappeared.  Nature sees to it that they come up at the right time so I needn't have worried.

The jigsaws will most likely be stored away now that there will be so many other things to do. All the year through, I usually have a good book on the go and have got into the habit of reading in bed till I fall asleep. One of the advantages of being on my own. I can do what I like.

Our lives seem to go round in a a circle of seasons just like the weather outside, though I doubt very much whether I will be shedding any clothes just yet as it is still a bit chilly. 

There is a saying in Britain, *Don't cast a clout till May is out.* Not sure if that means the month of May or when the first flower of the May bursts forth, which will happen a little bit earlier.

It's supposed to be unlucky to bring the May flower into the house, another of our sayings.

I wonder where these sayings came from and what they really meant.

Off to Google that now.

Winter Wonderland

Since I last posted, the weather has turned cold and much of Britain has had snow. Our city had a few half hearted flurries but the white stuff didn't *pitch*, as we say in our part of the world, and soon melted.

In our area this weekend, there is a celebration of Winter Wonderland, lighted windows. It is a trail of shop windows that will be brightly lit and beautifully decorated and many residential homes are also displaying such windows and people are encouraged to walk round the large area of this trail and see the lovely displays. Quite a good thing to do on a cold winters evening, wrap up warm and look at something lovely instead of watching the condensed horror of the world's latest goings on, on the TV News. As it's Saturday night, there is also fish and chips to collect from our local shop.

Does your area do anything special to lift the heart on a cold winter's evening?