Hello and welcome to my blog. Yes, this is a really difficult time for my family. I will quickly recap what has been happening:
About three months ago, Lovely Husband fell over near our back door. He had to be helped upstairs by our neighbour and has been stuck in our bedroom ever since. Physiotherapists gave him exercises to do and the doctor prescribed painkillers, but LH is still unable to go downstairs. He is now a little stronger, but is fearful for the future and we are contemplating getting a stairlift installed.
As regular visitors to the blog will know, I have had a long list of serious health issues for many years and have been struggling to keep myself cheerful and occupied. Over the past few months, I have really tried hard to support LH and have been doing far more physical things, such as carrying trays up and down the stairs, cleaning, tidying and general household tasks.
During all of this Elder Son has been an absolute star! Despite his own issues, he has taken on the tasks of shopping, food preparation and much more. We are so proud of him. In addition, we have asked Younger Son if he could come over for a few days to give his brother some support and relief and he has agreed. So, that will be a great help to us all.
Unfortunately, I have had some frightening news this week. Last weekend I developed excruciating pain in my right leg. I managed to get an appointment at the local hospital and ES accompanied me over there by taxi on Sunday. I was devastated to find out that I am developing osteoarthritis in my right hip joint. To be honest, I have enough serious health conditions already and adding a new one nearly tipped me over the edge!
I spent a few days in the depths of despair, snapping at LH and ES, which was totally unfair. The doctor has set some things in motion for me, physiotherapy and medication, but I am really frightened by the thought of eventually needing a hip replacement. Over the last couple of days the pain relief has really helped and I have also reduced my use of the stairs in an attempt to rest the joint. I am so upset, though. I had been so proud of the efforts I was making and the improvement in the support I could give to my family. Now, I will have to dial all that back again.
Apologies for moaning, but I began this blog to document my life and it has served as a way of keeping my memories available to me since I had the stroke. I have seen the, quite understandable and expected, drop in visitors. Let’s hope I can soon return to modelling lovely scarves once again!
Before I go, here is the outfit I wore on Sunday. I have to take any opportunity to put on something nice…
Outfit of the day 16/07/23
Please excuse the horrible hair! Yes, I need a haircut 😂🤣😂. The pearl necklace and earrings are from John Lewis, the kimono top from One Hundred Stars, the navy vest is Sainsbury’s Tu, the shoes are Hotter and the linen trousers are Isle Collection.
Please send us good vibes for next week and have a lovely weekend yourselves!
Once again, I have only managed to read one book this week. Lovely Husband and I are still stuck in our King-sized bed, so I only get about an hour each day! Aargh! Not enough time for a reading fanatic!
At least the book that I did read was a very good one…
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
I have been intending to read a book by Mary Robinette Kowal for some time and I chose this science fiction one, The Calculating Stars, Lady Astronaut Universe #01. I also have one of her fantasy books in my “to read” list.
Anyway, this is the blurb:
“One woman. One mission. One chance to save the world.
It’s 1952, and the world as we know it is gone. A meteorite has destroyed Washington DC, triggering extinction-level global warming. To save humanity, the world unites to form the International Aerospace Coalition. Its to colonise first the Moon, then Mars.
Elma York, World War Two pilot and mathematician, dreams of becoming an astronaut – but prejudice has kept her grounded. Now nothing – and no man – will stop her from reaching for the stars.”
I really enjoyed the book and so wrote this review on Goodreads:
I really loved this book, which may be surprising to anyone who knows me well! I have to admit to a very poor science education so a lot of the detail in the book went straight over my head. However, the main ideas were excellent and very well written. The characters were interesting and it will be good to follow their development in the next book in the series. The horrible sexism of the time was also well written and raised my hackles at several points. I had heard of the female “computers” and found those parts of the book fascinating.
I remember the real race to the Moon in the 1960s quite well, although I was a small child at the time. How different it might have been!
In fact, I liked this book so much that I immediately downloaded the sequel, The Fated Sky, and I am already well into that! As the series is a trilogy with lots of short novellas too, I think that I will be entertained by female astronauts for quite some time.
OK, I will probably read some other stuff in between!
Welcome to today’s post. To be honest, our situation remains the same, more or less. We are both still stuck upstairs together, with Elder Son trying his best to support us all. I am doing as much as I can to lighten the load and keep things ticking over. The house is a mess, but I can’t face getting in a cleaner when there is so much clutter everywhere. I am slowly trying to tidy things up, but I don’t have enough energy to do very much.
Basically, we are all kind of waiting for Lovely Husband to get on with his exercises with the hope that he can gain enough strength to brave the stairs. We are still thinking of getting a stair lift put in and have taken some tentative steps towards this.
A few weeks ago, when an ambulance was called because I had a huge panic attack, the paramedic referred us to various services for support. She was very concerned about our situation. Anyway, this week a fireman turned up to test our smoke alarms and give us advice. He fitted some new ones and was also very kind and helpful.
I also had to go to the doctors’ surgery with ES this week concerning an issue that he is having. He has been signed off work for quite some time and this seems to be helping him. We will have to go for another appointment in a fortnight.
With all of this, I am taking solace in reading ebooks and watching escapist TV programmes! So that I don’t disturb LH I finally bought some earbuds for my new iPad. The Apple ones are so very expensive, so I looked online and found some much cheaper ones recommended. I have never been a headphone/earphone/earbud wearer before, so I was blown away by the quality of even an inexpensive set! I am currently watching Foundation (based on the series by Asimov) on Apple TV am I am in awe of the amazing sound. Fantastic!
I am still waiting for one particular Hermès scarf to appear on the UK site and then I will pounce. OK, I probably won’t be able to wear it for a while, but I can admire it instead! This is the one:Au Royaume d’Helios scarf, 70cm, code: H984028S 04, colourway: Bleu Nuit / Argile / Bleu Jean…
Au Royaume d’Helios by Hermès
I have seen some modelling photos of this scarf on The Purse Forum and the colours are gorgeous in real life.
Apologies for writing such a quick post this week. I have been struggling to find the time and space to read. Today, I only just managed to finish the book a few minutes ago!
Anyway, here it is…
The Immortal Throne by Stella Gemmell
This week, I have been reading the second part of Stella Gemmell’s series The City: The Immortal Throne. This is the blurb:
“THE EMPEROR IS DEAD…LONG LIVE THE EMPEROR!
The fervent hope of the victorious rebels and the survivors of the uprising that liberated the City from tyranny is that the accession of Archange to the imperial throne will usher in a new era of freedom, peace and stability. If only that were so…
As the City struggles to return to something resembling normal life after the devastation brought on by the rebellion, word arises of a massive army gathering to the north. Its origins are a mystery, but it soon becomes apparent that its sole purpose is to destroy the City and all who live within its walls .
And while warriors go forth to fight and die on the battlefield in defence of their homeland, bitter family feuds, ancient rivalries, political and personal betrayals, and mindless murder surface within the palaces and corridors of it seems the City is under siege – from both without and within…”
An interesting and absorbing sequel. In some places, the constant switching between places and points of view became hectic and confusing, as did the overlap with events in book one. I found some of this a bit muddled. But, as the book continued, plot lines became much clearer and everything came together in a heart-breaking, fast-paces and exciting final quarter.
Stella Gemmell has terrific talent and I am really looking forward to whatever she decides to offer readers in the future. It will be interesting to see if she returns to this world!
Hello, lovely readers of this blog! We have now reached 12, yes 12 weeks of this amazing and wonderful “two stuck in bed” situation. Yes, that was sarcasm.
To be honest, there’s not much to say about it this week. We have made some progress, but nothing much has happened really. Elder Son had a very short break away and Younger Son has moved house. So that’s all.
To cheer myself up, I have been browsing the new Hermès scarves for the Autumn/Winter 2023 season. One or two have caught my eye, as usually happens. Here are some of the scarves that I like so far – not all of them are available yet. With some scarves I like multiple colourways, so I would have decisions to make. With others, one colourway stands out for me. They are in a range of sizes from 45cm to 90 cm.
I am sure that more gorgeous scarves will pique my interest over the following weeks and months!
Happy Weekend to you all.
Love and best wishes,
Anne
💕💗💖💗💕
P.S. I just spend ages searching for, and typing, every name and size under each scarf in the slideshow above, but they all disappeared! Please let me know if you want any of this information and I will tell you in the comments.
I hope you have all read some great books in the last week or so. Unfortunately, in the present situation, I am finding it very difficult to read as much as I would like. It’s quite difficult to concentrate when you are sharing a bed like this: almost eleven weeks of enforced togetherness!
Anyway, I did manage to finish one book:
A Sliver of Darkness by C J Tudor
This was yet another completely random choice. I thought that it would be a nice change to read some short stories. This collection was very enjoyable indeed. Here is the blurb for A Sliver of Darkness by C J Tudor:
“A creak of the floorboard, a shiver down your spine, the feeling that you’re not alone . . . _________
Join a group of survivors who wash up on a deserted island only to make a horrifying discovery.
Meet a cold-hearted killer who befriends a strange young girl at a motorway service station.
Travel along eerie country lanes in a world gone dark, enter a block of flats with the most monstrous of occupants and accompany a ruthless estate agent on a house sale that goes apocalyptically wrong.
These eleven twisted tales of the macabre from the bestselling author of The Chalk Man and The Burning Girls are your perfect companions as the nights draw in . . .
An excellent collection of short stories. I had never read anything by this author before, but, now that I have, I will be seeking out her full-length work. Also, as someone familiar with Nottingham, I really enjoyed re-visiting it in some of the tales and also the introductions.
Well worth reading if you like a mix of horror, thrillers and a very dark sense of humour.
Edit: well, that was silly! I just went and checked her other books and saw that I have read two before this one. My memory is dreadful!
Hello and welcome to yet another Friday post on this subject: we are now eleven weeks into this nightmare!
Yes, Lovely Husband and I are still stuck upstairs in bed together. He is making slow progress in getting himself stronger, but is also becoming very miserable about the situation, understandably. I am trundling on in the same way that I have been: I can manage the stairs carrying trays of food and drinks a few times each day, I can try to keep things tidy and organised downstairs, and I am able to contact the outside world using my iPad and mobile phone.
Unfortunately, both of our sons are currently going through their own issues, and they need some support from us. I had to force myself to go out of the house to be with Elder Son for an appointment, which was extremely taxing, but absolutely necessary. Times are indeed very hard!
Could we please see some glimmerings of light at the end of the tunnel?
OK, that’s the end of the grim part of the post!
Now for something completely different, as they used to say on Blue Peter when I was a child and on Monty Python’s Flying Circus when I wasn’t…
I am very pleased to be able to report that I purchased a new iPad this week! Whoop! My older one is still working, so I have passed it over to LH who is doing really well learning to use it to access his own interests. At the very least, we have the means to keep ourselves amused, entertained, busy and connected.
Oh, and this is the dress that I wore when I went out this week. I bought it from Marks and Spencer last year and it is so comfortable in warm weather:
Dress by Marks and Spencer
Now, I had better find some opportunities to wear my other Summer clothes!
Welcome to today’s Reading Roundup post! I have really enjoyed my book this week. Only one, but it was quite long and complex. Here it is:
The City by Stella Gemmell
I was really pleased when I came across this book: The City by Stella Gemmell. Some of you may know that David Gemmell was one of my very favourite authors. Well, Stella is his wife. When he died part way through a book, Stella finished it. So, she then went on to write her own books. This is her first one:
“Built up over the millennia, layer upon layer, the City is ancient and vast. Over the centuries, it has sprawled beyond its walls, the cause of constant war with neighbouring peoples and kingdoms, laying waste to what was once green and fertile.
And at the heart of the City resides the emperor. Few have ever seen him. Those who have remember a man in his prime and yet he should be very old. Some speculate that he is no longer human, others wonder if indeed he ever truly was. And a small number have come to a desperate conclusion: that the only way to stop the ceaseless slaughter is to end the emperor’s unnaturally long life.
From the rotting, flood-ruined catacombs beneath the City where the poor struggle to stay alive to the blood-soaked fields of battle where so few heroes survive, these rebels pin their hopes on one man. A man who was once the emperor’s foremost general. A man, a revered soldier, who could lead an uprising and unite the City. But a man who was betrayed, imprisoned, tortured and is now believed to be dead…”
And this is my response to the book on Goodreads (and I gave it four stars):
I was delighted to see a two book series written by Stella Gemmell! As I hoped, she has her own style of writing, which I really enjoyed. Her scene-setting is excellent and very atmospheric. I could really smell the disgusting mess in the deep passages under the City and see the devastation of the lands around.
There were a lot of characters and story arcs in the book. The main ones were well drawn and interesting. In places, some of the plot became a little repetitive and could have been cut, but, in general, the story had a good pace.
I am really looking forward to reading the sequel and wonder if the author will set more books in this world.
To be honest, I have lost track of the number of weeks that we have been stuck in bed together! It seems interminable with no end in sight. Lovely Husband is trying to do his exercises regularly and diligently, and there has been some signs that he is getting stronger, but he still cannot manage the stairs.
On the other hand, I am a little better, but I am having the usual struggles with my health that I have had for some years. As I have mentioned before, I am now much more able to go up and down the stairs, although carrying heavy trays can cause difficulties. I am quite pleased with the improvements I have made and hope they will be permanent. Perhaps I will try using my exercise chair again and get rid of those bingo wings!
In addition to all of this, we are now going through a real crisis with another family member. This is causing a huge amount of stress and anxiety for all of us and we are very concerned about how this will all turn out. I won’t explain any further in order to protect this person’s privacy, but I have reached out to close friends and family members who have given us support from afar. This whole situation may hang over us for some time.
My shopping urges have not ceased, although I have managed to avoid buying new scarves! Instead, I have gone a bit mad purchasing a lot of brightly coloured mugs. We are using so many each day and the old ones were chipped and worn. I fell for these from Amazon:
Dawsons Living Multi-Coloured Stoneware Mugs Set – Amazon
I ended up getting two sets! Then, as LH loves very large mugs of coffee, I bought four in a lovely bright blue shade:
Smilatte 20 OZ Large Coffee Mug – Amazon
I don’t think LH is going to recognise the downstairs rooms when he can eventually get there!
Only joking!
Anyway, I think that is enough for now. Please keep us in your thoughts – we need all of the positive vibes that we can get.
Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup post! I must apologise for missing last week’s. With all that is going on here at the moment, everything became too much for me and I was very ill from Tuesday into Wednesday, so was unable to write. For that reason, I am creating the post a day early!
This week I am going to talk about three of the books that I have managed to finish during this enforced incarceration with Lovely Husband. Here is the first one:
The Last Girl to Die by Helen Fields
I have read a lot of Helen Fields’ books and thought that this one, The Last Girl to Die, would be worth a look. Anyway, this is the blurb:
“The island watched and wept…
In search of a new life, sixteen-year-old Adriana Clark’s family moves to the ancient, ocean-battered Isle of Mull, far off the coast of Scotland. Then she goes missing. Faced with hostile locals and indifferent police, her desperate parents turn to private investigator Sadie Levesque.
Sadie is the best at what she does. But when she finds Adriana’s body in a cliffside cave, a seaweed crown carefully arranged on her head, she knows she’s dealing with something she’s never encountered before.
The deeper she digs into the island’s secrets, the closer danger creeps – and the more urgent her quest to find the killer grows. Because what if Adriana is not the last girl to die?”
I had found one of her recent books rather annoying, for various reasons, and that should have made me far more cautious! Oh dear…
I can’t say any more than that because of spoilers, but I suppose this is warning enough!
After that waste of time, things could only improve…
Storm Watch by C J Box
I have read almost every book in C J Box’s Joe Pickett series. This is #23, Storm Watch. Here is the blurb:
“Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett investigates a mysterious death at a secret remote high-tech facility in this riveting new novel from #1 New York Times bestseller C.J. Box.
When a prominent University of Wyoming professor goes missing, authorities are stumped. That is, until Joe Pickett makes two surprising discoveries while hunting down a wounded elk on his district as an epic spring storm descends upon him.
First, Joe finds the professor’s vehicle parked on a remote mountainside. Then he finds the professor’s frozen and mutilated body. When he attempts to learn more, his investigation is obstructed by Federal agents, extreme environmentalists, and Governor Colter Allen.
Meanwhile, Joe’s associate Nate Romanowski is rebuilding his falconry company, financing this through crypto mining. Nate is then approached by a shadowy group of local militant activists who are gaining in power and influence, and demanding that Wyoming join other western states and secede from the union – by force, if necessary. They ask Nate to throw in his lot with them, but he’s wary. Should he trust them, or is he being set up?
As a storm of peril gathers around them, Joe and Nate confront it in different ways – and maybe, for the first time, on opposite sides.”
Well, it was certainly a change from the previous book! This is my review on Goodreads:
What was good about this book: the return of well-known characters, such as Jo, his wife and daughters; the wonderful setting of the mountains and snowy weather; the fact that Mary-Beth works in a library; the animals; some of the plot, particularly the first part.
What was not good about this book: the confusing and weird conspiracy theories; right wing plots; the muddled plot lines; some stereotyped characters; the author’s increasingly paranoid imagination.
Yes, I loved quite a lot about the book, but the latter parts were very unpalatable indeed. Perhaps the series should change direction now or come to an end.
OK, so there was a slight improvement, with some major caveats. I then chose a completely different genre again…
Winchelsea by Alex Preston
My final book was Winchelsea by Alex Preston. First comes the blurb:
“The year is 1742. Goody Brown, saved from drowning and adopted when just a babe, has grown up happily in the smuggling town of Winchelsea. Then, when Goody turns sixteen, her father is murdered in the night by men he thought were friends.
To find justice in a lawless land, Goody must enter the cut-throat world of her father’s killers. With her beloved brother Francis, she joins a rival gang of smugglers. Facing high seas and desperate villains, she also discovers something else: an existence without constraints or expectations, a taste for danger that makes her blood run fast.
Goody was never born to be a gentlewoman. But what will she become instead?
Winchelsea is an electrifying story of vengeance and transformation; a rare, lyrical and transporting work of historical imagination that makes the past so real we can touch it.”
This was the most successful book for me and I awarded it four stars:
It has been interesting reading some of the other reviews on here. This seems to be a rather marmite kind of a book, but I like marmite and I also enjoyed the book. Well, perhaps “enjoyed” is not quite the correct word.
There was much to like: the brilliant main character, unique in many ways; the excellent scene setting; the satisfying conclusion. Some of the very dark scenes were a bit too much at times, but these were dark and terrible times. I found the writing very interesting and I wish there had been a glossary at the end.
Finally, I remember visiting many of the places mentioned in the book when I was a child, so it was intriguing to return to them: the towns of Winchelsea, Rye, Dymchurch and environs and the battle field of Culloden and the Scottish Highlands.
I am sure the book will remain in my thoughts for quite some time.
In actual fact, the book certainly has remained in my thoughts as I have had a couple of nightmares about it since I finished reading it! It is a very strange and atmospheric book.
At present, I am reading and enjoying something very different again and I hope that I am able to write about it next week. Until then…
Former professional school librarian, now retired through chronic illness. Trying to keep cheerful by reading, drinking lots of tea, blogging my new life, and my love of bling!
The Librain
The Librain......retired 
Dear Lauren, thank you so much for this kind and lovely comment! Love & best wishes, Anne XXX