This is going to be a very short post today. I have been going through various medical procedures and am feeling rather upset and traumatised. Because of all this, I have been unable to concentrate on my reading and I am definitely incapable of writing one of my Reading Roundup posts as they take quite a lot of time to construct on the WordPress platform.
So, I apologise for not writing a proper post today, but I hope that all will be fine by next week.
Love and best wishes,
Anne
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Welcome to a new week on my blog. I had planned a post to show you a new purchase, but it hasn’t yet arrived. Never mind, I have been busy this afternoon and am feeling very tired indeed. Tomorrow is yet another hospital appointment day, so I’m rather worried about that. I will leave you with this lovely image that I saw on Twitter:
Aren’t the colours gorgeous?
Love and best wishes,
Anne
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Welcome to Friday’s post and the final one of the week.
This week I have had two medical appointments to attend, so, for once, I had to get properly dressed! I am suffering from a form of agoraphobia these days and feel very nervous and frightened when I leave the safety of my bedroom, so planning and wearing a nice outfit helps with that a little.
Yesterday, we had to travel to a large hospital and, once parked, had a long walk through the maze of buildings. This was extremely tiring for both of us. This was my chosen outfit:
I have made a collage to go with this:
The enamel and gold earrings and bangles are by Halcyon Days; the enamel and rose gold pendant necklace is Ianthe by Liberty of London; the small blue and white scarf (which I tied on the Massaccesi handbag) is Aurora by Liberty of London; and the blue and white kimono jacket is by One Hundred Stars. In the collage above, the colours of the jacket appear much too dull. They are brighter in real life, as you can see in the modelling photo.
I wore these with a simple white cotton vest by Lands’ End and a navy linen mix midi skirt by Isle Collection. Links to all of these sources can be found in the sidebar.
So, today I had another appointment, this time at our local surgery. Here is the outfit:
This time I chose a turquoise, teal and navy theme with my Liberty of London chiffon scarf in the lovely Hera pattern. I wore a turquoise t-shirt and navy linen trousers and carried my gorgeous Massaccesi bag in a metallic navy leather. My earrings were in teal, the Halcyon Days bangle was a turquoise enamel giraffe print and my sandals were navy. I think the whole outfit worked well and it was very comfortable.
Here is another collage showing my accessories today:
I actually have two more appointments next week, so I will, once again, distract myself from worrying by planning nice outfits to wear. Now, what colours should I choose and should I wear Hermès scarves this time?
What do you think?
Happy Weekend to you all.
Love and best wishes,
Anne
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Hello and welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup post: the last one in June. At the end of last week’s post, I said that my next book was by a new-to-me author. Oh, my memory is so awful! In fact I had already read a couple of books by her and really enjoyed them. Here is the latest…
The book was Reputation by Sarah Vaughan. This is the blurb:
“The bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal returns with a new psychological thriller about a politician whose less-than-perfect personal life is thrust into the spotlight when a body is discovered in her home.
As a politician, Emma has sacrificed a great deal for her career–including her marriage and her relationship with her daughter, Flora. A former teacher, she finds the glare of the spotlight unnerving, particularly when it leads to countless insults, threats, and trolling as she tries to work in the public eye. As a woman, she knows her reputation is worth its weight in gold, but as a politician, she discovers it only takes one slip-up to destroy it completely.
Fourteen-year-old Flora is learning the same hard lessons at school as she encounters heartless bullying. When another teenager takes her own life, Emma lobbies for a new law to protect women and girls from the effects of online abuse. Now, Emma and Flora find their personal lives uncomfortably intersected–but then the unthinkable happens: A man is found dead in Emma’s home, a man she had every reason to be afraid of and to want gone. Fighting to protect her reputation, and determined to protect her family at all costs, Emma is pushed to the limits as the worst happens and her life is torn apart.”
I really enjoyed reading this book and awarded it four stars on Goodreads. Here is my response from that website:
Reputation by Sarah VaughanMy next book was recommended to me by a dear friend. I am so glad that she did!
The recommended book, and series, was the Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. Let’s look at the blurb:
“Maia, the youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an “accident,” he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.
Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.
Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favour with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the spectre of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor.”
Once again, I urge you to read a range of reviews about any book that I mention on here. Anyway, this is mine:
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine AddisonAs you can read above, I have already moved on to the sequel, The Witness for the Dead, and have purchased the next book also: The Grief of Stones. Maybe I will have worked out the naming system by the end of the third book!
Well, that is all for this week. Happy Reading to you all!
Love and best wishes,
Anne
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Hello, everyone, and welcome to my first post of the week!
Well, people who know me well may be rather surprised by parts of today’s post. I have mentioned The Purse Forum on here loads of times, listing the many threads that I follow, mainly centred on scarves. In addition, I am also interested in clothes and jewellery, not necessarily the most fashionable or expensive, but the beautiful and striking pieces. For those, I follow some of the threads about celebrities and “royals”. Now, I am not a monarchist when it comes to our own Royal Family, but I do like to see what some of the women wear.
So, with those points in mind, this image caught my eye last week…
This photo of Catherine is so lovely, but what really got my attention were the gorgeous earrings! Luckily, the clever women on The Purse Forum had identified them. I decided to go to the Chalk Jewellery website straight away…
On arrival, I quickly realised three things: 1) the website was under huge pressure from the large number of visitors doing exactly the same as me, and 2) loads of items were sold out or in other people’s baskets, but 3) the jewellery was definitely affordable for someone like me! What to do?
Well, like any good librarian I know how to search for what I want! I had a look around and found some of the Chalk Jewellery items on a very unexpected website. It turns out that the design of Catherine’s earrings is based on some of the architectural elements of the Royal Opera’s building. Furthermore, some of the jewellery can be found in their shop! Eventually, I chose earrings that were similar but smaller, for, obvious reasons.
Here they are…
The earrings are very cleverly constructed from wood, tiny mirrors and resin and are so light and easy to wear. I tried them on as soon as they arrived and laughed aloud when I realised that the pale green matched one of my newish nightdresses! There are other colourways of these earrings and matching or similar necklaces and bracelets available.
My modelling attempt…
Well, I am a little embarrassed to have put my photo in the same blog post as Catherine and, OK, I know I desperately need a haircut! I am going to try and make an appointment (and keep it). Er….. soon.
Right, I think that is enough for now. Wednesday’s post will be the usual Reading Roundup and I might have another purchase to show you on Friday, all being well.
Love and best wishes,
Anne
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Happy Friday! Welcome to the final post of the week.
Hot weather really knocks me out and I have spent most of the week in bed with a large fan moving the air around. It’s very noisy and only slightly effective. On the couple of times that I managed to get dressed, I wore the recently purchased blue and white dress from Marks and Spencer. It is very comfortable and skims over my lumps and bumps. Here is a reminder…
The dress looked nice with this “teatime” jewellery from Pixie Wing…
If you hasten over to the Pixie Wing site, they have similar versions of this necklace and earrings in their sale in silver with both blue and green colourways!
I have always loved earrings in a huge range of styles, so when I saw a very famous person wearing some gorgeous and very affordable ones this week, I had to investigate further. I will tell you more next week…
Yes, you will have to wait!
Happy Weekend to you all…
Love and best wishes,
Anne
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Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup! These Wednesday posts are about the books that I have finished reading since the previous week’s Roundup. I am a member of Goodreads, where I have been tracking my reading for a few years. For these posts, I include each book’s blurb and my review from Goodreads. Usually, I expand a bit on my review. Since I had a stroke in September 2019, I have to read ebooks as my eyesight was affected. Also memory issues mean that I have to write my reviews very soon after finishing each book as I often forget what I have just read! Apologies for the brevity of my reviews, but you can usually find much more detailed ones on Goodreads and other such sites. Mine are usually quick responses to the book and are not always in tune with other people’s!
Right, let’s begin…
OK, so I swamped you all with the first three Vorkosigan Saga books in last week’s post! I have to admit that I read a fourth before tearing myself away from this brilliant series. This one is The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold, #06 Vorkosigan Saga.
Here is the blurb:
“Together, they can get into a lot of trouble. Trouble only the combined forces of the Free Dendarii Mercenaries can get them out of. At least, that’s what they’re hoping…
In this latest adventure with the galaxy’s craftiest mercenary leader Miles, starts out by so shaking up the High Command on his home planet of Barrayar that he is sent to the other side of the galaxy – where who should he run into but his old pals the Free Dendarii Mercenaries. And a good thing too, because it turns out that Miles’ childhood chum, that’s Emperor Gregor to you, has been the victim of foul play, and only Miles – with a little Dendarii muscle – can save him. This is very important to Miles; because if Gregor dies, the only person who could become the new emperor is Miles himself – and that he regards as a fate worse than death.”
And this is my quick response on Goodreads:
The Vor Game by Lois McMaster BujoldI am sure that I will return to the series very soon. For my next book I went to one of my other favourite series…
The Nameless Ones is the 19th book in John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series. I think that I have read the entire series to date, but will have to check (checked and, yes, I have read them all). This is the blurb:
“From the international and instant New York Times bestselling author of The Dirty South, the white-knuckled Charlie Parker series returns with this heart-pounding race to hunt down the deadliest of war criminals.
In Amsterdam, four people are butchered in a canal house, their remains arranged around the crucified form of their patriarch, De Jaager: fixer, go-between, and confidante of the assassin named Louis. The men responsible for the murders are Serbian war criminals. They believe they can escape retribution by retreating to their homeland.
They are wrong.
For Louis has come to Europe to hunt them down: five killers to be found and punished before they can vanish into the east.
There is only one problem.
The sixth.”
Once again, my response might be considered to be unexpected:
The Nameless Ones by John ConnollyWell, after that I have turned to a library ebook by a new-to-me author. I will give you my thoughts next week.
Until then: Happy Reading to you all!
Love and best wishes,
Anne
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Hello and welcome to a new week on the blog. Monday is the day when I write about random things! To be honest, I am struggling to find something to write about today. The sun is shining and I love the long days at this time of the year. Today is fairly peaceful, at the moment, because only Lovely Husband and I are in the house. Elder Son has gone out for the day, so I can relax quietly and enjoy time to read my current book.
I would go outside and sit in the garden, but I find it difficult to read on my iPad in the sunshine. Since my stroke in 2019, I can’t read print books very easily as I need to increase the font size. So, I prefer to sit in bed where I have everything that I need within reach. There are other more, er, “personal” reasons why it is better for me to stay indoors, but I am not going to explain those on here! Perhaps readers can work these out for themselves…
Anyway, at this point I will leave you with these images of my favourite statue…
This bronze statue of the Greek god Zeus or Poseidon remains my favourite, ever since I saw it as a student of Ancient History and Archaeology back in 1977. More information and photos can be found on Wikipedia.
Back on Wednesday with the usual Reading Roundup.
Love and best wishes,
Anne
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Whew! Yes, we Brits tend to fuss about the weather, rain or shine, snow or wind. Today is very hot here in the English Midlands and I find it very difficult to cope with heat because of my lung and cough issues. So, I am wearing one of the new dresses from Marks and Spencer that I wrote about last week. Later in the afternoon, I am going to try to sit outside in the garden for a while.
I took a quick photo this morning and added in my brightest Hermès scarf, Au Coeur de la Vie, just for a few minutes. That yellow!!! I just love the other colours in the scarf: purple, green, orange, turquoise, and so on. Eventually, I removed the scarf as it is far too hot to wear one and I didn’t want to spoil it with sweat! Anyway, here is the photo:
I will also show you a picture of the full scarf:
If you would like more information and photos of this extraordinary scarf, including other colourways, please have a look at the Scarf of the Moment post that I wrote back in 2017.
Right, back to trying to keep cool!
Happy Weekend to you all.
Love and best wishes,
Anne
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Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup post. This was an unusual and rather extraordinary week of reading. First of all, I managed to finish three books without rushing. Secondly, I loved all of them and gave them all five stars (I am on a bit of a five star roll at the moment – lucky me!). Thirdly, all three were from the same series.
So, apologies if you are not a fan of:
Some of you may remember that I read her Fantasy series, World of the Five Gods, a couple of years ago. The books are so brilliant that I was left wondering why I hadn’t read much of her work before. Since then, I have been meaning to try her Vorkosigan books, but hadn’t got around to actually buying or borrowing them. Well, the other day I finally took the plunge and got started and all I can say is…
Just one thing to note: like many long series, this one was not written in one long chronological arc. Bujold herself has listed the series in a reading order, and I am trying to follow that as far as possible. There is a prequel to the first book and I will read that when I feel like it!
Right, let’s get started with book 1…
OK, before I begin, yes these are the worst covers for a science fiction series that I have seen for a very long time. What were they thinking!
The first book of the saga, and the first written, is Bujold’s Shards of Honor. This is the, very short, blurb:
“When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, she is taken prisoner by Aral Vorkosigan, commander of the Barrayan ship that has been taken over by an ambitious and ruthless crew member. Aral and Cordelia survive countless mishaps while their mutual admiration and even stronger feelings emerge.”
Here is my review on Goodreads and I did make it one of my “favourites”:
Shards of Honour by Lois McMaster BujoldThe next book continues Cordelia’s story…
This book, Barrayar, follows straight after Shards of Honor, although it is listed as Vorkosigan Saga #07. Confusing, eh? Anyway, here is the blurb and note the prestigious award!
“Cordelia Vorkosigan’s plans for a peaceful married life (after all the bloodshed and trials recounted in SHARDS OF HONOR) are shattered when a poison gas attack, intended for her husband Aral, leaves her ill and her unborn child damaged. Resisting enormous pressure to abort her son, Cordelia struggles to keep her unborn child–transferred to a uterine replicator–alive while thwarting plans by a ruthless opponent to murder the young emperor and assume absolute power over all of Barrayar. Once again Cordelia displays her courage and her remarkable combat and leadership skills. Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel.”
This is my response:
Barrayar by Lois McMaster BujoldI seem to have raced through these books so far! I became so absorbed that many of my usual activities were put on hold. Anyway, I also finished a third book in the series…
This book, The Warrior’s Apprentice (listed as Vorkosigan Saga #02), follows Miles Vorkosigan as a young man. This is one of the better blurbs that I could find:
“Between the seemingly impossible tasks of living up to his warrior-father’s legend and surmounting his own physical limitations, Miles Vorkosigan faces some truly daunting challenges.
Shortly after his arrival on Beta Colony, Miles unexpectedly finds himself the owner of an obsolete freighter and in more debt than he ever thought possible. Propelled by his manic “forward momentum,” the ever-inventive Miles creates a new identity for himself as the commander of his own mercenary fleet to obtain a lucrative cargo; a shipment of weapons destined for a dangerous warzone.”
This is my rather rave (or raving!?!) review on Goodreads:
The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster BujoldOK, I know that I have probably irritated quite a few regular readers of the blog by focusing on this series. And I must admit that I am presently reading the fourth book, The Vor Game. I will try to drag myself away after this one and read something else in time for next week’s post.
Well, I will try…
Until then: Happy Reading to you all!
Love and best wishes,
Anne
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Image credits
Wow by Erich Ferdinand on Flickr, accessed 15/06/22
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The Librain......retired 
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