Weekend Cooking: A WWII wedding cake

I saved this quote from Railway Girls in Love when I read it earlier this year.  This is the third book in the Railway Girls series which features a group of women who come together to work on the railways during WWII.  

I wasn't quite sure when I was going to use this, or another quote I have saved, but I think this is the week! There's several reasons why. First, because it was Rememberance Day this week. I know that Rememberance Day is in memory of the end of World War I, but I tend to think about all conflicts when I take that moment to stop and think at 11am on 11 September.

A second reason is that the fourth book in the Railway Girls series came out this week, and the third reason is because I think of November as my wedindg month. We got married on a beach in Vanuatu on 1 November and then we had a celebration at home on 30 November. This weekend, sits right in the middle of those two dates. We didn't have a wedding cake at our wedding. We had a plate of lovely desserts instead, but at the celebration, my sister made a beautiful wedding cake.

It should be said that Mrs Grayson is the person in the book who manages to stil be able to make delicious treats despite war time shortages. I also like that this passage demonstrates how people come together when needed

"Mrs Grayson, please will you make the cake? I know that isn't an easy thing to manage these days."

"Leave it to me." Mrs Grayson's cheek went pink with pleasure. "I'll make one of those no-egg cakes and I'll get hold of some saccharine if there isn't enough sugar."

"We'll give you whatever dried fruit we can," said Dot. "They do say you can used grated veg as a substitute."

"There might be more dried fruit to be had now that food parcels are coming from America," said Cordelia.

"I promise you one thing," said Mr Grayson. "It'll be the moistest cake you've ever tasted."

Mrs Cooper rolled her eyes. "When she says moist what she means is alcoholic."

"We've got a bit of sherry," said Mrs Grayson, "and I can't think of a better purpose for it."

"I can probably provide a little alchohol as well," said Cordelia

 

And then

When Mrs Cooper opened the front door, Dot lifted her chin and sniffed the air like one of the Bisto Kids, her mouth watering at the delicious mix of spicy-sweet and fruity.

"I bought my dried fruit round." Dot offered her bag. "Am I too late?"

"Not at all. Mrs Grayson is letting everything soak at the moment. Can you smell the orange zest?"

"She got hold of an orange?" Dot was impressed.

Mrs Cooper led her into the kitchen, where Mrs Grayson, a pinny covering her dress, was consulting a handwritten recipe.

"If this is how the raw ingredients smell," said Dot, "it's going to be a masterpiece of a cake. What are you using to soak the fruit?"

"Mrs Masters provided some alchohol," said Mrs Cooper.

"She said she would," said Dot,picturing dry sherry.

"There's brandy in there." Mrs Grayson waved a hand towards the mixing bowl. "And port."

"Crikey," said Dot. "Everyone will be legless after one slice.

"Well, it is a wedding," said Mrs Grayson.

Weekly Meals

Saturday - French style chicken

Sunday - Pressure Cooker Spaghetti Bolognaise

Monday - Steak with Mushroom Sauce

Tuesday - Pork Nachos

Wednesday  - Steak and Pepper Casserole with mash

Thursday - Pork belly wraps with coleslaw

Friday - Scrambled Eggs with bacon on toast

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Music A-Z: X

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of my Music A to Z feature. Each week on Thursday, I am going to share a song where either the song or the artist name begins with the letter for that week. This week, the letter is....

X

I am getting to the tail end of the alphabet now, which means not many weeks to go, but it also means that I am getting to the difficult letters!

I could, for example, share Xanadu by Olivia Newton John, but it's definitely not my favourite song by her.

50 Years by Uncanny X-Men - I know that the band name actually starts with U, but they were always referred to as the X-Men, so I am claiming it. This song is probably one of the quintessential songs of my teenage years. It was released in 1986, when I was 15 years old. The thought of asking where will we be in 50 years seemed like forever away but as of now we are 35 years in! Another 15 years doesn't seem like that far away!

Follow the Sun - Xavier Rudd - Could a video be more relaxing?

Do you have any X songs? Feel free to share them in the comments.

Blog Tour: A Mother's Story by Maggie Christensen

I have read a number of Maggie Christensen books over the last year or so. Five of them to be precise, all of which were part of her Granite Springs contemporary romance series which features older characters. I have enjoyed each of the books I have read in that series, so when I saw this book I was quick to volunteer for the tour, despite the fact that it was clearly going to be a very different read.

Rather than a romance, we have a historical fiction story with multiple narrators which spans from the 1940s through to the 1990s with parallel lines occurring in Scotland and Australia.

The story opens in WWII Scotland with a young woman named Rhona Begg. She is working in an office but she has decided that she needs to do more so she volunteers to join up with the ATS. She ships out to Yorkshire for training, but it isn't long before her life is tipped on it's axis. She finds herself pregnant and alone. She knows that she can't go home to her family who would be so ashamed of her, so she is determined to make it on her own.  

In due time, Rhona finds work in a factory, but her living arrangements means that she cannot have her daughter Fiona live with her. She puts her in a home where she can still see her as often as she can. Fate had other ideas though and Rhona has to find a way to keep going despite her grief.

In Australia we meet Nell Duncan. She is desperate for news of her beloved husband Joe who is off fighting the Japanese. She is also doing her best to keep going, with the belief that when Joe gets home, they will be able to start their much longed for family.

After the war, heartbroken Rhona returns to her family, keeping her daughter Fiona's birth a secret for many years. Whilst she has no intention of getting involved with a man after her war time experiences, in due course she meets her husband and lives quite happily, until a story in a newspaper catches her attention and starts her wondering if maybe, just maybe, she can find some answers to the questions from her past. It does, however, mean revealing the greatest secret of her life.

For Nell and Joe, joy comes into their lives in the form of a young girl that they adopt, who they called Joy. She grows up secure and loved, living in suburban Australia. She has always known that she was adopted, but as she grows older things happen that make her wonder where she originally came from.

We follow both Rhona and Nell, and eventually young Joy, through their lives, until the secrets of the past are revealed

As I mentioned earlier, I have not read any of this author's historical novels. I will be now. I really enjoyed how the stories of the various characters were told, with the parallel timelines gradually intertwining. The story does cover a long period of time and so there are big jumps forward in time between sections. I was moved by both stories, and by the different stories of what motherhood looked like to all three women, whose experiences were all very different.

I will definitely be reading more of Maggie Christensen's historical novels. Right now though, I think I might head back to Granite Springs for another visit.

Rating 4/5

Thanks to Rachel's Random Resources for including me on the blog tour.

About the Book

A Mother’s Story

A lost child. A mother’s grief. A daughter’s journey.

In Scotland, in 1941, as WW2 increases in ferocity, Rhona Begg goes against her parents’ wishes and enlists in the ATS—a decision that brings with it heart-breaking consequences. After the war, weighed down with regret and grief, Rhona receives news that has the power to change her life.

Across the ocean in Australia, Nell Duncan worries about her husband who is fighting in the Far East. When she receives the dreaded news that he is missing in action, her world collapses. The end of the war brings changes to Nell’s life, but her dream of bearing a child is no longer possible and she grieves for what might have been.

In 1971, when Joy Baker gives birth to her daughter, she begins the journey to discover her ancestry. What she finds shocks her to the core and propels her on a journey to the land of her birth.

Three women. Three mothers. Three astonishing stories.

From wartime Scotland to present day Australia. A Mother’s Story is an emotion-filled sweeping family saga.

Purchase Link - getbook.at/AMothersStory

 

About the author

After a career in education, Maggie Christensen began writing contemporary women’s fiction portraying mature women facing life-changing situations, and historical fiction set in her native Scotland. Her travels inspire her writing, be it her trips to visit family in Scotland, in Oregon, USA or her home on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast. Maggie writes of mature heroines coming to terms with changes in their lives and the heroes worthy of them. Her writing has been described by one reviewer as like a nice warm cup of tea. It is warm, nourishing, comforting and embracing.

From the small town in Scotland where she grew up Scotland, Maggie was lured to Australia by the call ‘Come and teach in the sun’. Once there, she worked as a primary school teacher, university lecturer and in educational management. Now living with her husband of over thirty years on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, she loves walking on the deserted beach in the early mornings and having coffee by the river on weekends. Her days are spent surrounded by books, either reading or writing them – her idea of heaven!

 

Social Media Links –

Facebook           https://www.facebook.com/maggiechristensenauthor

Twitter                https://twitter.com/MaggieChriste33

Goodreads   https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8120020.Maggie_Christensen

Instagram          https://www.instagram.com/maggiechriste33/

Bookbub            https://www.bookbub.com/profile/maggie-christensen

Website              https://maggiechristensenauthor.com/

 

This week....

I'm reading...

I finished The Secret of Snow by Viola Shipman. It was written in his customary soothing style, packed with emotion and wit, but....the snow left me feeling a bit cold, if you will pardon the pun. I enjoyed it, just not as much as I have enjoyed the previous books.

I also started and finished reading Maggie Christensen's A Mother's Story. I had previously only read her contemporary romance Granite Springs books so this was a bit of surprise to me as it a multiple timeline historical fiction novel.

I did start reading The Great Passage by Shion Miura, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter. This is my bookclub book for this month. We are doing read on a theme style of bookclub and this month's theme is "Books about Books". When we agreed on this theme, my initial reaction was that I could finally read The Lost Dictionary of Words by Pip Williams, except I had already packed it into a box a few weeks ago. And then I thought I could reread The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, except that too is in a box. And the same with The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I tried looking up different books from the library, and there were definitely some I could have borrowed, but in the end I found this book on the second last page of my Kindle collection.  So far, I am liking it a lot so it has ended up being a good choice.

I'm watching....

We watched the last two episodes of Making It Australia over the weekend. I am a little bit disappointed that this show isn't getting renewed as we really enjoy it. 

We were pleased to see that Bake Off: The Professionals is back! That's something to look forward to for a few weeks at least.

Festive treats...

I watched a Christmas movie this weekend. It's strange really. I feel like I am growing into Christmas movies, but over the last couple of years I have found myself watching more and more of them, and it turns out that I am watching them earlier than ever. I have also already read a Christmas book!

I think I am going to keep a running list of the movies that I do watch and read this year

1. Flora's Travelling Christmas Shop by Rebecca Raisin

2. The Happiest Season - watched because Dan Levy is in it.

Life

A couple of weeks ago my son was in a very small accident in his car, which was my old car. Unfortunately, even though it was only a small bingle and no one was hurt, he was hit right in a part of the car that meant it wasn't worth the repairs, so the car had to be written off.  This weekend, we went out car shopping with him. We tried to steer him in the directioon of something sensible but that is not where we ended up. The main criteria was. of course, can he fit into the car. At 6'9" that isn't always easy. But...he has a car again. Now, he just has to pay for it.

Other than that we are starting to think about our last room to be renovated which will happen over the next few weeks. Our social calendar is also starting to fill up in the lead up to Christmas. I guess things really are getting back to normal.

Posts from the last week

HIstorical Fiction Reading Challenge: November post

Top Ten Tuesday: The Susanna Kearsley edition

Music A-Z: W

Vintage Weekend Cooking: The AWW Birthday Cake Book

Weekend Cooking: What I Baked in October

Six Degrees of Separation

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Six Degrees of Separation: What Are You Going Through to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

 Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links.  I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz. 

The starting point for this month is a book called What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez. I found this a tough book to start with. I am also realising that so often my go to books for this meme are the same ones! I think I have avoided that this time, but only just. And there's no guarantee that it won't happen in future!

What You Are Going Through appears to have a number of themes, but one of them is about euthanasia which brings me to my first book which is Me Before You by Jojo Moyes.

After the death of a loved one, what follow is grief. Grief is a central theme of The Secret of Snow by Viola Shipman which I read this week.

There was a lot of snow in The Secret of Snow and the word snow is what made me choose In Falling Snow by Mary-Rose MacColl. I loved this book when I read it a few years ago. It is set in WWI France.

Also partially set in WWI is Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole, and you can't do a connections about an epistolary book set during war without then linking to the next book. You just can't!

That right! The next book is The GuernseyLiterary and Potato Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows.

From there, the final choice is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, part of the Flavia de Luce mystery series.

Next month's starting book is Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, and I already have two ideas of what my first links might be.

Weekend Cooking: What I Baked in October

Normally on the last Saturday of the month I share everything I have baked each month, but I have decided to change that post from the last Saturday to the first Saturday in the next month. What isn't changing is the focus on the new recipes I have tried as well as the old favourites that I have remade

Yesterday I reshared a post about kids cake book, and mentioned that my son chose to have a green flamingo cake for his birthday, and here it is!! Whilst the recipe is a simple butter cake, with a butter cream, where I tried to stretch myself was in making the chocolate feathers which was a fun technique.

The only problem with making a shaped cake like a flamingo is that there is lots of leftover cake. And with the leftover cake I made trifle! Yum.

Dutch Apple Pie with a Cheddar Crust - I posted about making this pie here.

Little lemon syrup cake - After trying something new with the cheddar crust I then reverted back to one of our favourites. So lemony and delicious

Black and white wagon wheels - Several people at work have been making wagon wheels so I thought I would have a go. What I didn't realise is that they only made one of the versions, not both. I think when I make it again I would do a milk chocolate with raspberry jam version, instead of blackberry jam. It was delicous but the white chocolate was very sweet, especially seeing as the biscuits inside are honey flavoured. They do look impressive though.

I am also sharing this post with In My Kitchen, hosted at Sherry's Kitchen.

Weekly Meals

Saturday - Mushroom, zucchini, ham and pasta

Sunday - Burgers

Monday - Anniversay dinner at the beach

Tuesday - Dinner with the family

Wednesday  - Pork chop, mash and broccoli

Thursday - Tacos

Friday - 

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Vintage Weekend Cooking: AWW Birthday Cakes

Recently one of the lolly/candy companies in Australia, called Allens,  released their version of the one of the most famous birthday cake books. Looking through the book reminded me of the original version, whch I had posted about originally around 10 years ago.

At the end of September it was my son's 23rd birthday and I handed him the cake book and said which one do you want,  and he chose a flamingo cake, except he wanted a green one. Do not ask me why because I don't know.

Anyway, I thought this was a good opportunity to roll out a Vintage post

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 I am not 100% sure why but I have been spending a lot of time lately thinking about birthday cakes, especially in the context of those people who make amazing theme cakes. My sister is one of those people. Over the years she has made my son a Spiderman cake and a Lightning McQueen cake and for her children and those of her friends there have been Dorothy the Dinosaur cakes, giraffes and most recently a Dolly Varden cake.

Not too long ago we were talking about this. When I think back over my childhood I can only really recall one cake - my aunt made me a pink Dolly Varden cake when I was quite young. Between us we also remembered that there was a farmyard scene cake which featured a chocolate log in a sea of green icing and lots of animals. We are not sure if that was for my birthday or for someone else. I think it was in summer, so not my birthday, but I am not 100% sure. What I do remember is making myself sick by gorging on the green icing that covered the cake board.

One of the most influential publications when it came to kids birthday cakes, particularly during the 1980s had to be the Australian Women's Weekly's Children's Birthday Cake book. I would go so far as to say that the whole Australian Women's Weekly series would have proved pretty influential in the kitchens of Australia as a whole at the time. I know when I first started being interested in buying cookbooks I always gravitated towards these books. As an aside, is the Australian Women's Weekly is one of the big magazines published here, but it is only published monthly!

There was the original version of this book and then there was an updated version of the book published in 2002 with all new designs. There was, however, such a degree of sentimentality associated with the first version that this year they reprinted it!

The selection of cakes in both versions of the books vary from simple to jaw-droppingly complicated! I do wonder if there are people out there who have made some of the cakes but they do look amazing! One of the simple ones that we made years ago now (from the new book) was a lamington choo-choo - pretty simple to make really, it's just about putting it all together.

One of the cakes in the new version of the book is a Merry-go round cake which the editor helpfully suggests is "not difficult - it is however time consuming". (It looks difficult to me I have to say!).

Of the recipes in the old book, one I have seen people reminisce about quite a lot is the swimming pool cake, where you make the cake and then cut out a section out of the top and fill it with jelly to make it look like a pool and add in small people and beach balls to make the scene complete. I do question the choice of green jelly for the water, but I guess we don't really have blue jelly!

There are a couple of cakes that I don't necessarily think would work for me. For example, in the older book there is a fluffy duck, complete with yellow buttercream frosting (okay so far), popcorn, and potato chips (crisps) for the beak. Not sure that the combination works for me, but it would be impressive to see it carried into the room at a birthday party.

There are many different cakes which are presented in the books with themes varying from sport to numbers, from fairy tales to ideas using cupcakes. There are always step by step pictures showing how you get the shape of the cake that you are after and there are several patterns included in each of the book to assist with getting your cake just right. Some of these look a lot like putting a puzzle together, but I am sure that seeing the excitement on the faces of the recipients makes all the hard work worthwhile.

Whilst the books are labelled as kid's birthday cake books, there are a number that could be used for adults as well. There is a party pinata cake that looks totally awesome if anyone wants to make it for me next year! You take a pre-prepared round buttercake  and then put lots of Smarties/M&Ms, chocolate coins and other lollies on top of it. Then cover that with a chocolate shell that you have made by coating the inside of an appropriately sized metal bowl and then covering the outside of the chocolate "bowl" with more M&Ms and Smarties. According to the image, you need a new hammer to get into the cake, which could be lots of fun at a party!

As far as I know the AWW cookbooks are available in other countries around the world, but I am not exactly sure where!


My plan for this post was to scan in a few of the images for your enjoyment! However, it seems as though I have no idea how to use my scanner, so that might have to wait until another day!

Music A to Z: W

 

Welcome to this week's edition of my Music A to Z feature. Each week on Thursday, I am going to share a song where either the song or the artist name begins with the letter for that week. This week, the letter is....

W

Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker - I am cheating a bit and reusing a song because I used this ong for D, but Wagon Wheel is one of those song that I just have to get up and dance to!

It's Raining Men by The Weather Girls - Going very 80s for this choice. It's just a song that makes me feel good!

I actually have a playlist on Spotify called W song - all different songs that we played at our wedding and the celebration party we had a few weeks later!

Do you have any W songs?

Top Ten Tuesday: The Susanna Kearsley edition

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books I Would Hand to Someone Who Claims to Not Like Reading

Whilst my choice this week kind of sort of fits the theme, it also does not.

This last weekend I finished reading Susanna Kearsley's latest book, The Vanished Days. Kearsley is one of those authors who I always, always recommend to other readers, particularly books like The Winter Sea or The Rose Garden. I love the history and the way that she connects the past with the present. 

The Vanished Days also represents the tenth book I have read by her, so today I bring you a Top Ten Tuesday featuring the books of Susanna Kearsley. There are a couple of books that I do still have to read. I am kind of holding off on them so that I know I always will have some that I can turn to, at some point.

But first, a few words about The Vanished Days.

This book is different from Kearsley's other books. Normally there she has a dual timeline, one in the present and one in the past, which are somehow interconnected. In this book, there are still two timelines, but one is predominantly in the 1690s and the other in 1707, and we get to hear the history both looking back and as it is happening. It is a fascinating time with the Jacobites, the ill fated Darien exhibition, religious tension and so much more.

The narrator is Adam Williamson. He is a Scot who has just returned from America and he is hoping to reconnect with his friend, who was a survivor from Darien. Instead, he is coerced into leading an investigation into a woman named Lilly Aitcheson, who is claiming entitlements as a widow of a man who died on the exhibition. He has to determine if Lilly was really married to James Graeme, as she claimed. 

I couldn't help but feel like Adam was something of an unreliable narrator. He was looking back to tell us Lilly's history, but also about the investigation, which really was about much more than just whether the marriage was legitimate or not.

I really enjoyed parts of this book, but there were other parts which got bogged down in the politics and history of the day. Lilly was also a complicated character, and I was never really sure about her, so you had an unreliable narrator talking about an unreliable character. There's no doubt though, that Lilly is not a cookie cutter historical heroine. Her story is one of survival against the odds, of which there were many.

I did recently start rereading The Winter Sea on audiobook. I had to stop because there was an overlap in characters, but I will be going back to it now. I don't often reread, but this Kearsley is one of those authors where I make an exception.

Goodreads has The Winter Sea, The Firebird and this book are all connected together as a series called Scottish on Goodreads, but then The Winter Sea and The Firebird are connected together under the series label Slains. In reality,  the way that Kearsley's books are connected is more complicated than that. Characters cross paths through a lot of these books. In The Vanished Days we here about the early days of the main characters from The Winter Sea, plus different characters from The Firebird, and connecting to Bellewether which I haven't read yet. Some of these characters also appear in the short story in The Deadly Hours, and then one of the characters from The Shadowy Horses also turns up in The Firebird. Mariana is in there somewhere too. All very interconnected. What there isn't though, is an actual order to read in, so you can start anywhere.

Let's start with the 5 star reads:

The Winter Sea (review)- If I was recommend a reading order, I would say start with this one. It was my first Kearsley, and is still my favourite


The Shadowy Horses (review)- Kearsley does Roman history.

The Rose Garden (review) - This one is set in Cornwall.

The Fire Bird (review) - Jacobites in Russia. Yes please.

And now for the 4 star books. I still enjoyed them a lot, but maybe not as much the ones above!

Mariana - I suspect if I read this one now, I would enjoy it, but it was the second Kearsley I read, straight after The Winter Sea

Season of Storms - This one is set in Italy, which is different for this author.

Named of the Dragon - This book is set in Wales. I don't remember a lot about it, so I might need to reread this one..

A Desperate Fortune - Connected to The Winter Sea and The Firebird


And the two latest offerings.....

The Deadly Hours (review) - A short story featuring characters from


The Vanished Days - This book, which was  4/5 read for me.




I feel a Kearsley reread coming on!

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - November

 

 

Thank you to everyone who shared a review this month! We had more than 4

0 reviews in October which is awesome! I can't wait to see what you all share in November. 

I am starting to think about next year's challenge, so if you have any thoughts plesae feel free to share them in the comments!  My intention is to have the 2022 sign up post up in early December. l hope you all join in 

If you haven't already signed up, it's not too late! The sign up post is here.

Just to recap what participants need to know. At the beginning of each month I will put up a post which will have a Mr Linky embedded into it for you to add your link.

Please remember...

• add the link(s) of your review(s) including your name and book title to the Mister Linky we’ll be adding to our monthly post (please, do not add your blog link, but the correct address that will guide us directly to your review). A direct link to your Goodreads review is also acceptable
• any kind of historical fiction is accepted (fantasy, young adult, graphic novels...)
• if you have time, have a look some of the other links that are present. You never know when you will discover new blogs or books!

I have created a group on Facebook which you can find here and don't forget to use the #histficreadingchallenge hashtag on the socials.

This Week ...

 

I'm reading...

Over the weekend I finished The Vanished Days by Susanna Kearsley.  I will be sharing my thoughts as part of my Top Ten Tuesday post tomorrow.

I decided that I wanted to read something that I knew I would enjoy so I started The Secret of Snow by Viola Shipman. He has been my author discovery this year. I think this is the fourth book I have read by him this year.

I also need to make time this week to read my book club book

I'm watching...

This weekend we ended up watching three of the four Hunger Games movies. It wasn't really a conscious decision. It was more oh the first movie is on, and then the next and then the next. We will watch the fourth one this week I think. I will say I was about 15 minutes into the first movie when I was just reminded how annoyed I was with the epilogue of the third book. Still!!

Life

More and more things are opening up here. I am still not in a hurry to go to the shops, but we are starting to make plans about going to events, and catching up with more friends. Tomorrow it is a public holiday here. For a horse race. Yes, you read correctly. And no, we most likely won't be watching it

We are going to be visiting family in the evening so my plan is to get up, go for a walk, make a cheesecake and chill. That's about it really!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: RIP XVI wrap up

Music A-Z: V

Blog Tour: Flora's Travelling Christmas Shop

Weekend Cooking: When Life Gives You Lemon Curds

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date