Monday 30 November 2015

Mrs Mac suggests - What to read in DECEMBER


A book you would give to your younger self is the subject I've chosen this month.

Well! there are loads of books I would give to my younger self so what to choose!  It's December, so I guess lots of you are thinking about Christmas presents.  And, I hear you say, how young a younger self does she mean?  As young as you like, but not one you actually did read back then.  After all, the younger you will know about it, won't they?!

 I'm going to send my younger self a wonderful Young Adult book that I just loved

                                    Meg Rosoff - The Way I Live Now

Thursday 19 November 2015

A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night - Harry Nilsson


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We've had a makeover in our living room, which meant furniture was removed, stuff was stored in the dining room, and decisions were made about what to keep, what to sell, what to send to the charity shop.  The vinyl is up a a shelf in the dining room. Will we replace them with CDs?  Get them re-recorded onto CD?  Will we just download the stuff we like?  Later, later for that decision.

Now to put the CDs in their new home...... and a real chance to have a listening session and see what the classics of the collection will be.  And the first one is:

I have just replayed A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night - Harry Nilsson which I have loved from the first time I heard it. Arrangements of mostly old standards (It had to be you; What'll I do; As time goes by), it reminds me of a good time in my life (not that it hasn't been mostly good!) and I am never getting rid of this one!

Every track is linked by an intro that "mentions" one of the other classics on the album, although not necessarily the next one you will hear.  A couple of little jokes in the words of songs, too;  it's just glorious.  Are you an old sentimentalist?  Very young with no experience of the standards of the 1930s?  Someone like me who just loves a song with wonderful words?  If you don't have this album, give yourself a treat.  Available for not much money, and I can almost guarantee you will play it many times and find yourself falling in love with the late, great Nilsson.


Sunday 1 November 2015

Christmas decorating - early thoughts!

Just a little idea for Christmas..... I don't mention that word until November each year, even though cards are in the shops in September (when I may not even have had my holiday!!!).  This is the mirror in my dining room..... and the branch was one that fell off my cherry tree in the garden.  If you are going to do this you need to check that your own mirror is nice and secure.

Tie string in three places and attach to mirror with drawing pins (press pins).  Get the level and the look of it right.

Choose your decoration colour (this time it was red, silver and plain glass), and make sure the step ladder you use is steady, and off you go.  I hung all this stuff either with thin silver string, or with the cord that came with the ornament - most of the hearts are cloth, and came from a string of them which I took apart to use them singly on here.

This is something that requires little money (you all have a box of ornaments somewhere, yes?) and only your time.  This was the first time I had done this, but it's been up there a while now...... (the ornaments come off after Christmas, of course!!).  But if, like me, you are a lazy old bat, just dust it with a feather duster and move on to the next idea.  I had miniature eggs hanging on it at Easter.

Keep it up as long as you like, and eventually you may get fed up with it.  At that point, take it down and use the wood for kindling if you have a woodburner or open fire, and if not, cut it into a few even pieces and put it in a corner of the garden, where beetles and such will find it and use it.

Early One Morning - Virginia Baily

I was attracted to this novel purely by the cover (as I suppose this is meant to happen!) and it has very little about the contents on the b...