Wednesday 29 January 2020

Junk Jewellery and a Neglectful Blogger ....

I am aware that I have neglected you all of late... and you've probably gone off somewhere else altogether!  So sorry, life has been busy, particularly at my dining table of late.  Why?  Well....

At some point in early December, I was delivering some unwanted clothing to the charity shop I support.  Usually Mr Mac does this job, but I happened to be in town at the same time as he was and I did the charity shop run whilst he did something else.  Because we are gift aiders (i.e. we pay tax and so any stuff gifted to a charity they can claim tax back).  So I said I was a gift aider and gave my postcode... "Mrs Mac!  Hello!   we hardly ever see you!.  Would you like to do some volunteering?"  "Well, no, I wouldn't".  "Not even an hour a week?"  "No, sorry".

She then went on to tell me they had stacks of old jewellery that needed sorting, cleaning, remaking.... and I said I would do it at home for her.  I haven't stopped except over Christmas!

 If I count the price tags I have used, I am up at  300+ items now, and a friend gave me years and years of accumulated stuff last week to add to it all.  As well as old jewellery there were two full carrier bags of loose glass beads of all kinds and sizes - nearly every one gone now - made into necklaces or  memory wire bracelets.

I have to say it's just the job for winter days when you are not going out and the sky is grey.  I've found no treasure, really, but I have made a lot of junk saleable - surprising what you can do by cutting up old dirty necklaces and using the beads in a different way.

That's not a good pic, but it's the only one I have currently.  All that stuff was made from other stuff except for the black necklace which I only had to wash in soapy water.

We are around 25 miles from Glastonbury, and the shop manager tells me that they sell loads of junk jewellery the week before the festival so I'm going to keep my eyes open when there are bits of the festival on TV, in case I spot one of my glorious creations!!

Tuesday 14 January 2020

Cuckoo Song - Frances Hardinge


Oh. My. Goodness.   What an imaginative read this was! The first of Frances Hardinge's  I've read, but will be looking out for more because it's a long time since I was so gripped by a story. I didn't see the significance of the title for at least a quarter of the book, but that's all to the good.

This creepy and twisty tale of a child interfered with by the "Besiders".  The Besiders are those who come from other places, seeking a safe new home place.  They have to come in disguise, for they are different and they need somewhere settle - and land is being eaten up at a rate of knots.  Are these Besiders faeries, other creatures?  Who knows, but their leader, and the  controller of their movements is a man who gets his own way at all times, and usually by using magic of some kind. 

When Tris awakes and finds that she has been very ill, her mind is playing tricks. She doesn't feel real, exactly, her parents seem overly concerned, and her little sister hates her with a vengeance. If I say more there will be spoilers, so I won't, except to say that this may have been aimed at a YA audience, but whatever your age, if you believe in any kind of magic at all, I think you may race through this like I did. I was reminded of how I felt reading the first Harry Potter - although this story is nothing like any of those and there is no Hogwarts! Brilliant, very readable, and recommended!







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...