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!!

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!

Mrs Mac Suggests - what to read in JANUARY

It's coming - 2020 I mean, and a whole twelve months of lovely reading to follow!  Here in the SW of England, no snow to report, not too much flooding in my town, and quite high temperatures for the time of year so have not even got my winter coat out!

Christmas is over and my sister will be picked up and driven home by a friend today.... she has been with us for two weeks and has eaten everything put in front of her (heartening, I hate a fussy eater!).  She slept well, and for the very first time in her life has perfected the art of a cup of tea with a few pages of a book before she gets dressed........!!

So what are we going to read in 2020?  I read loads in 2019: all listed on Goodreads if you are nosey! https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/18687279

So let's get started on the year.  What shall I suggest for this month?   How about

A book set in a seaside town      

I don't read many series (I like to change things round a bit!), although I have a couple of favourites, but sometime this month I will read the second in the Stephens and Mephisto series.... set in Brighton, and starring a detective and his friend the magician.  Set in the 1950s, it goes from the UK to New York and back.  So I'm looking forward to reading 

The Blood Card - Elly Griffths

Happy New Year everyone.  Don't try too hard, just enjoy what you can!

Winter, Christmas, Solstice - take your pick for my greeting to you 2019

Here we are as usual.... with greetings to any and all who come across this... my regulars, my once in a while visitors.  And this year my wish is actually for next year.  May 2020 be a good year, a joyful year, a quiet year, full of joy and good health for you and yours.

Mrs Mac Suggests: What to read in DECEMBER 2019

Sorry!  a day or two late as it's December already, but due to some family emergencies I couldn't get here.... but I'm here now.

It's December, and for some folk that means snow.  Here in the SW of England it's cold but dry and perhaps with NO RAIN for a while - YAY!

So do you get in the Christmas spirit by reading something heartwarming?  Or perhaps something  quite the opposite?

I am suggesting  a book  50 years old or older should be the read for December.  Now that might be

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
or
An English Murder - Cyril Hare

but whatever it is, it sort of needs to be set around the Christmas Season.  I have just read An English Murder (1950) which was a short and sweet English Country House story.  I liked it.  Clever.

So wishing you good reading and a Cool Yule where ever and whoever you are.  Enjoy!

When The Floods Came - Clare Morrall

Isn't a well-written book with a good story and a "proper" ending a joy to read?  I devoured this one, and loved reading every single chapter.  But stop reading here if you cannot do dystopia, for this is a clever take on that subject, a really good "what if".  Around the internet I can see that this is a marmite book - mostly because this is not a heavy duty dystopia, it's not like McCarthy's The Road, King's The Stand and many others.  But for me, that was the whole point.... a quiet novel set in a boring place, with ordinary people who are getting by just fine.  Until......

Roza lives in a flat in a tower block just outside Birmingham - a part of the UK which is heavily flooded for the winter months.  It is now a very long time since a virus whiped out a majority of the population, and the Government now operates from Brighton.  Some things have remained the same - the internet still works (sort of), some things are very different (no cars, no money).  Roza's family of Mother, Father and four siblings have managed very well - not least because the tower block is empty except for them, and so scope for  scavenging from all the other flats is huge. Roza works on line for a Chinese company; Roza's Mum (Moth) teaches over the internet, and generally they get by and with no other example to go by, seem to have a decent (if a little boring) life. Roza's on-line fiance is on his way by bike from Brighton to Birmingham, sending progress reports on a daily basis.  And then after all this time, a stranger turns up at the flats.  A young charismatic man who tells them all sorts of things....... Can he be trusted?

The Trick to Time - Kit de Waal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I found this a very moving read.  I must warn readers that it does contain a short chapter dealing with still-birth and also mention of mental illness.  But these two very serious subjects are part of the whole;  and the whole is a tender, and powerful read that made my heart hurt.  This is the story of Mona's life - from the death of her mother when she was very small, the loss of her father when she was in her early twenties. It's also the story of her early marriage, which didn't last long, and what she has done since, now approaching her 60th birthday.  For a long time she has made clothes for, and painted the faces of, wooden dolls for collectors.  The dolls are made by a carpenter - a lonely man she seems to feel she must keep an eye on as he appears even sadder than she.  There's also a man about her age who likes to meet her for coffee.  She likes him, but wants nothing further from him - though perhaps he wants more from her?

It jumps about in time, but that didn't worry me at all, I wasn't lost in time, although Mona was, and she was not the only one.  I wonder what I would have done in Mona's shoes?  There are clues everywhere about what has happened, and what is still happening.  There are lovely people who support her, make her smile, and generally guide her through life, but there is also a worrying character or two who turn out quite differently than expected.

I think it's a book to read slowly, because every so often a short sentence appears, seemingly meaning little, but actually opening out Mona's life.  One of those short sentences, which appears during a visit to Birmingham just after her birthday to visit her old friend Val as she does every year, was heartbreaking.  The reader will see that Mona is not the only person in the world to have suffered - for different reasons of course - and she doesn't always think kindly of them because of that.  But all those characters make the book what it is, and make Mona's story so much more.  This is certainly one of my top ten books of the year.