Madeleine

The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher

Yep I thought the ending was a cop-out too, apparently the film ends differently.

We rarely get storms like that either, just as well probably!

She likes her comfort doesn't she!

I loved St Clare's as well, and some of the Adventure series, don't think I read all of them. Read a bit of Dahl, bit of Laura Ingalls Wilder, I also liked the Mary Plain books (another story about a little bear, this time from Switzerland), the first What Katy Did, the Follyfoot books (although I wasn't a horsey person!), Mary Poppins, Alan Garner (mainly because Elidor was serialised on TV). As an adult I've read mainly Potter and the Dark Materials, and some YA stuff eg Mortal Instruments.

That sounds bad about the knee, are you wearing a support on it or anything? Hope the rain stays off, forecast for the west country and south isn't that good for today so hope it clears. I heard the first mention of the "C" word yesterday - our walking group chair was talking about organising the usual meal, there are normally about 40 of us so it does need to be booked up early, but still.....!

they're all lovely. I reckon Pamuk could have a fair bit of Labrador in her? How do you look after Boris's coat?

I always preferred the Famous 5 to the Secret 7 as well. Only read The Hobbit as an adult. I also liked the Paddington Bear books, and the Alfred Hitchcock/Nancy Drew books as well.

200 pages is fine - I gave The Book Thief about 250 before I ditched it - depends on the size of the book obviously, but if it's a longish book than the 200 zone is an honourable attempt.

We had rain again last night, and a bit this morning, but no more storms, although it's still looking pretty threatening and is quite muggy again.

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Dull and humid here, felt a few spots of rain at lunchtime but so far it's stayed dry.

We finally got the storm last night - lightning flashed around for ages, almost continuously, for quite a long time - I stood watching it out of the window for about 20 minutes, it was behind the clouds most of the time and looked amazing, although there was no rain and the thunder was a long way off, just a faint rumbling - eventually it woke me up around 4.15, with torrential rain and thunder overhead. Very muggy now and looking threatening again.

Just heard from a friend who had a tat done on her stomach a while ago, and has been ill for months after getting coloured ink poisoning! happily she's on the mend now, but it sounds very nasty, as they didn't know what was wrong at first and didn't suspect the tat might be the cause, it was done by a reputable tattooist apparently. Ick

Lost in a good book - Jasper Fforde

The Safety Dance - Men without Hats

OH yes, I love Broken Strings which she recorded with James Morrison. And this one is nice too.

Thanks, Athena, I'm particularly looking forward to The Chalk Pit, it's one of my favourite series.

I got fed up with Sue Grafton's series around R, still have the first few letters of the alphabet to read though!

It was pretty unsettled in my area over the weekend too - dull on Saturday, with a couple of brief showers, and yesterday was very muggy, also with a couple of showers, and one brief downpour around 1900, but not that nice overall. Today is warm and sunny so far (as Shirley says, typical when we're back at work!)

I have to agree with Noll - after all, the way things are going lately, with practically every TV drama being female dominated, the alpha male seems to be getting more and more emasculated, or at least severely endangered! I haven't watched that much of the last series - only 2 or 3 episodes, and I think a lot of the problems lie with the writing, and the seemingly incomprehensible plots (going as far back as Matt Smith, when I did still watch it every week). I think it's looking distinctly tired now, there is so much other sci fi out there and time travel isn't even a novelty any more, so maybe casting a woman will give it a bit of a boost and refresh it. I have nothing against Jodie Whittaker in person - she was very good in Broadchurch and as the new Who writer also wrote Broadchurch I don't suppose it was that difficult in choosing Capaldi's successor. I hope for her sake this doesn't kill her career, and she's not getting abused on social media as often happens now over the slightest thing. Best to take a wait and see approach, and good luck to her.

Cool for Cats - Squeeze

Oh that's an old one! Whatever happened to Tanita?

I think this will be make or break for the show - either it'll be a disaster, or it'll be great. I hardly watched any of the last series, as I think I've finally outgrown it, but it'll be interesting to see how it works. Wonder what will happen with the assistant though?

White Lines - Grandmaster Flash