Madeleine

Oh not warm enough here for a fleece, that wind is pretty cold!

We've had a couple of small branches break off one of our trees but nothing major, lots of bins and recycling boxes blowing around though! Worst thing was train travel, luckily my line wasn't affected (for once) but lots of other people took about 2 hours to get home from London, and people travelling to other parts of the country had to wait for hours, a lot of the big stations were closed. Much quieter today thankfully, and nice and sunny.

Caves

Yes the wind's been howling round here a bit too, also had some heavy rain this morning, luckily I was at the station so stayed under cover, but a colleague got soaked. Dry at the moment and quite bright.

Cold

Please Please Me - The Beatles

You're Net - Gregg Hurwitz

Beat

Right here waiting - Richard Marx

Oh no, just walked past him!

You probably don't need to read the first one, there is a bit of background info but you should be OK - I couldn't remember much about the first book anyway!

A couple I've finished in the last few days: Belgravia by Julian Fellowes - this book opens at a magnificent ball given just before the Battle of Waterloo, and then jumps forward 20-odd years, where we get the story of 2 famiies - The Brockenhursts, who are very wealthy, and the Trenchards, who have become wealthy thanks to the efforts of the husband, James, and his relentless social climbing combined with a head for business. However, to the Brockenhursts, the Trenchards will always be "in trade" and are therefore looked down upon, but the families are thrown together when their children fall in love. However, both die young - him at Waterloo and the girl in childbirth, and it's when their son grows up (unaware of his background, as he was raised by an acquaintance of James Trenchard) and come to London to set up in business that things start to get complicated, for the Trenchards haven't told the Brockenhursts that they have a grandson, and find themselves wondering whether to tell them, for the revelation would bring scandal on their daughter, for supposedly having a baby out of wedlock. What follows is a comedy of manners, deception, blackmail, unscrupulous servants and, of course, romance, written in a breezy style, with many characters, some better drawn than others, although my favourite was probably Mrs Trenchard, exasperated at her husband's deception but trying to do the right thing for everyone. It could have done with a bit of editing at times, and other parts felt a bit rushed, but overall I found it an enjoyable, escapist read, and of course Downton Abbey fans will probably love it. 7/10 Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths - the second in the Stephens and Mephisto series, set in Brighton in the early 1950s. Policeman Edgar Evans and Max Mephisto have become friends after serving in the War together, and it's now just before Xmas 1951. Max is busy in panto, but Edgar and his team are busy with the distressing double murder of 2 schoolchildren, and then the teacher of one of the children is also killed, presumably because she knew something she shouldn't. Their investigation seems to keep leading back to people involved with the current pantomime, and the killer certainly seems to be someone local. I found this was an enjoyable read, despite the subject matter, and the two main characters are very likeable. 8/10

Some of my daffodils are opening out, my crocuses came out at the weekend, and this morning I noticed a coupe of tulips opening too.

Pride

Devil Woman - Cliff Richard

It's light now when I leave work just after 1700, although today is very dull, and it's got very windy again too.

I watched a few with PC but gave up, I actually thought he was fine but the stories were incomprehensible, and all that rock star stuff was just ugh! I saw him in the street a while go and he was very unthreatening, so don't worry Bookworm! I never watched The thick of it though.

My favourites as a child were: Most Enid Blyton, especially the Famous 5 and St Clare's series Paddington Mary Plain Nancy Drew The Secret Garden

I agree with the above post - have you tried the Harry Potter books? They may seem a bit childish at first, but I think a lot of people who don't have English as their first language read them - they start off fairly simply and the first 2 are quite short, then they get longer and more complex as the series goes on.

As long as there are regular breaks, either chapters or breaks between paragraphs, I'm generally OK with longer books.

I usually read about 3 or 4 month, so my usual quota, pretty much.

A Mary Stewart might also do for me - a nice bit of escapism, and often in a nice setting too.

I read an interview years ago with PP, and he answered his critics ie the ones who said the books were anti-religious, by saying pretty much the same thing - he's not against religion per se, but about religion being used as justification for doing terrible things.

Luckily none of our dogs has taken a liking to bird food, but the foxes used to nick the peanuts when the feeder was lower down in the tree. Then the branch broke and we put it up higher, although they still sniff around underneath.

I've got Resurrectionist somewhere, I thi k it was a Richard and Judy book way back when. I enjoyed Drowning Ruth, great setting.