MOVED

The blog here has now finished please add my new blog to your list instead

                              You will find it here at       The Cottage at the End of a Lane.
It would be lovely if you could click the follower button on my new blog , because numbers of followers are much lower than this blog yet I know more people are reading it.
Thank you

Sue

A few bargains

Ham-pieces from Aldi £1.65 for 400g

 They always have this smoked and un-smoked. I would prefer smoked but that gives Col indigestion. It varies each time with different sorts of ham and you have to watch the use-by date. Sometimes it's only 2 days ahead rather than 6 days which is more useful.
It can make us................................... Ham and Chips for 2
                                                          Pasta, ham and broccoli bake for 2
                                                          5 days lunch sandwiches for 1
Yes, it would be cheaper to go Vegetarian but we're not.


Savoury Biscuits from Poundland . These are £2 for 250g everywhere except Poundland  where they are £1 for 250g, it's a no brainer!
Yep, plain cream crackers are cheaper but a bit boring.

I look at the junk mail that comes through the door, sometimes there might be a bargain.
Premier shops are small convenience shops often at petrol stations and small shopping precincts on estates. I've only ever been in our local one once as they are very expensive, but sometimes they have bargains.
Like 80 PG Tea Bags at half marked price - £1.32 that I spotted on the latest leaflet.

 Even beating Morrisons special offer of £2.
Yes, there is probably cheaper tea out there, but PG is reliably consistent +good and strong.

And finally I spotted this in the Hospice charity shop for £10, we'll need some extra chairs for the bigger space of the cottage................... can't be many chairs around for £10 I thought.

A pretty cushion will make it a handy chair for the spare bedroom and light enough to carry downstairs if needed.

Welcome to someone new following.

Back with moving news I hope
Sue

Recently Read or Returned Unread

I read "From a Distance", her most recent book, when it was published in 2014 and have read a few of the other 8 since then. "Come and Tell Me Some Lies" was her first book, published in 1994. Although it's fiction it has hints of her own life.
 Raffaella Barker was the daughter of a poet and lived in Norfolk with numerous siblings. The main character in the story - Gabriella is the daughter of a poet, lives in a ramshackle house in Norfolk and has several siblings. See what I mean?
I enjoyed the story, a quick read but thought it was almost something for teenagers.
I also had another of her books "A Perfect Life" on loan but couldn't be bothered with it as the story was obvious from the beginning and very similar to "Hens Dancing" and "Summertime" two of her other books.
"From a Distance" is probably my favourite of her books.

 I've  read Angela Thirkell's  "Peace Breaks Out" set at the end of the war in the fictional county of Barsetshire and re-read  one of the others -  "Pomfret Towers". Easy light reading for dull February.
Also "The Expert" by Bernard Knight. One of the seven of his old crime fiction books reprinted from the 1960s. This one was actually readable compared to some of the others.
 
Back to the library unread went A Perfect Life, mentioned above. "Gingerbread Mansion" by Lizbie Brown because it had tiny strange typeface which I couldn't read.

Next I'll be re-reading a couple more of Angela Thirkells books unless I go and collect another of the British Library Crime Classics which is now on the reservation shelf for me or even better, "Death of Kings" the 5th and new Rennie Airth book in his Inspector John Madden historical crime series. There is a three year gap since he wrote the 4th so I've forgotten all about the character but I know they are well written.

Back Soon
Sue

We were hopeful but..............

We were hoping for exchange last Friday but it didn't happen - no surprise there 😒 Our solicitor said she phoned Mrs F's solicitor 9 times Friday morning with no returned call. Then on Saturday morning we had a call from Mrs F. Seems  there will be further delay as the boiler in the house that she is buying should have been serviced before she buys the house but when someone went to service it there was no oil in the tank so it couldn't be done! Her solicitor has advised her not to move unless the service is done. For goodness sake they've had since mid October to sort this out!!
Now we don't know when exchange and completion will happen......... maybe next week? What I want to know is if the boiler fails it's service will we then have to wait while they re-negotiate? We were trying to be helpful by letting her choose completion date, now I'm getting just a tad annoyed.

Anyway, enough of all that hassle which I wasn't supposed to be mentioning  again.

 What have we been up to over the last few days?

On Thursday we went to the viewing afternoon at an Auction house to look at a rug. The living room at the cottage has a wood floor so we need something to make it feel warmer and I'm trying to avoid buying new things. The rug I'd found on their online catalogue wasn't so good in real life (which is something we often find!) but there was another smaller one much nicer, so we left a bid on it. 

Friday and off to visit our youngest daughter and our little Grandaughter. She is certainly growing nicely.

Saturday out again.
 First stop was The Potato Day (You can see more about East Anglian Potato Day  HERE  or on my 2014 post HERE or 2015 post HERE) for a few seed potatoes. We are only going to grow a bed with half first earlies and half second earlies so only needed 10 of each. Mid Suffolk District Council were there, as they always are, giving away their jute shopping bags - picked up one of course, that's about the 12th I've had from them over the years! Then onto the auction house to collect the rug which we won and look round the charity shops in the town - nothing of any interest seen in any of the 8 or was it 9? And harking back to my moan on the last post......the Oxfam shop was closed for a refit!! But in Poundland we spotted more alive-looking raspberry canes so £3 spent. We'd taken a flask as always so didn't need to splurge out for anything. Then  home.
The raspberry canes were put in a pot and the potatoes are chitting.
 It feels so good to be doing things we love again.
 Saturday pm and more rugby on TV, I also wrote a bit for the Suffolk Smallholders Newsletter to see if anyone has any tree seedlings or saplings that they don't want. We are life members of the Society because of all the work we did running it many years ago so have been getting the newsletter even though we'd left the smallholding. I'm quite keen to get involved with the society again ..............will see how I feel when the AGM comes round in September.

Too cold to venture to a car-boot sale Sunday morning, in fact there was a covering of snow first thing. I did go for a brisk walk down to Aldi for milk but glad to get back in the warm again. More Rugby and then Snooker on TV. In between all the sport we have been sorting out and filling more boxes. The cupboards are almost empty as is the chest freezer............. just a few bits left for meals this week, after that I'll be daily shopping for what we need until You-Know-What!

Welcome to Felicity, LJL and Cherie who are new followers and thank you everyone for comments on posts last week and to Briony who said she loved the blog, plus W at MidSuffolkMeadow who reminded me of another good charity shop that I will be visiting frequently once we move.

Back in a day or so
Sue

An Old Fashioned Charity Shop

Do you remember when charity shops were full to the brim with all sorts of interesting things?
 Before the days when they felt the need to keep up with posh clothes shops, before the days when they had a re-fit every other year and all their hangers had to be the 'right' way round.
The chain charity shops all seem to be much the same now....... Neat, tidy and  colour coded!

Luckily we have the Emmaus Charity shop  not far from us which is still a lovely place to search through and I found a couple of old interesting items in there the other day

The tin is an old biscuit tin with Chinese pictures - it's going to be our tea-caddy and the bottle is made of very thick glass, tinted green and full of imperfections. It has J.K & S on the base which I googled and found it means it was made by John Kilner and Sons sometime around the mid 1800's. It will be good for a few flowers on the deep window sills in the kitchen at the cottage. ( The old part of the cottage pre-dates this bottle!). I dithered over them for a few minutes but decided I would regret not getting them so £3.50p for the charity shop and they came home and made me very happy.

Welcome to  new followers Lyssa,Linda,Jane, Sarah and Sparrow.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Worth a try

The fruit I missed most last summer after leaving the smallholding was raspberries (and strawberries, apples, pears, plums, gooseberries, cherries,apricots and figs but mostly raspberries!) There are no raspberries at the cottage - shame - just a couple of blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes plus one each of apple,pear and plum trees.

A couple of weeks back I bought three packs of summer fruiting raspberry canes from Poundland for £3, they didn't have any more but today I noticed Wilkinsons had packs of 3 canes for £2.50 each and they also had a Fig for £3.50,  at that price they were worth a go. If I wait until we move and then order from one of the big seed/plant companies I might have to pay 3 times that. Although we may well get more later from somewhere. The raspberries have just been popped into a pot of compost and kept just damp in the summerhouse shed.The canes will go in one of the beds at the cottage as soon as they have been weeded. The fig has been planted up properly in a medium pot and will go in the greenhouse at the cottage until we decide it's best place outdoors.
 

 I would have preferred to have 6 canes all the same rather than 2 each of 3 varieties but this will do for a start. Will need to separate the Polka from the rest as I've discovered they are proper Autumn fruiting rather than just a very late summer, so need different pruning,didn't realise that when I got them. 2 canes of Autumn raspberries are not much use really so I will need more of those.

Wilkinsons had a good range of fruit bushes, lots of different things, some unusual. I might go back for another look although we'll have to buy a bag of compost if I get anything else before we move. But as we don't really know what we'll have room for it might be getting ahead of ourselves.

I see I've lost a follower..........who were you.....why did you leave! ( I am joking here, not serious)


Back Soon
Sue

Library Book Photo

I collected a massive pile of books from the library last week.

I said I wanted to re-read Angela Thirkell now that I have the book about the characters, so I ordered several - I think I may have over-ordered  as there are 5 above and the one I'd already started  - should keep me busy. They'll be easy reading through dull February as we wait.
The Lizbie Brown is curious. I read 6 of her books many years back, they were crime mysteries featuring a private detective who had an office over a quilt shop in Bath. Each title was the name of a quilting pattern. The last one was written in 2001 but while fiddling on Fantastic Fiction website I came across this - not in the crime series - Gingerbread Mansion published in 2009. I have no idea what it is.
The book London Shadows by Valery Avery is an old biography, I've read London Spring a while ago.
Christopher Somerville has written dozens of books on walking. I hope this is a good one.
I've read some others by Rafaella Barker ....... time to try another.
The Expert by Bernard Knight is another of the 7 old books of his that have been re-published, some were OK but others  dreadful.

Thanks for comments yesterday, more moving house news next time............I hope

Back very soon
Sue

There May Be (Faint) Signs of Movement

We've received paperwork and signed it, deposit money has gone into solicitors client account........things may be happening at last on the buying front. I'll still not hold my breath!

On the selling front we had a couple round to see the bungalow Saturday morning, they didn't say much so don't know what they thought.The agents phoned to say the couple were not sure. Shan't hold my breath there either. We are being pestered by other agents all wanting to sell our bungalow. One company have knocked on the door 3 times and sent a letter, why they think they could do better than the company we are with I have no idea. We might drop the price a bit which will move it back to the top on Rightmove, but not until we've moved out and then the agents can show people round an empty house. I've gone off the idea of letting as we know  things need doing here and we could end up paying out several £1000 before we get anything back.

The weekend was a weekend of viewing sport on TV with the start of the Six Nations Rugby and  Davis Cup Tennis, all good viewing. The GB team got through to the next round of Davis Cup because of the young Canadian player swiping his tennis ball away in disgust and hitting the chair umpire right in the eye therefore getting his team disqualified. Ouch! It was 2 rubbers each so they were playing the deciding match although Kyle Edmunds was two sets up at the time so might have won anyway. Good to see so many GB men doing well and not having to rely on Andy Murray. I think there is Snooker on all week before Rugby again next weekend. While waiting to move we have turned into couch potatoes!

The first Saturday Carboot of the season at Needham Market was a bit of a flop - plenty of boots there but I think half were the same ones who were at Portman Road last Sunday.............tat! all I spent was £2 on a huge bag of kitchen paper rolls which was a saving. Although I use a dishcloth for wiping and rags for cleaning we do use kitchen roll as tissues and a few other odd jobs.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Quickly saving about £5 or more

This is how we save a bit of cash when we go out. It takes 2 minutes to gather mugs, coffee and spoon in small tub, milk in bottle, kettle boiled and pour water into stainless steel flask, edible something in bigger tub then everything into a bag. Done.
Our trip out Sunday morning wasn't very successful  although the idea was good. It was sunny in Ipswich and we decided to pop to Felixstowe just to check the padlocks on the beach hut and spray them with a bit of WD40 and have a cuppa while watching the sea. Halfway to Felixstowe and we ran into thick fog and down at the hut visibility was next to nothing and bitterly cold.

So we walked down the steps along the prom, opened up the hut, checked inside, oiled padlocks and hinges then back to the car, drove along the seafront (avoiding cafes and Sunday market) and right up to the dock view point - but still very foggy. Had our home-made cuppa and cake ( avoiding View Point cafe) and then home again, where the sun was still shining brightly.
Oh well.

Back in a flash
Sue

Nothing much

I think I need to welcome new followers but I can't be sure as I've lost track of numbers.

 Another week with not a lot happening ........... mainly grey, misty or drizzle especially Wednesday when I popped to Felixstowe. The Orwell  Bridge on the A14 takes traffic quite high over the Orwell and it was foggy enough to  feel like being in the clouds, not a bit like this photo below.

There was just a touch of sun Thursday morning when I went to Leiston to look after Florence for a while. She was a real grizzle-guts, too tired to be happy yet too nosy to fall asleep and I forgot to get a photo on the few occasions that she smiled.. It was quite interesting seeing an 8 month old at the weekend and a not quite 4 month old  on Thursday, the difference is quite amazing.
 Leiston is about to lose it's only Building Society -The Norwich and Peterborough Society was taken over by The Yorkshire and they are closing loads of branches. This means that when they build Sizewell C and D Nuclear power stations and the town grows there will be just the Barclays Bank left to deal with the increase in population.We moved there in 1992 just as they were finishing Sizewell B and the town had 3 building societies and 2 banks, 2 supermarkets and a proper Post Office, now there is just the Co-op Solar and the Post Office is inside another shop.  Progress is backwards for some things it seems.

Great excitement........Needham Market (a town that  also lost it's only bank a few years ago) carboot sale starts tomorrow - weather permitting -  and we have someone coming to see the bungalow but as we have boxes piled up making the place look even smaller than it is, I'm not hopeful. I did tell our Estate Agent to warn the man that we are in a muddle but he said he would come anyway.

So all in all not much to write about and no photos.
 When I very first started reading blogs someone had a picture of their hoover cylinder which had come un-clipped and spilled all over the floor and their trousers and I remember thinking 'if ever I write a blog that's something I wouldn't bother to photograph!' and today Ilona has a picture of the  cat litter trays - not going there either!


Have a good weekend whatever you are doing
Back Shortly
Sue

February 2nd

From my Country Wisdom and Folklore Diary

There are lots of weather sayings for February many of them connected to the Ancient Imbolc which became the Christian Candlemas, the most well known is

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright

Winter will have another flight

If Candlemas be dark with clouds and rain

Winter is gone and won't come again.

I'm loving this diary, it has sunrise and sunset times for every day so I can cheerfully say that daylight hours got longer by about 15  minutes over this week - Whoopee!

Many thanks for comments on yesterdays post

Back Soonish
Sue

February

February brings the rain, thaws the frozen ponds again.

So said Sara Coleridge in her months of the year poem.

The picture is from one of the Edwardian Lady books by Edith Holden. I've borrowed the image off t'internet as my copy is...................packed in a box.
 We have aconites and a few snowdrops in our very small garden, not much else although there are signs of other bulbs coming up.

When we were children it was considered lucky to say "Rabbits,Rabbits Rabbits" on the first of the month. They had to be the first words you spoke in the morning. Now I'm wondering ......Why?

According to the shops only one thing happens in February and that's Valentines day. We won't be wasting our pennies in buying any of the junk that is now available - all those silly soft toys - for grown ups? just don't get it I'm afraid. As for hearts on everything? a great sales ploy " Must have special PJs and cushions for Valentines" Really? 


My Books Read page tells me I read 12 books in January, which just proves how much free time is available while waiting to move. Oooops sorry, said I wouldn't mention that again. Actually that should be 13 as I quickly re-read 'Summer Half' one of Angela Thirkell's smaller novels.

My accounts book tells me that we did fairly well in Don't-spend-anything-extra-in-case-I've-done-my-sums-wrong month. Of course there were extras - the new kettle, getting photos of the wedding printed, having curtains cleaned to take with us, half-year car tax, MOT, booking venue for Col's 60th bash ( he wants to meet up with all his aunts,uncles, cousins etc without it being at a funeral!), virus protection for one lap top and paying for a library book that got left at hospital and vanished. We ate mainly from the freezer but still needed milk, fruit, veg and store-cupboard staples. Total spend for the whole month - absolutely everything except Council Tax -  £751.

We need to empty the freezer before we move   (Oh- done it again)so I went through it mid December to see how many main meals I could make from its contents and came up with a list of 32. We were out Christmas day and brought home boxing day dinner with us. Then of course Col had That bug and neither of us ate much for a few days so now at the beginning of February I've still got

A couple of chicken breasts

2 cheese and onion pasties

2 x half pound of bacon

2 very small lamb chops (only useful for curry)

1lb of mince (annoying as I usually split them into half pounds)

2 boxes of home made tomato and onion pizza topping

2 portions of  home made lasagne

2 portions of home made salmon/pasta bake 

A very small ham joint that was meant for after Christmas

So still enough for meals until halfway through February at least.

Back in a jiffy

Sue

Keep on keeping on

Odds and ends today as my blog seems to have turned into a book blog over the last few posts and I don't want to bore anyone who doesn't read. But thank you for the comments on Angela Thirkell yesterday. I'm cross that I'm late finding her as the books not re-printed by VMC are so expensive on Amazon, but there again maybe I needed to be "of a certain age" to enjoy her subtle wit, I can't imagine I would have enjoyed them so much while in my 20s.

So many of my favourite blogs have stopped recently. Everyone has so much happening in their lives that they have no time to blog. I'm beginning to feel that my life is lacking as I still have plenty of time to write as we are still B***** waiting for a solicitor to sort the paperwork! I guess it's all a matter of deciding which things you like doing best, in my case reading, writing and some crafting, and limiting to the minimum things that don't seem so important (obsessive cleaning, faffing and shopping)
 (Our solicitor phoned, there is still a delay, She's been sent paperwork but still no proper details of the bit of land that Mrs F bought about 10 years after buying the house. I'm so fed up with writing about this cock-up I'll NOT mention the house move again until it actually happens!).

Walked round the Portman Road carboot sale on Sunday morning. It's the only one that carries on all year round but what a load of tatty junk, where on earth does it all come from? Most looked as if it had been fished out of someone's rubbish bin. Felt like singing "What A Load Of  Rubbish" which is probably what the crowd at the football ground on the other side of the road have been singing all season................I.T.F.C are not doing well at the moment!
The only thing I saw of any interest was a huge collection of Home Farmer magazines but the woman was wanting £1 for 3 - silly money for a car boot sale. I'd probably had several of them in the past anyway so left them where they were. We came home for coffee and kept our money for another day.

  Over the weekend we saw two out of three children and just our grandson, now 8 months old - a very happy little chap, who will soon be crawling

 Our youngest was poorly so wasn't able to come out, but we will see Florence later this week as we are looking after her while youngest has an appointment. Actually it will just be me going over to Leiston as
 Colin has gone down with a horrible cold and clogged up sore throat. The chemo he had all last year knocked out his immune system and he now seems to pick up everything that goes round and gets it much worse than other people.I shall cart him off to the doctor I think, as he may need antibiotics.

Regarding the courgette and  lettuce shortage that made the news a week or so ago, I noticed that Morrisons had a sign on their Iceberg lettuces..... " limited to 2 per customer". My thought was who on earth would want to buy one let alone 3 of these nasty tasteless version of a lettuce!

We seem to have got through the grey days of January, I'd better find some weather sayings for February.

Back Soon
Sue

The World of Angela Thirkell

"The daughter of a classical scholar, Thirkell was also the cousin of Rudyard Kipling. Her novels, usually peopled with genteel, snobbish characters, are noted for their gentle irony, absurdity of tone, and understated sophistication."

That is what it says about her novels on Fantastic Fiction and the 'irony' maybe explains why some people love her writing and others can't get into it at all.

She was born in 1890 and died in 1961 and wrote the Barsetshire series between 1933 and her death.

I worked in libraries in the 1970s but don't remember her books being in stock, so perhaps they were well out of fashion during that decade.

But Virago Vintage Classics began reprinting her books in 2012 and I was drawn to the cover of the 1st,  High Rising, when it kept popping up on my Amazon page as something I might like to read.

Once I got into her way of writing it made me smile and that is what I like about her books. You mustn't be put off by 'the genteel snobbish characters'. Don't take offence at the gentry's way of speaking about their servants. It is this very absurdity that makes them so enjoyable.

And of course we do irony quite well in Suffolk anyway.

 This is a paragraph from the 1945 novel Miss Bunting that probably explains why her books make some readers despair and never read any further but make others smile and read on.

A nice bit of  fat boiled bacon off the ration (which for the benefit of any readers from another planet we will explain to mean not that the bit of bacon in question comes off your ration but that it isn't  and never was on it) with young potatoes and peas from the garden is not to be despised. Frank did not despise it, by which happy chance his elders were able to talk in peace for a time.

 I've read 14 so far, and as Virago re-print I borrow them from the library (although recently they annoyingly published a few only as e books) and look out for them for pennies at charity shops. I actually picked up some very old tatty Penguin reprints from the 1950's at a car boot sale several years ago but they had such small print that I couldn't read them. A kind blog reader sent some old hardbacks that she had in duplicate so my collection is growing slowly.

Although each book is a separate story they have characters  that pop up now and again in different books, which can be very frustrating as I remember the name but not always their back story. So with Christmas money from Father-in-Law I  ordered Angela Thirkell's World ................

....... Created by an avid Thirkell fan, this reference was designed to help fellow readers keep straight the hundreds of characters that populate the 29 novels of Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire series. Organised alphabetically, the book includes the name of every character, a chronological list of the books in which he or she appears, and a summary of what readers learn about the character in each book.

It finally arrived all the way from the USA last week - the cheapest copy on Amazon. Now I might need to re-read all 14 and put all the others on my wish list so I can make good use of the book. Of course the ones I own are................packed in a box!

Back Shortly
Sue

Just reading

Still waiting.
Mrs F's solicitor sent some paperwork to our solicitor but it wasn't right. The estate agent contacted Mrs F's solicitor and got told that if people stopped interrupting her she would be able to get things sorted....very rude I thought.
Meanwhile I'm reading.
After 3 easy reading crime I was quite glad to get into a proper novel..... this is what I borrowed.
.First published in 1948 the story spans 40 years in the 14th Century and tells the story of a convent through that time.  It's a bit odd and  I actually borrowed it last year and sent it back unread for that reason, but having read this below which is reminiscences of the authors Edwardian childhood
I felt up to having another go at her fiction.
I think I now know where MARGARET FRAZER got her ideas from for her series of 17 crime fiction featuring the nun Dame Frevisse which were set in the same period and written between 1992 and 2008.
I actually have most of this series as several were not available easily in this country (Frazer was from the States) and I had to search on line for them.

So a weekend of waiting, reading and seeing all three children and both grandchildren is what we will be doing. Fingers crossed for Next week....................
Back Soon
Sue

St Pauls Day, a book and Burns Night

January the 25th is St Paul's Day. In the past many weather rhymes were linked to this date as country people tried to predict what the growing year would be like

If St. Paul's Day be fair and clear

It doth betide a happy year.

But if, by chance,it then should rain,

It will make dear all kinds of grain.

And if the clouds make dark the sky,

Then neate and fowls this year shall die.

If blustering winds do blow aloft,

Then wars shall trouble the realm full oft.

In this rhyme neate is an old word for cattle and even politics can be changed by the weather - who knew?

I was pondering on how various days were remembered in the past. Usually because they were Saints days or important in the church calendar.
Now we have days that reflect the importance of money rather than weather.

Black Thursday and Black Tuesday - The 24th and 29th October 1929, when panicked sellers traded 4 million shares, making the stock market crash and the usually said to be the start of the Great Depression.

Black Friday - The day following Thanksgiving in the US. Now used worldwide to signify the start of a mad spending spree leading up to Christmas

Black Monday - October 19th 1987 - The more recent stock market crash

Blue Monday - the day in January when all the credit card bills arrive for the massive Christmas overspend

Black Wednesday 16th September 1992, when the pound sterling was withdrawn from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism

I think I would rather have weather sayings.


The latest book added to my Books Read 2017 list. I read  this quite quickly. It's Elly Griffiths other series- A Stephens and Mephisto mystery. This is the 3rd, set mainly in 1950's Brighton.

The library website says this-On the eve of the Queen's coronation, DI Stephens and Max Mephisto uncover an anarchist plot and a ticking bomb at the same time as solving the murder of a man close to them.

 Elizabeth II's coronation is looming, but the murder of their wartime commander, Colonel Cartwright, spoils the happy mood for DI Edgar Stephens and magician Max Mephisto. A playbill featuring another deceased comrade is found in Colonel Cartwright's possession, and a playing card, the ace of hearts: the blood card. The wartime connection and the suggestion of magic are for Stephens and Mephisto to be summoned to the case. Edgar's ongoing investigation into the death of Brighton fortune-teller Madame Zabini is put on hold. Max is busy rehearsing for a spectacular Coronation Day variety show - and his television debut - so it's Edgar who is sent to New York, a land of plenty worlds away from still-rationed England. He's on the trail of a small-town mesmerist who may provide the key, but someone silences him first. It's Edgar's colleague, DS Emma Holmes, who finds the clue, buried in the files of the Zabini case, that leads them to an anarchist group intent on providing an explosive finale to Coronation Day. Now it's up to Edgar, Max and Emma to foil the plot, and find out who it is who's been dealing the cards.

The 9th book in her Dr Ruth Galloway series - The Chalk Pit- is due out next month, the library has loads of copies on order and I'm on the waiting list.

And to anyone with Scottish heritage celebrating Burns' night  - Lang may your lum reek.


Back Soon
Sue

Yesterday was Sunday

I woke early and listened to the Australian Open tennis but it was soon obvious that both Andy Murray and Dan Evans would be heading home on the next plane out - a shame for both. They have Davis Cup versus Canada coming up in a couple of weeks.

We decided to go for a  chilly walk  around the Ipswich waterfront mid-morning, the sun was lovely but it was just so cold we didn't stay out long. (My little camera has developed a big blob on the lens - very annoying)

 Once the docks would have been full of warehouses and boats loading and unloading wood and barley, now the buildings are part of the University of Suffolk and the Marina is full of huge sea-going yachts - a lot of money 'tied up' there.

 I spent the rest of Sunday reading a bit of very light crime fiction, the 4th in a series by  Carola Dunn, set in 1970(?) Cornwall and  described here on the Fantastic Fiction website.
After many years working around the world for an international charity in the late 1960s, Eleanor Trewynn has retired to the relative quiet of a small town in Cornwall. But her quiet life is short-lived when, due to her experience, the Commonwealth Relations Office reaches out to her to assist in a secret conference that is to take place in a small hotel outside the historical village of Tintagel.

Meanwhile, her niece, Detective Sergeant Megan Pencarrow, is investigating the disappearance of a local solicitor when she is assigned to help provide security for the conference. Two African students, refugees from Ian Smith's Rhodesia, arrive for the conference, escorted by Megan's bete noire from Scotland Yard. They are followed by two mysterious and sinister Londoners, whose allegiances and connections to the conference and the missing solicitor are unclear. With a raging storm having trapped everyone in the hotel, the stage is set for murder, and it's up to Eleanor and Megan to uncover the truth before more lives are lost.

Carola Dunn has also written a series of equally silly crime featuring the Hon. Daisy Dalrymple set in the 1920's.

I do hope we get house news this week, we have so much packed that there is really nothing else to do. I've resorted to knitting dishcloths to keep occupied! At least we will have a diversion at the end of the week with a visit of our eldest and grandson from Surrey. They are staying with our son and his wife as we thought we would be in a muddle having just moved or  in the middle of moving. Hmmmm fat chance!

Back Soon
Sue

Pb Atomic Number 82

Image from shutterstock at google

 Pb = Plumbum - The Latin name for lead and smirked at by students since time began.

5 years ago when we had the new kitchen extension at the smallholding the old kitchen chimney was taken down and the lead flashing folded up and stored under the workbench in Col's shed - ready to go to the scrap-merchants. 4 years later and we were having the last lot of junk and scrap cleared away and Col,who was in hospital at the time said "don't let T take the lead, I'll take it to the scrap-merchants myself". 3 months later and I'm moving out of the smallholding to Ipswich and Col is in hospital and the pieces of lead are Still under the workbench. So they were put in the car and came with me and I used them to hold down the compost bin. Almost 1 year later and this precious lead has finally got to the scrap merchants and after all that the bits were worth................. £18!
Better than a kick up the Plum-bum!


Many thanks for comments, still no news on the conveyance mix-up from the other solicitors.

Back next week
Sue

More Than Half-Past January

January seems to be speeding past, some years it's a drag.

My spend-nothing-extra-just-in-case-I've-done-my-sums-wrong month is going OK. Greatly helped by eating everything in the freezer and both of us being ill! So far this month food spending has been about £50 and not much more needed except milk, fruit and veg.

But spending plans slightly mucked up by getting 2 pairs of thick, lined curtains cleaned. They are a weird heavy material - heavens knows why I bought them (except for the fact they were exactly the right colours) and I realised when we took them down from the living room that it must be over 5 years since we got them and Oh Goodness - they'd never been cleaned before, Whoops.
The living room at the cottage has 3 windows including the double doors into the conservatory so I've been looking for another pair that will be a match or co-ordinate with what we have. Finally found a pair of full length in the Hospice charity shop that will go well  for £5. Also thick and lined and unfortunately dry-clean only again - damn, but I'll worry about that later.

We went into the town centre early in the week to sort out our money ready for buying the cottage and ran out of time for anything except nipping into Poundland. All their Christmas decoration stuff was 5p and there were several people filling their baskets with a ton of junky looking tat. Then I spotted two boxes of 6 crackers so that was a grand total of 10p added to the Christmas part of the accounts.

Quite nice crackers containing snap, hat, joke and mini jigsaw puzzles for less than 1p each!

We've packed almost as many boxes as we can for the moment and we're living around them.The cat is puzzled - poor thing, any box left open has to be examined. When we had the glass door panel here replaced to take a cat flap we kept the old panel so after we've moved we'll get the same man to come and replace it. Col has measured up the panel of the back door at the cottage and all being well the one with the cat flap in should fit there, which will save a bit of money. I'm not sure how Polly will take to country life again as she's turned into a cat who doesn't venture far.

Went to Hobbycraft this morning been meaning to visit ever since we got one in Ipswich......... which was many months ago. Had a nice look round and could have been tempted by loads of things - they had die-cutting machines on offer at.......... £60! .......much more than I could justify spending on a hobby, even if I had £60 to spare. What I did get that I needed were some foam pad stickers for 3D decoupage cards and then I spotted something that might be an idea for this years Penny Pincher friends Christmas presents. In  past years I've cross stitched key rings, needle-cases, Christmas tree decorations, lavender sachets, coasters and notebook covers and made heat resistant pot stands and birthday books. I've given dried Bay leaves and chilli peppers and pretty jar labels, wooden dibbers and bean seeds, so always looking for a new idea that's not too expensive, mainly homemade and not too big to send.

Just watching 1 O'clock news about "Courgette wars!! and drastic Courgette crisis!!" Blimey, if people ate local and seasonal they wouldn't be eating courgettes in January anyway and then they wouldn't need to "take to social media to voice their anger at the shortage"! Have to say this "Crisis" hasn't affected us.

Welcome to someone new on the followers bit, hope you enjoy reading

Back in a Flash
Sue

Crafting

On the right - 5 cross stitched cards for my 5 Penny Pincher penfriends are almost finished - ready for Christmas. Just need to sew on the snowflake charm. The charms are a bit big really but I only had 1 snowflake brad the right size and all I could find anywhere was these bigger ones. I got them done so I can start the tapestry - on the left.  It's the one I bought myself from the charity shop for Christmas and then my Brother in law gave me the money for it.  He wants to do all his Christmas shopping like that next year!
We had a friend in the Suffolk Smallholders Society who used to frame things for me mates rates, but he's moved to Yorkshire, so I'm going to have to pay proper price, find a frame to fit or turn it into a cushion........a long thin cushion!

Mrs F at the cottage is leaving a desk in what will be my craft room so with the table I've got I should have more room for crafting than I've had for a year. Maybe I'll be able to unpack and learn how to use my new sewing machine at last.

We are still being held up with the house purchase due to a 'wrongly' worded answer by Mrs F to one of the ambiguous questions on the Law Society Form. If a question says "has any additional land been sold or purchased?" and the person answers " Yes half an acre". Which do YOU think?
Yes - sold or Yes - purchased?
We know it's yes-purchased, Mrs F knows it's yes- purchased but the solicitors.....ours or hers....... have assumed SOLD. Oh dear.......... Confusion reigns and we all get wet!
The problem isn't helped by everything being done by phone or email. If you are told to sign something that's been highlighted in yellow and you can't find anything highlighted in yellow(because it's been highlighted in green) what hope is there?!

We are waiting.
And packing boxes.

Back in a day or two
Sue