Tuesday, August 11, 2026

One of the best books I have read in a while..........

 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

I picked up a damaged copy of this book during a "moonlight sale" in a town where we were visiting the other week.  I had seen it advertised and it looked interesting.  Thought it would be a book I would enjoy.

Prior to reading this, I thought it would be pretty straight forward, but the more I got into the book, the more the author twisted the storyline, until at the end, you went wow, I wasn't expecting that.

I understand where the author got the idea about the "influencer" part of the story from, in fact I could see from "which influencer's" she based her main character on, Ballerina Farm and The Pioneer Woman, just to name a couple.  I will say the main character, Natalie got on my nerves after a while, but I just had to read more, as I didn't understand the going back to the 1800's part of the story.

I gave it a very solid 4 out of 5 stars.  However, there was a lot of mixed reviews about this book.  Was it worth all the hype?  A bit, because despite reading a week or two ago, I am still thinking about it.  The ending was what made the book for me, I could never have predicted the ending..........

Have you read it?  If so what are your thoughts?


Monday, August 10, 2026

A new plan of action..................

Now that's it's nearing the middle of August, I am getting tired of all this heat and humidity, and am reluctant to go outside in it.  So my garden is suffering because of it.  So my new plan of action is to go into the garden for 20 or 30 minutes a day, and focus on one patch of garden to weed and tidy up.  I have to say so far, so good.  I guess it's just like inside of the house, doing a quick ten minutes tidy up, when you have ten minutes spare.

Below is my rhubarb patch, and it is still growing like crazy.  I was talking to my mother about it, saying I was surprised it was still going strong and could I still pick it.  We thought as long as you peel the stems it should still be fine to stew.  Are they any rhubarb growing "aficionado's" out there that could tell me if that's true or not?

Also growing there are two honeysuckle's and two clematis.  I cut them down to nothing last back end (our word for Fall/Autumn), so was surprised at how well they have grown, albeit with very few flowers on this year.

I also picked up two lilac "twigs" for a couple of dollars each.  You can see a tiny bush on the right hand side, with a black plant pot protecting the stem.  They too are growing quite well, but it will be a few years until we see any flowers I am guessing.

The rest of the photos are just some flowers in my garden.  Nothing exciting, just some coneflowers and some lillies.

I included the photo below, as I put in that cork screw grass into my annual tub.  There is nothing much left alive in that tub, but the grass.  I first saw that grass in Tennessee, in a garden centre, and had never seen it up here, so was surprised when I saw it this year.  You can read more about this plant here.  Our gardening zone is 6a where we live, so I may cut this grass back and cover it with mulch and burlap to see if I can over winter it?  It has two choices, it either survives or it doesn't........😁
Finally this photo shows my hanging basket sitting on one of the rocks in the garden waiting for it to rain!!!  We were forecast for thunderstorms when I took  the photo, so always take them down to get watered by mother nature.
Although I have tomatoes on my three plants, I have yet to have one ripe enough to pick.  I would have thought they'll all be ready in another couple of weeks; no doubt all at once.  However, I am not going to complain as a neighbour gave me them, and they were seeds from her late father's plants.

How is your gardening season going?

Also I have managed to get a few posts written up to publish, so this week, my goal is to catch up with everyone's blogs to see what you have all been up too.  


Friday, August 7, 2026

Finally I am back............

Was away longer than I intended but, have enjoyed the break.  It has been a busy couple of months, and It's hard to believe it's been probably 10 or 11 weeks?

I have done a lot of reading, which I will post about soon.  Read some really good books; one of the latest being Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, what a book that was!!  I have three more sitting here waiting to be started on:

I think it will be the one by Paul Feist.  Mind you if I read the Lyra Parish one, maybe to cooler weather will appear.  I am over Summer now!!

Then I have started doing another cross stitch:
As you can see, I have just done a few stitches in red.  I found my owl scissor holder, it's so cute and my Bothy Threads, needle minder.  I will talk more about this project soon.  I have had this kit for ages so decided to get it done.

We had my mother over for a visit so those three weeks just flew by.  We haven't been away yet, but have booked a few days away in September, so looking forward to that.  

Well, that's it for the moment.  Will get back into regular posting this coming week, and will spend the weekend, getting some posts written, ready for posting.........

Hope everyone is well, and look forward to catching up with you all.😊




Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Tulips and Daffodils.........

 The tulips are out in full bloom now, whereas the daffodils, are starting to die off.  Here are some photos of them from my garden on Tuesday May 19th...........











Tuesday, May 19, 2026

First rhubarb.......

Picked my first rhubarb of the season on Monday.

Had some strawberries, so stewed them with the rhubarb, added some sweetener.
Stewed rhubarb and strawberries............
Perfect with plain yogurt or sugar free pudding...........

Also perfect start to the Summer season.........


Monday, May 18, 2026

New type of puzzle for me.........

 I was given this puzzle for Mother's Day:

It's not something I have done before.............
As you can see by the photo below it does not look like the picture on the box.

I would describe it as putting a puzzle together without a picture.  I approached it by putting like colours together and going from there.  It took nearly a week to complete this.  I will say I did enjoy doing it, it was just different............

One of the best books I have read in a while..........

  Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke I picked up a damaged copy of this book during a "moonlight sale" in a town where we were visiti...