The Year in Books

One of my 'should do"s for 2014 was to improve the quality of my reading choices.

I love to read. All my life I have had my head stuck in a book.

As a child I had a small treasured collection of books including some classics passed down from my Mum and Auntie..... Little Women, What Katy Did, The Railway Children and so on.

But books were expensive to buy so I voraciously read everything in my local library... counting the days till the next Saturday when I could go and choose some more.

As an adult one of life's greatest pleasures has been reading .... although when my children were small it was The Hungry Caterpillar and Frog and Toad, Where's Spot and The Walker Book of Bedtime Tales! As a busy working mum I could only really indulge in mammoth reading sessions on holiday, and I used to love browsing in bookshops and stashing away a collection to take away in our caravan each summer.

Reading kept me calm at numerous hospital appointments in the last few years, and I never went anywhere without a book in my handbag. But, I've sort of slipped into the habit or reading light weight   nonsense ... nothing too taxing or hard hitting. Nothing sad and miserable. Lots of cupcake shops and romance in Paris. You know the sort of thing. Perfectly pleasant stuff!

Now, I have much more time available to enjoy reading but I find I'm still stuck in that place. A friend in work passes on everything she reads to me. .... and I take them home not to hurt her feelings. But as she says "Oh it's just the sort of book that you don't need to use your brain to read it!" She reckons that after a day teaching Year Four that's all she can cope with during term time.

Well, no more!!! I'm ready to start using at least some of some of my brain in 2014.

I've found a sort of on-line book club through Karen at A Quiet Corner, linking with Laura at A Circle of Pine Trees. You are invited to just choose a book each month and do a post about it. I thought I'd give it a go.

Starting as I mean to go on, right now I'm reading The Goldfinch which is a massive book. There's been a lot of hype about this, and the fact it's taken ten years to write. I'm more than half way through so I'll let you know how I get on.

Then out of the blue this week, a colleague in work was talking about a book club she belongs to. Joining a book club has long been on my 'list' of things to do so I've asked if I can join in too, and will be going to my first meeting at the beginning of February. Again it's one book a month, and the choices are already set. There's a few genres on the list that I would never normally select, so it will get me out of my comfort zone!

I'll have to do a lot less faffing around in blog land and get reading!

Works in progress...

I've got a few creative projects going on right now.

Work on the knitted throw continues ....

It has now got one quarter all sewn up, and there are lots and lots of knitted squares waiting to be connected in their rightful place. It's a slow task, but I'm really enjoying it.

For Christmas I was given a Project Life Kit, which is a new ('to me') way of scrapbooking.

I figured that this year will have lots of nice things going on, so it would be good to have a memory of it all as it happens.

I don't think I'll be using it as it's intended, where life is recorded weekly (or even daily). I'm just going to add to it as and when things happen. I've had fun sorting out all the card inserts and making new ones of my own.

Meanwhile, I'm working on a special scrapbook project to celebrate Mr B's retirement. My colleagues in school wanted to make a memory book of the last twenty years, and asked me to collate it all together because I'm the 'crafty' one on the staff.

I'd forgotten how much I enjoy scrapbooking, as it's been a while since I've done it. There was a time when I scrapped everything that moved!!!! It's been lovely delving through my stash again.

I have to find little pockets of time when the man is not around, and I'm keeping it well hidden away.

I've been dabbling in art journaling for a while, and have just discovered a new project I want to join in with. It's called Journal 52 and you follow prompts to create a piece of journaling each week for a year. I'm hoping to doing this every week .... but I'm notorious for starting things and never finishing them, so we'll just have to see how it goes.

Finally, this year I have to create a garden.

We've had the garden landscaped over the winter, and there's lots still to do.

Come spring time we're hoping it will be ready for planting up. I'm really looking forward to this project. I foresee many visits to lovely garden centres coming up over the next few months.

Hello January

I'm running a bit late on this one, 

but welcome to a brand new year, full of hopes and possibilities.

Normal life is slowly resuming on the Paradise Peninsula after the Christmas slump.

The decorations have been stowed away in the loft for next year.  

The house is looking decidedly bare.

The boy has gone back to uni.

School starts again this week.

All uneaten chocolates will be put on the staffroom table to remove temptation from this house,

and I will be aiming to cook healthier food again.

Some resolutions have been made .... more a list of 'shoulds' and 'coulds' ...

I should start to read more worthy books 

and less about 'cupcakes and chocolate shops in Paris!'

I should try to lose a few pounds

I should try to improve my fitness

I could get the bike out and actually ride it!

I could walk up Catbells in the Lakes by the end of the year.

(This has been on my list for about four years now so we shall wait and see!)

One thing that WILL definitely be happening in 2014 is very exciting ..... 

we are both retiring in the summer!!!! 

Mr. B will be is having a big birthday in June and is retiring at the end of the school year, and I am going too. (But I insist on telling everyone that it's early retirement in my case, as he's a bit older than me!) 

So we're on a final countdown ......

119 more get ups for Mr. B and 73 for me in case you were wondering.

After a few years of just talking about it, it's finally happening!