Nella Last

I read Nella Last's War back in 2019 and Nella Last's Peace the following year. I knew that a television film had been made which was based on Nella Last's diaries and I'd intended to watch it but it's only recently that I got round to doing so. Housewife, 49 is written by and stars Victoria Wood, greatly missed since her death in 2016. After finishing the first two books, as well as intending to watch the film, I'd intended to buy the third book in the series but it's only since watching the film that I've done so. I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Nella Last lived in Barrow-in-Furness and wrote diaries for the Mass Observation archive from 1939 till 1966. If you want to know more click on the link at the start of this post.

I can resonate with Nella Last as I've kept diaries my whole life. I don't still have them all but the ones in this box go back to 1994. These are pocket diaries and Filofaxes, I always use a Filofax now. These are diaries where I jot down birthdays, appointments, places I've been etc.

I'm also a journaller. I write about my life, quite insignificant things in most cases, but my journals are interesting to look back on. I suffer from anxiety and I find that writing things down can really help, it puts the jumble of my brain into some kind of order. 

I've used different brands and sizes of books for journalling. I've sometimes decorated pages in different ways but I started the large grey A4 size book you can see here back in 2006 and that seems to be the one I always go back to, no decoration, just straight forward plain writing, it seems to work best for me.

Do you keep a diary? Do you keep a journal? What works best for you?

Dunham Massey

It's been a dull weekend but we didn't let that stop us crossing the Pennines on Saturday to visit Dunham Massey in Greater Manchester. A National Trust property, it hosts one of the largest winter gardens in Britain.

We thought it would be a good time to visit with the snowdrops now putting in an appearance and we weren't wrong. The scent as we approached the garden filled the air, it was amazing.

Snowdrops carpet the ground in many areas of the garden.

More than 200,000 bulbs have been planted so there's plenty to see at this time of year.

Winter Aconites.

Lots of different varieties of irises. These are just a couple of them.

There were a few daffodils blooming here and there but many still in bud. They'll put on quite a show in a few weeks, I'm sure.

Camellias are flowering at the moment. This one is St Ewe. All the plants are very well signed in the garden.

There's a whole patch of hydrangea Annabelle where the flower heads have just been left to fade and they look so pretty.

Witch hazels are striking at this time of year with their ribbon-like flowers.

There's some really interesting trees at Dunham Massey too. These Himalayan Birch trees have a bright white bark which really stops you in your tracks, although they haven't come out as well as I'd have liked in my photos and you don't get quite the same effect.

This gnarly old tree is covered in burrs.

We were serenaded by a robin as we wandered round.

Dunham Massey is set on a 300 acre estate and as well as the formal gardens, there's a historic house and deer park.

We don't get to see as much of a place as we'd like these days as we have Archie with us and being an elderly dog, he can't walk as far as he used to. We always have to be mindful of how much exercise he's had, but it does mean that we can return to the places we've already been and see something new.

We were lucky with the weather for although it was very dull, it stayed fine. It had rained during our journey there and it rained again on our journey home.

Dunham Massey is somewhere we'll definitely go again. The garden has got so much interest just now and I think there will be more to see over the coming weeks. It would be good to see what it's like during the summer months when the spring bulbs have died back. We had a very enjoyable day out.

January 2025

The first line of my January 2024 post started with the words The new year started here with illness, and the same can be said of 2025. The whole family, apart from Eleanor, had been ill over Christmas and for me, Mick, Daniel and Jasmine, the illness continued into the new year. We all had some kind of virus which wasn't quick to leave. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can enjoy the festive season this year without any bugs spoiling it for us. I'm pleased to say that we're all fully recovered now.

Even though we were still feeling ill, Mick and I had a couple of short walks at Lotherton that first week of the new year. We do what we can to shake off any illness but sometimes that just doesn't work. The temperature had dropped quite a lot as winter, so far, had been quite mild and sure enough, our first snowfall of the year followed on the 5th of January. The photo was taken from one of the bedroom windows, I wasn't going to go out in that. Brrrr.

Our first trip of the year to the coast was on the 19th. We hadn't planned it, we just got up that morning and decided on the spur of the moment to go to Bridlington. It was so cold though, we just had a short walk and didn't even venture onto the beach. It was still a nice drive out, and we got a taste of the sea air.

I've read four books this month.

I'd like to get back to reading more classics again this year so to that end, the first book I read was A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I read my first Dickens book in 2022, this is my fifth and I've enjoyed every one of them. For me, A Tale of Two Cities is a tale of two halves. I found it quite slow going at first as the scene is set but Dickens is such a great story teller that you're pulled in and once you're invested, it's hard to put down. A brilliant story with twists and turns, and the ending will have you weeping.

I read the first book in the Dr Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths at the back end of last year. The Janus Stone is the second book in the series and for me, even better than the first. There are some great characters in the books, a regular cast, and the two stories I've read so far have definitely held my interest. I'm looking forward to reading more from this series throughout this year.

The Teashop Girls at War is the third book in this series by Elaine Everest. I really enjoyed the first two but because there was a gap of over three years between the second and third books, I'd forgotten the character's backstories, how some of them are related to others and how they all fit into each other's lives. It's a big part of the story and so it was spoilt a little for me as so many names were quite confusing when I couldn't remember who each of them were.

I was given Winter's Wishfall by Ceri Houlbrook as one of my Twelve Days of Christmas 2024 gifts. I often keep any Christmas books to read around Christmas time but I decided I'd read this one right away, after all it's only January and Christmas is still in our minds. A story of magic and mystery, set on an island north of Scotland, which is definitely far-fetched but perfect for the festive season. There's a little romance thrown in for good measure, after all, it wouldn't be Christmas chick lit without the boy meets girl narrative, but the story is more centred around mystery and folklore. A magical read for any Christmas lover.

I love a good puzzle. Do you? For Christmas 2023, Mick bought me the first Murdle puzzle book. This last Christmas he bought me another from the series. There are 100 logic puzzles in the book so I do one per day, that will take me into April. They start out very easy and become more challenging as you go on. I enjoy Wordle, the web based game where players have six attempts to guess a five letter word. I'm usually successful and guess within three or four attempts usually. I also enjoy Globle where players have to guess a country. My geography knowledge isn't all that good but it's definitely improved since playing this game. I also enjoy crosswords. I often attempt an online one but have a book I use too. I think it's important to keep the mind active, my dad was doing crosswords till the day he died and his mind then was a sharp as ever.

One of Eleanor's friends had a baby girl earlier this month, they've called her Owena. I couldn't miss the opportunity of knitting a little something for a new baby and I thought the 50g ball of Pearly Pink Sirdar Snuggly DK I had in stash would be perfect. Unfortunately, I ran out right at the very end but I managed to find an online retailer who had the same dyelot number in stock. You can tell how much of that new ball I used as it still weighs 50g. I bought a pack of pretty sleepsuits to go with the cardigan and the new mum was pleased with the gift.

Here's Jack wearing the Big Bearly Bonnet by Pure Stitches which I knit for him before he was even born. Such a cutie. He's learnt to crawl this month and he's into everything. We need eyes in the back of our heads!

So that's January. Onto February, my least favourite month, I'm just glad it's also the shortest month. I'm looking forward to starting wedding dress shopping with Jasmine, celebrating having a child reaching their 30s (goodness, how old do I feel) and watching Jack continue to reach new milestones. Oh, and knowing that spring is that little bit closer!

The 2025 Growing Season

I don't grow many things from seed these days, it's just as easy, and often cheaper, to buy small plants and grow them on, but it's fun waiting for germination and watching the subsequent growth so I do still start a few things off each spring. I used to have an allotment so when the growing year started, my greenhouse and every available indoor windowsill used to be covered with seedlings. These days I'm down to a seed tray or two.

I had a bad growing year last year. The tomato seeds were very slow to germinate and hardly put on any growth so I ended up buying a couple of plants from a local nursery. Even these didn't do very well and I hardly harvested any tomatoes at all. This year I'm going back to my favourite Maskotka, a trailing bush variety which produces medium to large cherry tomatoes. I've never found anything to beat the taste of these.

When we had the allotment, Mick's favourite thing to both grow and eat were climbing beans. He does love a wigwam structure on which to grow climbing plants, so I'm going to leave it up to him this year to grow these Blue Lake climbing French beans.

I grew mahogany coloured sunflowers last year, I'm not sure why as I've always preferred the traditional yellow variety and no, my opinion didn't change. Whilst looking through my seed box the other day I came across a packet of sunflower seeds my niece gave out at her wedding back in 2021. I forgot all about them so I hope they're still viable. Her mum and her auntie grew all her wedding flowers and these sunflower seeds came from their gardens so it will be fun to see if they'll still grow.

Of course, I'll be buying plenty of plants too but I think these are the only things I'll be growing from seed, unless I see something else which takes my fancy. How about you? Do you buy plants or do you grow from seed, or like me, a bit of both?

Twelve Days Of Christmas 2024

This is my eleventh post of this kind. For eleven years now, my friend Lisa and I have been swapping twelve small gifts at Christmas, one to be opened on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

These are the gifts I received from Lisa this year.

A closer look.

A tote bag with the cutest Christmas design, dogs and cats in antlers and elf hats, love it! A festive glass storage jar with a Christmas tree topper, very handy to store the Christmas sweeties. Inside were some chocolate sprouts, yum. A felt decoration kit to make a sprout, I shall definitely make this to hang on the Christmas tree. Some reindeer paper hankies and a tube of Manuka honey hand cream, both needed in this cold weather.

Lisa knows how much I love piggies and yes, I gave a little squeal when I opened the piggy spatula which had been wrapped with some gingerbread men sprinkles. A lovely festive bowl had been wrapped with a Kinder snowman. A pretty apron and oven glove and some gingerbread men food bag clips, I'm all set to rustle up something lovely in the kitchen.

A gorgeous pen set and a set of birthday cards. We usually give each other a book in the swap, this year's is Winter's Wishfall by Ceri Houlbrook, an author I haven't come across before. I look forward to reading that. There's always a couple of edible gifts too, this year Lisa has spoilt me with some dark chocolate florentines and some spiced fruit crumble biscuits, they both sound delicious. Now that I've posted about them I can dig in.

Didn't I do well. Such a lovely set of gifts. Thank you Lisa, I love everything.

These are the gifts I sent to Lisa.

A closer look.

Who doesn't love a selection box at Christmas, especially Cadburys. That little campervan tin is filled with shortbread, yum. A Falala decoration, very festive. When I saw the Twelve Days of Christmas bauble I knew I had to buy that for our little swap. The tin is one I bought to put the bauble inside for transportation so that it didn't get broken, I'm sure Lisa will find a use for it.

I know Lisa meal plans so I thought this meal planner would come in handy. A bee print apron. Some Christmas themed silicone cookie stamps, (I liked those so much that I bought myself some too) and I bought some gingerbread mix to go with those. A scented soap in a cute tin.

A little needle felting kit to make a bunny. I've been saying I'm going to try needle felting for years now, I've even got a kit to try it. Perhaps Lisa will beat me to it. The book I included in this year's swap is Christmas at Serenity Bay by Helen Bridgett. I know Lisa's busy making scrapbooks at the moment and including photos of her travels so I thought the alphabet stamp set might come in handy. A pack of cute little hedgehog cards, they're blank so they're perfect for a number of uses.

Another fun swap. I look out for the gifts throughout the year and pick them up as I see them, it makes it easier than shopping for twelve gifts all at once. It's always fun to open a gift each day right up to Twelfth Night. Thanks again, Lisa.

December 2024

As in recent years, we put our tree up on the first of the month. It always gets me in the Christmas spirit once the house is decorated ready for the festivities. We'd planned so much this Christmas, especially as it was our first one as grandparents, we were so looking forward to sharing the festivities with our little Jack. Unfortunately, illness struck. Both Mick and I were poorly with some kind of virus from Christmas Eve onwards. We're only just beginning to feel a little bit better now. Daniel, Jasmine and Jacob came down with it on Boxing Day, and Jack also had a trip to see the GP the following day for something unrelated. We did spend time together but it wasn't really the Christmas we'd planned.

We'd planned so many outings this month in the lead up to Christmas but many of those were cancelled because of the weather. We had heavy rain and Storm Darragh spoiling our plans, but we did manage to visit Fountains Abbey for their annual Music and Lights Celebration. The cellarium is brought to life with live choirs and bands filling the ruins with festive music. A lovely day out.

We also managed a trip to Haworth for their Christmas Music Weekend. It was a miserable day but that didn't hamper our enjoyment. I love to hear a brass band at Christmas, my dad played the Eb bass so I was used to hearing band music when I was growing up and this type of music always brings back memories now.

There were also trips out to Helmsley, Thirsk, Nostell Priory and Pateley Bridge, so we didn't do too bad considering the weather, then on the Friday before Christmas, Mick took a day off work. We headed off into the Yorkshire Dales but again, the weather wasn't very good. I didn't mind, I just love the Dales and love to visit whatever the weather. We popped into the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes to pick up our cheese for Christmas, and the Black Sheep Brewery in Masham on our way home to restock some beer for Mick.

I've read just one book this month.

The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig.

"When Hannah is invited into the first-class carriage of the London to Penzance train, she walks into a spider's web. Now a poor young single mother, she once escaped Cornwall to go to university, but after marriage to Jake her dreams turned to bitter disillusion, her husband has left her for a rich woman, and Hannah has survived by working as a cleaner. Jinni is equally angry, and in the course of their journey the two women agree to murder each other's husbands. After all, they are strangers on a train - who could possible connect them?

But when Hannah goes to Jinni's house she meets its shambolic caretaker, who claims Jinni is very different to the person Hannah has been led to believe. Who is telling the truth - and what will become of the women's pact to commit a terrible crime?"

A really well written book with twists and turns a plenty. I liked the plot, there was plenty to get your teeth into, and the characters were interesting.

I shall definitely look for more books by this author.

I'm carrying just two projects over into the new year, a knitted baby blanket and the Natures Walk Blanket, a crochet blanket by Sandra Paul. I've got quite a few projects I'm itching to start though but I'm waiting until I finish at least one of these before I cast on anything new.

There's been all the usual festive TV programmes to watch this month but something I watched at the start of the month, before I embarked on the Christmas films, was The Day of the Jackal. Based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth, the plot concerns an assassin known as the Jackal and the MI6 officer who is determined to catch him. Starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch, it's already been commissioned for a second series and I can understand why, it's fast paced and keeps you on the edge of your seat, it's thoroughly enjoyable. I shall definitely be watching the next series.

I can't finish off without mentioning Gavin & Stacey. We were all left on a cliffhanger back in 2019 so The Finale ties up all the loose ends and finishes things off nicely. I'm sorry to see this series come to an end, it's so well written and has given us lots of laughs over the years.

All that's now left to say is thank you for another year of friendship. Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving such lovely comments, I really do appreciate it. Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2025.

Books Read In 2024

I've read thirty eight books in 2024, noticeably less than in recent years, however, some of the books I have read have been quite hefty. I'm at a point where I count the number of books I've read purely out of interest, I don't set goals, reading is purely for enjoyment.

I haven't read as many classics this year, mainly because I've been immersed in The Seven Sisters series, and those are long books. I think they're each over 800 pages long, some longer. I have read a few though and I continue to collect them with the aim of reading more.

As I said, I've read The Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley this year, with her son, Harry Whittaker taking over the final installment as Lucinda Riley sadly died before she completed it. The books are about seven sisters who were adopted by a billionaire. After his death, the sisters are given clues about their heritage which leads each of them on a journey to uncover their past. If you haven't read these books I can wholeheartedly recommend them.

As always, I've kept up with new releases from my favourite authors. Some of these books belong to a series so it's good to catch up with the lives of the characters I follow, others are stand alone stories but I know how much I enjoy these authors so I know that they're going to be good.

The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway

The Seven Sisters - Lucinda Riley

Queen of our Times - Robert Hardman

Fresh from the Country - Miss Read

The Storm Sister - Lucinda Riley

The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Letter to a Hostage - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

A Villa with a View - Julie Caplin

The Museum of Ordinary People - Mike Gayle

The Shadow Sister - Lucinda Riley

Peter Pan - JM Barrie

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

The Big Little Wedding in Carlton Square - Lilly Bartlett

The Pearl Sister - Lucinda Riley

The Household - Stacey Halls

The Last Reunion - Kayte Nunn

The Moon Sister - Lucinda Riley

The House Keepers - Alex Hay

The Flatshare - Beth O'Leary

Very Very Lucky - Amanda Prowse

The Sun Sister - Lucinda Riley

The Kindness Club on Mapleberry Lane - Helen Rolfe

The Missing Sister - Lucinda Riley

The No-Show - Beth O'Leary

Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt - Lucinda Riley and Harry Whittaker

A Vintage Summer - Cathy Bramley

Home Truths - Charity Norman

Swimming to Lundy - Amanda Prowse

The Great Hippopotamus Hotel - Alexander McCall Smith

The Memory of Us - Dani Atkins

Nurses on Call - Donna Douglas

The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths

The Secrets of De Courcy Square by Ann O'Loughlin

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

This Year's for Me and You by Emily Bell

Christmas with the Wartime Midwives by Daisy Styles

The Nutcracker by ETA Hoffmann

The Golden Rule by Ananda Craig

My favourites have definitely been The Seven Sisters but I also really enjoyed The Old Man and the Sea, The Memory of Us and We Solve Murders.

I started the Ruth Galloway mysteries by Elly Griffiths this year so I intend reading more of those next year, I've already bought the next ones in the series.

I'd also like to read more classics. Again, they're waiting on the bookshelf, it's just a case of finding the time to read all the books I've got, yet I still keep adding more.

I'm always excited to see where my reading will take me, it's such a wonderful way to escape real life, learn new things and de-stress. Both my parents were avid readers and I'm so pleased that they passed this gift on to me, I'm only sad that neither of my children pick up a book to read very often.

Do you set yourself reading goals? What was your favourite book you've read this year?