March 2023

Well March wasn't quite the action packed month that I was hoping for. Mick took a week off work from the 6th to the 10th and he'd booked this past week off too. The weather has certainly been hit and miss curtailing our adventures so in the end he's cancelled these last two days holiday and is working them instead. It gives him a couple of extra days to carry over and take off in April when the weather might be a little better. On the plus side, we did manage a few days out here and there and we also got a few jobs around the house crossed off the list so the holiday he has taken has been worthwhile.

On the first Sunday in March we visited the Yorkshire coast. We thought it was going to be much colder than it was, it was actually very mild. We started off in Filey which is a seaside town we've rarely visited over our many years of trips to the east coast. Archie loved spending time on the beach, though he really is slowing down now. He'll be thirteen in a couple of months and it's definitely showing. Afterwards, we drove up the coast to Scarborough. The sea was in and it was very rough but the surfers that were there didn't mind, they were enjoying the waves.

We had a few days away in The Lake District during Mick's first week off. We were hoping to have some more days out on our return but the view above was on our way home on the Thursday, it had started to snow and on the Friday morning it was quite deep. We had a relaxing day at home instead. It's extremely rare that we both sit down for the best part of a day together so it was rather lovely. We watched a film while the snow fell outside.

As is usually the case, Mick bought me an amaryllis for Christmas and it finally flowered this month. I love the darker varieties, though it's a bit disappointing that I only got one flower spike this year, I usually get two, in fact one year I even had three.

I've read three books this month.

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.

"For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. 

First published in 1894, Rudyard Kipling's beloved short story collection has entertained both young and old readers with the story of the young boy Mowgli who's raised by wolves. In the seven stories, each one accompanied by a poem, we meet many classic characters, like Baloo the bear, Bagheera the black panther as well as the tiger Shere Khan and the young mongoose Rikki-Tikki-Tavi."

My previous experience of The Jungle Book has been limited to the Disney animated film and this book is actually nothing like it. A collection of short stories and poems, it tells the stories of a number of different animals and some aren't jungle related at all.

I really enjoyed the book, though references are made to practices which are upsetting, remembering that this book was written over a hundred years ago when animal welfare wasn't what it is today. 

Gossip from Thrush Green by Miss Read.

"In the growing warmth of early summer Thrush Green shakes out its leaves and flowers.

The inhabitants are delighted, farmers survey their promising hay fields, gardeners bustle with packets of seeds as birds flash to and fro. Activity is everywhere...

Yet all is not as idyllic as it seems in the unsuspecting village, for a change is never far away..."

Another lovely read about the Cotswold village of Thrush Green. Miss Read certainly brings the characters to life and reading each book is like catching up with news from old friends.

There's change ahead for a number of people in this book and I can't wait to catch up with the next instalment to see how everything turns out.

The Woolworths Girl's Promise by Elaine Everest.

"After losing her beloved fiance at Ypres in 1917, seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Billington faces a lonely future estranged from her upper-class parents due to her association with Charlie Sayers and his working-class family. No longer able to live under her parent's roof she is taken in by Charlie's father, escaping the suffocating demands of her parents.

Betty soon learns all too well about the realities of life after an accident at the Woolwich Arsenal munitions works. Spotting an advertisement for a nearby job at Woolworths, Betty starts on a new and thrilling journey starting at the bottom of the employment ladder in the well-known store.

Her work journey leads her to Ramsgate in Kent to work in a newly built store and with it the chance of marriage, but can she ever forget Charlie and the promise she made to him...?"

I've read all the books in this series and Betty Billington is a much loved character who has been there from the start. This book follows her early life before her time at the Erith store where she meets The Woolworths Girls.

Another entertaining read and I believe that Elaine Everest has another book out in this series later on this year so I'm looking forward to reading that.

It was Mother's Day in the UK on the 19th of March and I had a lovely day with my family. Eleanor cooked a roast beef dinner with all the trimmings and she'd even baked a couple of delicious cakes for dessert. After dinner we did what we usually do when we're all together, we played some games, we had lots of laughs. I received some beautiful cards, gifts and flowers and was thoroughly spoilt.

We visited the local food bank to make a donation of food and toiletries. We always pop extra items in our trolley when we do any shopping and it soon mounts up. We just make sure that whatever we buy has long use by dates as we know we'll be storing it for a while. The volunteers at the food bank are always so grateful to receive donations. We're living in hard times at the moment with many people struggling to make ends meet and any one of us could have to rely on food banks as circumstances change.

There were Three Quick Knits this month, and contrary to my plans of getting my older projects off the needles, I'm still casting on new things. Mick's got a couple of pairs of hand knit socks, he only wears them occasionally, but I thought he could do with another pair. I find it really hard to just sit and do nothing with my hands, and socks are great TV knitting, they don't require much concentration.

We haven't got much planned for April but there's the Easter long weekend approaching and Mick's now got an extra couple of days holiday to take, so we might get some days out.