Reading this past month or two has been a mixed bag. Two books were meh, one not my cup of tea but others may enjoy it, and only one to recommend. Links are provided for some to Amazon so you can read the full synopsis.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley – This book was recommended by an employee at our local used book store, and she was so effusive in her praise I decided to get it without checking out the reviews. In my quest to find stories to read that are unusual, the book jacket synopsis seemed to fit the bill. The story involved plucking people who were about to die out of history, and integrate them to the present day. Each one is assigned a ‘bridge’ to teach them what they need to know to navigate the present world. As interesting as this sounds, the goals for the individuals chosen were never really explained. Why choose these particular people? The last part of the book goes off the rails with a twist that didn’t deliver. It was close to a wall banger, but I was so near the end I stuck it out. Meh. Pass this one by.

Just One Taste by Lizzy Dent – This one was billed as a foodie based book of a woman trying to finish her late father’s cookbook by visiting Italy with the sous chef she has never met. Sounded like something I would enjoy, but I should have known better when I read the book jacket and found out it was a romance. I ignored that, and checked it out from the library anyway. It wasn’t too bad for the first quarter of the book, but the constant references to strong muscles, shirtless drooling and overt sexual tension page after page grew weary. When the inevitable happens, in an open door scene, I actually skipped four pages. That sort of thing just doesn’t interest me. I slogged on, determined to finish. Oh well, there’s a couple of hours I won’t get back again. But, if you like this sort of thing, this book will be entertaining. The references to Italian dishes came up short in descriptions while I expected more, and there are no recipes. So just know that going in. It is fine as a straight up romance, again, if you like that sort of thing. Not my cup of tea.

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig – Another fantasy based novel by a favorite writer, but I have mixed feelings about it. A woman is left a home on the island of Ibiza by a person she had met once, but didn’t really know. The fantasy comes when she is ‘chosen’ by an entity to help save the island. The story is told in a first person as she is explaining her experience to a friend in response to an email. The book is a plea to save our environment, which I can totally get behind. However, the narrator gets bogged down in memories and details too much, so the book drags in places for pages at a time. Impression – OK, but don’t go out of your way to find a copy.

Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb – Told in two timelines, a present day professor is hired to transcribe a newly found piece of music by a famous composer. But as he digs into the notations, he finds a revelation that the foundation based on the composer’s wealth would rather keep secret. In an earlier timeline, we see the composer and how he was able to rise from mediocre to genius in a short period of time, and the lengths he will go to in order to succeed. The book is well written, easy reading with a compelling storyline that is difficult to put down. It is 424 pages, and amazingly did not seem that long. Recommend!

In the garden, not much is happening this winter. But at a holiday party, a swag bag contained a little seed kit with kitchen herbs, and both My Sweet Babboo and I got one. It was fun to put water on the little pellets and watch them grow into a pot full of soil.

The seed disc was on the top of the package, and a bit too big for the container.

So, I put water on it to soften it up, pushed it into the container and put some dirt on top as instructed.

The instructions say to keep the pot moist, but it doesn’t say how long it will take for the seeds to germinate. When they do, I’ll have some photos of how they grow. Supposedly there are three herbs in each one – basil, parsley, and oregano.

On Thursday, our guild area held its holiday party which was full of fun and a great way to start off a new year. We were supposed to do it in December, but the church where we meet was having work done. We couldn’t find another place on short notice, so we just postponed to January. We actually liked it so much we are going to have it as an annual event in January from now on. Fun Fiesta placemats and awesome tissue flowers made up the table decor, furnished by my friend Gail. The food was Mexican theme, make your own taco salads, with all kinds of side dishes and a full table of yummy desserts.

We had Margarita “mocktails”, served in these fabulous plastic stemmed glasses. It made them seem real, but no alcohol involved. I don’t know how Susan made these, but they tasted great! It seemed like it might have been limeade, something fizzy, and something sweet like honey or agave nectar.

During the Show and Tell, fellow guild member Lydia showed her brightly colored strip pieced quilt, in keeping with the theme of the day.

She then gave that quilt to me, along with the blue patchwork quilt on the left above, and the two below for Hurricane Helene victims. I’ll be adding these to the ones received last week from Chris, and a couple from my own closet for the next delivery later this month.

On New Year’s Eve, my buddy in Australia held a Zoom call for the Chookshed Stitchers. We are a group of bloggers from all over the world who get together now and then electronically to chat and sew. When I was on, we had 15 bloggers from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Norway. They were on for at least 8 hours, so there may have been more that I didn’t see. I stayed about 2 hours. So fun!! I worked on the binding for the Quilt of Valor.

Wanna play on Zoom this week? Virtual Retreat Winter Edition is coming Tuesday, January 7 beginning at 9:30 am Eastern Time, and running to about 3:00 pm. Come sew with us! You can work on whatever you like. You can sew, knit, crochet, stamp, paint, tidy your sewing space, or just come to chat. Also, you do not need to commit to the whole day, come and go as you can. Come for a little while, or all day, pop in and out as your schedule allows! I think we have five different state represented now, and I hope for more before Tuesday. Click HERE to register, just $5! There are still spaces left, limited to 25.

How is your New Year going so far?

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