Another great book

It's been a good start to the year reading-wise. I finished Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes over the weekend.

I'd give it a 9.5 out of 10 - the characters were so well drawn, from Cathy in the throes of her OCD, to the lovely Stuart and creepy and controlling Lee. I had a pretty good idea what was to come but the tension built up slowly but surely; it was very hard to turn off the light at night, not because I was scared but because I wanted to carry on reading!

It's so easy to forget about stories in the papers which briefly mention a woman being beaten or stalked but this book goes "behind the scenes", showing how fear can affect people's lives for ever.

The book skips from one timeline to another but after the first few chapters it isn't at all confusing and in fact made me want to read more, to see how the 2003 Cathy was compared to the 2007 version. It was a clever way of telling the story, keeping both timelines fresh and very real.

This was a debut novel and I've already got her second book, Revenge of the Tide on my TBR pile. As I said, a really great start to 2013, with many thanks to Deborah Harkness and Elizabeth Haynes :-)

A bit of knitting

Well, quite a bit of knitting, but all very simple. I sent these scarves off to a group helping homeless people in Edinburgh - hope they helped keep someone warm over the last few weeks. I've got a couple more scarves and a couple of dog jumpers part-done as well but I've been cross-stitching a bit more recently.

Mrs Duck is nearing the end with just her jumper and a couple of arms to finish, then I'm going to concentrate on Jackie's Mum's design, which I'll take a photo of once I've done a bit more.

Blogging resolution

I know I say this every year but I really do want to write in this blog more often. Admittedly, I'm not doing much knitting or stitching at the moment but I've already read a 10 out of 10 book this year!

A Discovery of Witches was recommended to me by my friend Jackie and as I decided to treat myself to a Kindle (not the snazzy Fire, just an ordinary bog-standard one!) I also treated myself to ADoW. It's a brilliant book, certainly not to be confused with the Twilight series, which I've never read but as the first film made me want to shake the main female character, I'll probably never read the books :-)

 

 

Although a love story at heart, A Discovery of Witches is so much more, full of wonderful characters and though there are obviously supernatural elements with witches, vampires and daemons, it all somehow seems very real. There's danger, mystery and love for Diana, the main character who just happens to be a witch, and I especially enjoyed the parts where Diana's powers grew and developed. I loved Deborah Harkness' writing and I flew through the 700-odd pages. This was one of those books which I really didn't want to end, though luckily it's the first in a trilogy :-)

 

I've still got Mrs Duck to finish and I've finally started a design for Jackie's Mum. Although I'll keep doing cards throughout the year, I've promised myself not to start a medium or large piece until I've finished at least five UFOs! Let's see how long that lasts...

 

It's been snowing virtually all day here but I've made sure that the birds have got plenty of food .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sad end to 2012

My last post was to do with losing Toffee in September - this one is about losing Pepsi just after Christmas :-(

He had congenital heart failure and went very quickly in the end, with my lovely vet coming out to the house to put him to sleep. He slipped away very quickly in my arms and though I had tears streaming down my face (and do now, typing this) I know that I did the right thing. He had less than two hours of discomfort - I don't think he was in pain - but he was also quite scared and tried to hide away but then came out to lie by me on the floor. He's buried in the garden, which is more than I could do for Toffee, so is still very near to me.

He had over 10 years with me of eating, cuddles and purring. Pepsi was a very chatty cat - he quacked rather than miawoed - and just looking at him would start him purring.

The house is so strange now, there's no-one to welcome me home or give me cuddles on these cold evenings. I've decided to adopt a couple of cats around Easter so that I'll have a long weekend for us to settle in together but Pepsi and Toffee will have a very special place in my heart for ever.

 

 

Love you Peps, hope you're now cuddled up nice and warm with Toffee.

Sad times :-(

I haven't posted for a while, though I've done a bit more on Mrs Duck and started knitting a couple of dog jumpers to sell for the rescue.

I've been very sad recently because I lost my lovely puss-cat, Toffee. He was knocked down a month ago, though thankfully I didn't see him. He was a 12-year old kitten - still running around, jumping over his pal Pepsi (who's feeling very lonely) and only accepting cuddles on his terms. I just hope that the end was quick and as painless as possible.

 

Love you, Toffs.

TUSAL

I've forgotten to post my TUSAL progress for the last couple of months, for some reason remembered today, which is the proper posting day - yay!

Nice to see a few different colours now that the Spanish Sampler is finished :-)

I haven't stitched much at all recently - a little more on Mrs Duck and I'll finish a card tonight, but the Olympics meant no stitching at all for two weeks!

I've just finished nominating five of my favourite books for World Book Night 2013. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society is in the Top 100 so has a chance of being chosen, which I'd love, especially if I get to be a giver next year. They made a bit of a hash of it in 2011 so I didn't apply last year but I definitely will for next year.

Not much stitching done

but there is a little bit of progress on my WiPocalypse piece:

I want to at least finish the umbrella and the face by next month - we'll see how I go :-)