Greenies

I like to think that I'm conscious of our environment and do the "green thing" but this blog gave me some food for thought.

Hope you've got a minute to pop over and have a read.

Elimination football

Football finals started this week.  Michael's team played today in the elimination final.

Michael is in the black and white guernsey with no. 1 on it

It was a really close game - always a worry when you're standing on the sidelines.

Michael took a knock to the head and yes I yelled like a fishmonger's wife from the sidelines.

Poor boy still has a headache but he'll survive because today they were winners and all injuries are forgotten as soon as that final siren sounds.

Fingers crossed for next week.

Lord of the Flies

Did you read "Lord of the Flies" at school?    We did and we had to watch the movie as well.    I can't say I enjoyed it, in fact I don't think I enjoyed any books that were part of the school curriculum.  Even now I don't like movies where children are cruel to each other.

Richard also did the book at school and in the early days of our relationship the movie came on TV - late night TV of course, certainly not in prime time.  I suffered through it not really paying much attention but from watching the movie together we formed our very first family tradition/rule.  A fun one...and the use of a word that the will forever be in our family vocabulary.

Whoever has the conch has control...

No we don't have a conch laying around but we do have a few of these...

So quite simply in our house whoever has the conch (remote control) has control of what we watch.  Not quite so relevant these days with multiple tvs in the house but in the "old days" Richard and I had great fun trying to snitch the conch from each other.  The boys grew up thinking all tv remote controls were called conches and yes we still use the word now.

Even the dogs know the rules...

Bookclub - "Prohibited Zone"

Bookclub last night.  We finally got to talk about our friend's book "Prohibited Zone".  I did wonder how honest we would all be given that his wife, Judy, is in our bookclub.  Before the first comment was even made Judy encouraged us to be honest and assured us she would be ok with whatever we had to say.  But still it would hardly be polite to say you hated the book, would it?  Fortunately I didn't have to say any such thing.

It's the blokiest adventure story I've read for awhile, and I'm not sure if I would of continued with reading it if it had been written by anyone else.  The spelling of words to sound like the Australian accent was annoying (but how else do you get the accent across in a book) and I'm not a big fan of books with swearing either

BUT

once I had settled into the story I had to know the ending - always a good sign I think.  If I had put the book aside before finishing, it would of definitely been my loss.  Thank goodness Carol chose it for bookclub because I had no choice but finish it.

Our friend has been asked by the publisher to write another book - let's hope Steve West finds his way into another adventure/thriller.

Easy to assemble

When there's a choice of product I do like to choose the one that hints at ease of assembly.  Just like this box did, actually it's more than a hint, it quite plainly says "easy assembly". 

Was it?  No.  It took me foreverrrrrr to lock those walls together.  I'd get 5 clips together and then have that odd one right in the middle of wall come out at the last minute. 

Even Julius had a good laugh watching me put the silly compost bin together and as you can see I did finally get there.

The box also promised me "dark and crumbly compost after 4 months".  We'll see....

Eye spy...

Eye spy with my little eye

Something beginning with

Can you guess?

Yay!!! The first spring flowers.

Now the yellow ones are out it won't be long until the blue ones come out too.

"The little stranger"

I'm having a real reading frenzy at the moment.  I can't wait to find 5 minutes spare to read another few pages.  I love it when I'm in one of these moods.

I finished "The little stranger" on Sunday morning.  It was enjoyable, but I wouldn't necessarily say that you had to rush out and find a copy to read. 

Onto the next book while the mood still grabs me...fortunately my wonderful neighbour had given me a book last week that I've had on my must read list.

Not a good picture of the front cover but I'm hoping for a really good interesting read from this one.

The back cover says:

Many of us have questions about the passage of life and often wonder what happens when we die.  In this amazingly insightful book by medium/clairvoyant, Lisa Williams, evidence of the Afterlife is explored.  Through various channels such as meditation, psychic readings, communication with her spirit guides, and a personal near-death experience, Lisa delves into the journey of the soul.  In the process, she discusses the different stages of the Afterlife, and reveals what life is really like on the other side.

This book addresses the myriad questions many of us have surrounding this subject, especially if we've gone through the painful experience of having lost loved ones.  Lisa provides a reassuring glimpse into this fascinating topic by exploring the pathway to the Afterlife and then to reincarnation, with the realisation that death is not final, but rather a transition into the world beyond - a place that should be honoured, not feared.

I can't wait to get started...

Is it too early for tomatoes?

It's a beautiful Sunday so where else would you go but to the nursery.  All those seedlings just sitting there waiting for someone to come along and buy them.  I couldn't resist so bought some parsley and a tomato plant.  I realise it's probably too early to be putting a tomato seedling in, especially given that I live in the frosty hills but it was there, calling me.

So to help protect it I've put Julius' plastic collar from his operation to good use.

The rest of the vege garden planted in April is finally starting to grow and produce something we can eat.

Sadly not everything is looking so good.  The plants I am trying to keep alive for next Christmas haven't done so well.  I think you might even say that one is dead.

Let's hope it's not a case of one down, one to go.

The little stranger - Sarah Waters

This book was recommended by one of the mum's at work and I borrowed it from the library on Sunday - love libraries, especially when they have the book I want on the shelf ready to borrow.

I know the front cover isn't very interesting but the book is...

The back cover write up is:

In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall.  Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline.  It's masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine.  It's owners - mother, son and daughter - are struggling to keep pace with a changing society, as well as with conflicts of their own.

But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life?

I'm really enjoying it.  A ghost story - or is it?  Who is the little stranger?  I've just met him for the first time or did I?  Maybe the brother is going mad...hmmm...I'll have to keep reading to find out.

I haven't read a ghostie story for a long time - as a child there was a series of book around that I loved to read - shame I can't remember what they were called.  Mum always said the same thing every night - "don't read that before you go to sleep, you'll have bad dreams".  Of course I read them while laying in bed and of course half way through the night I'd be awake and scared. 

Tom liked the scary books too around the same age, although "Goosebumps" was the series he read. He must be braver than me tho, because I don't ever recall him waking me up in the middle of the night scared.

Maybe I'll hand this book to him when I'm finished with "I think you'll like this".

Tom's choice

Tom's had his head in one of his novels for Year 12 this week.  He finished the other night and handed it to me with a "I think you'll like this".

He thinks I'll like it...how does he know that??  I don't know myself sometimes what to read.  I spend a lot of time reading blurbs trying to work out what I like and  quite often it gets down the picture on the front cover.

The book - "The story of Tom Brennan" by J.C. Burke

The blurb -

For seventeen-year-old Tom, life is about rugby, his mates and his family, who are well respected in their small country town. But a night of celebration changes his life forever. Tom's older brother, Daniel, starts a fight at the 'sudden death' pre-final party - then, worse, Daniel is involved in a car accident on the way home. Their cousin, Fin, suffers irreversible spinal injuries, and the two other passengers are killed. Tom's world explodes as Daniel is sent to jail and the Brennans are forced to leave town. While Tom and his sister, Kylie, adjust to life at a new school, their mother takes to her bed and their father tries to balance the pain of his family with the debt of his paralysed nephew. The past is never far away. Tom is a survivor, but he needs a ticket out of the past just as much as Daniel. He will find it in many forms.

And yes Tom was right, I did enjoy it.  Not only did it talk about drinking and driving and all sorts of "teenage issues" but it talks about that ripple effect that you can experience at any age.  You know, you make a decision and afterwards (usually when it's too late) you realise that it affects more than just you.

http://www.entertainment.webshots.com/

I've also finished "Prohibited Zone", which I can't talk about until after boocklub.  This afternoon I'm off to the library to get another book recommended to me - quite often they're the best books.



Next book for bookclub

We're up to Carol's choice for bookclub this month.  With 6 of us in our group we get to choose 2 books each a year, which is ideal.

Carol's chosen "Prohibited Zone" by Alastair Sarre (our friend's book).  His wife Judy who's in our bookclub said she felt a bit funny choosing his book so Carol has.

To read about this book go to my previous post.