Personal – Page 7 – BooksPlease

Saturday Snapshot – Family

Published on May 28, 2011 by Margaret16 Comments

I don’t have many photos of my grandparents. Here are two.

The first is a photo of George Ellis Owens, my Taid (grandfather on my mother’s side) at his home in Penyffordd, North Wales. My mother has written on the back ‘My father 1930‘. He was born in 1880 and was a steel worker at John Summers at Hawarden Bridge Steelworks Shotton.

He is the grandparent I knew the most, because he and my grandmother came to live with us when I was 5. My granny died five years later and he lived to the ripe old age of 87, when I was 20. My other grandparents died when I was 6.

Below is a photo of my granny, my father’s mother, taken in her garden at Bowdon Vale, Cheshire with my cousin Sylvia. I do remember her fairly well. She was always smiling in contrast to my granddad who was always grumpy, I thought. He had a big mustache and a loud gruff voice which made me nervous, plus he had his dog tied up to his armchair which scared me. She had her hair in a bun – just like grannies in picture books. She was born in 1878 and died when she was 74. I was named after her.

and this is me when I was 5½. I’ve cheated a bit here as this was a school photo.

To participate in Alyce’s Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. All Alyce asks is that you don’t post random photos that you find online.

Book Piles

Published on May 15, 2011June 28, 2022 by Margaret11 Comments

I decided yesterday that I was tired of having my fiction double shelved and spent most of the afternoon taking books off the shelves and rearranging them. The result is that I now have the fiction separated into read and unread shelves and a pile of non-fiction with nowhere to go. At the moment they’re on the floor in the hall waiting to be sorted.

When we moved here 17 months ago I shelved the non-fiction quickly, trying to put them in roughly subject order but they got hopelessly mixed up. So now I’m going to get them in order, sort what to keep, shelve what I can and box up the rest. It’s amazing how much time this takes, not helped by me stopping to look at whatever takes my fancy.

But now I can see all the fiction at a glance, which has made me more determined than ever not to buy any more books for a good long time. After saying last week that I was only going to buy a book when I’d read six of the unread books, I did acquire 7 more books during the week. My excuse is that the one brand new book that came in the post was one I’d ordered some weeks ago. As for the other 6 books, they’re not really purchases as I got them from Barter Books in exchange for 15 books I’d taken in, so I’m not counting them!

I’ve finished reading two books this week, so now I really won’t buy any more books until I’ve read at least 4 more of my own.

And I’m really going to enjoy standing in front of my shelves and deciding what to read next.

Saturday Snapshot – Pets

Published on May 7, 2011 by Margaret15 Comments

I’ve dug back into our photographs looking for photos of Zoe, our Golden Retriever. She was our first dog we had when our son was 5 years old – he’s grown up now with children and dogs of his own. I can’t find the one of him holding Zoe when we first brought her home, but this is one taken a few months later in the back garden. She lived with us for 13 years and we had many happy times with her – she was the most faithful and gentle of dogs.

Here is one when she was older, with me and our other dog, Ben:

A Saturday Snapshot post.

Happy Birthday BooksPlease!

Published on April 12, 2011 by Margaret17 Comments

BooksPlease is 4 years old today!

I find it hard to believe that I’ve been writing this blog for 4 years. It seems like it was only yesterday I tentatively clicked on ‘publish’ for the first time.

Over these last 4 years I’ve read almost 400 books and have written about the majority of them. I’ve also written about places I love to visit but my blog has stayed mainly about books.

The greatest change in my reading has come about gradually over the last two years or so, in that I now read a lot more crime fiction than I ever did before and that’s down to other bloggers, but also because I find crime fiction books are about so much more than crime. There is such variety in crime fiction – dealing with contemporary issues, historical crime (true and fictional), moral and ethical issues, personal and psychological crimes, and organised crime and so on. There are police procedurals, private detectives, amateur sleuths, serial killers and racial and political crime thrillers. And I love variety in my reading.

I’ve also found that blogging isn’t a solitary pursuit, although it can be if you want. I’ve ‘met’ so many kindred spirits on book blogs and other blogs too. There are numerous reading challenges and memes to join and the opportunity to discuss books with people world wide. I’m very happy that I ventured into the book blogosphere. Thanks to everyone who reads my blog and especially to those who’ve taken the time and effort to make comments.

Library Loot

Published on March 24, 2011 by Margaret14 Comments

This is a sign that I’m a hopeless bookaholic. Despite listing books I’ve had for ages and still haven’t read – not mentioning all the to-be-read books all around the house – yesterday I went to the library and came home with these books:

The Fanatic by James Robertson is historical crime fiction, described on the back cover as ‘an extraordinary history of Scotland: a tale of betrayals, stolen meetings, lost memories, smuggled journeys and disguised identities.‘ I’d enjoyed his second book The Testament of Gideon Mack a few years ago. And how could I resist bringing this book home when I saw it began in Bass Rock, which is just up the coast from us – see my photo here.
Stories of the Railway by V L Whitechurch. From the book cover I learnt that V L Whitechurch was a celebrated crime writer and an expert railway enthusiast. He wrote a large number of crime short stories set in the golden age of Britain’s railways – this selection was originally published in 1912 as ‘Thrilling Stories of the the Railway‘. I’d read about him on Martin Edward’s blog and was pleased to find a copy on the library shelves.
The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez. I’d read about this book, a mix of murder and maths and wondered whether my elementary grasp of maths would be enough for me to follow the equations and cryptic symbols involved in solving this mystery.
The London Train by Tessa Hadley. There seems to be a theme here in my choice, following on from the Stories of the Railway. In this book, the London train between Wales and London, connects two stories that are interlinked through ‘a single moment concerning two lives stretched between two cities’.

And last but by no means least two books on watercolour painting, because this is now taking up some of my reading time. On Thursdays I go to a local art group and dabble in paint. I mentioned this a while ago on my blog and people asked to see some of my paintings. Here are two I don’t feel too embarrassed to show:

Farewell Lucy

Published on January 13, 2011November 13, 2025 by Margaret27 Comments

Last night our little cat, Lucy died. She was nearly 17 and was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism two years ago. Since then she did improve and coped with us moving house at the end of 2009. For a while it seemed she had a new lease of life, enjoying the garden and its wildlife. Last week she stopped eating and just declined. The vet said she had a growth in her stomach and an enlarged heart.

She was a wonderful companion, who stayed by our side like a dog, even wanting to come on walks with us. I’ve written many blog posts about her and have many photos that I’m going to bring together as a set on Flickr. Here are just a few of our favourites.