Category: Weekly Events

Saturday Snapshot: Heidi doesn't like the snow

Published on by Margaret16 Comments

We’ve had snow and more snow, our garden and the surrounding fields are all white, but the main roads are clear, and we haven’t had the snow that’s brought some parts of the UK to a standstill.

This morning the sun is shining, and the snow is sparkling in the sunlight.

Snow P1080401

The paw prints in the snow shows that Heidi has been across it, but she’s not keen. This morning she wanted to go out through the patio door:

Snow Heidi 26 Jan 13

but she didn’t want to get her feet cold and wet:

Snow Heidi (2) 26 Jan 13

So she came in and tried the back door, but that was no better:Snow Heidi (3) 26 Jan 13

She stayed away from the snow and soon came back inside the house.

For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home with Books.

First Chapter, First Paragraphs: The Unquiet Bones

Published on by Margaret7 Comments

Uetred thought he had discovered pig bones. He did not know or care why they were in the cesspit at the base of Bampton Castle Wall.

Then he found the skull. Uetred was a villein, bound to the land of Lord Gilbert, third Baron Talbot, lord of Bampton Castle and had slaughtered many pigs. He knew the difference between human and pig skulls.

I was browsing in the library, when the medieval style script on the spine of this book caught my eye. Taking it from the shelf I was also struck by the dramatic cover, showing a strange wooden or leather artificial foot. When I read the opening paragraphs and flicked through the pages I decided to borrow the book. It seems it’s a good choice because the library assistant said she had enjoyed it as she likes historical crime fiction – so do I. And there are more books in the series.

It’s The Unquiet Bones: the first chronicle of Hugh de Singleton, surgeon by Melvin R Starr.

I was interested in the foot – is it a genuine medieval prosthetic? I discovered that it is actually an Ancient Egyptian prosthetic toe found on a female mummy at Luxor. The big toe is carved from wood and has holes for lacing it to a leather-type casing.

Now, as far as I know, this is nothing to do with The Unquiet Bones, which is set in the English village of Bampton, but I think it’s fascinating. It certainly drew my attention to the book.

First Chapter, First Paragraphs is a weekly event hosted by Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea.

Reading Resolutions

Published on by Margaret14 Comments

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Any reading resolutions for the new year? Reading more? (Reading less?) Reading better books? Bigger books? More series? More relaxing books?

It’s been a while since I wrote a Booking Through Thursday post – this week’s question seems appropriate.

This year I’m aiming to read as slowly as possible to try to absorb more of the book, because I often race through, eager to know what happens and after a day or two I can’t remember much about it. I want to take time and think about what I’m reading.

I also want to read as many books as I can from my own shelves, because I have a lot of unread books. My difficulty with this is that I’m always tempted by new books, or books other bloggers recommend.

In 2012 I read 105 books but this year I’m undecided about setting a target (such as the one on the Goodreads Reading Challenge which I did last year), because although I like keeping records and statistics, I think they don’t actually mean much €“ it’s the reading that counts for me. Setting a target makes me anxious especially when Goodreads tells me how many books behind my target I am. So my target at the moment is to read what I feel like, as and when I want and never mind the numbers.

I began this blog to record at least a short note about each book I read, but that doesn’t seem relevant to me any more, and it has become a chore, so this year I’ll only write about a book if I feel like it.

In short, I’m looking forward to a year full of lots of carefree reading.