Lovely and sunny this morning which encourages one to leap out of bed with a spring like feeling and then get outside and find it is cold and windy and the daffodils are in danger of being flattened by the gale and realise that perhaps chucking out the winter vests was a tad previous.....
Bits and pieces post today. Be warned.
First of all, in case you have not seen it may I recommend that you nip over to Simon on Savidge Reads and take a look at his post about blogging, his criteria for reviewing books etc. I met Simon a week or two ago for the first time and we had a good long chat about all sorts of matters and why we blog and how we blog came up in the conversation. This is a really interesting post and one with which I totally agree. I think the main thing to be remembered when you are a book blogger is integrity - no grabbing at every book to see how many freebies one can get, complete honesty when reviewing a book even if this means that you have to be less than complimentary (I will admit I try and avoid this if possible), review regularly as well as honestly so that visitors to your blog know that you can be relied on and that they can trust you. This is essential. Anyway, if I go on now I will be merely repeating Simon's post so do read it.
Anticipation - waiting for a book to be published by one of your favourite authors or a series you have been reading is one of the great things in a book loving life and I have on the way to me, as I bash this out, the latest Simon Serrailer book from Susan Hill and the latest Brunetti from Donna Leon. These are books I do not get from publishers, nor do I beg for them (though I might try one day....), they are must-haves as far as I am concerned and I am so looking forward to them arriving and will save them up for the Easter Weekend. Also on its way is another title by Susan Hill - Howard's End is on the Landing. Huge amount of traffic and comment on this in the blogsphere when first published and decided I would wait a bit and let it all die down before I entered the fray. I may come late to the party but I get there in the end.
Seckford Hall - told you this was a bits and pieces post so here is another random entry. Yesterday my sister and I took the Aged P out to lunch at Seckford Hall, an Elizabethan house, now a hotel, near Woodbridge. I gather Elizabeth I did visit on one of her progresses around the land and, in this case, "Elizabeth I slept here" may very well be true. There is a posh restaurant but we eschewed that and had lunch in one of the bars and then coffee afterwards in the Grand Hall (not sure about the blue and gold decor but it was rather sumptuous). Good time had, straightforward drive with the countryside beginning to show itself off and loads of daffodils all over the place even if it was still a bit raw in the wind.
Few photos here for your delectation and delight.
Current reading - Have been reading L M Montgomery's Journals and am now up to Volume V and they are still as fascinating as ever though she is now reaching the phase where her anxieties about her son Chester, which are soon realized, are beginning to emerge. But just so interesting and unputdownable.
Then this morning spent an hour reading The Thirties by Juliet Gardiner which I have been doing on and off for some time now. Thoroughly enjoying it and will be posting about it soon. Today read about the Abdication and cannot help but feel that we ought to thank Mrs Simpson from stopping this ghastly man from becoming King. But more of that anon..
Au reservoir.
