Book Ends

So we’re just about done with 2021. Rather a similar year to 2020 due to the pandemic but thank goodness for the allotment and the ability to work from home. I’ve been reading a lot of books and have enjoyed a few days off work every few weeks to keep me sane. Here’s my book list and a couple of memories from each month.

January

We had some snow. Not enough to make a snowman, but nice to crunch through and enjoy the whiteness. Looking back it seems that we had a very cold start to the year.

	This was an easy read. A quite gripping thriller, but I wasn't keen on the writing style so it was one of my least favourite books of the year.
	The three separate stories set in 1930s Berlin were moving and thought-provoking. The plight of the characters still pops into my head on occasion.
	This was one of my favourite books of the year. So sad but beautifully written. It was a quick read, partly because it was quite short, but also because I didn't want to stop reading.

February

My first Covid vaccination gave a bit of hope that things may be improving with regard to the pandemic. Unfortunately that hasn’t quite panned out. Vaccinations were definitely the topic of conversation when we bumped into people on the allotment or during Zoom calls.

Another very cold month, down to -6.8° I’m so glad we didn’t give up on these broad beans which amazingly recovered and produced some lovely harvests!

Aah, I loved this book. I should have been reading it in Tenerife with the sea providing the soundtrack. It had been on my reading list for about a year, I don't know why I kept putting it off!

March

Signs of life in the polytunnel - mangetout are usually the first seeds that we sow.

Jamie and I started clearing the Wildlife Plot for HAHA. Sadly having to clear the pond and convert it to a bog garden.

I do love a Thomas Hardy novel. I've seen the Tess film more than once but never read the book. I'm glad I did as I'd clearly forgotten some vital aspects. Aah, so beautiful.

April

Second Covid jab came round earlier than expected and another trip out to Newbury Race course for it.

And there’s the broad beans looking happier now the weather warmed up a bit, though it was very wet. You can see the flowers are appearing and the potatoes have been planted.

This story reminded me of a BBC Sunday night television programme and I’m sure that is what it’s destined to become. I’m not inclined to read another, although I like Richard Osman, I wasn’t keen on the writing. Maybe I should give him a chance as this was his first book…maybe.

May

Our best ever find on the allotment. Probably only Victorian and probably a boy, (not a girl as I put in my original blogpost) it was interesting and I’d still like to know more about it.

Reading took a bit of a back seat at the busiest time for the allotment year. I did start reading a book but I didn’t finish till July (and it wasn’t actually that long!). The Wildlife Plot began to take shape and we hoped that the seedlings starting to appear were sown by us!

And my much-talked-about squash tunnel was ready and waiting for the plants.

June

I was fascinated to find the stunning Great spotted woodpecker feathers. It would appear to have been killed by one of the birds of prey on site.

The geum looking so bright and beautiful. I must remember to split the plants early next year.

July

Jamie and I spent a lot of time watching the bull finches raise their young. They really enjoyed the seed heads on an overgrown plot near our Plot3 so we could just sit and watch in the sunshine. Aah, days to remember in these dark months.

The wildflowers we sowed produced plenty of flowers and insects were certainly drawn to the plot. We expect a lot of self-seeding for next year.

	This is the epic tale that took me so long to read. It was beautifully written (translated) and once I got to know the characters I came to love the book.
	I think this was a free download. I quite liked the characters and locations but overall I found it quite uninspiring and rather a predictable read.
	This has been on my reading list for a long time. I was put off by the mention of the ‘Marsh Girl’ but I’m so glad I got over it and read this. Such a beautiful story and characters.

August

Aah, August and we had some really beautiful hot days but we also had some torrential rain!

But, it helped everything grow so a plotholder can’t complain too much. I was reading a long book, which I finished in September.

September

The squash tunnel in all its glory, with the longest Tromboncino measuring 134.5cm! The wet weather early in the season caused some blossom end rot, but still the tunnel was covered in greenery

This is the long tale that I started reading in June. It’s length being the reason I put off reading it. It was lovely though. Set in Japan and Korea it introduced me to a location and history that I don’t know well. I loved it, particularly the second half.

October

The tunnel provided plenty of Winter squash for storage and one of the pumpkin plants went into mass production; Enough for carving, soup and I even made a pumpkin pie for Halloween.

	This was a gripping thriller and made me want to read more of this genre. A real page turner but even that didn’t make it a 5-star read for me.
	I quite enjoyed this. I liked the main character but the story was a bit too ‘and they all lived happily ever after’ for my liking. I liked the parts set in War-torn Paris.

November

Just one of my many colourful squash-based meals. The Honeyboat and Festival squashes are the tastiest so they’ll definitely be growing on next year’s tunnel. November also brought my third Covid jab along with some very cold weather.

	This was interesting and dramatic in the way it was written but I'm glad it was only a short book, the lead character was just too troubled to take much more.
	Having ventured into a thriller earlier in the year, I was pleased to see this appear on offer. I really enjoyed the story and characters. In fact I couldn’t put it down. I want to read another by Alice Feeney.
	The book that follows a 5-star read is always going to struggle. This was interesting and I liked the rural Japanese setting but it was a bit disappointing at the end with too many loose ends for my taste.

December

Finally finished work so we’ve been able to enjoy our celebrations at home since Christmas Eve. The weather is mild, wet and windy so I’m not sorry to be stuck indoors!

Eating, drinking and trying to finish the book I started at the end of November…

Have you read any of these books? Do you agree with my views or have any ideas for my 2022 reading list? I like using Goodreads for my book choices and in order to record what I’ve read.

And the final song of the year is by the lovely Simon and Garfunkel. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas time

Two days of leave, then a final two days of work before I stop for Christmas - hooray!

As  usual, we’re going to have a quiet Christmas and, as last year, it sadly doesn’t include any gatherings or proper get-togethers. But we live in hope for next year if people can be a bit careful and consider the implications of 90,000+ COVID cases every day - the figure is astounding isn’t it?! At least the government is leading by example <ahem>. Anyway, moving on…this is my Christmas post!

Do you like my wine cork reindeers? Finally I found something to do with those corks I can’t help but save! We only visited the cold allotment last weekend to gather some suitable sticks for their legs, tail  and antlers. 

Our Christmas tree is up and is colourful and full as we like it, with decorations made or collected over the last 33 Christmases and a few from even before we were together, including this little Santa.

This blog is the only diary I keep. I’ve been looking back over the last few Christmases. I’m looking forward to visiting Christmas markets, light shows and lovely Oxford again. In the meantime, we have good films to watch, plenty of food to eat and lots of Christmas cheer to be enjoyed. 

Whatever your plans, stay safe and enjoy your time. The song is provided by the great Smashing Pumpkins.

Sunrise, Sunset

When I opened the curtains on Thursday morning and spotted the moon, I had to dash for my big camera to get a photo and I was pleased to see it was in focus because 10 minutes later the moon was hidden by mist as the Sun arrived.

The HVFB weather vane is on top of the old firestation opposite (now a hairdressers). To be honest, that was the most exciting thing that happened all week. The weather has been cold, though not very frosty and now it's windy and raining as Storm Barra is on its way.

We had a couple of hours on a cold plot on Sunday afternoon, the rain mostly avoided us but we did get to see this nice rainbow. This is a kestrel, but the photo is mostly showing the beautiful clouds. When I see a sky like that I always wish I could paint (or had my good camera with me!)

We did a little bit of clearing but the before and after shots didn't look much different on a typical December allotment plot!

And then it started to go dark, so the Sun provided some photo opportunities. It was more impressive in real life, obviously!

A couple of hours later we took a wander up the High Street to see the Christmas lights.

The blue tree is particularly beautiful and the little trees attached to all the shops are always lovely to see, though the traffic was too busy to show the High Street off in all its glory - perhaps we'll do a late-night visit when the road is empty.

The canal has to be the most photographed part of Hungerford and The Rose of Hungerford often has a starring role. When we drove past earlier there was quite a crowd gathering to have a canal trip with Santa 😊

So apart from that, I have barely moved from the living room in the past week, except to do some cooking...

I made these bean balls with gigantes and runner beans. The smoked paprika tomato sauce was very tasty and the green spinach noodles were a colourful addition. This is the bean balls cooking - I mashed them together with fried shallots and a bit of bell pepper, they were very tasty although not very photogenic.

I'm working my way through a packet of chestnuts and a Festival squash at the moment, so had a ricey-tomatoey meal last night.

And for lunch I've just had cold roasted squash, with chestnuts and a bought salad with lambs lettuce and beetroot slivers.

Sweet and delcious, but now I have to do some more work. I've just seen that a meeting has been cancelled - that's always a bonus! Aah, and a song title from Fiddler on the Roof - haven't seen that beautiful film for years.. maybe it'll be on at Christmas 😏

Arwen’s Song

We enjoyed a bit of snowfall yesterday. Nothing like the weather that Storm Arwen brought to the north of the country, but we don’t usually get much snow so I always think of it as a treat. A little slow-mo video.

We had a freezing night and this morning we awoke to a frozen dusting of snow on rooftops and a beautiful dramatic sky. You can (just about) see the crescent moon in the photo too.

I’m having a long weekend so we went to the allotment this morning to pick a couple of carrots and see how the site looked. Ok, so neither the carrots nor snow are that impressive, but it was nice crunching through the icy grass.

We were glad to have protected the broad beans at the weekend. They looked a bit limp through the tunnel, but not too bad.

Something had left interesting tracks on a plank. I can’t work out what made them. Brrr, chilly little feet!

We didn’t stay outside for long and came home to make a leek & potato soup, using a Jamie Oliver recipe. It only needed two smallish Kestrel potatoes. We really need to dig up the last plant, but not today!

We bought leeks as ours aren’t big enough yet and the soup has celery in it too. The carrot added a bit of colour. We blitzed it rather than leaving it chunky and it has a nice texture and flavour. 

Last night I ate my last spaghetti squash. It’s a shame I only got two fruits this year, but I’ll try again in 2022.

Roasted for 45 minutes then toasting after adding a cheese, nut and paprika topping. It really is a tasty squash variety.

We missed out on the Christmas lights switch-on and preparations for the Hungerford Extravaganza which we’ll also skip this year. We’ll stick to the plan to hopefully avoid Covid-19 including the new Omicron variant which has recently surfaced. We both took antibody tests today, mostly out of interest to compare our results rather than anything else.

I hope the storm didn’t cause you too many problems and this beautiful song from The Lord of the Rings is the only reminder of the first named storm of this season.