2025 Reading Round Up

 Alert readers will have realised that I stopped recording all my reading back in May and I think realistically the days when I reviewed everything I read are now well behind us. There's just too much else going on. Look out though for the occasional post if something totally delights or annoys me. 

On the subject of totally annoying books can I just warn you off The Malt Whisky Murders by Natalie Jayne Clarke? This is the current reading for my U3A Crime Fiction group and it is dire. No plot to speak of, clunkily written and actually not really a crime novel at all. 

I see from my reading journal (exercise book with a list of what I read, decorated with the occasional sticker) that I set my self a challenge for 2025 which was one book every week, and that I was also intending to incorporate  the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge into that. The Christie thing fell by the wayside very early on; not sure why. Boredom? difficulty accessing the books without spending money? Not liking being told what to read and when? Whatever the reason it wasn't fun so I knocked it on the head. 

Despite this I read or listened to at least 72 books in 2025. I say at least because that's the number I have written down, but I am fairly sure I forgot to add some of them. I tend to re listen to things on Audible when I need to have something to help me sleep and although I get through these from beginning to end I tend to forget about them as books I've read and hence don;t record them. 

So. some highlights and lowlights. 

1) Biggest Disappointment of the Year Faithbreaker by Hannah Kramer. I've really enjoyed the first two books in Kramer's Godkiller trilogy so I was delighted to find Volume 3 in the library. I was not so delighted to discover half way through that I was totally bored with it and couldn't be othered to finish it. A real let down. Possibly this is a case of 'It's not you, it's me.' I don't know but it was a shame. 

2) Really irritating totally overblown book of the year The Hallmarked Man by J K Rowling There was a good plot somewhere in the hundreds of pages of this novel, but it was almost buried by a lot of tedious and repetitive relationship angst. I recognise a lot o readers come back to these books in the hope of a resolution to this 'will they-won't they' tension, but please - enough already. In any case I won't be back, I have totally lost patience with JKR and her unpleasant ongoing twitter spats with all and sundry. Her review of Nicola Sturgeon's memoir this year was the last straw for me; it wasn't a review, it was bile wrapped in slime. I get they disagree politically and on gender issues  but there's no need to descent to the insultingly personal.  

3) Discovery of the Year - J D Kirk and his D I Logan books.How have I not come across these before? I really enjoy them; they're dark but there's lots of humour in them and a good cast of recurring police characters whose relationships develop nicely over time. I've read 4 and there are another 17 to go which is good news. 

4) A total and unexpected delight was Bryony and Roses by T Kingfisher, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast with a very down to earth not very beautiful Beauty, a sympathetic beast and a vengeful rose tree. Funny, beautiful and sad by turns. 

Authors jogging on with whom I will keep faith; Natalie Haynes and Mick Herron ( although Herron's Clown Town was slightly disappointing). Jodi Taylor is hanging on by her fingernails, if her next one isn't better than the last two I shall give up. Banished to the No More list is Ann Cleeves after her pedestrian revisit to Jimmy Perez in The Story Stones. And I reconfirmed my inability to 'get' Rebus, by reading A Heart Full of Headstones, so I will waste no more time trying. Ditto incidentally Joe Abercrombie who is well thought of and writes grimdark fantasy. I have given him several chances, trying out both his series and his standalones, most recently in October this year and have come to the conclusion that, whatever he has, I don't get it any more than I get Rebus. 

I'm not giving myself an official  challenge this year, I don't need the hassle. My aspirations are to read a lot of the books on my bookshelves that I haven't yet read, and to try and read a lot more non-fiction. We'll see how it goes. 

Wool Stats for 2025, and Knitting Plans for the Coming Year

 

Well the best thing I can say for the bad news in December is that there's an explanation .... but first the numbers. In 1450g, out 100g , net increase 1350g. 

 The large amount of incoming yarn is accounted for mainly by advents, plus the last instalment of the Hercule Poirot club and  200g of undyed yarn to use with it. There were no completed projects which is why this post is headed up with a photo of a pair of socks which have featured here before, although this time they are being modelled by the recipient. Towards the end of November I rather foolishly picked up a huge partly completed project which I knew would make a very large inroad into my stash when it was done. Sadly, despite all my endeavours I didn't manage to finish it by the  end of December which was a shame. It was a big ask. If it hadn't been the run up to Christmas I might have managed it, but there you go - I didn't. That said, it has come on in leaps and bounds and I'm very hopeful of seeing it finished well before the end of this month. 

The overall reduction in stash for the year was 3864 g which, while not as good as 2024, was still quite impressive. 

So the plan for the coming year is to concentrate mainly on things I already have. This means finishing off works in progress ( some of which are very old), knitting up kits that I have purchased and either never started or abandoned part way through, and knitting things where I have bought the pattern and the yarn but just haven't cast on yet. I know I will not clear all of these things in twelve months but I plan to have a good try and see how far I get. I'm not going to tell myself not to buy any new yarn; I'd like to do that and believe I could stick to it, but I think previous experience has shown that that's quite hard and very unlikely to happen.  I do want to knit a couple of jumpers from my Kalevala pattern books and I will need to buy the wool for those but I don't plan to start on those  for several months - it will be a sort of reward for sticking to clearing other things from the decks I think. 

Progress as always will be noted here monthly. And tomorrow, a reading round up. 

The Daft Days Part the Second

 It was cold but dry, and actually quite sunny most of the time so we managed a couple of walks. 

First up was the Dunmore Pineapple. I hadn't really taken in that this was a National Trust for Scotland property although it is, and as far as that goes it's more than time they did something about the approach road which was abysmal. Honestly I must have got about 750 steps recorded on my watch without getting out of the car. It was muddy underfoot so we had to abandon our idea of walking through the woodlands, but as they're full of rhododendrons it's probably best left until spring anyway. We did however see the building, walk through the walled garden, do the top of the woodland walk and also visited the curling pond which our walks book blithely assured us was 'worth the detour.' Possibly in the summer ....But you know, fresh air, a  bit of exercise, out of the house. All the stuff that's good for you. 

the folly

the way into the wood

the 'worth a detour' curling pond (!)

The day before that had been a daft day indeed. A craft shop in a local village was having a closing down sale of the Everything must go - 50p' variety so we decided to go, and then the plan was to carry on to the Hobbycraft store in Falkirk where I could pick up some blank cards ( yes I know, I thought I would never need more blank cards in my life, but it turns out I've made more than I thought. I'd even used up some of the aperture ones I originally bought for putting cross stitch in. I also thought they might have some Christmas themed paper packs and washi tape on sale. Well there was nothing that really caught my eye in the sale, it had started at 10 o' clock and we didn't get there until 11, and obviously it had been a popular event; many shelves were empty by that stage. We got back into the car and were half way to Falkirk when I discovered I had left my phone at home and I needed it at Hobbycraft because the loyalty app thig is on there. Since they don't give you a physical card there was nothing for it but to go back home and then set out for Falkirk again. I'm sorry to say it was an expedition of mixed success; there was no Christmas paper or washi tape and I had to settle for white cards instead of my preferred cream. I did get a pack of red card and I also picked up some Christmas ribbon, so not a total loss. I can certainly make a start on the cards for next Christmas. 

Also during the Daft days the OH had a Big Birthday and considering how Big it was I splashed out and bought him a birthday cake from Betty's. This was extremely considerate of me since a) Bettys is humongously expensive and b) I regard any fruit cake not topped with marzipan and icing as a missed opportunity. But he prefers crystallised fruit so crystallised fruit was what he got. 

Our second walk was round Loch Airthrey at Stirling University which we have done before but which is a) lovely, b) quite close and c) just about the right length for us. We saw a couple of squirrels ( nothing to write home about as we have three squirrels who spend half their time in the oak tree right  in front of our house, lots and lots of water birds - well mainly ducks and swans to be fair , with a scattering of seagulls,  and generally enjoyed ourselves. Son no 2 was with us and so we even got a photo of the two of us together ( a rare thing) out of it. 

very pleased we had taken all our woolly accessories, it may look sunny, and it was, but ti was blooming cold as well. 

Yesterday we went over to a friend's house for the afternoon; lively conversation, coffee and stollen. A perfect way to spend New Year's Eve. 

And here we are in 2026. Happy new Year to everyone who is reading this; may it be a kind one to us all. 

Tomorrow I must face up to the horror that is the wool stats for December! 

The Daft Days - Part the First

Someone posted recently on Facebook that the days between Christmas and the New Year are known in Scotland as The Daft Days, courtesy of the poet Robert Fergusson. Well I don't know about that, mainly because I know very little about Fergusson and most of what I do know is very sad. I do know I've lived in Scotland for over twenty years and had two Scottish grandparents but had never heard the expression before. That said I quite like it, so I've adopted it. 

Life is, if not exactly returning to normal, at least taking on a semblance of it. This basically means that when we go to the supermarket we are no longer picking up 'Christmassy bits' to add to the trolley,  we have ventured out for a walk and I have started to feel guilty about the ironing again. More than time to pick up the metaphorical pen and return to the blog. 

We never did manage to find a proper topper for the new Christmas tree and so had to make do with popping our little Druid guardian of the home on there. Next year, having exhausted local outlets this year without  success, it will have to be Mr Amazon I fear. Meanwhile here is a picture of the said new tree

We have two trees because we couldn't agree to get rid of the old one before we moved. Heaven knows I would have been more than happy to leave it behind in an Orkney 'civic amenity site', but the OH is excessively attached to it. I have no idea why, we had had it for quite  along time before we moved to Orkney and we were there for 20 years so it was old, discoloured and getting a bit thin in places. Not to mention all the grumbling when he attempted to put it up each year. Also it was getting a bit overloaded with the  decorations. He refused to get rid of it though so, as we have the space for it, we agreed to get an extra tree this year. So now we have His and Hers Christmas trees. Mine has all the fabric decorations and things people have gifted to us, and his has all the other things; little wooden trains,  glass and metal baubles and lots and lots of tinsel. I kept the tinsel on my tree down to a tasteful one strand. I may throw caution to the winds and add a second one next year. 

Christmas passed quietly as it always does these days although we had the added excitement of a teams call with the grandchildren this year which was nice. I'd just settled down under a lap blanket with a complicated piece of knitting that had three separate balls of yarn, one of them metallic,   attached to it and which requires me to balance a chart on my knee and keep an eye on a small bag of beads so that they are to hand but don't   tumble to the floor every time they're looked at, when they said it was an OK time to call, Not the best timing in the world, but obviously it was more important to extricate myself from the knitting clobber than not talk to them. They seemed  in fine fettle and the younger one was hoping for a bit more snow so that he could get out the sledge. Brrrrrr, is my response, to that but then I'm not 10 and I wasn't born and brought up in Ontario!

And before I go a quick advent update. This is the whole of the weekly advent from Beth at Beehive Yarns, plus the Christmas Day sock set. 

I was a teensy bit disappointed by the fifth Christmas Day skein as I had thought it would be part of the overall fade and I wanted to use the whole thing to make a  So Faded Sweater  Four skeins is not enough because I want to do the longer version (I don't have the sort of shape that cropped sweaters are good on) and the fifth skein just won't look right with all of that blue in it. So now I don't know what to do with the advent. I could make socks with the individual skeins, although they are rather too nice to be 'wasted' on socks, I could make the pattern that came with it which is a large wrap, but I suspect it would test my lace knitting skills beyond the edge of reason, I could try and lose some weight until I am a size that 4 skeins will be sufficient for ( as the Young Folk say these days 'That's not happening') or I could make a sleeveless/short sleeved top that I do have enough yarn for and try and cobble up the fading technique on my own. Or, what is most likely to happen, I can put it to one side to 'think about' and it will probably still be there in its box this time next year. A Lowering Thought. 

Tomorrow, some post Christmas walks. Unless I am so carried away by the ironing guilt that I spend the whole day chained to the board. 

Happy Christmas!

 

This sweet little decoration was behind door 24 on the Bonne Maman jam advent, and it seemed very appropriate as the picture for the Christmas Eve post.  

I am aware I have been a bit remiss in relating the jam adventures, having not written anything about them since Day 9. Since then we have had three non-jams i.e. two hazelnut and chocolate spreads plus a milk caramel and vanilla spread. This gave a total of three hazelnut chocolate spreads and two caramel ones overall, which I think is a bit cheat-y for an advent, despite the fact that I like chocolate and hazelnut spread. Although nothing with chocolate in it seems to like me very much just now. 

The stand out jam for me was day 14; Plum and Pear with Star Anise and if they made it in big jars I would be queuing up to buy it. Also  worthy of mention are the Mango and Ginger, and Cherry with Pink Peppercorn. There was nothing wrong with any of the others , although as often happens with this advent a lot of them taste of little other than a generalised sweetness. This was our third year for this and we won't be getting it again. Nothing against it, we've enjoyed it, but three is enough.I would say we might try a tea advent next year as they seem popular but as we only drink black tea it would probably be  a bit of a waste. Who knows, we may be totally radical next year and not get any advents at all - it has certainly seemed to be beyond me this year to keep up to date with them on here, although not IRL.  

The good thing about being so behind is the reason for it; I have so much else to write about these days that things that  used to loom large on the blog just fall into the background now. And let's be honest, I'm not sorry about that. 

What hasn't changed is that I want to take the time on this Christmas Eve, as on all the others, to wish all my readers a very Happy Christmas. Whatever you're doing for Christmas, I hope you enjoy it and I'll see you all on the other side. 

Pre-Christmas faffing, Two Lovely Lunches and a bit of an advent catch up

I honestly don't know where time has gone these last couple of weeks but anyway - 

Last Monday I had my hair done

I put this picture on Facebook. It got lots of likes and nice comments, but also a 'What the hell, Anne' from a friend in Oz. While I appreciate that a blue stripe in the hair isn't to everyone's taste I would have thought those that didn't like it could just have kept quiet on the grounds that it wasn't their hair and anyway does it really matter enough to risk upsetting someone by being rude? 

I should also say it  took the OH quite a long time to even notice the stripe. He says this is because I had the side with it turned away from him but this is not true as I several times placed myself on the side  where it would be visible to him. 

Then on Tuesday  I had my nails sparkled up

On Wednesday I headed back to Edinburgh for a pre-Christmas  lunch with my friends V and D. We went to Valvona and Crolla, an inspired choice as the lunch portions are manageable and they also do a cocktail called a V and C Spritz which has elderflower in it. Not just elderflower, obvs, but the elderflower is why I had it and it was delicious. 

Thursday I made some cards, wrote some cards, did some wrapping and on Friday we braved the pouring rain to go into Stirling and post them all. Happily there was no queue in the Post Office at all, which I couldn't quite believe so close to Christmas, but I wasn't grumbling. Felt great after that was done because that was the last Christmas stuff off my hands. That's always a good feeling. 

Yesterday we went over to Glasgow and lunched at the extremely nice Restaurant Pieno with the singer we supported for several years recently through the SO Emerging Artists Program. We hadn't seen her for  a while so it was lovely to catch up with all her news and give her ours. Hers was exciting and career oriented, ours was mostly about the New Cat. The food was wonderful as it always is there, even this close to Christmas and even though it was very busy. After saying our goodbyes we went back to the flat and picked up son no 2 and brought him over to Alloa for Christmas and the New Year. 

There is now nothing on the calendar for three whole weeks which is either a yawning chasm of nothingness or blessed and peaceful space to do nice things like make more cards, knit, read, watch rubbish tv etc. I'm thinking the latter really. 

Finally a yarn advent catch up

days 9 - 14 

and 15 - 20

It strikes me its better to put them in blocks of a few days at a time as the colour progression is easier to see than with photos of single skeins. 

Non Advent Catch up

 well I did say there wouldn't be another post before last Thursday, so to that extent I was right....

We've been really busy recently, so here's a quick whistle stop tour.

First up was our trip to North Yorkshire to celebrate our friend C's 90th birthday. C is a member of the group of Dorothy Dunnett readers who used to meet regularly in Leeds, or Lincoln. Amazing to think we have known one another for over 40 years. Doesn't seem possible. I am the baby of the group, but I was pleased to see that the others were all hale and hearty despite being older, and in some cases, considerably older than me. We have all slowed down but they are all still lively minded and engaged with life which is heartening. 

Because of the distance involved, we had opted to drive down the day before, stay overnight in the hotel where the celebration lunch was being held and then drive back after that in the late afternoon. This worked well, certainly better than it would had we not moved, as the weather was so bad that the ferries were all disrupted. So glad we don't have to factor that sort of thing into our plans anymore. 

We arrived in the late afternoon and had a lovely room which was cosy-warm and the bed was extremely comfortable. 

It was a very nice place altogether and the food was lovely. I won't post pictures of the event as a) readers won't know anyone on them except me and b) it would be an invasion of the others privacy ( although I don't think they'd care, although you never know) but we all had a good time. We get together so seldom that it was so nice just for us all, bar one, who was poorly, to be together. Lots to catch up on. C had asked for no presents but we had organised a collection and donated the money to a charity in her name which she was pleased about. 

So down to Yorkshire on Tuesday, back to Alloa on Wednesday. I had had Thursday free but just before we left for our trip south a friend had asked if I would like to go to a Society of Arts talk in Stirling  with her ( on Charles Dickens and his evolving ideas about/influence on Christmas celebrations) and then have lunch with her and two friends. The talk was very interesting, four of her friends came in the end and we all went for lunch at the Smith Gallery in Stirling. This was about as satisfactory as it ever is, which means really not very. Despite saying twice that I did not want my sandwich toasted, once quite firmly in response to the woman's assertion that 'we usually do it, I do recommend it' when it arrived it was toasted. I didn't want to make a fuss so I ate it, but I did say something to her on the way out. Every time I go there I think, never again and this time , unless it's just a for coffee,  I shall stick to that. 

On Friday I went up to Edinburgh University for a symposium on female Scottish and Irish women writers of  children's books. It looked good, and indeed it was, it was very enjoyable, but as it started at 9.30 I had a very early start, which my constitution is no longer as amenable to as it was when I was in my twenties. Never mind, I made it. I cut the last session because had I stayed I would have been very late home, Saw a couple of people I already knew, chatted to one or two others who I didn't. I know I keep saying I have drawn a line under my involvement with academia, but every so often something pops up and I think, that looks interesting, and go. 

And then we entered a quiet time which has lasted until today. I have a hair appointment, after which we are going off for yet another try to by a tree topper for the new tree. Tomorrow I get sparkly nails and then life looks to be busy again until Saturday - at which point it's almost Christmas.

Advent catch up incoming - possibly tomorrow, no promises.