A Good Read

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

The date is December 30th, the place is an idyllic, isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands where a group of thirty something friends meet to celebrate the new year, a tradition they began as students ten years ago.

The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning, foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a while a decade of secret resentments becomes difficult to contain, the group’s nostalgia and tenuous bonhomie begins to crumble. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.

The next day one of them is dead, and one of them is a killer. And a blizzard of enormous magnitude has sealed the lodge off from the outside world.

Somewhere about the middle of the story it started to flag a little and I was speed reading. It picked up though, and then moved on at a great pace. 

It’s an atmospheric, page-turner.

∼ Happy Reading ∼ 

Polly x

Beautiful Autumn

 The cherry tree is losing its leaves

Misty mornings

We don't have the spectacular reds and oranges seen in the US and Canada

but we do have lovely golds

Elsewhere

look at these huge clods of soil that have just been turned over.

All the other fields were ploughed weeks ago.

And the tiny fungi that I posted about a few weeks ago

have grown into these

and these are growing on the other side of the tree stump,

aren't they impressive.

∼ Be safe and well ∼ 

Polly x

Sunday Afternoon

I had walked Rufus in the morning, visited a nearby dollshouse shop and suddenly felt tired. Switched on the TV and settled down to watch one of my top 10 favourite films - "The Man Who Would Be King" starring the wonderful Sean Connery and Michael Caine. James Bond joins Zulu Man for an adventure. There is action, mysterious places, avalanches, battles and humour.

Based on a short story by Rudyard Kipling, set in 1888, the story follows the exploits of friends Peachy Carnehan (Michael Caine) and Danny Dravot (Sean Connery), English military officers stationed in India. 

The friends are tired of life as soldiers and they find themselves at a loss when their services are no longer required in Asia. Not wanting to return to England the pair begin their adventure. After a treacherous journey they arrive in the isolated far away Kingdom of Kafiristan. Their plan is to become kings, gain the trust of the people then leave months later with riches beyond their wildest dreams.

The conquest begins in earnest and is successful. They train a village to defend themselves from constant siege by marauding nearby invaders. Danny gets an arrow in his chest which is cushioned by some sort of belt under his tunic, which the villagers don't see, they just see Danny surviving a lethal injury and declare him a god.

Life is good for a while, the pair are ultimately embraced by the people and revered as rulers. But being a deity goes to Danny's head. He decides he wants to stay and rule the kingdom and needs an heir. He chooses the beautiful Roxanne played by Shakira Caine (Michael Caine's wife), to be his wife.

Legend has it that if a mortal joins with a god the mortal will be engulfed in fire. Danny places a crown on Roxanne's head and reassures her that she will not self combust. As Danny attempts to kiss her she bites his cheek - and he bleeds. Gods don't bleed. I won't say anymore in case you want to watch it. It is a glorious story.

To quote the pair's favourite saying "By God’s holy trousers, what an adventure!"

∼ Be safe and well ∼ 

Polly x

Remembering

 

Allsorts

All my clubs are well under way again - the WI, bowls, craft, art, the village book club, and a new one called friends united. My original book club that I have been going to for about seven years hasn't started yet. We were going to meet last Thursday but two ladies have elderly frail mothers and didn't want to risk it. Our host asked if we would do a covid test beforehand, I had requested another kit but it didn't arrive in time for me to do a test, also my daughter and son-in-law have had very bad chest infections with horrible coughs so I didn't want to risk spreading those germs. A few others weren't confident and eventually it was cancelled. We're hoping next month will be better.

I can walk into my walk in wardrobe now, the charity shop bags have gone and the quilts for Project Linus have been collected. Meanwhile I've been sorting out more clothes, my word, some of which I've had for over 15 years!!! Some have sold on Ebay, the rest are in more bags ready to go to more charity shops. Shoes are next!

I've often seen Canada geese flying over the fields, but never seen them resting like this. 

Oh dear, I don't like this cold, damp weather. Some mornings are glorious, sunny and mild,

but at this time of year the ground doesn't really get warm so the damp lingers. 

Hibernation time for me now. I haven't started making quilts yet, Most of  my time is spent struggling with working on my Lake View Dolls House.

The village book club met yesterday, there were only four of us but we had a lovely evening discussing the book, talking about all manner of things and enjoying the delicious mulled cider and mince pies that our lovely host provided.

That was the second mince pie this year so far, I will be doing my mince pie survey soon 😋 

I'm fully vaccinated now, I had a flu jab a couple of weeks ago and the covid booster this afternoon. My arm has just started to ache, other than that I feel fine.

∼ Be safe and well ∼ 

Polly x

A Good Read

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides is a psychological thriller about a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive. 

Alicia Berenson lives a seemingly perfect life. Married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.
Theo Faber, a criminal psychotherapist, has been obsessed with Alicia and her silence for years. Finally he manages to secure the position of Alicia's psychotherapist at the Grove, a secure forensic unit. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....
Very little is really the way it seems in this thriller, it had me on the edge of my seat from the first chapter. About halfway through I felt something wasn’t quite right, I just couldn’t figure out what.

With a huge twist the plot is brilliant. 

∼ Happy Reading ∼ 

Polly x

A Special Birthday

My grandson has just turned 18

My daughter bought this scrumptious chocolate cake. I wish I had taken a photo before

she lit the 18 candles. it had lots of chocolate swirls on it, maltesers and chocolate stars.

And his girlfriend made this one. As you can see it was cut into before I got my phone out!

He had a lovely birthday and some lovely gifts.

∼ Be safe and well ∼ 

Polly x

A Good Read

The Dry by Jane Harper

The small Australian town of Kiewarra is thrown into shock by the brutal killing of the Hadler family, Luke, his wife Karen and their son Billy.  It appears that Luke shot his family and then himself, driven to despair by their poor financial state and unrelenting suffering caused by the worst drought of the century.

Aaron Falk reluctantly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend, loath to face the townsfolk who turned their backs on him twenty years earlier when he and his father were run out of their home over rumours of Aaron's involvement in the death of local girl Ellie Deacon. Ellie's death was ruled a suicide and Aaron had an alibi, his best friend Luke. 

Aaron intended to stay for as short a time as possible but people are starting to question the way the family died, and Luke's parents refuse to believe their son is responsible for such unforgivable acts. They ask a reluctant Aaron to investigate, and as questions mount Falk is forced to probe deeper.

There is a mean and nasty streak running through the local community compounded by the relentless heat. The old rumours about Aaron having a hand in Ellie's death are resurrected and a vehement campaign against him begins. They are determined to hound him out for a second time and are not above using underhand and dirty tactics to achieve their aim.

Aaron joins forces with local cop, Sergeant Raco, who has his own doubts about Luke's guilt. Evidence soon accrues that suggests Luke is innocent. Aaron's memories of the past surface and the mystery of Ellie's death becomes clear. Aaron and Raco slowly begin to uncover the secrets, lies and fears buried in Kiewarra.

This is a well written, atmospheric, page-turning mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed it but didn't work out "who dunnit".

∼ Happy Reading ∼ 

Polly x