thames layout & philosophical discussions with kids

P1010997
Originally uploaded by pdugmore2001.

A follow up layout for the holiday photos.
____________________________________
My grandma died on Tuesday which naturally involved some discussion about death and funerals etc.

Mr 5: Why did MummysNan die?
Me: Well, her body was so old and worn out that God decided it was time for her to go to heaven. MummysNan is Pop's mummy so he's a bit sad right now.
Mr 5: Are you sad?
Me: Yes, I'm a bit sad too. So now we need to get ready for the funeral.
Mr 5: What's a funeral? *he's been to a few already but I think the word was new*
Me: A funeral is when we put MummysNan's body into the ground because we can't have her body with us anymore.
Mr 5: And the digger digs the hole!

And as we drove into the cemetary he saw the plot opened...
Mr 5: There's the hole that the digger made! That's where we are going to put MummysNan eh? Because she died eh?
Miss 2: Digger!
____________________________________________

After a tanty incident involving an annoying little sister and the discman I was having a frank discussion with Mr 5.

Me(in a cross tone): Don't you know how to be good?
Mr 5 (in a small voice): Yes. But sometimes I forget.
Me: *melts*
Miss 2 (in the background in a smug, self-satisfied voice): Timmy naughty eh. Yes. Timmy naughty.

Stay tuned for Reading Round ups and the Book fo the Month review :-) Oh and a giveaway.. soon.

Choose - entry for final NZ Dare

Choose - entry for final NZ Dare
Originally uploaded by pdugmore2001.

NZ Dares is wrapping up and this is my entry for the final challenge - the topic "choices".

I used mostly stuff from the Scrapbook Outlet March SOS kit. BG Marrakech, Bazzill, Heidi Swapp butterflies, plus a few other things. The little book has the journaling about my career choice.

A holiday in Thames

After spending Wednesday morning filling up our car with gear and kids we set off for Thames.

View Larger Map

DD? Check.

DS? Check.

Kitchen sink? Check.










There was a bit of traffic on the road. We are used to having holidays outside of the school holiday period so there was some muttering about traffic from the driver. ;-)

Still, we made good time and audio-books are an excellent invention for keeping kids (and drivers) amused.










The appearance of clouds as we turned off Highway 2 delighted the Mad Photographer but didn't exactly fill me with joy.















The new tent got set up without getting rained on though. The kids were very excited about it. DS got into his bed as soon as I made it up! We found a leak in our airbed (just what you need to discover) - I'd foolishly lent it to some folks and they'd tried to mend it but not very successfully. So we had to head back into Thames to try and find a replacement. Fortunately the friendly Hammer Hardware folks found me one and even checked to see it had a bung in it ... no. So they opened another one and purloined the bung out of that one.










After the bed acquisition we set off for the Kauaeranga Valley. The autumn colour was lovely in the afternoon light.














We did a couple of short walks around the visitor centre and up further into the valley.

This one included a model dam. The valley was extensively logged for kauri to fuel the booming Thames goldrush in the late 1800's.















We crossed a swing bridge over the Kauaeranga River. DS was very brave - he did stop halfway over and say he didn't want to go any further but after a bit of encouragement he did go on. I hate these bridges. If I hadn't been carrying DD I'd have gone over it with my eye's shut! On the way back we decided to boulder hop over the river instead ;-) Wet feet seemed preferable!














The Billy Goat Falls.
Not the greatest of photos - difficult with the light. The falls are at the top of the picture, in the distance.















When kauri loggers tried to transport kauri over these 180 metre high falls they shattered. Doh. Eventually they built a tramway to transport them.

Another walk we did was to the Wentworth Falls over near Whangamata. You would think with all the stuff we'd brought that I would have put in the back pack for DD, but guess what? I didn't!

So she started off with lots of energy....














but quickly degenerated into lots of "Mummy up" requests...









The falls were nice though.














While Daddy went down to the bottom of the falls to take photos, we stayed at the lookout and amused ourselves with the self-timer and video function on my camera.









We also visited the Broken Hills area which was a thriving goldfield from 1893. By this time DD was over walking.










So the holiday was nice in parts.

On the bad side:

• DS managed to work himself up into puking after a coughing fit one night... all over the bedding.
• DD is scared of moreporks and anything that makes a sound in the night. Everytime they called she said, "No like dat sound" and came running into our bed. Most inconvenient. Especially when Mummy and Daddy had ..uh.. other plans.
• My ankles are a mass of sand fly bites.

On the plus side:

• I got to see my friend S who has moved to Thames.
• We did enjoy some family time and walks together.
• I didn't think of work at all. (Not looking forward to going back tomorrow).
• We had a swim at Miranda.
• I had the best sleep back in my own bed when we came home. ;-) For months I've been waking at 3am-4am and staying awake for awhile so it was nice to have a full night's sleep.

Day 6 & Day 8

Well, the deadline for layouts to be submitted to SBO's Amazing Scrapping Race has passed. It's been fun. :) I didn't manage all of the challenges but that is okay.

Here are the final two I did.
Day 8 (Japan) - went for the cutsey anthropomorphism of the kiwi fruit with the google eyes.

























Day 6 (UK, use time or a clock):Trip to Australia

Don't like this one, but the photos were difficult to work with. I would have binned them were it not for the historical significance of a few of them. My parents emigrated to NZ a few months after they married so all our relatives are over in Australia. My paternal grandparents eventually came over here to live. This is one photo I have of their Australian house, my grandfather's gladioli's and their cat Millicent. My grandfather's beloved V8 car was actually shipped over here when they came. It was sold when he became too old to drive safely and I've seen it out here in our neighbourhood which amuses me greatly.























So totaling up my entries:

5 layouts = 5 tickets
plus one bonus ticket for doing more than 4 of the challenges = 1
bonus ticket for making comments in the gallery = 1
bonus ticket for answering Nic's question first = 1
blog entries = 3
Total raffle tickets: 11

It only takes 1.....

Day 4 France

La belle France... how I long to go there.

Day 4 of the Amazing Scrapping Race at SBO, and here is my attempt at 4 layers. :) The challenge for France was to get layering! (Note I said layering and not laid. Although you could do that too if you want. Just don't blog about it ok? Ta).

This is a blast from the past as DH said when he saw it. While we were courting we went on some bush walks including one to Fairy Falls in the Waitakere Ranges. Nothing has changed since we got married. We still do walks in the bush only now we have 2 sprogs following us and we're not quite as slender as DH is in this photo. Hee hee!

Can you tell I've run out of photo paper to print on? I'm scratching the bottom of the barrel in terms of photos to scrap on 12x12 at present. (Apart from old school class photos which are so hard to scrap nicely). I'm digging out the real old ones.

Amazing Scrapping Race: Day 2 PNG Entry & Day 3 China

This is my entry for Day 2 of Scrapbook Outlet's Amazing Scrapping Race. The layout had to use the Papua New Guinea flag for inspiration.

I managed to upload the small version to my Flickr stream so it's hard to see the detail. The title is Family in Christ. These are some special people who I consider family even though we don't share DNA. I realised when looking at the photos (taken 2006 and 2008) that 3 of the folks pictured are no longer on earth.

And I'm pregnant in the top photo and DD has arrived by the lower photo.

*Faces blurred for privacy*

Day 1 (Canberra: Aussie Scrap Source) layout is done, but I need to take a decent photo of it.

Day 3 is China and we need to make our own embellishment - not too hard, but not sure I'll manage to get it done tonight since I have to do grocery shopping... unless I can sneak in an online order with Woolworths somewhere today. ;-)

Edited to add: well my Day One LO is a dead loss since I used Bazzill which ASS doesn't have so here it is for China since I did some simple hand made embellishing on it. There is some strange gunk on the left hand photo which I tried to get off but couldn't so I'll have to scan it and re-print it once I get some photo paper.

Enjoy the little things

Trying out the scrunchy rumbled look with my October Afternoon Detours paper and my Stampin Up! stamps.

Not sure about this layout, but anyway, it's done now and I'm not going to re-do it.

Far out! Awesome competition at SBO

Check it out!

The first prize is a chance to go to the Autumn Escape ... oh boy that would be awesome.

Even so - there are sure to be some great challenges for this one.

The Amazing Scrapping Race

Sounds like fun. I'm going to try and enter... not sure how I'll get on 'cause I'm no good at deadlines these days but we'll see.

March Reading Round Up | Book Club Review

The middle place / Kelly Corrigan
Autobiography of Kelly's fight with breast cancer in parallel with her father's fight with prostate cancer. Also about her struggle to deal with the fact her father hero is not always going to be around. I have to admit I did get a bit fed up with her angst regarding her Dad. But then I don't like to think about my Dad not being around anymore so maybe I should look to myself a bit more!

The independence of Miss Mary Bennet / Colleen McCullough
Lizzy Bennet married Mr Darcy, Jane Bennet married Mr Bingley - but what became of the middle daughter, Mary? Discover what came next in the lives and loves of Jane Austen's much loved Bennet family in this Pride and Prejudice spin-off from an international bestselling author Readers of Pride and Prejudice will remember that there were five Bennet sisters. Now, twenty years on, Jane has a happy marriage and large family; Lizzy and Mr Darcy now have a formidable social reputation; Lydia has a reputation of quite another kind; Kitty is much in demand in London's parlours and ballrooms; but what of Mary? Mary is quietly celebrating her independence, having nursed her ailing mother for many years. She decides to write a book to bring the plight of the poor to everyone's attention. But with more resolve than experience, as she sets out to travel around the country, it's not only her family who are concerned about her. Marriage may be far from her mind, but what if she were to meet the one man whose own fiery articles infuriate the politicians and industrialists? And if when she starts to ask similar questions, she unwittingly places herself in great danger?~ from the blurb.
Very much enjoyed this one, though there were a few dramatic turn arounds in thought/attitudes from some of the characters that had me a bit startled. P&P fans will like this one I think.

The uncommon reader / Alan Bennett
What would happen if the Queen became a reader of taste and discernment rather than of Dick Francis? The answer is a perfect story... The Uncommon Reader is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely (JR Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett, and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people like the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers. She comes to question the prescribed order of the world, and loses patience with much that she has to do. In short, her reading is subversive. The consequence is, of course, surprising, mildly shocking and very funny.~ the blurb
LOVED this one. We were amused. A short one but a goody.

The various flavours of coffee / Anthony Capella
In 1896 London, impoverished poet Robert Wallis accepts a commission from eccentric coffee merchant Samuel Pinker to categorize the diverse and elusive coffee flavours, an assignment that will transform his life as he falls in love with his assistant, Pinker's daughter Emily.~ from the blurb.
Very much enjoyed the lyrical descriptions of coffees as well as the tangled love story. The ending is a little different but nonetheless happy and satisfying. Mmmmm ... coffee. I would recommend this one, and also his other book, The food of love which I read last year.

March Book Club Book

Extremely loud and incredibly close / Jonathan Safran Foer
Synopsis
Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies, Beatles memorabilia, state quarters, miniature cacti and coral. When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, his inward journey towards some kind of peace takes him on an odyssey through the five boroughs of New York, as he attempts to solve the mystery of a key he discovers in his father's closet. ~from the blurb

Did you like/dislike the book?
I took a while to get into this book. There are several "voices" and stories running at the same time, and the presentation is different. Oskar seems rather precocious for a nine year old but then, I'm only used to pre-schoolers and 5 year olds so far! His search for what door the key opens leads him to meet all kinds of people and I liked reading about the characters he comes across, especially the old guy upstairs with the "magnetic" bed. I can't say I enjoyed this book as much as February's but they are entirely different styles. I found some of the story line a bit unconnected in parts and some of Oskar's imagination is pretty fantastic for what I remember thinking at 9 years old. Overall, I was pleased to read it but I don't think I'll bother chasing up the other books by this author at this stage.

I will edit this post with links to the other book circle member's reviews as they become available.
Janine, Sandra, Suzannah, Con, Heather, Sharon,

Did it affect you in any way?
I must say some of the stuff in there brought back memories of the 9/11 incident. Oskar's relationship with his mother is strained and that made me feel uncomfortable because I tended to identify with the mother! I found the grand-parents story irritating and frankly, I don't think I really got what the author was trying to do with it! Call me dense, but there ya go. It's all part of the fun of book clubs - reading things that you might not ordinarily pick up.

February Reading Round Up

The heart is a lonely hunter / Carson McCullers
A quiet, sensitive girl reaches for beauty in a small Southern town. ~from the blurb This one is considered to be classic American literature.
Started, didn't finish. Found this one hard to get into. The style of writing and the desperate lives of the characters didn't appeal to me at the time and then I had to return it to the library. Maybe I'll try again.

In search of Africa / Frank Coates
Kip Balmain, a young Australian boy taken to a small town in Africa, finds himself caught up in the violence of colonial Kenya. As the country struggles towards independence, Kip also struggles to understand his mother's vindictive hatred of the father he has never met - and resolves to uncover the mystery of his parentage. In Uganda, Rose Nasonga, a girl at risk after her idyllic village life becomes a nightmare of civil war, uses her beauty to escape into the world of fashion. Out of the horrors of war, across the boundaries of time and race, Kip and Rose discover that their lives are mysteriously linked. And that the paths they travel alone, and ultimately together, lead them inexorably to their greatest discovery.~from the blurb.
Quite a good story, typical star-crossed lover type scenario along the lines of Wilbur Smith but with more depth.


Shakespeare's wife / Germaine Greer
Little is known about the wife of England's greatest playwright; a great deal, none of it complimentary, has been assumed. The omission of her name from Shakespeare's will has been interpreted as evidence that she was nothing more than an unfortunate mistake from which Shakespeare did well to distance himself. Yet Shakespeare is above all the poet of marriage. Again and again in his plays constant wives redeem unjust and deluded husbands, but scholars persist in believing Shakespeare's own wife was no help to him and even that he hated her. In Shakespeare's Wife, Germaine Greer combines literary-historical techniques with documentary evidence about life in Stratford, striving to re-embed the story of Shakespeare's marriage in its social context.~from the blurb
Started, didn't finish. I really wanted to get through this but I wasn't in the right frame of mind to do it, and then it was due back at the library. Lots of historical detail, dates and connections are explored and I need to be in the mood for that sort of style. Will try this one again at a later date.

Barbed wire and roses / Peter Yeldham
They were our golden youth, seeking adventure on foreign battlefields. The First World War, everyone said in 1914, would be over by Christmas, and Stephen Conway rushes to enlist in the belief he should fight for King and Empire. Leaving behind a new wife and a baby on the way, he soon finds himself in the trenches of Gallipoli. Four horrific years later, Stephen is the only survivor of his platoon, shell-shocked and disillusioned, and during the heat of battle on the bloodstained fields of France, he mysteriously disappears. Stephen's ultimate fate is still a mystery when more than eighty years later his grandson Patrick finds a diary that leads him to Britain and France on a journey to discover what really happened. It is a journey during which he unexpectedly finds love, and the truth about his grandfather's fate that is even stranger and more shocking than he imagined.~from the blurb
This novel was very engaging. At first I thought it would be a typical coming of age type story set in WW1 but it turned out to be much more deeper than that. It addresses the sensitive topic of so called "cowardice" and desertion so despised at that time and it's affect on the person, their families and friends. Parallel to the WW1 story is a present day conflict between Patrick and his wife which occurs during Patrick's investigations.

Crossed bones / Jane Johnson
In an exclusive London restaurant, a gift is given that will change Julia Lovat's life. The antique book of Jacobean embroidery delights her, but when she settles down to read it more closely, she unexpectedly discovers within its foxed and faded pages; the extraordinary diary of a young Cornish girl, calling to her from across the centuries. The stories of these two women are destined to converge in an extraordinary and haunting manner.~ from the blurb.
Also enjoyed this one. It surprised me with the complexity of plot and I enjoyed the element of exotica that emerges through the events of the story.

Didn't manage to read so much in February. We spent a lot of time repainting our room so not so much opportunity to read.

Rumours...

there is something happening at SBO. On Friday.

Andrea is rubbing her hands over something! Not sure what it is but you may like to investigate.
I think it might involve Creme Eggs and scrapbooking goodies.

In other news...
Watch this space for

• Reading Round Ups
• Friendship tag post

I will post something more substantial once I've taken off Da Boss hat I'm wearing at present at work.

Stick Figure Family

Make your Stick Figure Family at FreeFlashToys.com

Taking the opportunity

Home with a little girl who isn't well today, so I thought I would do a blog post!

Excuse the black frame+husband's watermark on the photos. I uploaded them without noticing he'd turned on some settings. *sigh* I can assure you they are my photos! Can't be bothered redoing them.

There has been a lot of jam making in our house. So far I've made 46 jars. Some of which I'll be sending to Jenny as soon as I find a suitable box! Others I've sold at work.

This is my entry to the Scrap the Boys March Challenge. Go here for more details.

Used the lovely Snorkel paper from Cosmo Cricket.

Also managed to do another layout (don't fall off your chair) using my strawberry paper and Stampin' Up strawberry stamp.

We've finished the painting of our room and the curtains are up. :) Very pleased with the end result thought we did encounter some problems. We discovered the enamel tint was too different from the wall paint although they were allegedly the same colour. So we had a choice buying another 4litre tin of the correct colour and redoing the 3 walls, or painting the outside of the wardrobes in the wall paint (inside with the enamel). I'm afraid we chose the cheaper lazier option. I had bought the paint in 2007 so it would have been no point returning it and asking for a refund etc. This photo is of the feature wall.

cute things they say + make your own tartan

DD is coming along with her vocab and sentence making. She copies things we say - it's like there is an echo in the house sometimes.

With her face right up close to mine while I'm resting with my eyes closed she says in a big loud voice:
"Mummy seeping!" not anymore baby, not anymore..

Em, those little figurines from William's party now live in the dolls house, and get taken to bed on occasion which resulted in:

"Bob anna Wenny in bed!" (Bob and Wendy in bed!)
DH in the background: Naughty Bob!

DH had some music on:
"I yike mooscit" (I like music)

She knows most of the names of her little playmates at daycare.
Sheeta (Ashita)
Baco (Paco)
Connor
Yiza (Eliza)
and also her teachers
Yinda (Linda)
Bekky
Heada (Heather)
Manyo (Manjo)

It's funny to listen to the two kids play together. DD bosses her around a bit and controls the "game" but she certainly can make her opinions felt. The other day she annoyed DD, so he said to her, "I'm going to cross you off my list!"

I hope I'm still on his list. ;-)

Now to something completely different.

I subscribe to a blog called Popgadget, a blog about tech for women. Actually they have more stuff than that, but I digress. Anyhow, the poster pointed me to Pattern Pulp, a blog about... you guessed it ... patterns, by a New York designer. Fun!

She pointed me to a Stripe Generator site where you can make your own stripey patterns.

And it links to a Tartan making site where you can make your own tartan and unleash your inner Scott. Och aye!

today's post is brought to you by the letter S

DS had a mufti-day yesterday with the required .50c "donation" and $1 sausage sizzle.  So I wrapped up his money and told him what it was for etc.  When I got home I asked him:

"So did you get a sausage today?"
DS: Yes
Me: So you gave the money to Miss B___?
DS: No
Me: Well how come you were allowed a sausage then?
DS: You can't have a sausage unless you have an 'S' on your hand.
Me: *giggles* Right... so Nan gave Miss B___ the money then?
DS: No, she gave it to the office. *found out later this wasn't true, she did give it to the teacher*
Me: And the office ladies wrote an 'S' on your hand?
DS: No, the office ladies don't know how to write 'S'
Me: LOL!

Slandered!  Those poor office ladies ;-)  So if you know how to write an S on your hand you can have a sausage.  Just thought that little tip might be helpful.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Lego classics

V.J. Day Times Square
Originally uploaded by Balakov.

You've got to love these lego recreations of classic photos.

This one is V.J. Day Times Square. The set can be seen here.

Here's my baby in a dress I smocked way before I had any kids. Lucky I tried it on her because next summer will be too late I think. She will have grown out of it. It's supposed to be a size 3 I think. (Slightly differing colour cast due to DH manipulating levels. The bottom one is true colour but she wasn't smiling!) Photos by my lovely hubster who took my hint of "needing a photo" while I was rushing around getting ready for church yesterday and went ahead and took one.

figs and goat cheese

figs and goat cheese
Originally uploaded by pdugmore2001.

My fig tree is starting to bear ripening fruit. I hadn't looked at it for a few days because of the rain, but I noticed the starlings and wax eyes were in the tree and helping themselves so realised I'd better check!

They are delightful fresh with Puhoi's Fresh Goat Cheese.

I'll be making some jam when I get enough.

Does anyone want a fig tree? My Dad has 3 he has struck from cuttings. All healthy plants waiting for a fig-lovin' owner. Let me know.

Inspire tag book

Another colleague at work left recently so I made a tag book for her. Red is her favourite colour.

Once again, I finished it the night before so the light for the photos is not so good.





Another colleague at work left recently so I made a tag book for her.

Painting the bedroom

Last weekend we moved our bed out into the lounge and got things ready for the next big DIY project. Painting the master bedroom. We've only had the paint for..uh.. 2 years waiting to get started. The folks who had the house before must have liked the colour on the walls because they used the same tone for the whole house, including the ceilings. Fine for trying to sell your house I suppose but personally I like my ceilings to be white and to have a bit of variation for the rest. And of course I am the epitome of taste. (HA! NOT).

Here are the bedroom "before" photos. The pile in the middle is our drawers and my scrapbooking stuff. Those blinds are going. I hate them with a passion. I'm putting up net curtains and drapes. Much softer effect, I can wash them in my machine and they don't rattle at night in the breeze when I'm trying to sleep.


Another view.


DS took a photo of Mummy in her gorgeous painting overalls which used to belong to my grandfather. They were soon dispensed with because it was so hot! The scarf is to prevent dust and paint getting in my hair. I always manage to get paint in my hair.


Of course, Missy Moo must be the same as Mummy so we had to tie one around her head too. DS also took this photo ;) And many more which I deleted! After all, one doesn't need that many photos of screwdrivers, paint pots, ladders and other DIY gear. DS might have a different opinion I guess.

Interview with Hannah

Hannah has interviewed me :-)

1. It's not secret that you love to read. If you had to recommend just FIVE must-read books, what would they be?

oooooo... well this one is really hard because there are so many books out there that are so good, plus my taste influences my choices.

The Narnia series by C. S. Lewis: classic "fantasy" that most children and adults enjoy. My Dad read these to us when I was about 7 and I re-read them many times over the years. The allegorical nature of the series appeals to me personally but they don't have to be read that way. I always want to eat Turkish delight after reading The lion,the witch and the wardrobe.

The omnivore's dilemma / Michael Pollan: I read this last year and it still is reverberating in my brain. The issues he covers concern me and I found the book to be eye opening.

A thousand splendid suns / Khaled Hosseini : Another book that stays with me that I read last year. It can be quite dark in places but overall I thought it was brilliant.

The Bible: I know some folks would disagree about this one! LOL! But in terms of Western culture and social context I think it is a formative piece of work. For many it is an inspiration and guide. It's not a book to be read from cover to cover though, and one shouldn't expect to understand everything in it.

Janet Frame's autobiographies To the is-land | An angel at my table | Envoy from mirror city: When I read these I find myself marveling at the tension between imagination, society' attitudes to people, and the role of family in nuturing individuality.

2. I am always impressed with your efforts to be "green". Have you always been concerned about the environment or was there a significant event/person/issue that inspired you in this area?

I can't recall any specific person or event that inspired or encouraged me. Although - the Wombles were my favourite things for a while. Until they stole my dummy. Well, that's what my mum told me. I was traumatised for life.

I think consciousness of the world around me and my effect on it started quite young though. I vividly remember my Dad taking on walks along the beach as children and teaching us to look but return rocks to where they came from, to leave things as they were. We were never allowed to leave rubbish around if we went on a picnic anywhere. I would often take a rubbish bag with me on beach walks to pick up stuff that irresponsible visitors had left. As a family we all tend to be quite observant of "nature"; we're plant and animal lovers and avid readers of literature pertaining to same. Gerald Durrell and other writers like him were my staple library books in my teen years and I think their message of conservation influenced me.

As a teenager one often finds "causes" to be passionate about and I think conservation and respect for the earth became mine. Biology and ecology were my favourite subjects (along with English) at school. This translated into me doing a BSc in biological sciences at Uni. I think if the trend at the time for cell and molecular biology hadn't been so prevalent I would have gone on to doing post-grad work in some area relating to plant conservation.

3. What is your favourite way to relax after a long day?

Probably in a hot bath with a book!

4. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live and why?

I've lived in England and Germany and visited a number of countries but I prefer to live in New Zealand. I'm a classic "home body" and while I like to visit other places, I never feel entirely settled until I'm on NZ soil. This is where my roots are, where my memories lie and where my culture is.

5. What is your proudest achievement so far?

There a number of things I'm proud to have achieved. The one that springs to mind right now is giving birth to DD with just gas and the TENs machine for pain relief. OK, so DH teases me about my moans and groans but I impressed myself that I did it. It dispelled a bunch of fears that DS's birth had created. Breastfeeding both my kids until 2 years old is also something I'm currently very pleased with.

I think my proudest achievement in ten years time might be different. What I thought 10 years earlier would have been quite different too.

Now, if you would like ME to interview YOU, here’s what to do:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will email you 5 questions.
3. You answer the questions on your blog.

Blacked Out

January Reading Round Up | Book Club Book Review

As darkness falls / Bronwyn Parry.
Set in an isolated small town at the edge of the New South Wales outback and haunted by her failures, Detective Isabella O'Connell is recalled to duty by Detective Alec Goddard as yet another child is abducted. They have days to find the child and their mutual attraction is being ruthlessly exploited by the killer. ~from the blurb. Your basic thriller/crime story with love interest. Fun to read and kept me interested.

Mao's Last Dancer / Li Cunxin
Biography of Li Cunxin who was chosen at 11 years old to go to the ballet academy in Beijing... away from his family and friends. I really enjoyed this story of triumph over adversity. Li was one of the lucky ones but it came at a cost. I enjoyed the importance of family love he highlights in the book.

Woman of a thousand secrets / Barbara Wood.
A novel set in an undiscovered world before the time of Columbus. This is the story of Tonina. She came from the sea, found floating in a basket by a childless couple. Unlike the fellow villagers in her adoptive home, she is tall, lean and light-skinned. When she turns nineteen, her parents know they must send her back to her people. And here is where Tonina's tale of survival and sacrifice, of luck, magic, intrigue, danger, romance and betrayal begins. ~from the blurb. I usually enjoy Wood's books but this one I found pedantic and slow. The main character is too "good" - someone with no flaws, or who does little in terms of character development is just boring. The bad character is just too predictably bad. Not sure I'd bother recommending it.

Stiff : the curious lives of human cadavers / Mary Roach.
Ever wondered how the dead help the living? This is a non-fiction book detailing just that. Amazing! I really enjoyed it - lots of interesting stories and facts that I had no idea about. The topic may seem morbid but the book is anything but. No gross-out factor involved either. Recommend this one.

Fortune's fool / Mercedes Lackey.
As the seventh daughter of the Sea King, Ekaterina has a wonderful life -but also a lot of responsibility. Her special gift for moving around on land made her the perfect emissary from her father to check out interesting happenings on the surface. In short, she became the family spy. On one such reconnaissance mission, she encounters Sasha - the seventh son of the king of Belorus. Though everyone sees his talent at music, they also consider him a fool. Ekaternia suspects something more powerful lies behind his facade. But before she can find out what, Ekaterina is kidnapped and trapped in a castle with other kidnapped princesses at the mercy of a possessive Jinn. Ekaterina knows her chances of being found are slim. Which means that fortune, a fool and a paper bird are the only things she can count on. ~from the blurb. I rather enjoyed this one. I found it predictable but in a nice way. It' sometimes pleasant to read something that feels like a comfortable old shoe. Good, 'clean' fantasy and a series I quite like.

The lady and the unicorn / Tracy Chevalier.
Set over the period 1490 to 1492, Tracy Chevalier's novel moves between a chateau in Lyons and the cities of Paris and Brussels. The story concerns a series of six Flemish tapestries known as the lady and the unicorn tapestries. ~from the blurb. Having read some other books by Chevalier I was pleased to pick this one up and enjoyed the historical story of these famous tapestries.

Wild latitudes / Barbara Else.
After the unusual death of their papa, Adele Overend and her younger brother Godwin are dispatched from comfortable Autumn Hall in Yorkshire to the uttermost ends of the earth - gold rush Dunedin in 1864. Even worse for the grieving pair, they must travel on separate vessels. Self-possessed and practical Adele discovers herself cast up on an inhospitable island occupied by a misfit band of sealers. Godwin arrives on the rim of civilisation to find his sister vanished and nobody willing to employ an unusually pretty boy. Their adventures lead them into a series of mishaps and self-reinventions. Oh, what a catalogue: shipwreck, murder, renegade scientists, nasty doctors, a brothel, an asylum, urchins, a remarkable baby, lost relations, cross-dressing, dwarf wrestling, pyrotechnics, concealed identities, quackery, highway robbery, strange religious cults, bridled passions heaving under the stays. ~from the blurb. This one was kind of wierd. On one had I enjoyed the NZ aspect and the story is quite engaging. But I did find myself getting annoyed at Adele's pomposity and Godwin's pathetic wussie ways!

Reserved for the cat / Mercedes Lackey.
In 1910, in an alternate London, a penniless young dancer is visited by a cat who communicates with her mind to mind. Though she is certain she must be going mad, she is desperate enough to follow the cat's advice and impersonates a famous Russian ballerina. The cat, it turns out, is actually an Elemental Earth Spirit, and leads her to minor stardom. Meanwhile, the real Russian ballerina has fallen victim to an evil troll who takes over her body and kills her patrons, drinking their life essences in order to strengthen his powers. And soon, the troll focuses his dark attentions on the young dancer. ~from the blurb. Once again - predictable clean fantasy but I enjoyed it. I happen to like this particular series. Lackey does tend to overstate and over describe the situations but the story is fun.

Figures in silk / Vanora Bennett.
When silk merchant John Lambert marries off his two beautiful daughters, their fortunes are set to change forever. Elder daughter Jane starts a notorious liaison with Edward IV, while her sister, Isabel, as the new silkweaver to the court, becomes privy to its most intimate secrets. Could they hold the keys to power in this time of uncertainty? ~from the blurb. So glad I discovered this author! Very much enjoyed this story especially because the relationship between the main character and Edward grows/changes and is believable. Recommended.

At risk / Patricia Cornwell.
Winston Garano, a Massachusetts state investigator, is called home from a course at the National Forensic Academy. His boss, the district attorney, an attractive but hard-charging woman, is planning to run for governor and planning to use a new crime initiative called At Risk. By employing cutting-edge DNA technology she thinks her office can be made to look pretty good and reflect well on her. Win is not so sure but before he can open his mouth, a shocking piece of violence intervenes.~ from the blurb. I used to enjoy Cornwell's Scarpetta series but over time I've got fed up with the continual angst Scarpetta suffers from. So I was curious to see what this new character was like. I enjoyed the book but I didn't feel like Cornwell had done anything new or different with this character. Ok I guess.

Blogosphere Book Circle Book of the Month

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society / Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows.

Synopsis:
Set in London/Guernsey just after the war, this book is written in the format of letters to one character to another which takes a little getting used to. As far as I was concerned I "got into" it within the first few pages! Julia Ashton is looking for her next book topic and discovers it when she is contacted by a man who has bought a copy of a book that used to belong to her. Thus begins a correspondence that quickly evolves into more as Julia gets to know each member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and their life on the island during the German occupation. Each letter reveals a little more about their stories, their perspectives island life, characters who live there and connections. Julia eventually visits the island and finds more than just her book.

Did you like/dislike the book, did it affect you in any way?:
I LOVED it! Srsly. I enjoyed the way the story developed with each letter. The humour appealed to me.. it's very like my own. I found it moving in parts but not so heart wrenching that I had to put it down. I was delighted to see that the author was a librarian and peeved disappointed to discover that the author died before it was published. Because I would like to read more by her!

You can read what the other book circle members wrote by visiting their blogs (in the side bar --->)