Sylvia's Simple Shots

The weather is warm and the magpies have been hanging around in the back alley.

I just love how the sun is highlighting the beautiful colors in their feathers.

Just enjoying the sun!

The Sea Gate by Jane Johnson was the book I finished this week.

Set in Cornwall, England and a WWII story comes to life.  Rebecca's mother has passed and as she cleans her flat she finds a letter. 

Olivia is her mother's elderly cousin who needs help to save her beloved home. As Olivia sits in hospital Rebecca starts to clean and unearths secrets.

There is tunnel in the basement which leads to the sea. Could it be that "goods" have been secreted in the basement?  In recent times there is an illegal cigarette operation. 

A historic corpse is found in the tunnel. Who is it?  When did he die?  Why did he die? How was the gate used during the war?  

Wonderful story and real page turner

The kitchen plumbing stacks were steamed this week.

The process is required to prevent sink back ups due to a build up of gunk in the drains.

It is frightening to see black water backing up in your sink and you wonder will it overflow and cause a mess and possible damage.

After the renovation I have just gone through I can tell you that was not in the least appealing.

It means having to be home and having a contractor in your kitchen for several hours.

A sparrow at Telford Lake. They were many and flitting around as they do.  They were singing and chatting among themselves.

I was checking out a condo building in the area for orientation and location.  It is so difficult sometimes to determine these things from a few photos on a MLS listing.

The magpies were enjoying the pool of water which accumulated at the corner of the loading dock.

After a long winter, it time for a bit of cleaning. They were dipping, swooning, and shaking off the drops and doing it again and again.

The sun was warm and it was lovely to watch them frolic for about 20 minutes.

 

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I finished this book this week.  It was a quick read and I could not put it down.

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods.  

There are 2 story lines. The first is Opaline Carlisle/Grey who runs away to Ireland to avoid an arranged marriage in the 1920's and becomes a book seller in Dublin. It was very interesting to have Sylvia Beach who owned Shakespeare and Company in Paris in that time period appear in this story.  I read a book about her in this post.

The other is Martha and Henry in modern times with cell phones.  Martha is also running away from an abusive husband.  Henry is doing research for his thesis. Some of the abuse Martha suffered was quite uncomfortable to read about.

Henry starts in one direction but changes the focus of his thesis by the end of the book.

There is a fantastical aspect to the story where the premise is that books find the people who need to read them in the 1920 story.  In the house in Dublin, things are not all as they appear. 

Great read

A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead.

I started this book a couple of times but could not finish it.  I generally love World War II stories but this book had too much historical information in it.

A lot of detail about the players in WWII in France and the resistance movement.

Books - Catch Up

 August

Live the Dream by Josephine Cox - It's 1932 and Luke Hammond is doing the right thing by his wife Sylvia who has been ill for a while and things are not improving. She has dark moods and their servant Edna is home to take care of things while Luke runs his business in Blackburn.

On Tuesdays, he takes refuge in a cottage in the woods and paints. He has lunch at a cafe in the village near the cottage.

Daisy runs the cafe and her friend Amy with her small son drops by to help when she can.  She must work to provide a roof over their heads.

Along the way, Daisy and Amy wonder about the man who comes in for lunch every Tuesday. Who is he? Where does he come from? Where does he go?

Luke has noticed Amy and eventually he invites her to the cottage to see his paintings.

Luke's factory suffers a major fire. Sylvia and her sister Georgina continue their push and pull relationship to a disastrous end. Amy finds love in the end.  Great book.

October

The Orphan Sisters by Shirley Dickson  - In 1929 Etty 4 years old and Dorothy eight years old are dropped off at Blakely Hall Orphanage by their mother.  They await her return but it never happens.

In 1940 both girls are finally released from the confines of Blakely Hall but freedom comes when the country is in the grip of WWII. 

Both girls find love in the midst of war and the difficulties that brings with it. Husbands off to war for home and country.

Babies are born, the war is over, celebrations take place everywhere.

Etty receives Olga and friend of her mother's in 1920's. She brings news of why the girls were brought to Blakely Hall and why she did not return.

Another great book.

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish - Set in London in the 1660s and the early 2000s. It is the story of Ester Valesquez, an immigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi before the plague hits the city and Helen Watt an ailing historian with the love of Jewish history.

Helen is called to see a newly discovered cache of seventeenth century Jewish documents she find a young man Aaron to help with the work. He is American and needs an intervention in his life and Helen provides it.

Ester and Helen separated by centuries have life choices and sacrifices to make to reconcile heart and mind.

Wonderful book!

The Little Bookshop on the Seine by Rebecca Raisin.

Sara Smith runs her little bookshop "The Bookshop on the Corner" in Ashford in a low key style with a warm community of friends close by. Business is slow.  Her long distance boyfriend Ridge calls from his across the world job as a correspondent/journalist.  How exciting!

Sophie owns a bookshop in Paris called "Once Upon a Time" located along the banks of the river Seine.

Sophie has had a big break up and wants to swap places with Sara.  Sara's is stuck so jumps at the chance to be in Paris for Christmas. Her first plane rides take her to the City of Lights.

The Paris bookstore is a hopping place.  The city is huge and runs at a maddening pace.  The shop has a variety of employees.  There is daily paperwork to do and reports to be sent to Sophie in America.

There are many bumps in the first months of Sara's stay in Paris. Slowly she turns the corner on the employee relationships and the business.

Christmas is coming and Ridge has only visited 1 day while Sara has been in Paris. Very disappointing!  A wonderful surprise comes with Christmas day!

The Sum of our Days - Isabel Allende - one of my favorite authors.

This was a different read because it was not a novel but a collection of events from Isabel's life. Written often as recollections to her daughter Paula who passed away.

I learned about her early years in Chile and husband #1 Paula and Nico father. 

How she found husband #2 Willie Gordon and their life in California.

How she loves to have her large extended family close to her.  The adoption of friends into this large circle as well. 

The separations, divorces, travels, trips, births and deaths in the large family.

Very interesting dynamics between Isabel and her children  and grandchildren. 

I will be looking for novels!

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I found this bee on a cornflower in a neighbour's front yard.

It is an Orange Belted Bumble Bee.  This is a first for me.

I am grateful for those who have wonderful flowers in their front yards. I am happy to show from the sidewalk on my morning walks.

I found a bag full of empty gold David's Tea tins at ReUse Center this week.  I was not supposed to be bringing anything home with the renovations but I just had to.

I have a David's Tea Advent Calendar which had it's tin's missing so I filled it with solid lid ones.

I needed to clear lid ones to finish.

I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet.  Christmas is a ways away.

The Girl from the Train by Irma Joubert.  What a great story.  Another WWII story which starts out in Poland near the end of the war. Jakob Kowalski is part of the Polish resistance and his group plan to bomb a bridge to destroy a German Troop transport.  Gretl Schmidt is a 6 year old German Jew on a train headed to Auschwitz. 

The bomb destroys the train headed to the death camp and Gretl is the only survivor. Jakob finds her and feels responsible and she comes to live with his Catholic family.  She must hid her German Jew history to live in Poland.  Over the next 3 years they share the secret and develop a close bond.  When the time comes for Grelt to move on she is sent to South Africa as a part of a program to relocate German Jew orphans. It is unlikely they will ever meet again but she will be safe.

Through unseen circumstances Jakob is offered a job with an international company who has position in South Africa.  While there, he makes inquiries to see if he can contact her, hoping she has had a good life.  Wonderful read.

The clearing of the dining room and living room of furniture has begun.  

The black shelving unit filled with those drawers was unpacked then moved to the bedroom and the drawers wer all put back in their place.

Of course, the process will be reversed when the new floor has been put in.