Wednesday 1 June 2011

May books and photos

A busyish May followed a busyish April, so my reading was down a little last month. Or maybe I'm getting slower... who knows. It matters not one jot really because I enjoyed the five books I did read very much indeed.

28. The Court of the Air - Stephen Hunt
29. Twenties Girl - Sophie Kinsella
30. The Sinner - Tess Gerritsen
31. Islands of the Blessed - Nancy Farmer
32. Neither Here Nor There - Bill Bryson

I think I've reviewed three of them. The other two, The Sinner and Neither Here Nor There I haven't had time to do and am not going to stress over it. Both were excellent. The Sinner is book three in the Rizzoli and Isle series by Tess Gerritsen and I've said elsewhere what a good series this is. Book three was terrific and I gather the series gets even better. Neither Here Nor There tracks Bill Bryson's trip around Europe at the end of the 1990s. It was very, very good. Funny, honest, and informative and made me want to go to Italy. :-)

~~~oOo~~~


We took a day trip up to North Cornwall on Monday, with our grand-daughter who's been staying here for a few days. I snapped a few photos of Bude - they're not great but I thought I would share.


It was overcast, damp and blustery so we had picnic of hot Cornish pasties in the car and this is the view from close to where we were parked, at Widemouth Bay near Bude.



Looking the other way.



There were drifts of Thrift all over the place. Going over slightly now but still quite pretty to see.



And is this weird or what? This stuff looks like a spider's web but I don't think it is. A passing couple said they thought it was done by some kind of caterpillar and they might be right as I saw something similar on TV programme recently.



The weather started to clear and we moved closer to the town where they have this nice canal area leading to yet another beach.



I'm not sure why boats always look so scenic but they really do!



The beach and cliffs beyond... wonderful walks up there, all part of the South West coastal path of course.



Braver souls than me were in the water surfing, sail-boarding and so on. Some pointedly ignoring the life-guard's announcements to please move out of the danger zone. It all looked dangerous to me but then I'm famously lily-livered about these things.


And last but not at all least, this cute feller (or feller-ess) turned up on our drive last week:


It seems we have a family of hedgehogs in the garden as my husband saw a smaller one lower down on the drive a couple of days later. I sort of wish they'd stay in amongst the trees and undergrowth as I'd hate for one of them to get run over. Nice as it is to actually see them around. But what a cutie!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always love it when you share pictures of your trips. :-)

Don't know that I've ever actually seen a hedgehog, maybe a picture, but not a real one. Cute indeed.

DesLily said...

i love the photo above the catepillar nests. WE get stuff like that in trees, I think that they are "tent catepillars"..but of course yours would be the British version lol.. love all the pics really..and you always outread me! I'd have to read graphic novels to catch up to everyone lol I'm only on book 19 for this year! (sad & pathetic!)
(did you email Jenny how to fix her blog so we can comment?)

Margaret @ BooksPlease said...

May was a slow month for reading for me too. I hope to have more reading time this month because July is going to be very busy with the grandchildren coming to stay - one one week and two the following week and friends visiting too!

Your photos of Bude took me back to when I was 15 and 16 and spent holidays there with my schoolfriend and her parents - days on the beach, lovely times.

My Gallery of Worlds said...

Oh Cath, your pics are lovely <3 The view is just gorgeous!!! I'm so glad it cleared up for you. OMG!! Hedgehog!!!....so adorable.

Cath said...

Kay: I'm really chuffed that you enjoy my rather amateur photos. :-)

Hedgehogs are a wonderful boon to your garden as they live on slugs and snails.

Pat: yeah... those wildflowers looked really pretty I have to say.

I thought all that web stuff was more suited to Halloween. lol

Bear in mind that some of the books you've been reading lately have been *really* long. That last Patrick Rothfuss was the same as three books.

I e.mailed Jenny today to tell her how to fix her blog. Fingers crossed.

Margaret: Visitors really interfere with your reading time. It's nice to have people and grandchildren to stay but it's also nice when you find a moment spare to relax and read.

Cornwall was lovely back in the 50s and 60s. It's nice now but you have to contend with idiots yelling into their mobile phones as you're walking along a beautiful stretch of coastline. I felt like prising it away from him, throwing it into the sea, and telling him to enjoy the beauty around him. I'm turning into an Old Grump...

Kelly: Glad you enjoyed the photos. Yeah... I don't think I've ever seen a hedgehog quite that close before.

Nan said...

Dear little hedgehog - so very exotic to us over here. And I'd love to be walking that cliff path. I have Twenties Girl but haven't read it yet.

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

Hi Cath,

Someone after my own heart .. I tend to read much more slowly than many others out there, but so long as I enjoy what I have read, then what does it matter?

I love Cornwall at any time of the year, it has to be some of the most amazing coastline and generally has some quite good 'micro climates', which tend to make it warmer than many other places.

I found this article about your mysterious webbing, it appears to be the same kind of phenomenon...interesting and quite spooky!!! But it seems that it appears all over the place.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/natureuk/2010/06/can-you-explain-this-web-pheno.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandworcester/content/articles/2005/06/01/mystery_web_feature.shtml

Yvonne

Cath said...

Nan: I never cease to be amazed at the differences in our two countries' native flowers and fauna and *love* it when bloggers share their photos.

Twenties Girl was an *excellent*, fun, thought-provoking read.

Yvonne: It doesn't matter at all. Reading is not after all a race. (Try telling my son-in-law that...)

I'll take a look at your link in a moment. There was something similar on The One Show recently and that was some form of caterpillar. Not sure if this is the same thing but it *is* very strange.