Dear friends. I didn't think I'd read many books this month but the list is quite long, and shows what you can do what you put your mind to it! My post is late this month but I've managed to join the southern hemisphere link-up by the skin of my teeth!  My books of the month are:  Henry VIII: The Heart and the Crown by Alison Weir Metronome by Tom Watson ..read more

  Dear friends. Sad news. My devoted companion Molly the Mouser has gone to the great garden in the sky. She was 19, we think, and had a long, happy life.  ..read more

 & #WowOnWednesday Dear friends. It's official: the Spring Equinox has happened and we finally leap forward into British Summertime on Sunday.  So I was more than ready to choose 4 items from Cotton Traders to start making the most of the spring sunshine ..read more

 & The Tell Us About It Link-Up Dear friends. Welcome to another edition of Tell Us About, the challenge where bloggers from the UK, US and Australia respond to a prompt each month in their own unique way. This month it's the turn of Jill from Grownup Glamour whose prompt is Scent ..read more

  Dear friends.  I couldn't resist this one: 10 questions about phones!  It's the March prompt for 10 on the 10th from Marsha in the Middle.  I had a brief two year stint working at BT International in the late 80s and am a bit nerdy about phones ..read more

 & #WowOnWednesday Dear friends.  Happy International Women's Day!  I always regard March or September as the best times for new beginnings. Forget January with its bad weather and all the pious crusades for giving up this, that and the other.  For me, as we move towards the spring equinoxe, the light changes and it's much clearer to think now about how we want to enrich our lives. SPRING WARDROBE After not buying anything in January  (yep, I fell victim to a pious crusade!), I've bought a fair few things for spring. I don't feel guilty about it. As I've always sa ..read more

 & #WowOnWednesday Brands are failing to represent older women in their ads and on websites,  even though nearly 60% of women over 40 buy more clothes now than they did in their teens or 20s. This huge discrepancy is highlighted in the 2023 Is This Mutton annual survey.   ..read more

 #WBOYC Dear friends. Another month has sped by and we are nearly in spring. I'm joining Donna, Joanne and Sue for #WhatsBeenOnYourCalendar. Quite a busy and varied month ..read more

& #WowOnWednesday Dear friends. Sorry to add another worry to the list, but are your cashmere sweaters and cardigans ethical? Unfortunately, cashmere, that most luxurious of yarns, has the most destructive environmental impact of any animal-derived fibre.  Plus, as it comes from the winter coats of goats, it also involves animal exploitation, cruelty, stress and injuries. Goats have a nervous system and can suffer and feel pain.  But fortunately ethical suppliers are addressing some of the problems, and there's a welcome trend for seeing cashmere restored and recycled, which mea ..read more

  Dear friends. Have you ever paused to look at a particularly beautiful book cover, and maybe bought the book as a result? As a Kindle reader, book covers have been less important to me. But now that I have access to thousands of unpublished books via NetGalley, and choose titles based on their description/author/book cover, I'm finding that the covers guide me to the right choices ..read more