My Week in Review to the 18th March

I am linking up again today with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

I hope everybody celebrating St Patrick's Day had a great time yesterday and I'll type this post quietly for those of you still recovering!

Not only are we on a different campsite for this week's roundup post, but also in a completely different country! Nous sommes en France! This is the explanation for my social media absence this week - two days' driving and a New Home to get to grips with! I've got loads of lovely Comments to catch up on - thank you to everyone who popped over to my posts!

Detouring on our way south last October, we popped into Camping Le Moulin campsite, just on the outskirts of the Deux-Sevres town of Chef Boutonne, where there was 'un Mobil-Home' for sale. We nosed around for half an hour or so before driving on, then a couple of days later made the impulsive decision to buy. Of course we have been in Spain since then so didn't get to find out exactly what we had purchased until now! We arrived on Thursday afternoon with some trepidation, but fortunately are very happy with our continental abode! Hopefully it will live up to its name:

It's distinctly chilly here compared to Spain and has rained most days so far, but with bursts of glorious sunshine too so we've been able to start exploring locally. We have a gorgeous view along the Boutonne river from our sitting room which is just a few yards from its bank. The other bank leads into unkempt woodlands so we hope to spot interesting wildlife there in due course. So far we've seen a few fish in the river, a dark squirrel climbing a tree, blue tits, great tits, pigeons, and a resident (both male) pair of mallard ducks. Dave has heard a woodpecker too. I saw our first cowslip today which is something of a contrast to the blizzard photos sent to us via Facebook from Torquay this morning - whiteout there again!

We plan to stay here for a week or so now, sorting everything out and learning our way around town, before heading back to the UK at the end of March - blizzards permitting! We can then return to Chef Boutonne during the summer months to enjoy the tranquillity here and to use it as a base from which to explore further afield. It's all very exciting!


In the meantime, I am still doing well with both my March reading challenges, IndieAthon and Take Control of Your TBR Pile. You can see the books I've read for each by following those links.
I added a 1930s read to my current Decade Challenge - Collected Stories by Bruno Schulz - and J to my Alphabet Soup Challenge - Just Simple Little Cruelties by Osman Welela.
Non-book, I blogged this month's Top Ten Etsy Finds on Tuesday - they all feature March Hares - and started a new month's Giveaway Linkup on Thursday. Feel welcome to add your own Linkups alongside the giveaways that either I am hosting or that I have spotted elsewhere.

You'll need to be quick to take advantage of today's special offer: Whittard of Chelsea are offering a free St Patrick's Day tea blend with purchases over £25. The chocolatey tea features whiskey flavours which just sounds weird to me! Let me know if you've tried it? Available until midnight tonight (18th March) by using the checkout code SHAMROCK

And here's what you might have missed on my other blogs this week. Click the images to visit the pages ... and don't forget to enter all the Giveaways!

	Artisan Rainbow	Literary Flits
M O N D A Y
T U E S D A Y
W E D N E S D A Y
T H U R S D A Y
F R I D A Y
S A T U R D A Y
S U N D A Y

My Week in Review to the 11th March

I am linking up again today with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer. Except I've written this post in advance, yesterday, and might not get a chance to do the actual linking today because We Are On The Move Again!

We were supposed to be travelling to L'Estartit tomorrow for a last day of (mostly) cleaning before putting our Bailey caravan in storage for the summer and heading back northwards. However strong winds forecast for Monday mean we're now moving Today. I don't like towing the caravan when it's windy! We'll be back at Les Medes for a couple days, then driving up to the French town of Chef Boutonne from where I shall impart Exciting News later this week!

In the meantime, I am doing well with both my March reading challenges, IndieAthon and Take Control of Your TBR Pile. You can see the books I've read for each by following those links. Plus March's WorldReads visited my first South American country with Five Books from Brazil.

We had a last good walk earlier in the week when I took the tower and sea photos. The sun was much hotter than for previous walks and I didn't think we had enough water - especially once we started slogging uphill for half an hour. Also my hip was a bit sore, but it turned out all right in the end and I am glad we made the effort. I think we will return to Peñiscola in future winters. We like that there is lots of flat ground to explore by bicycle and that the Serra d'Irta is so close for walking. We could probably even walk from here to our previous Alcossebre campsite in a day if we wanted to - although we might need to get a bus back!

On a walking theme, Ordnance Survey got in touch to say that their Pathfinder Walking Guides sale will continue until the end of March. Discounts vary depending on the book, but there's lots of guides reduced from £12.99 to £8.96. (Here endeth the advert!)

Heron! 

Around the blogosphere this week,
1) I joined in Rosie Amber's discussion post What Kind of Reader Are You? Not a butterfly, it turns out!
2) Edith's Miscellany revisited my favourite Carlos Ruiz Zafon book, The Shadow of the Wind. I've got The Prince of Mist awaiting my attention at the moment.
3) I discovered this old Hello Glow post about how to make my own natural fridge cleaner. That's going to come in handy.

And a question for you: I just read the brilliant Collected Stories by Bruno Schulz (Literary Flits review to follow on the 15th) which, several times, used the word soughing. I know it means the sound of wind through trees, but how am I supposed to pronounce it? As in bough, cough, dough, through or rough?
Don't you just love English?!

While we ponder, here's what you might have missed on my other blogs this week. Click the images to visit the pages ... and don't forget to enter all the Giveaways!

	Artisan Rainbow	Literary Flits
M O N D A Y
T U E S D A Y
W E D N E S D A Y
T H U R S D A Y
F R I D A Y
S A T U R D A Y
S U N D A Y

My Week in Review to the 4th March

Ethical Superstore competition 

For the first time(!) I am linking up with The Sunday Post hosted by the lovely Kimberley at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

We're right in the middle of Fairtrade Fortnight at the moment (26th February to 11th March) and it occurred to me during our trip to Spanish supermarket Consum this week that initiatives such as Fairtrade don't seem so widespread out here as they are back in the UK. I've noticed in the more touristy towns (such as Peñiscola where we are now, and Denia) there is an 'Eco' organic display in the fruit and veg section and I can get Oxfam Fairtrade coffee. Strongly Spanish towns don't have these products in their supermarkets, but the people do still enthusiastically support their weekly markets where local producers sell their wares.

The competition I've linked to is run by online grocer Ethical Superstore. They stock an amazing range of ethically sourced food and drink as well as other household products. The competition celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight is to win a Fairtrade Bundle worth over £100. Enter here!

It's been a rainy week here which has seen us cooped up in our caravan more than we would have liked, however I am glad to have missed the storms and snowfall overwhelming the UK right now. There was even snow in Torquay - when we bought our flat there the neighbours assured us that was one thing which never happens. They fibbed! To counter all the whiteout photos crowding blogs and social media this weekend, here's a couple of springtime photos I took yesterday. On a Spring theme, I've added an Easter Gift Guide to Artisan Rainbow and, if you still need to, you might just have time to snap up the perfect present from my Mother's Day Gift Guide too!

In last week's Review I linked to three blogs whose posts had particularly caught my eye. This week I am thinking about an e-mail I received from an author. K'Anne Meinel had approached me for a book review which I unfortunately had to refuse as I am almost overwhelmed with unread books right now. K'Anne replied asking how I feel about LGBT books. My immediate thought was that "I don't have particular feelings about LGBT books." This is true in as much as I have no strong feelings either way about characters' sexuality in novels. I really don't mind, but the statement does sound dismissive so I went on to say:

"I don't seek out my books because they are in any specific genre, but do appreciate seeing LGBT characters included in literature as an accurate representation of society. I usually find myself drawn more towards contemporary and literary fiction titles and rarely read romance.
I've read great books about LGBT characters - Sugar And Spice by Anne Goodwin springs to mind, and Odd Adventures With Your Other Father by Norman Prentiss. For me, the quality of the writing and the strength of the story are most vital. If an LGBT character has a good story to tell, I'll want to read the book!
This link lists specifically LGBT books on Literary Flits - http://litflits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/LGBT? - to give you an idea of which I have especially liked or been disappointed with."

What do you think? Would you particularly want or not want to read certain novels because of a character's sexuality?


While we ponder, here's what you might have missed on my other blogs this week. Click the images to visit the pages ... and don't forget to enter all the Giveaways!

	Artisan Rainbow	Literary Flits
M O N D A Y
T U E S D A Y
W E D N E S D A Y
T H U R S D A Y
F R I D A Y
S A T U R D A Y
S U N D A Y