Stephanie Jane: September 2018

Sunday, 23 September 2018

My Week In Review To The 23rd September

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

I'm also linking up with What Are You Reading at The Book Date: Right now I am reading The Groundsmen by Lynn Buckle which I will be reviewing for Epoque Press on Literary Flits on the 27th September. It's a multi-POV Irish novel and quite a challenging read.

This has again been a pretty manic week - I'm not used to being so busy! Dave's daughter Gemma and her partner Simon came to visit us at Chef Boutonne for a few days so we got the chance to be tourists and go sightseeing again. The beautiful chateau and flowers are in Verteuil which is a gorgeous town - and I loved that clear blue sky. The chateau can be toured with a guide, but only at weekends at this time of year and we were there on a Wednesday. We made do with exploring a brocante shop instead! Then on Thursday we drove to the Marais Poitevin, an extensive marsh area crisscrossed with little waterways and canals. Dave put his canoeing experience to good use on an hour's boat trip while I spent quality reading time on a shady bench!

We waved goodbye to Gemma and Simon on Friday morning then hitched up our Bailey caravan for a final tow to the UK. Today's ferry sailing across La Manche was fortunately much calmer than recent disastrous weather had led me to fear. And now we're pitched up at a nice Camping And Caravanning Club campsite, Higher Longford just outside Tavistock. We're both excited to be reunited with our new-to-us Hymer motorhome tomorrow and our friend Marta is also looking forward to taking over ownership of Bailey. All change again!

Giveaways closing soon:
Congratulations to Adrian B who won the Curtain Call by C H Clepitt giveaway that closed on Literary Flits last week!
If you like winning stuff, these Giveaways end this coming week ...

24/9: Waiting For Monsieur Bellivier by Britta Rostlund PB
24/9: $25 Amazon gift card
29/9: $25 Amazon gift card and Chuck Waldron books
29/9: Sitting At The Kitchen Table With God by Sandi Smith ebook

Posts on my blogs this week were:
My Week in Review to the 16th September

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel review + #Giveaway
Princess Bari by Hwang Sok-Yong review
The Labyrinth Of The Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafon review
Sitting At The Kitchen Table With God by Sandi Smith + #Giveaway
Gentlemen Of The Road by Michael Chabon review
The Locked Room by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo review
The Barefoot Road by Vivienne Vermes review

Around the blogosphere:
Daniela at Bookiverse has Must Reads for Hispanic Heritage Month
Carole at Carole's Random Life In Books reviews all three Murderbot Diaries
Greg at Greg's Book Haven reviews Record Of A Spaceborn Few

Have a great week :-)

Sunday, 16 September 2018

My Week in Review to the 16th September

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

I'm also linking up (if I remember this time!) with What Are You Reading at The Book Date: Right now I am reading the new Carlos Ruiz Zafon novel, Labyrinth Of The Spirits which is the fourth in his Shadow Of The Wind series. Of course although I loved the first book, that was read so long ago that I can't really remember it now and I missed out the middle two, but so far that hasn't caused me any problems with Labyrinth - or not that I've noticed anyway!

It's been a somewhat manic week, again with far less internet time than I am accustomed to. We did get a couple of days relaxing after our guests departed, however Tuesday saw us loading up the car for a three day excursion from Chef Boutonne in France to Torroella de Montgri in Spain and back in order retrieve our caravan from its storage there. It was a lot of driving which is always surprisingly tiring. Simply sitting in a car for six hours shouldn't be exhausting, but the concentration needed for driving always makes it so. At least French roads are much easier to travel along than their southern English equivalents - they're in far better condition too!

We stayed one night in a lovely Airbnb at Castelnaudry before we got to the caravan. If you ever need somewhere to stay in between Toulouse and Carcassonne, I can recommend Philippe's house. It's a traditional old French house with delightful period features and furniture. There's also a somewhat neglected 'potager' kitchen garden from which I was allowed to glean tomatoes, aubergines, a tiny courgette, sweet grapes and lots of delicious figs. September is a great time to stay at this property!

On Wednesday we were reunited with our Bailey caravan and nearly ended up with an inquisitive kitten stowaway too - fortunately he was spotted and shooed away before we drove off! Then we drove to Toulouse for a night at one of our regular stopover campsites, Les Violettes. The site has changed somewhat since we last visited - perhaps a change of ownership? There's now a covered swimming pool and the sanitary block has been beautifully revamped. I loved the red and silver decor around the washing up sinks!

We had thought we'd stay a second night somewhere en route too, but as it turned out, a longer drive got us home to Chef for the early evening on Thursday. Now our caravan is temporarily next to our static, all cleaned and ready to set out for the UK on Friday. It's all go at the moment!

Giveaways closing soon:
16/9 : $20 Amazon gift card
17/9 : Curtain Call by C H Clepitt ebook
18/9 : Dark Paradise by Gene Desrochers books
20/9 : Signed original Emma Haines illustration
22/9 : $10 Amazon gift card and A Penny Lost by Aspen Bassett books

Posts on my blogs this week were:
My Week in Review to the 9th September
#ReadingWomen - September 2018
Stephanie Jane's #Giveaway and #FreeBooks Linkup

Hunter's Revenge by Val Penny + Excerpt
Waiting For Monsieur Bellivier by Britta Rostlund review + #Giveaway
Dark Paradise by Gene Desrochers review + #Giveaway
The Pretender by Katie Ward + #Giveaway + Excerpt
I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith review
A Penny Lost by Aspen Bassett + #Giveaway
The Beast Of Kukuyo by Kevin Jared Hosein review

Around the blogosphere:
Ova at Excuse My Reading visited several bookshops in Saffron Walden
Sophia at Delighted Reader talks Escape for her Blog All About It Challenge
Daniela at Bookiverse plays temptress suggesting new additions for our TBR piles

Have a great week :-)

Sunday, 9 September 2018

My Week in Review to the 9th September

Dave, Dave and Gilly at Melle

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

I'm also linking up again with What Are You Reading at The Book Date:
Yesterday I finished Gentlemen Of The Road by Michael Chabon, a fun adventure story set in the Viking era. I've just started The Locked Room by Sjowall and Wahloo which is my 9th read of this Swedish crime series (although only actually the 8th book in the series because I am totally incapable of reading books in order!)

We had guests on our Chef Boutonne riverbank for a few days this week - hello to Gilly and Dave! It was fun to show them around our little corner of France, but this did mean almost three days with Absolutely No Internet! Consequently I am hopelessly behind on commenting and don't have an Around The Blogosphere section today. I'll double up next week - promise!

Gloria Zein sculpture in Melle bandstand

We had a lovely afternoon in Melle starting with lunch at The Secret Garden. I had their delicious Tofu and Quinoa salad and everyone else's meals were appreciated too. After lunch we walked along the riverbank from Sompt and I picked enough ripe blackberries for a crumble!

Sompt riverbank

Friday saw us all exploring Ruffec including a visit to my favourite shop there, the amazing second-hand emporium, Emmaus. I picked up a couple of interesting looking books for 50c each - german novel April In Paris by Michael Wallner and a biography of Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett. I must make more of an effort with my reading in French though. Emmaus have hundreds of French language books and only one bookcase of English language ones. After keeping the rest of our party waiting while I browsed, we then visited the Plan d'Eau at Villefagnon. The French Plan d'Eau is a wonderful idea - artificial lakes to walk and cycle around with sandy beaches to swim from, and separate areas for fishing. The Daves and Gilly both swam while I lounged on the beach in the sun with a book! Bliss!

Illustrated bench in Ruffec depicting the Plan d'Eau

Giveaways closing soon:
11th Sept: Gone To Ground by Rachael Amphlett audiobook and mug (Dab Of Darkness blog)
13th Sept: Signed copy of Barnabas Tew and the Case of the Nine Worlds by Columbkill Noonan

Posts on my blogs this week were:
My Week in Review to the 2nd September
Wrap-Up: August Authorfest and Bookish Bingo
#WorldReads - Five Books From Poland

Animal Farm by George Orwell
Curtain Call by C H Clepitt + #Giveaway
Jaclyn and the Beanstalk by Mary Ting + Excerpt + #Giveaway
Barnabas Tew and the Case of the Nine Worlds by Columbkill Noonan + #Giveaway
The Cleansweep Counterstrike by Chuck Waldron + #Giveaway
Sleeping Through War by Jackie Carreira
The Craft Room by Dave Holwill

Around the blogosphere:
Oops! Emptiness here.
Please Comment your own post links!

Have a great week :-)

Sunday, 2 September 2018

My Week in Review to the 2nd September

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

I'm also linking up again with What Are You Reading at The Book Date:
Yesterday I finished Dark Paradise by Gene Desrochers, billed as a Caribbean noir thriller. I liked the Caribbean setting, but thought it primarily an action thriller which wasn't very noir at all! I'm about to start Princess Bari by Hwang Sok-Yong which, hopefully, will be my fifth South Korean-authored book to complete that country's WorldReads post.

We are now back on our Chef Boutonne riverbank for a few weeks so I am very happy! We got a Brittany Ferries boat from Plymouth to Roscoff on Friday which meant a 5:30am start and a six hour drive across France. We were pretty exhausted by the time we arrived here at 10pm, but fortunately didn't have to do much before collapsing into bed! We spent yesterday unloading the car and finding homes for pretty much everything we brought over here. Today I've taken the strimmer over our riverbank 'lawn' so it's all looking as neat as it ever will ready for guests we have arriving on Wednesday.

The photos illustrating this post were taken at the old granary in Chef Boutonne which has now been converted into a little museum. Tableaux include a school room, domestic rooms and a blacksmiths. The cockerel right at the top of the post is brilliant - it's entirely made of upcycled bicycle parts and there's a bench in the granary also made from bike bits. The laundry tableau is just over the road in what used to be the Chateau de Javarzay lavanderie.