I'm joining Amy's Five on Friday - thank you Amy for organising the linkup once more - although I'm rather behind today in writing up my blog post as I suddenly decided to sort out all the plants in the covered yard, sweep and clean in all the corners and wash the windows. I think it must be a response to being relatively inactive recently and the covered yard certainly needed a bit of a Spring clean.
2. We've just finished the last of the tomatoes that were brought in on the vine to ripen indoors in the kitchen and I took these sweet peppers off the plant in the pot in the covered yard. They'll be used to flavour some stews or a roast in the next few days.
3. We woke up to a slight fall of snow this morning which soon melted as the sun came up. Looking around the front and back gardens the bulbs are beginning to appear as they push up through the soil.
4. I've finished another six squares of my blanket this week and have another panel of six which I left in Italy. I usually do some crocheting in an evening and complete one square each day, but there's no rush to get the blanket finished. I think I might start on my embroidery instead although that needs more concentration than crochet work.
5. I've nearly finished reading my book for the book group that meets at the local library, The Last Runaway. I read it when it was first available in our library and see from my notes that this was in May 2013 so it's a refresher read. Actually, there's a lot that I had forgotten so I've enjoyed the re-read and was especially interested in aspects of Quakerism and also the descriptions of various types of quilting and the making of quilts that is an important activity for the women of the community when they're not busy with the farming in the need to be self-sufficient.
I've read most of Tracy Chevalier's book and I like the fact that the subject of each book is different and well researched. I've also read her latest At the Edge of the Orchard which is also about a pioneering family in Ohio who in order to settle on a piece of land must grow a certain number of apple trees in an inhospitable area called the Black Swamp.
In The Last Runaway Honor Bright is a sheltered Quaker who has rarely venture out of 1850 Dorset when she impulsively emigrates to America. Opposed to the slavery that defines and divides the country, she finds her principles tested to the limit when a runaway slave appears at the farm of her new family.
Many of us are hoping that we won't get heavy snow in the next few days or if it has already fallen that the snow will soon melt. Thankfully, the tidal surge along the eastern coast of the UK that hit late this afternoon did not cause as much damage or flooding as expected.
