This year has been full of curved balls and I must admit I'm weary of it all ð.
Way back in November 2021 Ben laboured alongside Harry and helped with replacing the drains at the side of the house because connection to the sewerage system is a tortuous affair around these parts! You see we are the start of a chain that travels down our drive, across the back patio, under next doors fence, across the lawn where our sewage pipes meet theirs, before finally joining the main system in the next road along ðĪŠ. Since we are the start of the chain any drainage work needs to be funded by us, whereas if our neighbours were having the exact same issues, United Utilities would do the work for free.
Sadly the back drains are now causing problems and so the whole system needs replacing including the work Ben and Harry undertook in order to raise the drains slightly at the front end so that they will align and connect with our neighbour's pipes on their side - I do hope my rambles have made sense ð. Not only with the bathrooms be out of action for one day, Dave's access ramp needs dismantling so he would be stranded and so we made the decision for me, Dave and Pip to be elsewhere whilst the work is going on and Ben will man the fort with Poppy to help as needed ð Thankfully we found an accessible cottage on the Bolton Abbey Estate so from tomorrow we will be near the college and so no bonkers commutes to college and pure luxury Dave and I get to actually hang out in a home for the week instead of the car ❤️
In amongst the knitting, reading has kept me sane and I found my current brand new read from the charity shop for £1.00. You know a book is good when you cannot put it down and although this is obviously written with middle school kids as their target audience it certainly kept my attention, plus I'm a sucker for anything relating to NYC as one of my dear friends on here calls this city her home.
The blurb on the back of the book reads as follows:
' A writer with an utterly distinctive voice and a wild imagination.' Philip Pullman.
When Vita's grandfather is cheated out of everything he owns, she is determined to set things right. So with the help of three very unusual children she puts together a death defying plan - one that will take them on a wild adventure across New York City.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Katherine Rundell is the best selling author of five children's novels and has won the Costa Children's Book Award, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Waterstones Children Book Prize amongst many others. Her novels are now published in thirty countries. Katherine spent her childhood in Africa and Europ before taking her degree at the University of Oxford and becoming a Fellow of All Souls College. As well as writing she studies Renaissance literature and is learning very slowly to fly a small aeroplane.
She has also written a book for grown up readers entitled, ' Why you should read children's books, even though you are so old and wise.' I think this will be either my next library order or book purchase.
