Out and about with Vole

Purely for family - nobody else cares about people's pets.

The contours of this lane were very pleasing. 

This cat is particularly dim. 

This one's named 'Myrtle', after the farmer who gave it to us.

Christmas Chez Vole

I didn't do much over Christmas. Lounged. Read books. Ate a cow's weight in cheese. Occasionally dragged myself out of the house for a walk. In case any of my dear family (yet another sister got engaged this Christmas) are reading, here are a few pictures of the old homestead and environs.

I like the demonic eyes on the second Santa

'…so sweet and so delicious'.

I spent a long time trying to photograph ducks. What a waste of time: my 50-200 f/3.5 is useless in twilight. If you loved me, you'd buy me a Nikon f/2.8 400mm. A snap at around £6000-9000

Yo!

Hello everybody. What did you all do with your Bank Holiday Monday, those of you in the UK, at least. I went home to be in the bosom of my family - the two married siblings, my youngest sister, parents and grandmother, and mostly read and ate. Happy 49th to my uncle Peter too! Before I departed the Potteries, I also called in on Anita, who has quit the boredom of Dublin and previously New York for the giddy heights of Stoke-on-Trent. Hope she can cut it in the land of Arnold Bennett, Dinah Craik and Stanley Matthews.

I notice, for all you football fans (soccer to the Irish and American readers) that Stoke are in the Europa League places, and for a few sweet hours, were in a Champions League qualification spot. Still, it's early days.

I'm not in for long today - a union negotiation meeting this afternoon, then home to pack all my polyester clothing for 5 days at the UK School Games, which start on Friday. I get to go down tomorrow and the athletes arrive later. It's going to be exhausting, challenging and enormous fun. I'll try to post sometimes, but if it's anything like last year, the day starts at 6 a.m. and finishes at 2 a.m. so I may not be too coherent. It's a whole week off swimming too, which isn't good for my shapeliness.

Yet more booky-wooks

Hurrah! I'm dropping with exhaustion, but my spirits are revived by the arrival of five books today: Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger, China Miéville's The City and the City, and all three of Marilynne Robinson's novels: Gilead, Home and Housekeeping. One of them's coming to this meeting.

Bangladesh 137/8 (20/20 ov)

Ireland 58/1 (8.6/20 ov)

Another book dealer to empty my pockets

I use Amazon a lot, and ABE all the time. Now I've found bananas.co.uk - the clearance page for The Book People - and bought 18 new books for £19 including postage. Not quite as good as Cynical Ben, and it takes some effort to find the good stuff amongst the mainstream dross, but it's still excellent.

Damn - and now I've just bought all three of Marilynne Robinson's books from Amazon: Home, Housekeeping and Gilead. Wonder when I'll reach the point of owning more books than I can read in the course of my lifetime?