Bravo – Hambleton’s Heroes… by Annie Clarke

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The Hambleton District Council operates in a North Yorkshire area that  includes Thirsk and Sowerby  –  (Sowerby is a village tight against Thirsk), and was determined to raise funds to  develop a Sowerby Sports Village. Using in part a landfill site and with funding in place, the first requirement was a sustainable drainage system

Then, the first stage facilities: a fitness trail, landscaping for informal recreation, even allotments.  In time grass pitches, a full size 3 G artificial pitch and pavilion are planned.

So why the hero tag? COVID  came along. Overnight, much like the local town shops I have already  mentioned who set up efficient delivery systems, the council determined to do their bit, and opened early to encourage exercise. Dog walkers, other walkers, runners and cyclists could use the  fitness tracks. The centre team sports area was to be used for play, strolling –  with social distancing a requirement. Though dogs will not be permitted once the crisis abates. 



If you set off from the start, there are markers on the one km track, which runs around the team sports area.These markers  tell you how far you’ve come. Or perhaps more importantly, how far you have yet to go. Would that be a good idea for life? Probably not – who wants to know when the final end game is due.

You can walk or cycle on or off road. Which puts me in mind of a charity bike round and across Israel, on and off road, staying at kibbutz. Our leader would explain the route for the next day, and mention as though it was nothing – that there were a few undulations. Oh yeah – they were cliffs, let me tell you.  Here it is barely an undulation, so all quite doable.

 

 

There are useful information boards, because the nesting boxes put up high along and above the hedges attract myriad birds.

Forgive the wire fencing. But nobody’s going to get in and take these blooming babies.

The allotments are underway.  The car park is planted with bee friendly beds of lavender and rosemary. There are hedges being replanted along the road edge, after the landscaping and drainage work necessitated the removal of the original.

Like so many district councils these days, Hambleton is nature friendly. Where new residential developments are being erected in their area there are attempts to create green spaces and nature gardens. Quite right too, in these bee conscious times.

Pretty much like the bees on the rosemary, the place is buzzing. A safe place for exercise in these strange times.

More information here

Annie Clarke’s latest novel Wedding Bells on the Home Front is out now. 

 

Chic Bedroom Design Ideas You Have to Try

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Your bedroom is meant to be that relaxing oasis in your home. It is your escape from all the excitement and noise in your house, it is meant to be soothing and inviting, and yet be inspiring from a design and décor standpoint. If your bedroom is currently lacking in all of the above categories, then it’s time to start thinking about a makeover project. Not only is a stylish and chic bedroom great to look at it, but it can also help to create that sense of calm that encourages healthy sleep habits.

So, before you start feeling overwhelmed with the massive amount of design options out there, here are the top chic ideas to try.

Invest in New Bedroom Furniture

If it’s been years since you invested in new bedroom furniture, it’s time to use a critical eye and take a good look at what you have. Dated furniture is only going to take away from the overall look and feel of the room, no matter what décor you try to match up with it. Even if you don’t have the budget to replace all the furniture, start with one piece and add to it over time.

So, which piece should be replaced first? There’s a good chance that your bed frame is the largest piece of furniture in your room, therefore, it’s a natural starting point. Replacing your bed frame will give the most impact in the room. 

Make sure to choose a frame that allows you to place a mattress foundation and the mattress. You need a good foundation for your mattress in order to properly distribute your weight and prevent sagging of the mattress itself.

Don’t Be Afraid to Mix and Match

This particular tip goes hand-in-hand with the furniture, as an eclectic look in a bedroom is both chic and stylish. Don’t be afraid to mix and match different textures, prints, materials, and even styles. The end result can be something truly beautiful and custom looking.

If you’re having a hard time figuring out what works and doesn’t work together, start with a color palette, and then choose elements that stick to that palette. That will automatically create the sense of flow that you’re trying to achieve.

Embrace Wallpaper

If the word “wallpaper” instantly transports you to the 1980s it’s time to think again. Today’s wallpaper designs and even construction is not at all that of the old styles. Wallpaper is now easier to hang and remove, and you’ll find a massive selection of designs. Even if you just hang wallpaper on one wall of the bedroom, it will instantly elevate the sophistication and elegance in the room. It can also act as a design focal-point.

Give Attention to Your Bedroom Lighting

Your bedroom also acts as the perfect room to tackle a lighting project. From hanging lights, pendant lights, wall sconces, bedside lamps, and chandeliers the options are endless. Lighting is able to add to the room’s ambiance and style, so be sure that you already have a cohesive design vision in place. This will make it much easier to pick out the “perfect” lighting.

Bring in the Decor Pieces

The final touch to any bedroom design is the decor. This is where you can get really creative and let your own personality and design style show. Items such as artwork, plants, vases, and other decorative pieces can truly finish off the design.

A Beautiful and Welcoming Bedroom Design

Using each of these tips will help you to create a bedroom that isn’t just chic and beautiful but is also incredibly welcoming. By the time you’re done your bedroom will look like something straight out of an interior design magazine.

 

Sponsored Post.

SISTER SCRIBES GUEST: LINDA HUBER ON FAMILY SECRETS

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I’m delighted to welcome the lovely Linda Huber, a prolific author and fellow Swiss resident, to Frost Magazine today, where she’s talking about how family secrets inspired her writing.

It’s always fascinating, talking to older family members and hearing their stories of days gone by. I remember my grandmother talking about her life growing up in Edinburgh with her parents and brothers. The family were keen photographers so we have a wealth of photos ranging from Granny as a toddler in 1890-something, all the way up to her last years, when she lived in Glasgow with her younger brother.

What she never mentioned was either of the wars she lived through, apart from the odd comment about food rationing. Another taboo was the death of my grandfather when my mother was just fourteen. He died in an industrial accident on the railway, where he worked, so Granny was given compensation – a return train ticket to London. It was her first and only trip outside Scotland. How I wish I’d been old enough to know I should be questioning her greedily, saving up her answers for my own children. I was still a teenager when she died, and there was too much Mum didn’t know either.

That’s how it is with family secrets, I think – usually, they’re not so much grisly skeletons in the closet as things that are just too hard to speak about. Or maybe, details are simply forgotten over time, not mentioned because nobody thinks to. When I was researching my family tree, I came across a distant little cousin who’d drowned in a Glasgow swimming pool in the 1940s, aged eleven. I’d never heard of her, and my mother could only just remember hearing her talked of. It was a tragedy lost over generations, though I’m sure little Agnes’s close family still remember.

Other secrets are grisly and terrible. A few years ago, I read a news story where someone had kept something truly awful from his nearest and dearest for over twenty years. I won’t say more because they are real people, but this man’s wife and children had no idea that the person they were living with was capable of what he had done. That started me thinking… and the end result is my ninth psychological suspense novel, The Runaway.

Cass (left) and Linda (right)

In the book, Nicola, Ed and Kelly Seaton relocate from London to lovely Cornwall. It should be a fresh start for them all – teenager Kelly had got in with a bad crowd, Ed had lost his job and Nicola was struggling to keep the family on an even keel. So they moved into Ed’s old family home by the sea. Nicola was determined to make a success of the new life, but little did she suspect what had happened in the house when Ed was growing up. He’d kept his secret well…

This is the third book I’ve set in Cornwall; I’m making no secret of the fact that I love the place! The Seaton family’s new home is near St Ives, which has fabulous beaches and a beautiful old town. It’s years now since I’ve been there, but one day I’ll go back. And meanwhile, I can write about it.

 

Linda Huber grew up in Glasgow but went to work in Switzerland for a year aged twenty-two, and has lived there ever since. Her day jobs have included working as a physiotherapist in hospitals and schools for handicapped children, and teaching English in a medieval castle.

Her writing career began in the nineties, when she had over fifty short stories published in women’s magazines before turning to longer fiction. The Runaway is her ninth psychological suspense novel.

Find out more about Linda at www.lindahuber.net or follow her on Twitter @LindaHuber19

Taking Care of Your Toddler While Staying at Home

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Being a parent to a toddler is a hard task. And despite the fact that we’re all mostly home due to the ongoing health crisis, the additional household chores, work, and stress make it even more of a challenge.

parenting, toddler,

Luckily, you can overcome the additional workload by staying organised and getting the respite you need. So here are four tips for taking care of your kids at home during these trying times.

Schedule your day

The first step to balancing your work and parenting load is to create a schedule. How many hours or projects do you have to accomplish in a day? In between those hours, set some time for your toddler’s needs, such as feeding and playing. If you run your own business or are a freelancer like mother-of-two Catherine Balavage, then you can be more flexible with your schedule. Otherwise, your company might require you to work for set hours. In this case, it helps to inform your employer about your situation and send in a tentative schedule. They may even have maternity policies to help you out.

Keep them entertained

Keeping your children entertained allows you to focus on your other tasks. In the Irish Times’ article on keeping children entertained, they mention that toddlers are at that age when they want to ‘feel useful’ and are always in the mood to ‘sort’ stuff. For this reason, you can have them do home-play activities such as cooking and cleaning. Kitchen set toys and even a small broom might keep them occupied for a while. To satisfy their urge to sort, you can leave them with simple activities like arranging laundry into piles or different-coloured pasta into groups. Their curiosity has the potential to keep them entertained for hours.

Go out for some fresh air

Staying cooped up in your home is not good for you or your toddler’s health. If you have a garden, now is the time to maximise it. But if you don’t have one, or are simply looking for a change of scenery, you can always go out for a quick stroll. In case you’re worried, the BBC reports that walks are actually highly encouraged now, as adults can use the time to unwind and boost their immune systems. Of course, you’ll need to take trips sparingly to minimise risk. Additionally, it helps to have the necessary equipment to ensure your child remains even safer and more comfortable during these walks. According to iCandy’s guide to pushchairs, a harness and a parasol can help keep your little one protected while you’re out and about. This ensures that they won’t fall out of the pushchair or get too much exposure to the sun. You don’t need these concerns on top of everything else that’s going on, so being prepared will allow you to make the most of your daily walks.

Prepare meals in advance

Meal prep can take up a lot of time, but it will help you manage your day-to-day schedule if you have your toddler’s food ready in advance. It helps to start prepping during the weekend when you have more time. In this regard, Smart Mom Ideas lists a couple of children recipes you can store in the freezer to be eaten for the entire week. The list includes comfort food like chilli mac, small bites like mini pizzas, as well as bulk meals like casseroles.

The current situation won’t last forever. But until things go back to normal, you have to be able to adapt and work around your situation. It will sometimes be overwhelming, but by keeping these tips in mind, it doesn’t have to be too complicated all the time.

Author’s Bio

Jean Baker is a freelance writer and a mother of two beautiful daughters. She does a lot of reading in her spare time, and has opted for this kind of flexible lifestyle to be there for her kids.

Just My Luck by Adele Parks | Book Review

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Just My Luck, Adele Parks, extract , review

I have loved Adele Parks’ books for years now. Which is handy, as she writes one a year and has done for the past twenty years. Impressive.
Just My luck is another triumph. It has a great premise which is beautifully executed. We have all dreamt of winning the lottery. This book explores what happens when people become rich beyond their wildest dreams. It may be a novel, but it is a cautionary tale that money does not buy happiness. I loved the characters, even the ones I was loving to hate. The twists at the end are hugely satisfying. I find Adele Parks is an expert at picking up on the beautiful details of life, as she is at finding the complexities of the human character. Just My luck is the perfect escapist novel that will leave you hooked until the very last page.

It’s the stuff dreams are made of – a lottery win so big, it changes everything.

For fifteen years, Lexi and Jake have played the same six numbers with their friends, the Pearsons and the Heathcotes. Over dinner parties, fish & chip suppers and summer barbecues, they’ve discussed the important stuff – the kids, marriages, jobs and houses – and they’ve laughed off their disappointment when they failed to win anything more than a tenner.

But then, one Saturday night, the unthinkable happens. There’s a rift in the group. Someone doesn’t tell the truth. And soon after, six numbers come up which change everything forever.

Lexi and Jake have a ticket worth £18 million. And their friends are determined to claim a share of it.

Sunday Times Number One bestseller Adele Parks returns with a riveting look at the dark side of wealth in this gripping take on friendship, money and betrayal, and good luck gone bad…

Just My Luck is available here.

Actress Phina Oruche turns her hand to storytelling – by Annie Clarke

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Actress Phina Oruche whose show Identity Crisis was a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe and on UK tour, has graced our screens for years – and now she has turned her hand to storytelling.

During the Covid-19 crisis, Oruche has been learning to home-school and find creative ways to teach and motivate her son. The result is her debut children’s book, Jacopo Jacopo Football Star.

Writing in response to the challenges faced by many parents during the Covid-19 lockdown, she’s created an accessible and fun read for children.

Jacopo Jacopo follows a mixed heritage 10-year-old boy on his journey from grassroots football to signing with a Premier League team. This is an endearing story about a dream, a fragile family, and friendships while getting your game on. A native of Liverpool, Oruche brings to life this incredible city in her new book. Locals can see themselves and their city in this inspiring story which accurately and invitingly presents Liverpudlian culture to a wider audience.

Penning a story about one boy’s footballing journey, Oruche aims to motivate children, particularly young boys, to read more now and in the future. Phina Oruche comments, I love reading and books and the flight of the word imagined. Stories have changed my life, kept me company and everything in between. I would love to foster a love of reading real books in my son and other children. I would much prefer the glow of a night light and a cheeky read than a hidden screen any night of the week.

Jacopo Jacopo Football Star Writer Phina Oruche Age Guidance 7+

Available at Amazon.co.uk

Annie Clarke is the author of Wedding Bells on the Home Front

What book would you re-read? by Annie Clarke

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With, magically, time to spare now a manuscript is in, and before the edits come winging back I finished the wonderful  Philip Kerr A Man Without Breath, but then what? I seldom re-read a book, but there it was, Murder your Darlings by Mark McCrum which I have reviewed before. It was such a romp and what’s more, an excellent detective story the first time round I wondered if it would ‘hold’ for another lap?

I felt drawn because, you might remember,  it is set in gorgeous Umbria at a villa hosting a creative writing course. The ‘ring master’  is the tutor, the hosts Stephanie and Gerry. I ached with laughter, or was it recognition as the ‘performers’ the students milled, chatted, worked whilst the tutor, in this case Francis, observes, bites his tongue and oh, oh, staying neutral. Be still my beating heart… Yes, I’ve been there, taught these – by turn  – wonderful, infuriating and fascinating writers.

I do remember one incidence, but no, I mustn’t, not even with  the nom de plumes Mr A and Mrs B.

But another is repeatable. At ARVON, where I taught one particular course the students had to take turns to cook the evening meal. I joined in, as usual, with the first night’s team, chatting, learning more about them, until as one, the little domestic team disappeared. Was it something I said? It wouldn’t be for a quiet nip of something strong, for there was wine aplenty in the dining room.

They said they’d be back to serve, while all I had to do was stir the pot. Phew.

They did indeed return, as we sat around the large dining room table, tottering in, wearing high heels, and bunny girl outfits they had somehow mashed together. Glorious. Though I do wish they’d asked me to wear a fluffy bunny tail, fishnet tights but perhaps it would have been a tad too much to see granny dolled up, when people were eating. …

But back to the lovely scrumptious Murder your Darlings. So, into this course, set atop a hill with views of the Umbrian countryside, a swimming  pool, a sauna – all mod cons, bursts a murder,  of one of the writers. Or is it a murder? Perhaps an unfortunate accident?  And here they all are, corralled at the villa by the police, all the various branches of the police it seems, under investigation it appears, because – was it an ‘inside’ job?. When into the mix, another murder and no-one has been in, or out. It doesn’t take a genius to realise it was ‘one of them.’  Arghh.

The police turn to Francis for help to ferret about and discover what exactly is going on under the surface .

Why are some of them really there? Why do those who have been coming for twenty years return?  What secrets abound?

I defy anyone to put this book down,as the secrets emerge until – all is revealed.

All I can say is that it’s a blessing the tutor was there, as  I often feel like telling my students – not that anything so dire has occurred, though at times, with the myriad of personalities there is always the chance of blood on the floor.

Bravo, read it once, then go back. Feel the sun on your face, observe the view, ferret amongst the students yourselves, have a snigger, wonder if you could write a book because there are so darned good tips for writers in these pages.

A book is esssential  for whiling away the luxurious hours of lock down. And this one must be first in the queue, and a Philip Kerr.

Then – why not write your own memoir, or novel? This lock down has given some of us time for reflection, time to find the germ of an idea. Go on a writing holiday to – well, maybe not the Villa Giulia – but somewhere. Make sure you keep your wits about you though.

If you are one of the key workers, the time for reflection will come later. But write down your experiences, then, when time has allowed you to process this taxing, draining experience. The family will want to know, perhaps the libraries in their local history section Perhaps a publisher. Or put them in a blog. Writing can order your thoughts, and experiences, it can allow you to take control again.

I work with ill or injured veterans, editing and steering their writing. It is a great  way of talking things out, shaping the mess. Fiction in particular allows you to  throw around those experiences, use them as you see fit, and not allow them to overtake and control you. Or so I’ve found. OK, OK, lesson over.

This is the third of Mark McCrum’s Francis Meadowes mysteries. Beautifully written, and kindly but sharply observed. They really should be televised. Bagsy me to be one of the writers.

Loved it. Must read the others. Thanks a bunch Mark McCrum for a great read.

Murder your Darlings. Mark McCrum. pub Severn Kindle and hb. Available here.

Annie Clarke is the author of Wedding Bells on the Home Front:  pub 14th May by Arrow in  e-Book

Pb due in July  courtesy of Covid easing.