Yep, went to a pub at the weekend, completely unplanned. After two years of pandemic and now war raging in Ukraine, we felt like maybe we should go out and Do Things, even if this was baby steps. Who knows when life will change irrevocably. My heart goes out to Ukrainians.

If you can afford to do so (and are in the UK) please consider donating to the DEC appeal. The money will go to various charities in a position to help immediately. You can donate to this via the British Red Cross as well as other member charities. If you’d rather get something in return for your donation, there are lots of auctions going on for bookish things.

The verges here are starting to bloom with spring flowers. This year there are loads of wild violets all over the place:

I also did some gardening at the weekend, even though temperatures now seem to be on a downward trajectory again. The blueberry has a nice new pot and proper ericaceous compost for once, so hopefully we get a better crop this year. At the garden centre, there was a random rickshaw for sale. I tried to convince Josh he could ferry me round in it, but he wasn’t convinced. If anyone in the New Forest is in need of one, head over to Bashley!

Last week I shared the March releases on my radar and I have my review of Lessons in Chemistry percolating. I just got distracted with my City Skylines city, which is a very soothing and distracting game to play right now.

I only finished one book last week, but it was a good one, Breathless by Amy McCulloch. What makes this interesting is that Amy has done the actual climb herself, so there are lots of details about it and I learned a lot! Plus there’s a tense “is there a killer on the mountain or am I just suffering from altitude sickness” plot.

New books acquired:

[gifted] Listen to Me by Tess Gerritsen (Transworld)
Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by T.L. Huchu (audiobook)
All the Horses of Iceland by Sarah Tolmie (ebook)