"Miss Buncle Married" by D.E. Stevenson (re-read)

My D.E. Stevenson group recently finished its chapter-by-chapter reading & discussion of   "Miss Buncle Married," the 1936 sequel to one of Stevenson's best-known and most-loved books, 1934's "Miss Buncle's Book" (reviewed here). 

It's 1934, and the former Miss Barbara Buncle is now married to her publisher, Arthur Abbott. Early in the story, the couple decide to leave the city and its tiresome social obligations for a quieter life in the country. 

Barbara finds her dream house -- a fixer-upper in a quaint village called Wandlebury -- and Arthur's visiting nephew, Sam, soon falls in love with Miss Jeronina (Jerry) Cobbe, niece of Lady Chevis-Cobbe, one of the town's wealthiest citizens. Barbara, however, is in possession of a certain piece of top-secret information that compels her to try to keep the couple apart, for the time being anyway. It's probably not a spoiler to say that love triumphs in the end (as it always does) -- but not without a few twists & turns along the way. 

SPOILER/ALI content warning:  There's a pregnancy announcement at the end of the book. Also a rather eye-rolling reflection by Barbara on the superiority of the married state. (But this WAS the 1930s...!) 

As I've often said, Stevenson's books are perhaps a little old-fashioned -- products of the era & culture in which they were written -- but they are still well-crafted, funny and charming tales about interesting, realistic, very human characters. Miss Buncle remains her charming self here, and this is an enjoyable book overall -- but the sequel does lack the satirical bite of the original (which I rated at 4 stars).   

My most recent review, from April 2025, here, and my original 2015 review here. I wasn't a Goodreads member then, but when I did join (a year later, I think?), I retroactively assigned it 4 stars. On my most recent reading before this one, I rated "Miss Buncle Married" 3.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded up to 4 on Goodreads, and that rating still stands. 

Next, we'll be reading the third book in the Miss Buncle trilogy, "The Two Mrs. Abbotts." 

This was Book #21 read to date in 2025 (and Book #1 finished in July), bringing me to 47% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

#MicroblogMondays: 40 years (!)

(NOT a microblog post, lol.)  

Yesterday was our 40th (!!) wedding anniversary.  (How did that happen??) 

Despite the significance of 40 years -- nothing to sneeze at, especially these days -- it was a very quiet, low-key kind of day, for a number of reasons:  

First, whose bright idea was it to get married in early July?? -- the hottest time of the year, right after Canada Day and the 4th of July in the U.S., when everywhere you might want to go is swarming with tourists, and hotel prices are at their peak??  (Speaking from experience...!) 

As an aside:  I actually wanted to get married on June 16th. 16 has long been one of my favourite/lucky numbers, I grew up hearing that June was the perfect month for a wedding, and from the time I was a teenager, at least, June 16th was a date in my head for my wedding -- AND, June 16th fell on a Saturday in 1985! -- AND both the chapel & reception venue we wanted were available that day!  

But my mother was working then (part-time, but...), as a teacher aide at an elementary school, and classes didn't end until the very end of June -- and she said a June wedding would be one way to send her to an early grave (sure Mom, lay on the guilt...!). (She did say the same thing about a Christmas wedding, lol -- which I also suggested as a very pretty time of year to get married -- so much of your decorating already done for you, right?)  So I took the first available date after June ended, which was July 6th.  

Which was just as well.  It was one of those summers (especially when you're in your 20s) when all your friends and cousins (and your parents' friends kids, and cousins' kids, etc.) are getting married.  There were were wall to wall weddings (and the corresponding showers, etc.) -- a friend from high school, my cousin, my second cousin, the cousin of one of my bridesmaids (I knew her too), and the same bridesmaid herself got married that summer (in August). Even if my parents or I weren't invited to all of these weddings, or couldn't go to them, a lot of people who came to our wedding were going to those ones too.  

I wrote to my first-year university roommate to tell her the date -- I was considering asking her to be a bridesmaid too --  and she actually called me up (which she rarely did -- long distance was expensive back then!) and said, "Well, kiddo, we've both picked the SAME WEDDING DAY!"  I suppose it was inevitable, with all the weddings going on, that there would be a conflict with someone...! So we didn't get to attend each others' weddings!  (She & her husband -- a guy I'd introduced her to! -- wound up splitting a few years later.)  

Another reason we didn't do much on/around our anniversary this year is we'll be heading west to see my family soon -- and there's lots of stuff we need to get done before we go. Even if crowds and pricing weren't a factor, a looming travel deadline and a long to-do list made it difficult to do too much else besides dinner out. 

We didn't think much about it at the time, but we got married the same year (and same month!) that my parents were marking their 25th anniversary!  My dad's family (my aunts & uncles, and his cousins) have always made a big deal out of significant wedding anniversaries and often held big parties of some sort for 25, 40, 50 and onward. Even though we were up to our necks in wedding plans, they relentlessly pressured me and my sister about what we were going to do for Mom & Dad's 25th? (!)  They proposed "surprising" my parents by showing up at the house en masse (!).  

Of course you couldn't just have a horde of people show up and not be prepared to feed them! (and I knew my mother would kill me if I knew this was going to happen and the house wasn't clean...!)  -- so we told our parents & my mother arranged for some food. (The guests did bring some food with them too, but it would not have been enough on its own.) I made a special solo trip home to be there (even though we'd just spent a ton of money on a wedding and a honeymoon a few weeks earlier, dh had only just started working and I was unemployed), and we planned the party date so that I could also attend my friend/bridesmaid's wedding on Aug. 9th.  

Since then, my parents' milestone anniversaries have always taken precedence over ours.  When their 40th rolled around, my sister & I hosted a dinner/dance for them, with about 100 friends & family members attending. We did the same for their 50th (minus the dancing, since we found most people just wanted to chat anyway), and we were planning a come-and-go tea in the church basement for their 60th before the pandemic intervened. Travel restrictions meant I couldn't be there at all for the day, so my sister wound up serving cake & coffee in the backyard to about a dozen neighbours, and that was it.  They will be marking #65 (!) while we're there -- no big parties planned this time around (and many of the people who insisted we needed to have a party, and attended them, are either gone, or would have difficulty coming now), but we will find some way to celebrate. 

To her credit, when we started planning the 50th, my sister said, "Are we doing a combined 25/50 party, or just 50?"  I felt uncomfortable taking the spotlight away from Mom & Dad, so 50-only it was (although my sister bought me a corsage and dh a boutonniere too, and several people brought us anniversary cards too). 

When I think about it, we celebrated my maternal grandparents' big anniversaries with them, too. I remember a family dinner for their 40th -- we all dressed up -- with cake & coffee at the house later. A few of the neighbours may have dropped by. We held a big come & go tea in the church basement on their 50th, with lots of distant family travelling to be there.  We put an even notice in the weekly community newspaper (common practice there), and lots of local friends & neighbours came too.  By the time their 60th came around, they were living at the seniors home, but we still had a lot of family come to celebrate.  We served cake & coffee and played bingo with the residents in the community room. We didn't advertise, but somehow word spread and several people from town came by anyway to wish them well.  

I went to several big anniversary parties for aunts, uncles & cousins on my dad's side (and missed many others, because of distance). On mom's side, I flew solo to Minneapolis in May 2014 to attend my uncle and aunt's 50th anniversary party. I'm very glad I did, because it was one of the last times I saw him before his death last year and I got to see a lot of other people I hadn't seen in a long time too. 

I don't know if dh's parents did anything to celebrate their 25th anniversary. His mom died a few years after that. FIL & stepMIL celebrated their 25th anniversary with a big party/dinner with family & friends at a nearby restaurant. FIL died just before they hit 30.  A few of the aunts & uncles have had parties to celebrate their milestone anniversaries, especially the 25th, but it generally doesn't seem to be the big "must do" thing that it is in my dad's family. 

So, celebrating anniversaries has long been a "thing" in my family. (Maybe not so much in dh's.)  Obviously, we have no children or grandchildren to organize anniversary celebrations for us, or make a fuss over us, or remind people that it's a big anniversary for us.  Or even to take a photo of us.  If we have any anniversary photos of ourselves, it's because we've taken them ourselves -- with a self-timer, in the old camera days, or as a "selfie," with our cellphones now. The results are often less than stellar, lol -- but we have a lot of laughs along the way! I have, very occasionally, asked a waiter to take our photo -- and they are always happy to oblige -- but dh doesn't like doing that.  

It's up to us to celebrate ourselves. 

But I've never felt comfortable with the idea of hosting our own anniversary party, and I know dh feels the same way. (Which is not to say we don't appreciate a little recognition or fuss made over us, now & then...!) We have sometimes gone out for dinner with BIL & SIL on our anniversary (and on theirs) -- and I did suggest to dh that we could invite BIL & SIL, and perhaps dh's two cousins who were in our wedding party, and their partners, to come out for dinner with us -- and maybe the nephews and their families too.  Yes, it would have been expensive, but your 40th anniversary only rolls around once, right? But dh preferred to keep it to just the two of us. He doesn't even like telling the restaurant staff that it's our anniversary either (even if it might result in a freebie or two. 

There have been some years when we've done more than just going out for dinner.  We've sometimes spent the night at a swanky downtown hotel, and/or gotten theatre tickets.  We've spent a couple of anniversary weekends in Niagara-on-the-Lake (a favourite getaway spot -- albeit, again, very crowded and busy -- and expensive!! -- especially at this time of year!).  We spent a couple of anniversaries at "cottage country" resorts (on Lake Simcoe, and near Huntsville), one in Stratford, and one in Kingston.  We spent our 25th anniversary at the theatre ("Rock of Ages" -- an 80s rock musical -- how appropriate, lol) and spent the night at the King Edward Hotel downtown -- and then spent a week in September driving around Nova Scotia.  (I've written about many of these trips & celebrations on this blog -- and while I haven't tagged each individual reference, you can find some of those posts here tagged/labelled "our wedding anniversary".)  And we will probably take some kind of trip again later this fall. (I will probably write more about that in another post, down the road.)  We've sometimes been in Manitoba with my family for our anniversary, and I remember at least one time that my mom got a cake for us then. 

(But it's generally up to ME to propose/express a preference about what we should do, do any research & planning involved, and make any necessary reservations...!  I generally don't mind -- I'm enough of a control freak that I would certainly want my say on any major decision making in that regard, lol -- but it's exhausting sometimes...  Just once in a while, I'd like to leave all the decisions and planning up to dh. But I know if I did that, nothing would ever happen...! -- and I suspect I'm not alone among wives in that respect...!) 

As I said, it's up to us to celebrate ourselves. And if we were waiting for anyone else to make a fuss over us on our big day, we would have been sadly disappointed.  Would have been?  Okay, I'll admit it -- I was/am feeling a little irritated... Okay, pissed off.  I changed my cover & profile photos on Facebook to shots from our wedding, as I usually do -- and got a few "likes" and comments there -- but I had to wonder whether anyone would have remembered the occasion if I hadn't done that. 

Sunday is my usual day to call my parents -- and I was wondering/hoping that maybe they might call ME this time around.  Nope, I had to call them -- and neither of them said one word about it being our anniversary. (I didn't prompt or hint at them either.)  I know my mom will probably call and apologize when she does remember (it's not the first time this has happened -- although I don't think they've ever forgotten my birthday!).  I did think my sister (my maid of honour) might call -- she sometimes does on our anniversaries -- but, silence.   

While some of dh's relatives liked or commented on my FB photos, there was no flurry of "happy anniversary" posts on his family's WhatsApp groups or text groups, as there often is when someone is celebrating an anniversary or a birthday or other special occasion. Of course, it's usually the parents or kids who proudly post about the special dates in their parents' or kids' lives. We don't have anyone to do that on our behalf. 

What *really* rubbed some salt in the wound:  dh's cousin in Italy did post "happy anniversary" wishes on WhatsApp -- for her parents (dh's uncle & his wife), who were celebrating THEIR 50th anniversary that very same day (!).  Now, I certainly do not begrudge them the anniversary wishes -- and 50 does outrank 40...! -- but let's just say I waited a while before I added my own "likes."  (But I did not leave a comment.)  I'll admit, I can be a little petty sometimes (lol -- I come by it honestly -- there was NO ONE who could hold a grudge like my grandmother and/or her older sister!!).  I wanted to see if anyone would clue in and mention that someone ELSE was celebrating a significant/milestone anniversary the same day too...!  I thought SIL might add something to the effect that we were celebrating a big anniversary too (particularly since, to her credit, she did privately text me & dh earlier with best wishes), especially when she added her own congratulations to the chain -- but she did not. 

All the ranting/whining above aside (lol) -- I was (am!) proud and happy to have reached this milestone, and so very thankful for dh and the good life we've built together these past 40 (!!) years... with its share of ups & downs, to be sure, and without the children or grandchildren we once assumed would be ours -- but a very good life, nevertheless. We've agreed to another 40 more (at least).  ;)    

It was a very quiet, low-key kind of day. It was horribly hot & humid again -- peak temperature was 34C/40C humidex -- that's 93F and 104F -- so we mostly stuck close to home and air-conditioned comfort, lol.  We exchanged cards (as we always do).  But later in the day, we dressed up a bit (I wore a sundress) and went out for dinner at a local steakhouse. We hadn't been there since well before the pandemic began. (And holy cow, the prices have sure gone up since the last time we were there...!)  

And then we came home -- and watched "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" on TMC, lol.  I've seen it several times since I first saw it as a teenager -- but not in a while.   haven't laughed that much in a long time. (I needed that!)   

And that was about it.  We're hoping to take a trip later this fall, when the weather is not so hot and the crowds have thinned out a bit (we hope..!).  Where, exactly, hasn't been settled, but we have some ideas... 

Please celebrate the people in your lives, on the meaningful dates in their lives (and maybe "just because" too). Especially the people who don't have kids, or husbands/partners.  They may not have had weddings and all the attendant celebrations surrounding those, and anniversaries to mark afterwards, and/or baby showers and gender reveals (and then kids' birthdays and baptisms and first communions and confirmations and graduations after that). But we all have birthdays, and we've all done other things in our lives that are worth celebrating: education achievements, new homes, new jobs, promotions, retirements... Trust me, it means a lot when you make the effort.      

Past posts about our wedding anniversaries here.   

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.

Reading challenge mid-year checkup

For the last four years around this time (see the links at the bottom of this post), I've done a mid-year check-in on the status of my Goodreads Reading Challenge and other reading goals -- and since the year is now halfway over (ummm.... WTF?!)  I thought it was timely to do it again.  :)  

In my 2024 Reading Year in Review post in January, under "Goals for 2025," I wrote: 

• ...I ended the year with 37 books read. I did not reach my Goodreads Reading Challenge Goal of 45 books (nor did I come anywhere near equalling my 2021/best-recorded total of 59 books, when my goal was 36).  Nevertheless, I've decided to maintain my goal of 45 books in 2025 ( = 3.75 books per month on average)(and hope to do better...!). I may be repeating one or both of my slow readalongs of "War & Peace" and the Cromwell Trilogy, which took up a lot of my reading time this year -- but I think this is still a realistic & reachable goal for me right now (albeit a bit of a stretch one!). 
• I've read more than 45 books in four of the past six years (2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023), and almost 45 (i.e., 43) in 2020 -- so 45 books still seems very do-able.  But I'd be thrilled to be able to improve on that goal, too!  
• While I'm grateful for my book groups and the boost they give to my reading totals, and while I intend to keep up with them in 2025, I'm hoping to be able to read more of my own choices this coming year too.  :)   

So.  Here we are at the midpoint of 2025 -- which suggests I should have read 22-24 books by now to keep up the pace of 3-4 books per month towards my goal of 45 by the end of the year. 

I'm not quite there yet.  :(   I am currently at 20 books finished  = 44% of my 2025 goal (2 books behind schedule to meet my goal). I read 3 books in January, 4 in February, 3 in March, 3 in April, 3 in May and 4 in June. I'm basically in the same place I was at this time last year (end of June 2024).  In 2023, I had reached 56% of my goal;  64% in 2022, and I was already at 94% in 2021 (! -- albeit my goal then was just 36 books -- and, I should note, it was peak pandemic then too! = not much else to do but sit around and read!). 

Whether I'll reach my goal by year end (let alone improve on previous years' totals) remains to be seen...! (although I'll never say never..!)  I'm still involved in several online book clubs and readalongs that keep me reading (albeit not always books of my choice) --  including one for D.E. Stevenson's books on Groups.io and the monthly book club on the Childless Collective (formerly Gateway Women & Lighthouse Women) private online community, which I co-host. 

Sadly, the L.M. Montgomery Readathon on Facebook, which began as a welcome distraction during the early days of the pandemic in spring 2020, wrapped up at the end of our last book together at the end of May:  the main organizer has decided to move on to other projects.  :(   

Despite my stated intention in January (above), I decided not to repeat last year's slow readalongs of Leo Tolstoy's epic "War and Peace" and Hilary Mantel's "Cromwell Trilogy" -- "Wolf Hall," "Bring Up the Bodies," and  "The Mirror and the Light" -- hosted again this year by Simon at "Footnotes and Tangents" -- albeit I am very glad I read them with F&T last year!  I am, however, taking part in some of the other readalongs he's hosting this year, which started with "The Siege at Krishnapur" by J.G. Farrell, and is currently covering Mantel's novel about the French Revolution, "A Place of Greater Safety." 

Needless to say, there are still a lot of books on my "priority TBR list" (which has expanded considerably since I posted about it in 2021..!) that I haven't read yet! (And I realize that, realistically, I am never going to be able to read all the books I would like.)(But it's still fun trying, right?)  

2024 Reading challenge mid-year checkup

2023 Reading challenge mid-year checkup

2022 Reading challenge mid-year checkup

2021 Reading challenge mid-year checkup

Did you set any reading goals for 2025?  Are you making progress toward them? 

Right now

Right now...* 

*(A (mostly) monthly series/meme.  Explanation of how this started & my inspirations in my first "Right now" post, here. Also my first (similar) "The Current" post, here.)

Today is Canada Day... and let's just say it's hitting a little differently this year. We're generally not a nation of ardent flag-wavers -- our patriotism is a much quieter variety than that of our neighbours to the south. But I think that is starting to change because of (cough!) recent events... and make no mistake, we are very proud of our country, our unique history and culture. And today especially, we celebrate that!  

June flew by... and here we are, halfway through 2025 already!)  The weather gradually warmed up -- and then got REALLY (dangerously!) hot & humid last week, just after we officially welcomed summer -- albeit it's been cloudy/overcast  more often than not -- there still hasn't been quite enough blue sky & sunshine for my liking (hopefully a few weeks in sunny Manitoba will help remedy that...!).  We also had to contend with several days of smoke haze and poor air quality -- the results of massive forest fires out west, in Manitoba & Saskatchewan.  :(  

This month, we: 

• Ran several errands on June 2nd:  deposited a cheque at the bank ABM, picked up dh's prescription at the drugstore, and had a browse (and bought some Father's Day cards) at the local mega-bookstore. 
• Went to the mall to walk & shop, June 3rd, 10th, 17th & 24th. 
• Returned to the mall in our old community on Friday, June 6th, for haircuts & shopping, with a brief stop at the cemetery (shrouded in smoke from the wildfires 1000+ miles away in Manitoba & Saskatchewan...!) to visit Katie. (Did not get to visit Little Great-Niece at SIL's, which we would usually do on a Friday.) 
• Stopped at the supermarket en route home to pick up a few things plus some pizza slices for lunch.  
• Went to the nearby park and then had tea & snacks with SIL & Little Great-Niece on the mornings of Friday the 13th (!) and Friday the 27th. 
• Stopped off at the nearby supermarket en route home on the 13th to pick up a few things plus some pizza slices for lunch. 
• Also spent Friday morning, June 20th, at SIL's. LGNiece was there as usual, and Older Nephew's Wife arrived a while later with both LGNephews -- she dropped off LGNephew #2 with us and then took LGNephew #1 for his regular checkup with the family doctor.  When they returned, we took LGNephew #1 and LGNiece to the nearby park to play, and when we got home, BIL brought them both Happy Meals for lunch from McDonalds (before heading back to work).  A good time was had by all! (But we were both exhausted!  lol)  
• Went to BIL's for a barbecue with them, the nephews & their families, on Saturday, June 14th (before Father's Day). All was well until the presents came out. (Ouch.)  But it was lovely to spend some time with them all, especially Little Great-Nephew #1 -- we hadn't seen him since Easter ( = 2 months!).  (He's now a kindergarten graduate!)   
• Headed downtown (through morning rush hour traffic!) for 9 AM dentist appointments on Wednesday, June 18th. (Lesson learned:  Our next appointments will be at 11 AM!  lol) 
• Returned on Monday, June 30th (for 10:45 AM!  lol) for two fillings (mine). Ugh!  
• Went to Costco on June 25th for the first time in YEARS to try to renew our long-lapsed membership. (The girl at the entrance blanched when she scanned my card and saw the date it expired!)  I forgot to change the address on our membership when we moved here (in 2016!), and thus I never received the renewal notice. By the time I realized this, it had long expired. We didn't shop there a lot (even when we had more storage space at the house!) -- partly because dh loathes the place, lol -- but a membership does come in handy from time to time! And while they are not Canadian, they are well known for treating their employees well (stepSIL has worked at a Costco for many years), which is good to see!   

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Also right now:  

Reading: I finished 4 books in June (all reviewed on this blog, as well as Goodreads & StoryGraph, & tagged "2025 books"):  

• "Rules For Visiting" by Jessica Francis Kane (the July pick for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club). (4 stars;  my review.)   
• "Kills Well With Others" by Deanna Raybourn. A sequel to "Killers of a Certain Age" (yay!!), which I read (twice!) and adored. (Links to my reviews of that one, here and here.)(4-4.5 stars;  my review.) 
• "We Solve Murders" by Richard Osman. (4.5-5 stars, my review.) 
• "Mania: Tartan, Turmoil and My Life as a Bay City Roller" by Stuart "Woody" Wood. (4 stars, my review.) 

This brings me to 20 books read in 2025 to date, 44% of my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind pace to meet my goal.  :) 

Current reads: 

• "A Place of Greater Safety" by Hilary Mantel, the current slow read with Footnotes and Tangents, which began May 5th and runs for 20 weeks (until Sept. 15th). Currently 34% completed. 
• "Miss Buncle Married" by D.E. Stevenson, for my D.E. Stevenson group.  Our group discussion began on April 21st, and I'll count this as another re-read once we're finished (in July). I've read the book twice before on my own (once in 2015 and again prior to the start of our group read & discussion -- see above! Currently 84% completed.  (Original 2015 review here;  most recent review here). 
• "Living the Life Unexpected" by Jody Day.  I'm once again taking part in a chapter-by-chapter group read of this CNBC classic!  The most recent Zoom meeting covered Chapter 11.  This is the 5th (!) time I've read this book, or the earlier version of it ("Rocking the Life Unexpected").  (Most recent review, with links to earlier reviews, here.)  
• "L.M. Montgomery and Gender," an essay collection edited by E. Holly Pike & Laura Robinson. Slowly working my way through, in between the other books...! 

Coming up: Most of my book groups have their next reads plotted out for a few months in advance -- and listing them here helps me keep track of what I should be reading next. ;)  

• For my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club:  
• "Drive Your Plow (Over the Bones of the Dead)" by Olga Tokarczuk. (August). (Planning to read this one on my upcoming vacation!)  
• "The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands" by Mary Seacole. (September) 
• "The Secrets of Blythswood Square" by Sara Sheridan. (October) 
• For my D.E. Stevenson group:  This list of upcoming books should keep us busy through 2025 or even into early 2026!  (A couple of the books are ones we covered shortly after I first joined the group back in 2014 -- you know you've been around for a while when....!)  
• The Two Mrs. Abbotts (likely starting in mid-July -- my original 2015 review here).
• Crooked Adam
• The Four Graces (original 2015 review here). 

• Footnotes and Tangents slow readalongs planned for 2025 include:
• "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe -- starts Sept. 29th, for 5 weeks. 
• "The Blue Flower" by Penelope Fitzgerald -- starts Nov. 3rd, for 7 weeks. 

(Simon is a big fan of the late great Hilary Mantel, and the other books he's selected were all ones that she loved, so he figured they would probably be worth reading!) 

A few recently purchased titles (all in digital format, mostly discounted ($5-10 or less) or purchased with points):  

• "War" by Bob Woodward
• "When the Sea Came Alive" by Garrett Graff 
• "Back After This" by Linda Holmes 
• "The Duel:  Diefenbaker, Pearson and the Making of Modern Canada" by John Ibbitson 
• "Romantic Outlaws" by Charlotte Gordon 
• "Source Code" by Bill Gates
• "Memorial Days" by Geraldine Brooks 
• "Big Swiss" by Jen Beagin 
• "The Safekeep" by Yael van der Wouden
• "Careless People" by Sarah Wynn-Williams 

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Watching: 

• The NHL Stanley Cup hockey playoffs -- at least until the Winnipeg Jets & Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated in the second round (sob). :(    Cheered for the Edmonton Oilers vs the Florida Panthers, the eventual winners for the second year in a row.  :(   (Even so, I do think hockey in June is pretty ridiculous...! -- the season never went this long when I was growing up -- but then, the league was much smaller then...!)  
• Canadian Football League (CFL)  football (especially if my beloved Winnipeg Blue Bombers are playing).  I really don't pay a lot of attention to football -- dh watches more than I do -- but if football is going to be on the TV, I would much rather it be the Canadian variety! (And I've felt that way for decades!) 
• Canada Day fireworks from our condo windows/balcony. Today is Canada Day, but we've already been seeing fireworks every night since Friday (!).  Tonight's should be the peak, though!  

Playing:  

• Heardle Decades: Stats as of June 30th:  
• Heardle 60s: 75.2% (729/969, 288 on first guess), unchanged from last month. Max. streak: 15.
• Heardle 70s: 77.6% (548/706, 310 on first guess), down 0.2% from last month. Max. streak: 18. 
• Heardle 80s: 39.4% (227/576, 81 on first guess), up 0.6% from last month. Max. streak: 5.
• Heardle 90s: 31.4% (214/678, 50 on first guess), unchanged from last month. Max. streak: 5. 
• NYT Connections:  
• By May 31st, I'd played 307 games and won 85% of them, including 156 "perfect puzzles," including 6 where I got the most difficult/purple category first (unchanged from last month)  And I ended the month by matching my maximum winning streak of 34!  
• By June 30th, I'd completed 337 games and won 85% of them, including 172 "perfect puzzles" with zero errors, including 8 where I got the most difficult/purple category first.  And I increased my maximum winning streak to 45!  :)   (Current streak at 2!)  

Following:  

Eating/Drinking:  

• As I've mentioned before, we achieved our goal of lowering our cholesterol levels in late January, after less-than-stellar bloodwork last fall earned us both serious chats with our family doctor -- and we've been trying to maintain/improve on those numbers (and lose/keep off some extra pounds) since then, by continuing to eat healthier and move at least a little more.    
• The numbers on the scale have continued to yo-yo a bit, but I still ended the month another full pound lighter than I was at the end of May. (I'll take it!)  Overall, I've lost 13 pounds since our chat with the doctor last October (dh has lost more than 20), and 25 pounds from my heaviest-ever weight a few years ago. 
• Notable recent takeout meals: soup, pizza slices, teriyaki rice bowls and rotisserie chicken from the supermarket takeout counter; and Swiss Chalet rotisserie chicken. (Trying to avoid the stuff that's really calorie & fat-laden!) 

Wearing:  Went from capris & T-shirts to shorts and tank tops!  lol  

Buying (besides books, lol): 

• More Canadian (or, failing that, international) products (vs American -- you can probably guess why...! It's not always easy, though, given how intertwined our two countries' economies & supply chains are...!).(
• Dh does most of the grocery shopping these days (got into the habit during the pandemic), and isn't quite as careful as I am when it comes to checking labels, etc.!  lol  
• Plane tickets to see my family out west in July! (Ouch! -- flying within Canada is ridiculously expensive.)  
• More cute stuff for the great-niblings, from Old Navy, Children's Place and Carters/Oshkosh. 
• Two pairs of denim capris from Old Navy -- one faded blue, one white (plus a couple of T-shirts). I didn't really NEED new capris, but they were on sale half price ($25 each), so I couldn't resist. The legs are a "skinny" fit -- a bit snugger than I like -- but they're high-waisted, fit me great and felt very comfortable!  
• Assorted PJs/nightgowns for me & my sister, with a chicken/rooster theme (which is a "thing" in our family), from La Vie en Rose (Canadian lingerie/swimwear chain). Here's a link to one of the pieces (a nightgown)., and you can see some of the others in the collection at the bottom of the page, under "You might also like..." (I did NOT buy them all!  lol -- although it was tempting!).  I've had my eye on these designs for a while, and they finally went on sale!  Half price!  
• Shoes to go with the new dress(es) I bought for an upcoming family wedding in August. (I wrote about them here.)  

Smelling: It's summer, and (between heat waves) we've had the balcony door open on nice days. Cue the cannabis smells wafting in...  ugh...  :p  

Anticipating:  A busy time ahead, as we count down to our trip west to see my parents, coming up soon!  Also anticipating:  a night at home to myself later this week, when dh, BIL & the nephews attend a stag dinner for their cousin's son (ahead of his wedding in August -- the one I bought the new dress(es) and shoes for!).  

Prioritizing:  The things on my to-do list that need to get done before we leave.  

Hoping: That the ache in my jaw and sensitivity in my teeth & gums (both upper and lower on the right side of my face) disappear soon -- a hangover from my dental appointment yesterday...! (described here). 

Noticing:  My right hip has started bothering me in recent weeks. It started several weeks after my latest tumble (which happened in mid-April), so I don't think it's connected to that. I'm wondering whether I've been overusing it somehow to compensate for my frequently wonky left knee?  Sigh. Getting older sucks sometimes...!  

 

Enjoying:  Having a quiet day at home together... nothing (or very little) open, no calls to go anywhere, less online activity to follow than usual. (Looking forward to another quiet day on Friday = 4th of July in the U.S.!).  

Wondering:  If we'll get to see the great-niblings before we head west? 

Trying:  (and failing!):  To keep on top of my email inbox lately.  I'm not sure it will be any better while we're at my parents' house -- I know from experience that my time is not my own while I'm there...!  (I do check and open anything that looks urgent/important.)  

Wanting:  To treat ourselves to our first gelatos of the summer (haven't been yet!), preferably before we head west.  Today would be perfect for that -- except our favourite gelato shop is closed for Canada Day. Oh well, there's still time...!  

Appreciating:  The amazing country I live in (this year more than ever!).  

Loving:  Seeing lots of photos and videos of the great-niblings on social media & in our family text group, posted by their parents. (I think I wrote something similar for this category last month!  lol -- but it really is a day brightener!)(And I'm glad that it IS a day brightener, and not a source of angst, as it might have been, years ago, when I was deep in grief...!)  

                              

Feeling: Grateful to be Canadian. Grateful for a long and mostly happy marriage (significant anniversary coming up soon).  Grateful for the good life we've built together, even if it hasn't included the children we wanted.  Grateful for my extended family and friends ("real life" and online!).  Grateful for an air conditioning system that's working again! (lol) 

#MicroblogMondays: Annoying things, small pleasures, and other odds & ends

(A multipurpose post...!  lol)  

Annoying things: 

• It's been a busy week!  It feels like there's never enough time to get everything done on my daily to-do lists (especially with a vacation coming up soon...!)  I have days of unopened emails. (I have been checking, in case there's something truly important.)  
• I just got back from the dentist (boo, hiss...). We went for checkups about two weeks ago, where I discovered I had at least one cavity and likely two (the tooth beside it). Oh joy. :p  So it was back to the city this morning.  I barely felt the freezing injection (yay!), but the procedure itself was rather arduous. :(  Not painful, but a lot of tugging and pressure involved.  I felt limp as a rag but glad when it was over (at least until I saw the bill...!  -- thank goodness for dental insurance...!).  As I type, I'm still waiting for the freezing to wear off (it's almost gone!) to try out my new bite (i.e., lunch!).  
• Our building's air conditioning system decided to conk out last Tuesday during a recent heat wave -- one of the hottest days of the year so far (35C/44C humidex), amid record temperatures for June. Temperatures inside reached 80F (about 27C)(normally we keep the thermostat set at 74F. Our HVAC unit WAS running, but the air it was blowing was not very cool/cold. :p  We both felt pretty wilted (especially after three days of high temperatures and humidity, even when the a/c was running!), but ran the Dyson purifier fan, drank lots of fluids, and went to the mall for a few hours for respite. 
• Related small pleasure:  We bought a yummy rotisserie chicken at the supermarket on Sunday so that we didn't have to cook, and used the leftovers with salad to make light no-cook meals for the next two nights too.  

Small pleasures:  

• Kobo has been making some changes to its website recently... I'm not sure I like all of them, BUT I recently logged on and noticed changes to my wish list:  it's now sortable!  Newest to oldest added (which is how it was organized previously), alphabetical by title (but sadly not by author -- A to Z and Z to A), most to least expensive and vice versa. If I choose the "least to most expensive" option, I can see right away if any books on my list are on sale cheap, instead of having to scroll through the entire list. (And I have a very LARGE wish list...!)  
• After complaining (ummm, WRITING! lol) about my futile search for a pair of sandals to wear to a family wedding in August, I found (bought!) not just one but two pairs on a recent expedition to the mall! Both are silver (or silver-ish), flat or low-heeled, wide widths in my size, and feel relatively comfortably on my very wide foot! (I could actually get my foot into them!  lol) And both pairs were fairly reasonably priced too.  This one is silver with a one-inch chunky heel -- so it's not flat, but the heel feels substantial enough that I won't be teetering precariously in it. The other one is completely flat, but I think it's just dressy enough (particularly with the floral print dress I bought). It's "nude" -- gold-ish overtones vs pure silver, but I think it's silver-y enough. Anyway, that's a load off my mind!   

Personal stuff: 

• I recently, mostly, stopped wearing a mask in (most) public places, for the first time in 5 (-ish) years.  (Fingers crossed...!)  Dh has been foregoing masks for a while now, and I will admit, after five years, I was a little tired of putting on a mask and dealing with foggy glasses and a sweaty face -- especially at the mall, when (on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning, which is usually when we go) there were so few people around anyway. 
• I still keep a couple in my purse just in case, and I still put one on if I'm somewhere where there's a lot of people and/or the air circulation doesn't seem very good, etc. And we'll definitely be wearing them at the airport and on the plane west to see my family in a few weeks' time!  
• I found out this week (via my high school graduating class's Facebook page) that our English teacher (in both Grades 10 & 12, as well as our yearbook advisor) passed away last week. Mr. P. was 80. Not only was he our teacher, he had been a student at the same high school himself in the early 1960s, and later went on to become principal -- essentially devoting the better part of his life to the school and the community. He was an excellent teacher -- as evidenced by the hundreds and hundreds of comments on a community FB page I joined, and on the funeral home obituary.  He taught several generations of students from the same families -- their parents, their kids, their aunts, uncles & cousins.  Decades later, he still remembered their names, their stories, their family members. He was, in short, legendary. 
• I added a comment myself, and enjoyed scanning the others, and seeing many familiar names from my past. 
• I didn't know, but learned from one commenter, that Mr. P. was reluctant to accept the principal's job, and only did so on the condition that he could still carve out some time to continue teaching.  
• One former student recalled running into Mr. P. at the grocery store -- who glanced at her shopping list, and pointed out that she'd misspelled an item. (I'm sure she made his day, lol.)  
• And I was particularly amused to read one from a former student (obviously younger than me) whose first year of high school was Mr. P.'s last before retirement in 2010. He recalled Mr. P. addressing a student assembly on the first day of classes, and compared him to Dumbledore at Hogwarts, lol. 
• My class is collecting money and will make a donation in Mr. P.'s memory to one or more of the charities mentioned in his obituary, and/or plant a tree(s) in his honour. 
• The memorial service was held Friday afternoon, and I watched the livestream (three cheers for the Internet!). It was held at the big church where my graduation took place (I don't know if that's still the venue these days). 
• One of the speakers was one of his four (!) sons -- who is also now a teacher AND a vice-principal at the same high school!  
• (I'll admit, as a childless person, it was a little tough hearing all the talk about children and grandchildren, generations of students from the same families, etc... It also stirred up a lot of memories from my school days. Most parents get to regale/bore (lol) their kids with those kinds of stories.  Who do I get to share those memories with??) 
• I've mentioned Mr. P, in several previous posts here -- in particular, this one from 2010 (in which I named him as one of the people who had the biggest impact on my life, outside of family), and this one from 2019, about memorable teachers in my life. 

 Recent reading/viewing: 

• Going through my archives, I stumbled onto this post from June 2015 -- 10 years ago. Very timely, given the recent death of musical genius Brian Wilson, and I decided to share it again. I'm betting you will want to listen to some Beach Boys music after reading it!  
• There was a fascinating/disturbing story in the New Yorker recently about children adopted from China, reconnecting with their biological families through DNA testing.  (I found the link in an ad post on Facebook, and was able to access it without a subscription.)  
• Jody Day's quarterly/seasonal Fireside Wisdom Zoom discussions with a fabulous panel of childless elderwomen (the "Nomo Crones") are always interesting and worth watching!  The topic this time around was menopause. The video of this session is now available on the Gateway Women website (under the "Childless Elderwomen" tab). Just be aware there is some frank/explicit discussion about sex.

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

"Mania: Tartan, Turmoil and My Life as a Bay City Roller" by Stuart "Woody" Wood

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that I spent 2-3 years of my teenaged life in the mid/late 1970s in the thrall of... the Bay City Rollers (lol).  Next August (2026) will mark (big GULP) 50 (!!!) years (!!!)  since my sister, two of our best friends and I screamed ourselves silly at a Rollers concert, along with about 12,000 other hysterical teenaged girls, at the old arena in Winnipeg. (You can find my past posts about the Rollers here.) 

In recent years, I've read several books about the band -- some better than others -- including memoirs by two members of the classic lineup (bassist Alan Longmuir and lead singer Les McKeown -- both sadly gone now, as well as Ian Mitchell, who replaced Alan). (The links go to my blog reviews of their books.) 

Now it's guitarist Stuart "Woody" Wood's turn to tell his side of the Rollers' story (with the help of collaborator Peter Stoneman). Woody was my favourite -- the man I wanted to marry when I was 15 (lol)  -- and although I am now happily married to someone else (and so is he -- and coincidentally, they don't have any kids either), I could not resist hunting down a copy when I first heard about it on his Facebook page. "Mania:  Tartan, Turmoil and My Life as a Bay City Roller" is not yet available in North America -- and to have one shipped over from the UK would have been ridiculously expensive -- but I was able to get my hands on an e-copy last Tuesday, a few days after it was published on June 19th, and dove right in.  :)  It was a fast read that kept me turning the pages. (Obviously, your mileage may vary, depending on your interest in the band!)

Woody, now 68 years old (the same age as the guy I actually did marry) was still just 16 years old and (as he describes it) "wet behind the ears" when he joined the band in 1974 -- the last of the classic lineup to be added. A poor student prone to daydreaming, he had dropped out of school to train as an apprentice electrician, and had been playing guitar in local bands (in Edinburgh, Scotland) for a couple of years when Tam Paton, the Rollers' uber-controlling manager, spotted him. He was first invited to work part-time as a roadie for the Rollers, and eventually to join them when another member dropped out. 

The Rollers were the hottest band in Edinburgh then -- and their weekly salary was double what Woody had been making as an apprentice electrician -- so he accepted -- just as the Rollers started taking off nation-wide, on the strength of their single "Remember."  Soon afterward, "Rollermania" -- which many compared to Beatlemania, a decade-plus earlier -- was under way, spreading to North America, Australia, Japan and beyond.  Young Woody was thrust into a relentless schedule of touring, playing night after night after night (more than 300 days in 1975) to increasingly larger audiences of screaming teenaged girls -- then fleeing them after the show -- plus press interviews, photo sessions, television and radio performances and interviews, writing and recording sessions.... Tam fed them "vitamins" to keep their energy levels up, and then other pills to help them sleep. They toured the world, but their fame was such that they didn't actually get to see very much of it. Trapped in their hotel rooms, they could not go out for a walk, or into shops or pubs, etc., without attracting a hysterical mob.  Even the Wood family home was besieged by fans ringing the doorbell day and night and leaving graffiti on the walls. Woody's parents eventually had to move. 

In Toronto in the summer of 1976 -- a few weeks before I saw them in Winnipeg -- their limo was mobbed and nearly crushed when they tried to attend an interview at a local radio station (just a few blocks away from where I'd be living, a decade later!). That same summer, some 50,000 fans turned out to see them make a brief personal appearance at Nathan Phillips Square (Toronto city hall). It was a hot summer day; girls were fainting in the crush of the mob, and the Rollers were quickly whisked offstage and sped away for fears of everyone's safety. You can hear snippets from that day on the song "Yesterday's Hero" -- the album version, from their "Dedication" album. (Other versions cut out the crowd noises. Listen to the lyrics... oh, the irony...) 

“At that age you’re not so much scared as the adrenaline is in full flow. I’d be terrified if that were to happen now,” he writes.  

It's been a while since I read Alan & Les's memoirs -- but I feel like Woody's book was the best at capturing the mania of that chaotic time, and the personal and professional turmoil he and the others lived through. It's a book that lives up to its title and subtitle!  

It was fun at first, but after a while, the hectic lifestyle began to take a toll.  Inevitably, the mania began to fade. The hits stopped coming, the record company lost interest in promoting them, Tam's intense monitoring tapered off, drugs entered the picture, and the band members came to a dawning realization of the legal and financial mess they were in -- which eventually led to years of bitter legal battles. In 2016 -- more than 40 years after their heyday, and 300 million records sold -- the band members finally received a settlement for a undisclosed amount of money (believed to be in the range of  70,000 pounds sterling each -- don't quote me, but my calculations would put that at about $85,000 US in 2016).  

It was also probably inevitable that, thrust together under these incredibly stressful conditions, conflict would arise among the band members. Woody makes no secret of the longstanding mutual dislike between him and Les McKeown, although he does give Les full props as a first-rate frontman. He doesn't have a lot to say about drummer Derek Longmuir (Alan's younger brother), or Ian Mitchell, Pat McGlynn or Duncan Faure, all briefly part of the band. He admits to a few fistfights with Eric Faulkner -- but he respected Eric's musical abilities, and they lived on a farm together for a while, and wrote songs together, including a few of the Rollers' hits. His buddy in the band was Alan, who served as the best man at his 1997 wedding. They were sadly estranged before Alan's death in 2018, but his enduring affection for the man shines through the pages.  

Of Tam Paton, Woody confirms in an author's note at the beginning of the book that the man was as awful and abusive as it's been rumoured (the rumours include sexual abuse of at least some of the band members) -- but he refuses to go into lurid details here. “I moved on a long time ago and don’t want that beast to be any part of things concerning my life. I don’t need therapy; I have coped in my own way and have no need to spill my emotion,” he writes.

It's not all sad and serious stuff, though -- there are some passages that had me literally laughing out loud until my sides ached. And I loved the warm foreword written by Rod Stewart!  :)  

Les quit the band in 1978;  Duncan Faure was hired to replace him, and the band limped on for another few years before eventually calling it quits. Woody and Duncan teamed up with drummer Richie Hall in South Africa for a while as Karu, based in Los Angeles;  later he teamed up with Ian and spent five mostly happy years in South Africa in a band called Passengers, before returning home to Scotland in the early 1990s. 

Over the years, there were were several Roller reunions, featuring various combinations of past band members, but never the entire classic lineup. With encouragement from his wife, Denise, he got involved in playing and producing Celtic music and, until just recently, he was a part-time lecturer in music production at a local community college. 

Woody has owned the rights to the Bay City Rollers name since 2003 and, for the past several years, has been touring with a new version of the Rollers -- the lone member from the classic lineup still out there playing the old songs. He does it for the love of the music, and for the fans, and enjoys it a lot more than he has in a long time. His life has had a lot of ups and more than its share of downs -- but at heart, he's an optimist, a "glass half full" kind of guy. For all the records the Rollers sold, he's far from being a millionaire -- but he seems happy with his life today, and I hope he "keeps on rolling" as long as he wants to.  :)  

I closed the book with a smile -- then looked up some old clips on YouTube to link to here. And got a bit teary. It was so long ago now, and it was fun while it lasted...  

A solid 4 stars. (As I said above, your mileage may vary, depending on your interest in the band!)  

This was Book #20 read to date in 2025 (and Book #4 finished in June), bringing me to 44% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

#MicroblogMondays: It's summertime! Where's my happy medium??

Summer officially arrived here on Friday. And as if to remind us of that fact, it started getting warmer almost immediately. 

Like, a LOT warmer.  TOO warm.  

Environment Canada issued an extreme heat warning that began on Saturday night and is expected to last through Tuesday and possibly Wednesday in some parts of Ontario.  

Saturday was pretty warm & humid, but not extremely so. I noted in my datebook that the peak temperature was 25C, which felt like 32C when the humidity was factored in (the "humidex"). (That's about 77F & 90F.)   

Yesterday, however, the temperature outside soared to 35C, with a humidex value of 46C ( = 95F and 115F) -- which is pretty hot any time during the summer hereabouts, but especially for June!  Officially, we tied the all-time record humidex value for June (records date back to 1953).  Inside our condo unit, the air conditioner was running nonstop -- but the temperature in our unit went from our pre-set norm of 74F to 77F (about 23C to 25C).  (Canada is officially a metric country, but in reality, it's still more of a hybrid -- especially among people of my generation -- and dh & I keep our home thermostat in Fahrenheit.) 

Today's peak temperature reached 36C (almost 97F), and the humidex was 44C (111F). Our air conditioned unit reached 78F (about 26C -- the last time I looked...!).  Unofficially (it won't be confirmed until tomorrow), today is the hottest June 23rd in Toronto history. (The previous record -- which we've already passed -- was 32.8C in 1921 and again in 1983.) 

How hot is it?  It's so hot that our property manager posted a message this afternoon that yes, the building's cooling system IS working!  BUT it's working at capacity -- and they've asked us to keep our curtains and blinds drawn during peak sunlight hours to reduce indoor heat gain and help the cooling system maintain optimal temperatures during this heat wave. (We've done this, and we've also been running the fan feature of our air purifier/humidifier. Needless to say, we are NOT using the humidifier right now!!)  

It's so hot that -- even though the City of Toronto has explicitly suggested citizens use the recently-opened public swimming pools (on top of other ways to cope with the heat), some pools have been unable to open, or stay open, because lifeguards are refusing to work (!).  

Schools, however, are still open -- despite the fact that most of them are older buildings and do not have air conditioning. In fact, just 177 of the 579 schools under the Toronto District School Board have central air conditioning. Most of those that don't do have at least one air conditioned space, such as the library or gymnasium, where students can go to cool off.  

This is the last week before summer vacation kicks in, and one story I saw noted that attendance is lower than usual. It's possible that some parents are keeping their kids at home in air-conditioned comfort (what actual learning goes on in the last week of school anyway??), while others may have started their summer vacations early.  The board is not closing schools because it would put working parents in the lurch without childcare. Instead, teachers are opening windows (assuming classrooms have windows, and windows that can be opened), holding classes in shady spots outside, cycling groups of students through the few air-conditioned spots in the building, encouraging students to stay well hydrated, etc.  

As someone without kids, I don't have a dog in this hunt, as the saying goes -- but I do feel sorry for the kids (and the teachers!) who have to endure this kind of extreme heat and humidity.

(Suffice to say, the schools I attended in the 1970s were not air conditioned -- most houses weren't either, of course -- but then again, I don't remember this kind of extreme heat back then, before we knew what "global warming" was. There often WERE a few very warm/hot days at the beginning and end of the school year, but we were expected to suck it up -- and did. (This was also long before people walked around with water bottles in hand -- if you were thirsty, you went to one of the hallway fountains, or bought a can of pop from the machine, or from the canteen in the lunchroom.  And of course, you were NOT allowed to drink it in class!)  I do remember some lectures from the school principal about proper dress on hot days. I don't ever remember wearing shorts to school -- I don't think we were allowed, outside of gym class (granted, the shorts in those days WERE pretty short! -- this was the era of "Daisy Dukes," after all...!) )   

I keep saying, "There has to be a happy medium??" (Wasn't I just complaining about the cold, snowy winter?)  

But if there is, I'm not seeing it...

If you're interested, here's a link to the Toronto Star's ongoing live news feed with updates about the heat wave. 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.