Various ramblings by the small hobbit

My very good friend, stonepicnicking_okapi has gifted me for Christmas two podfics of my Ferret fics read by peasina.  They are wonderful - she captures all the different voices very well, and the humour comes through beautifully.  She has also created mood boards, so we get to see Ferret in his clerical outfit.

The Ferret's Nativity

The Carollers

Do go and have a listen!

February turned out to be a particularly productive month, with 17.5K words!  The highlight was reaching 1,000 fics on AO3, for which stonepicnicking_okapi wrote me the wonderful The Singing Scheherazade

For chocolateboxcomm I wrote An Absence of Eggs for the Castlevania (Cartoon) fandom, plus two Winnie-the-Pooh ficlets: Eeyore's Bow and A Snowy Day in the Hundred Acre Woods.  In return I received two hilarious Fawlty Towers ficlets: The Great Farce of Love and Unforeseen Circumstances

I have finished my heroinebigbang fic, which goes live next month.  Other reasons for boosting my word count have been The Three Sentence Ficathon, and brumeier has been hosting Comment Fic over on LJ, so there have been some great Lucas North (Spooks) and Guy of Gisborne (BBC Robin Hood) prompts.  And most importantly ushobwri held their annual WiP-ed into Shape month, which meant I finished a fic I began in 2017, and wrote 7.7K words for it: ACD Holmes, concentrating on Esme, an OC: The House on St James Street.

There have been the usual drabbles and ficlets, and whatif_au 's monthly prompt was the Small Shops AU, so I wrote A New Jeweller's on the High Street, a Hobbit fic, but setting the scene if I should ever need any other small shops.

FutureLearn.  I've been taking FutureLearn courses for nearly 2.5 years.  Although they cover a wide variety of subject areas, I've concentrated on Creative Arts, History, Language and Literature.  In that time I've finished 63 courses of varying lengths and interests.

Courses can run from two to eight weeks and each course states how long it should take to study each week.  Obviously, that depends on the student's depth of commitment, which in my case will also be determined by how engaging the course is.  Each week is broken up into a number of steps, generally between 15 and 22/23, and those steps will come under different headings, so it's possible to split the course over a number of days in the week.

Each step will have a video and/or written text, possibly supporting documents as pdfs, and maybe additional references to other sites.  There's also a comments section, where students are encouraged to interact with each other, and on some courses the mentors will also comment.  The appeal, for me, is that this means there are a variety of different teaching styles within the subject, which, of course, help to re-inforce the points being made.  The comment section may be used to answer a question set during the step, but this isn't always the case.

In addition, some courses have quizzes as one of the steps.  These are generally multiple-choice or one word answers.  The quizzes don't count for anything, but are helpful to see if what one has just been learning about has actually gone in.  There may also be formal tests, but these only apply if you pay for the course, or have upgraded to unlimited.  I like to challenge myself to do well at the quizzes, but they can be skipped if the student wishes.

Some courses have peer reviewed assignments, which I like to do, although they can be quite challenging.  The one I did earlier this week was very hard, but on the plus side, when I read others' assignments, and got my own review back I realised I wasn't the only one who was struggling.

I've learnt a lot on all sorts of subjects taking these courses.  Some haven't lived up to my expectations, others have completely exceeded them.  The enthusiasm of the presenters makes a lot of difference, and particularly where the final step of the week has been a video summation which reflects on comments and questions throughout the week.  The subjects seem to become less academic and more real and relevant.

So, yes, I have a fascination for learning new things, and this feeds that fascination very well.  It's even encouraged my creativity - hence the icon on this post.

Yes, this time it's Guiding and specifically Brownies.  They may drive me up the wall at times, but if I didn't love it, I wouldn't be doing it.

Last week, we celebrated Chinese New Year (a little early, but who cares).  The Brownies got to make a dragon, and a lantern, and a red envelope, as well as doing a Spot the Difference puzzle.


Then this week I led them in the first activity of the Skills for my Future theme, for which we shall do the Live Smart skills builder.  My topic was jobs, and although I had to adapt the activity to work on zoom, we covered the main points.  I looked at five different occupations: cook/chef, librarian, engineer, ambulance driver and costume maker.  We began by showing some props for them to guess the occupation (photos of an ambulance only), after which they had to think what sort of things someone with that job would do, and then what skills would be needed/what sort of person would like the job.  Finally I had them standing up and acting out the job - I haven't a clue what most of them were acting, but they enjoyed it.  After which I asked them whether they knew what they wanted to be, so there were rock stars, dance teachers, an author, a Spanish teacher amongst others.  The best one was an MP!

Which brings us to half term and a week off, so we can regroup and then carry on again.

Audiobooks.  I go through times of listening to lots and then I don't listen for a while.  And it's a bit like my physical To Be Read pile - books keep getting added to my To Be Listened To pile, because Audible has an offer on...

I last posted back in May, and since then I've finished C J Tudor's The Other People, which despite my initial concerns I did enjoy.  After that came the sixth in Joy Ellis' Jackman and Evans series, The Patient Man which I enjoyed, and really liked the plot.  After which came The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner, which has been highly rated, but I found unconvincing.  And then Bedlam by L J Ross, which might have been better if I'd liked the main character.

All these were read by Richard Armitage (no surprise there!).  After which came The Chekhov Collection of Short Stories, which Armitage had himself selected following the curtailed run of Uncle Vanya.  I'm still not a fan of Chekhov.  Next was Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales, with each story read by a different actor.  I've never read more than a few of the stories, so it was good to hear them all.  Another Jackman and Evans story, They Disappeared, followed.  Once again this pushed all the right buttons for me.  And after that, Reality and Other Stories, by John Lanchester, with four different narrators.  Generally, I'm not a fan of the spookier stories, but these worked well for me.

Audible sometimes do freebies, which is why I moved onto French & Saunders: Titting About which was entertaining, and perfect for listening to while doing chores.  A sale meant I bought a copy of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irvine, read by Tom Mison.  A combination of always wanting to read the story, plus liking Tom Mison attracted me.  Then another freebie, The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams, which again was something I'd thought worth reading sometime, read by RA, was a no-brainer.

And so into the current year.  I'm slowly listening to RA read David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.  It's not a book I particularly like, but when it turned out Poirot wasn't available for non-US listeners, free credits were given to those who pre-booked it, so I thought 'why not'.  I listen to about an hour's worth each week, interspersed with other reads.  I've just finished The Burning Girls by C J Tudor, which is narrated by RA and Gemma Whelan.  I didn't like it as much as the two previous Tudor books I've heard; there were too many things which looking back didn't make sense.  And I'm currently listening to The Garden of Angels by David Hewson (again RA).  So far it's interesting, but it's a long book, so I will reserve judgement until the end.

After which, I have two part-listened to audiobooks, both put on hold when the new RAs came out.  And, pause while I count, nine which I've bought as offers (two for one, where I've wanted one and there other has been 'ooh, I wouldn't mind that') or had as freebies.  It's definitely getting as bad as my physical To Be Read pile!

Before I launch into my first review of the year, I need to make two comments.

The first is that corvidology suggested February as being a good month to post on Stuff I Love.  Clearly, reading is within this category, so this is Stuff I Love Post 1.

Secondly, at the end of last year, I said I was aiming to read 50 books with one a month from each of 4 lists, plus a couple of not-finished's from 2020.  So to keep record I will mark which list each book belongs to in square brackets after the review.  Naturally, the library did what libraries always do and 4 reservations, made at very different times, all arrived at once, which slightly throws my plans, but they are flexible.

Onto the reviews:

Checkmate to Murder - E C R Lorac

A more recent re-issue of a Lorac book, so I bought myself a copy.  This is set in WWII London, with an interesting cast of characters.  Again, the descriptions are very compelling, showing London during the blackout.  Inspector MacDonald and his team continue to be competent and the slow unravelling of the case was a delight to read.  [2020+]


Hand in Glove - Ngaio Marsh

We had seen this story on the television in late autumn, with Patrick Malahide as Alleyn, but I had completely forgotten whodunnit.  Also, some of the plot was completely different, which meant I enjoyed the read.  [2020+]


Death is No Sportsman - Cyril Hare

Having read all the Cyril Hare books in the library, I'd bought a couple which have been on the shelf for a while.  I wouldn't try to devour the Hare books as I have Lorac's, but I still enjoy them.  This one is set in the countryside, and there are several references to a river and fishing, which I enjoyed.  I've never been a particular fan of descriptions, but some of these Golden Age mystery writers seem to have a way of giving a feel for the place without long paragraphs to wade through.  Again, the murder is solved by a police detective, clearly I have a type!  [C1]


Miss Clare Remembers - Miss Read

Part of the Fairacre Chronicles.  Miss Clare was a fairly elderly teacher at the village school when Miss Read arrives, and this story looks back at her own life, from her birth in 1888 through the two world wars up to the 1960s.  The depth of her thoughts and reactions, although fictional, are clearly very representative of those she is modelled on and are far more nuanced than is often portrayed.  [D1]


Murder in the Mill Race - E C R Lorac

A slightly later Lorac, and the last one the library has.  It's set in Devon again, this time in a small village which seems cut off from the larger places around.  I wasn't entirely sure how much I'd enjoy it, but once again the descriptions of Dartmoor were engaging and the plot interesting.  MacDonald and his sidekick (Inspector Reeves) have a good relationship and I enjoy seeing them working together.  [A1]


The Slaves of Solitude - Patrick Hamilton

I had been listening to Matthew Bourne on the radio and he recommended this book, so, in the spirit of reading something different, and because the library had a copy, I decided to read it.  It's set in WWII, so again there's life in the blackout, the absence of small essentials, and in this case, the presence of American airmen.  The action takes place in and around a boarding house in the outskirts of London by the Thames, and is as much a character study as anything else.  One of the reviews says it is funny, but I wouldn't describe it in that way.  It was an interesting read, but I was left with a sense the male author couldn't quite understand their main character, a middle-aged spinster.  [B1]


The Port of London Murders - Josephine Bell

A new addition to the county library, and also the Shedunnit book for January.  Set in the London Docklands of 1938, this was another book where the descriptions of the Thames and life close by were engaging.  There were a number of different strands, which slowly came together, as the police built their case.  Again, what I enjoy is the methodical police work, sometimes frustrated, rather than the tiny clue which solves the whole crime.  [B2]


My current book bingo card, which includes audiobooks:( book bingo card )