Right now

Right now...* 

*(an occasional (mostly monthly) meme, alternating from time to time with "The Current"). (Explanation of how this started & my inspirations in my first "Right now" post, here. Also my first "The Current" post, here.)

Pandemic diary/update: December was Month #33 (going on #34) of living with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Since June 16th, the government has cut back on its data reporting from daily to weekly (on Thursdays). :(  Certain data categories (such as new case numbers and test positivity rates) are no longer reported. (And of course, the numbers we ARE getting are vastly under-reported). The official stats have remained fairly steady in recent months -- they're not great, not really improving, but not notably worse either.  

So I've decided that -- until/unless there are any notable shifts in the numbers -- I'm not going to be updating the latest stats here any longer. (If you're REALLY interested, you can find them here on the Toronto Star's website, which was my main data source, or a fuller report on the Public Health Ontario website.) 

On Dec. 8th, the province announced that pharmacists will now be allowed to hand out paxlovid without a doctor's prescription. Given that paxlovid must be taken within five days of the onset of covid symptoms -- and that many people currently don't have a family doctor (and often wind up in emergency rooms and urgent care clinics that are totally swamped right now)-- and the family doctors we do have are also totally swamped (i.e., it might take a while to get an appointment) -- this should theoretically help more people access the drug and treat their covid infections more easily. It will be available at no cost to the patient. 

On the personal pandemic front: This was a busy month for us! We remain covid-free -- although we had a close call...!  We are still masking in public places (albeit we usually don't in smaller family settings). On top of dh's solo trips to the supermarket for groceries (about once a week), and for occasional takeout lunches & dinners: 

• We stayed with LGN several times this month for a few hours each time -- on Dec. 1st, 6th & 13th -- while SIL had medical appointments to deal with a lingering sinus/ear infection. 
• We went with BIL, SIL, Older Nephew & his wife, LGN, and the wife's mom (LGN's other grandmother) to a nearby mall on Dec. 2nd to have his photo taken with Santa!! 
• Afterwards, we had lunch at one of the mall restaurants. It was the first time dh & I had eaten at a restaurant since early March 2020, pre-pandemic... not only that, it was the SAME restaurant, and we'd been with BIL, SIL, Older Nephew, his wife and LGN then too!  LGN was just 3-4 months old at the time!  :)   
• (We learned a week-plus later that LGN's other grandma had subsequently come down with covid.... yet another too-close-for-comfort call!  Yikes!)  
• We went back to our old community on Dec. 3rd for haircuts (with a brief stop at the cemetery to trade Katie's Halloween decorations for something more Christmas-y).  
• Went to the bank on Dec. 6th to do some transactions with a teller that couldn't be easily done at the banking machine. 
• Did some Christmas shopping at ToysRUs, Kitchen Stuff Plus and Shoppers Drug Mart on Dec. 7th... 
• ...and more Christmas shopping on Friday, Dec. 9th, at one of the malls we used to frequent, pre-pandemic. Hadn't been back there since then, but went because there were some things I wanted to get at one of the department stores there. Got there when it opened around 10, and it wasn't too bad, but by the time we left just after noon, it was NUTS. Fewer than half the people there were masked. Glad we got out of there when we did!  
• BIL & SIL babysat LGN on Dec. 10th while his parents went to a concert downtown, and we went over for coffee. :)  
• Back to the drugstore on Dec. 14th to refill some of dh's prescriptions, pre-holidays.  
• We flew west to be with my family for Christmas on Dec. 17th. Besides time at the airports, we stopped at my sister's new house, walked through the nearby mall and stopped at the drugstore there for a few items, before heading out to the small town where our parents live.  
• Since our arrival, we've made a few (masked) shopping trips for groceries, stocking stuffers, etc. Parents' Neighbours' Daughter has been over to play cards twice, we went there briefly (unmasked) to deliver presents, amd a few neighbours have dropped by (mostly unmasked), although they haven't stayed long. 

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Also right now:  

Reading: I finished 4 books in December (all reviewed on this blog, as well as Goodreads, & tagged  "2022 books").  

• "Etta Lemon: The Woman Who Saved the Birds" by Tessa Boase (alternate title: "Mrs Pankhurst's Purple Feather: A Scandalous History of Birds, Hats and Votes")(the December book for the Gateway/Lighthouse Women NoMo book club).  (My review.)  
• "Killers of a Certain Age" by Deanna Raybourn. (My review.) 
• "Legend in Green Velvet" by Elizabeth Peters. (My review.)
• "Sarah Morris Remembers" by D.E. Stevenson (chapter-by-chapter group read & discussion with my DES book club). (My original review and my most recent review.) 

This brings me to 50 books read in 2022,  111% of my 2022 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books (5 books more). :)  (See "2022 Reading Year in Review.") 

Current read(s): 

• "The Menopause Manifesto" by Dr. Jen Gunter. 

• Within the private online Gateway Women (now called Lighthouse Women) community, we have two groups discussing Jody Day's book, "Living the Life Unexpected" -- one group that's more conducive to UK/European/Australasian time zones, and mine, which is mostly North Americans. Since last January (2022), we've been meeting on Zoom to discuss one chapter per month, and we recently discussed Chapter 11 together. When we complete the full 12 chapters -- likely in January -- I'll count it as another re-read. :)  

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 Gateway/Lighthouse Women NoMo Book Club: 
• "The Metal Heart" by Caroline Lea (January/February -- Zoom discussion scheduled for Feb. 26th) 
• For my D.E. Stevenson group:  
• "The Empty World" (start date TBA).  
• For my L.M. Montgomery Readathon Facebook group: 
• "Anne of the Island"  (#3 in the series, first published in 1915) -- group read and discussion begins on Jan. 9th!  (Not sure why we are skipping over "Anne of Avonlea," which is #2 in the series -- but I know this one is lots of fans' favourite!) 

A few recently purchased titles (mostly in digital format, mostly discounted ($5.99 or less) or purchased with points -- some good pre- and post-Christmas deals!):  

•  "Our Missing Hearts" by Celeste Ng
• "Any Given Tuesday" by Lis Smith 
• "Ancestor Trouble" by Maud Newton 
• "Normal Family" by Chrysta Bilton 
• "Prep" by Curtis Sittenfeld 
• "Mother Daughter Traitor Spy" by Susan Elia MacNeal 
• "The Series" by Ken Dryden 
• "The New Royals" by Katie Nicholl 
• "Bloomsbury Girls" by Natalie Jenner 
• "Beyond the Wand" by Tom Felton. 

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Watching:  Some of the Grand Prix of figure skating finale in Turin, Italy, on the first weekend of December. 

Lots of "The Big Bang Theory" (my parents have the reruns on CONSTANTLY -- and at full volume, lol.... I like/liked the show, but there are limits...!!).  

(NOT watching: After reading the book, I PVRd "Magpie Murders" on PBS, but haven't watched any of the episodes yet...! And I STILL haven't progressed beyond the first two seasons of "The Crown"...!) 

Listening:  Listening to the Stingray holiday music channel helped keep us in the Christmas mood all through the month!  :)  

I'm still enjoying the daily Heardle challenge(s), including the decades versions -- although (as you'll see from the stats, I do MUCH better on the 60s & 70s versions than the others...!). Current stats as of Dec. 31st:  

• Heardle (original/all decades): 28% (42/150) correct, including 11 on the first guess. 
• Heardle 60s:  80.9% (89/110), including 46 on the first guess. 
• Heardle 70s:  67% (77/115), including 45 on the first guess. 
• Heardle 80s:  45.7% (48/105), including 19 on the first guess. 
• Heardle 90s: 36.9% (41/111), including 13 on the first guess.  

On a related note -- I've been having some fun with another app that Older Nephew & his wife introduced me to. When we were having lunch earlier in December, after LGN had his photo taken with Santa, they were trying to figure out who was singing a song that was being played on the restaurant's music system. ON pulled out his phone and tapped an app that identified the singer and the song.  I was amazed. He told me he's had the app forever -- okay, Boomer, right??  lol  It's called Shazam.  I downloaded it myself when I got home and have been having fun with it ever since then. I obviously know most of the songs that were being played on the holiday music channel we were listening to this month, but I couldn't always identify the singer(s), so it came in very handy.  :)  

Eating/Drinking:  Lunch at the Pickle Barrel on Dec. 2nd after seeing Santa with LGN (see above). I had fish & chips and a Coke;  dh had eggs benedict. 

Teriyaki bowls from the takeout counter at our local supermarket (where we also enjoy excellent pizza slices and soup) -- chicken for me, beef for dh, with rice & veggies. Yum!  

Takeout wood-oven thin crust pizzas from our favourite pizza restaurant.  Also had a chicken alfredo pizza (alfredo sauce instead of tomato sauce, with chicken, backbacon, onion, red peppers and cheese) from a takeout place in my parents' town, which was pretty good!  

Mini-panettones from dh's cousins. Dh generally does not care for panettone, but even he thought these ones were pretty good!  An entire panettone seems to last forever with just two people (particularly when only one of them is really eating it...!) but these little ones were perfect for sharing!  

Pan-fried pickerel (walleye pike) on Christmas Eve with baked potatos & perogies, and turkey with all the trimmings (stuffing/dressing, gravy, mashed potatos, cabbage rolls, etc.) on Christmas Day (and leftovers for days thereafter, lol).  Roast beef on New Year's Eve. 

Buying (besides books, lol):  

• An Aranet 4 CO2 monitor, which Turia mentioned in one of her posts this summer.   
• Christmas presents. :)  
• An infant car seat for our new great-niece or nephew, due in mid-February.  :)  (This will be our "big" gift to him/her -- and probably the only thing we'll buy until s/he is safely here.)  

Wearing:  Old Navy Christmas-themed waffle-knit PJ tops with yoga pants... so cozy, comfortable & festive!  :)  

Noticing: Lots of deer tracks in the backyard snow (although actual deer sightings there are far & few between). (My parents live near the edge of town.)  

Appreciating:  Being able to spend time with my parents and help them out around the house (even if they drive me nuts sometimes...!). 

Enjoying:  Card games and dominos, every night that we've been here. 

Wondering:  Where we will be spending Christmas next year?? (As I wrote here, my sister wants to host -- we'll see if our parents go for it...!) 

Wanting:  To get back home soon. (We've had a good Christmas, but it's time...!)  

Prioritizing: Family time and helping my parents vs computer time (which is why I haven't been around much lately...!). 

Hoping:  That everything fits in our carry-ons for the trip home. (They were somewhat overstuffed and had to be checked at the last minute on our way here... dh was NOT happy!! -- but they arrived safely, and we are leaving presents behind here, so...)   

Trying:  Not to let my parents' quirks and bickering get to me (too much). 

Loving:  Seeing Mom & Dad's Christmas tree all lit up, with all the old familiar ornaments on it. :)  

Feeling: Glad we came (but also that 17 days with my elderly parents, particularly in the middle of a Manitoba winter, might be just a LITTLE too long!  lol). Glad to put 2022 and all my medical issues behind me (I hope?). Uncertainty about 2023 and what it might bring. Looking forward to returning home and to my own bed shortly!  

2022 Reading Year in Review

I started doing a specific "Reading Year in Review" post in 2020. I figured that since I was doing an overall year in review post (which includes some book information anyway), and a blogging year in review post -- and since keeping track of my books is a big thing I normally do on my blog -- my reading life deserved its own year-end wrap-up post too.  :) 

• I increased my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal from 36 books in 2021 to 45 books in 2022, reached it by mid-November, and wound up with 50 books to my credit by year end -- 111% of my goal. (I was secretly hoping to equal or exceed last year's total of 59 books -- but, still not a bad showing! -- especially considering I had a couple of surgeries and medical issues that had an impact on both my vision and my powers of concentration...!) All books read were reviewed on this blog and tagged "2022 books."  
• My Goodreads 2022 Year in Review report tells me I read 50 books with 17,047 pages (versus 59 books with 17,944 pages in 2021). 
• The shortest book I read was "Misfits" by Michaela Coel (112 pages);  the longest was "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt (718 pages). 
• Average book length was 340 pages. 
• The most popular book I read ( = shelved by Goodreads readers) was "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt;  the least popular was "Navigating the Messy Middle" by Ann Douglas.  
• My average Goodreads rating in 2022 was 4.2 stars. 
• The highest-rated book I read was "The Bullet That Missed" by Richard Osman (average 4.17 stars -- well deserved too!). 
• In 2021, I also started tracking books on The StoryGraph (which Brooke told me about), which provides slightly different stats (and even more, with a paid subscription -- although I don't have one of those!). 
• The "moods" of my books were overwhelmingly "emotional," followed by "reflective" and "informational."  
• Most of my books were medium-paced (44%) or slow paced (40%) -- just 17% were considered fast-paced. 
• 52% of my 2022 books were 300-499 pages;  38% were less than 300 pages and just 10% were over 500 pages. 
• 65% of my 2021 books were fiction;  35% non-fiction (same as in 2021).
• My most-read genre in 2022 was memoir, followed by romance, then mystery and historical.   
• StoryGraph also tracks the format of your books, but selects print as the default. It tells me 56% of my books this year were read in print format and 44% digital. This is more accurate than last year, but still not entirely correct... some books did not have a "digital" option so I chose print instead. 
• Most-read authors in 2022 (as in 2021 -- no surprise here):  D.E. Stevenson (8 books) & L.M. Montgomery (5 books). Runners up were Richard Osman, Jann Arden and Marian Keyes (2 books each).
• Average rating 4.15 stars. (Unlike Goodreads, The StoryGraph allows fractional star ratings.) 
• Once again this year, fiction choices outnumbered non-fiction (many of them re-reads, but still...!):  30 fiction, 20 non-fiction.
• Re-reads -- which I started counting as books read in 2020 -- accounted for 5 books of my 2022 total. (I think I calculated that correctly?)  
• My library book club held its last meeting in late February 2020 -- just before the pandemic hit -- and the "Clever Name" online book club has been dormant since summer 2021.  But, online, the Gateway/Lighthouse Women NoMo book club, D.E. Stevenson fan group, and L.M. Montgomery Readathon on Facebook, helped boost my 2022 reading totals and provided me with a lot of reading/discussion pleasure.  
• My book groups were responsible for 22 of the 50 books I read in 2022 -- almost half!  I read 10 books for GW, 7 for DES (4 different books, including 3 counted twice as re-reads), and 5 for the L.M. Montgomery Readathon (3 different books, including 2 counted twice as re-reads, as well as one LMM book -- "The Golden Road" -- read on my own). 
• As noted above, I reached my Goodreads Reading Challenge Goal of 45 books by mid-November, and ended the year with 50 books read -- but I didn't equal my 2021/best-recorded total of 59 books (when my goal was 36).  For 2023, I've decided to maintain my goal of 45 books ( = 3.75 books per month on average), which seems realistic for me right now. 
• I've read more than 45 books in three of the past four years (2019, 2021 and 2022, and almost 45 -- 43 -- in 2020 -- so that seems very do-able.  But I'm hoping I'll be able to improve on my 2022 total, 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 2023, I'm hoping to be able to read more of my own choices this coming year too.  :)   

• It's always very hard for me to pick a single book as "the best." I read some really, really good books this year -- very few disappointments or "meh" choices -- and I gave lots/most of them four and five-star reviews on Goodreads. (4.2 stars was my average Goodreads rating this year.)  A few of my favourites (I haven't linked to them here, but they're all reviewed on Goodreads, StoryGraph and this blog): 
• "The Man Who Died Twice" and "The Bullet That Missed" by Richard Osman (books #2 & #3 in "The Thursday Murder Club" series). 
• "The Boys" by Ron Howard & Clint Howard. 
• "Sisters Behaving Badly" by Maddie Please. 
• "Run Towards the Danger" by Sarah Polley. 
• "My Ticket to Ride" by Janice Mitchell. 
• "Feeding My Mother" and "If I Knew Then" by Jann Arden. 
• "Rachel's Holiday" and "Again Rachel" by Marian Keyes. 
• "Exit" by Belinda Bauer. 
• "Queen High" by C.J. Carey. 
• "Killers of a Certain Age" by Deanna Raybourn. 

Did you meet your reading goals for 2022 (if you set any)? What great books did you read this past year? 

2022 Year in Review

Time for another Year in Review post for 2022! 

This is the 13th (!) year that I've done this year-end meme (first one published in December 2010) -- and, although many of the answers don't change much from year to year (and I can't always think of answers, lol -- at least new or interesting ones...!), it's still a great way to look back and keep track. 

Feel free to use these questions on your own blog (& let me know if you do!).

All of my New Year's/Year in Review posts are tagged with the label "Year in Review."  

1. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don't really make new year's resolutions any more -- they tend to be the same ones, year after year (although I have modified some over time, and even deleted ones that no longer apply). Here are the perennials, and the progress I made (or didn't) in 2022:   

• Lose weight.  Last year, I reported that I had lost about 11 pounds from an all-time high weight in August (2021), (no) thanks to a rather limited diet as I wrestled with both gout and gallstones. Since this time last year, I've lost another 7-8 pounds, and I'm currently not quite 20 pounds lighter than my all-time high, a weight I've managed to maintain for the past several months (give or take a pound or so). I would NOT recommend how it happened! -- and I most definitely could still stand to lost more. But my clothes fit better, my ankles don't swell up as much... I'll take it!   
• Exercise more. (And hopefully lose more weight...!) Still not exercising regularly, although we've been a little more active generally this year.  
• Write more in my journal &/or blog. I haven't kept a paper journal in years. I've been far more successful with blogging: I recently marked my 15th (!!) year in this space! and while I won't top last year's record 213 posts, 2022 will still be my third-most productive blogging year since I started writing here. (Second would be 2020, when I posted 197 times!)(A separate "Blogging year in review" post will be coming soon.) 
• Read more of the books that have piled up around the house. I increased my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal this year from 36 to 45 books, and reached it by mid-November. I will finish out the year with 50 books to my credit, 111% of my goal! (All books read were reviewed on this blog and tagged "2022 books").  See my "Reading year in review post" (coming up) for more detailed analysis. 
• Keep the clutter at bay. (Goal slightly reworded from previous years.) As I've said before -- having downsized in 2016 from a 1,200 square foot, three-bedroom house (plus basement, garage & garden shed) to an 875-square-foot condo (plus one not-very-big storage locker) -- there's a LOT less clutter than there used to be -- and a lot less space for it to accumulate. I've tried to establish good habits & a place for everything right from the start, and so far, I think I've been pretty successful at doing that. Whenever the piles of books start to overwhelm my existing shelves, and/or I run out of spare hangers in the closet, I know it's time to do some weeding again, and make another trip to the thrift store...!  If I can get an e-copy of a book cheaply (or for free -- my sister has her sources...), in most cases, the paper one will go into the donation pile. The storage locker could use another going through/paring down, one of these days, though...!    
• Return to scrapbooking & complete unfinished projects. (Goal reworded from previous years.)  Sadly, I have not done any scrapbooking in more than 10 years. And I got rid of most of my scrapbooking supplies before we moved (sob!). I did keep all my unfinished projects, tools, paper punches & a few other things, though. (They are sitting in a couple of plastic bins down in the storage locker. I probably need to go through those again, though... there are a lot of stamp pads, bottles of glitter glue, etc., that have probably dried up...!)   
• A more realistic/pressing related goal would be to work on scanning more of my pre-digital photos. All my photos dating back to 1991 have been digitized -- but I've had my own camera since Christmas 1976, so I have a way to go yet...! (and there's a bin of photos from my grandma's house at my parents' that I am itching to look through...!) I used to be able to take my negatives to a photo shop near my office for scanning at a fairly reasonable price, but the chain is now entirely online and I'm now retired. ;)  I do have a scanner here at home and do the odd one-off photo myself, but this would be a much greater undertaking...! 

2. What did you do in 2022 that you’d never done before?

(Continued to) live through a global pandemic, now in its second year (going into THIRD). (Needless to say, new/novel experiences have been further & fewer to come by when isolating...!). 

Took an ambulance ride to the hospital (hopefully for the LAST time as well as the first!). 

Had eye surgery  (a superficial keratectomy) in late July.  

Had actual surgery (gallbladder removal, Aug. 15th). 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

No -- but (fingers crossed) we should have another great-nephew or a little great-niece joining the family in February...!  

4. Did anyone close to you die?

My second cousin and childhood summers pal J.  :(  

Two of dh's aunts, one week after another in September. :(  

Not someone I knew well, but the second husband of one of my best friends from childhood also died in September, far too young (mid-60s). Prostate cancer. :( 

5. What places* did you visit?

(* wording changed slightly from previous years;  the question used to read "countries." I noticed that Kathy of Bereaved & Blessed used "places" in answering her version of a similar questionnaire in 2019, and decided to use her wording after that. Makes me feel less travel-deprived!)

Needless to say, the threat of COVID-19 plus my assorted medical issues & surgeries kept us mostly close to home during 2022. Together with BIL & SIL, we spent a lovely weekend with dh's cousin & his family at their beautiful lake home in late September/early October. A week later, we flew west to visit my family for (Canadian) Thanksgiving, and we returned for Christmas. 

6. What would you like to have in 2023 that you lacked in 2022?

Like most people, I would like this pandemic to just GO AWAY (or at the very least some common-sense public health measures -- continued masking in public places, at the very least, more promotion of vaccines, etc.)  -- but I'm not holding my breath...!  

I'd like more time with family -- mine & dh's. More time with Little Great-Nephew (and the dog!) -- especially since he'll be heading off to school (!! -- junior kindergarten) next September.

I'd have liked to travel too (beyond going to see my parents) -- but I'm not holding my breath for any big trips in the foreseeable future either.  

7. What date(s) from 2022 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

The dates of my surgeries. 

June 24th (U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down Roe v Wade). 

The Queen's death and funeral in September. 

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

My perennial answer:  Maintaining my sanity??  Surviving my various medical/health issues? 

9. What was your biggest failure?

I have a bad habit of procrastinating on too many things... I don't think that improved this year! 

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Thanks to vaccines, masks, extreme caution (and more than a little luck), we have dodged COVID-19 (so far...!), and we are VERY grateful for that!  But medically, this year was more challenging than others:  

• I had a colonoscopy in late March. The prep has NOT improved since my last one 10 years ago! and I had three polyps removed -- all thankfully benign (although the pathology report took FIVE WEEKS to come!). 
• I took a tumble down some concrete steps at the zoo in mid-May, got a gash on my head, a black eye and other scrapes and bruises. But stitches were not needed, and things could have been FAR worse. 
• In late July, I had a superficial keratectomy (surgery) on my right eye to remove a patch of nodules/scar tissue. Recovery was slower than I had anticipated. 
• And I had my gallbladder removed on Aug. 15th. 

Dh had a flare-up of his seasonal allergies this summer -- the worst in years -- followed by a bad case of eczema that he's still dealing with (although it's slowly getting better).  

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Beyond books (both paper and e-versions):  

• Jewelry from my favourite sterling silver jewelry crafter, as well as her "advent calendar." I kicked myself for missing out on it in 2020 (the first year she'd tried doing it), and I loved having a little surprise to open and brighten my day every morning during the first 24 days of December, last year and again this year. :)  
• Our Dyson air purifier/humidifier/fan (purchased in October). 

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

All the frontline healthcare workers who have been putting their health & lives at risk to try to save others for almost three (!) solid years now. 

Anyone who stood up for democracy, decency, science and rational thinking. The people who told the truth in front of the January 6th committee in the U.S. (I'm thinking particularly of Cassidy Hutchinson -- 25 years old!!) 

The Queen: 70 years (!!) of dedicated service!! I am so glad she got to celebrate the amazing milestone of her Platinum Jubilee before she died, and see (once again) how much people loved and respected her. 

Volodomyr Zelensky and the brave people of Ukraine (one of my ancestral homeland), in the face of Russian aggression.  

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? 

Well, (once again) that's obvious. In the U.S., Donald Trump & his MAGA cronies/cult members.  :(  Not that we are immune here in Canada -- we have MAGA wanabes/imitators here too (albeit perhaps not to quite the same extent).   

Case in point: The idiot "protesters" who occupied downtown Ottawa and several border communities for several weeks last winter, brought cross-border trade to a standstill and made life miserable for the locals.  

The conservative premiers here in Canada who continue to ignore the best medical advice about covid, only acting when absolutely pushed to do so. (Jason Kenney in Alberta and Doug Ford in Ontario, I'm looking at you in particular...!). 

The people (on both sides of the border -- and around the world) who continue to ignore the science and refuse to get vaccinated, wear masks or follow other public health measures, thus dragging this pandemic out FAR longer than necessary, and resulting in far more cases and deaths than there could or should have been. :( 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford gets further mention for all the other awful stuff he's been doing, including invoking the "notwithstanding" clause of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms to try to force striking education workers back to work, and for turning over vast swaths of territory earmarked as "Greenbelt" to developers for development (who may or may not have been tipped off that this would happen). (And yet people re-elected him & his government in a LANDSLIDE... WTAF??!)  

The U.S. Supreme Court: affirming gun rights while taking away women's rights. (Again -- WTAF?)  

14. Where did most of your money go?

(See #11!)  Beyond the usual bills, we have probably spent more money on groceries and personal care items.  Prices have been rising, dh has been doing most of the grocery shopping, and he is not the bargain hunter I am. ;)  With bookstores closed for several months (and shelf space in our condo at a premium), we also both spent a lot more money on e-books for our Kobo e-readers, albeit most of them at a deep discount, watching for bargains. 

We also still managed to buy things -- mostly cute outfits and books -- for our great-nephew, as well as fatten his piggy bank. ;)  

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

The prospect of a new great-niece or nephew to spoil in February. :)  

16. What song will always remind you of 2022?

I'm not sure. I Googled "top songs of 2022" and I recognized exactly none of them! 

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer?

Probably about the same in terms of happiness, slightly thinner (gout, gallstones and surgeries will do that to you..!), and probably a little poorer (prices are higher for just about everything, and the markets have not been entirely kind to our investments...!).  

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? 

Walking/exercise. 

Reading more books than I did (although I did well in terms of meeting & exceeding my Goodreads challenge goal). But hey, there's always next year... 

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Sitting around the house. :p  We're still being cautious, but we could probably get out a little more and still stay relatively safe by wearing masks. 

Watching too much news on TV. I like being well informed, but sometimes it just gets too overwhelming and depressing!  

20. How did you spend Christmas? 

With my parents, sister & her partner in Manitoba. Again this year, out of caution, because of all the germs floating around (covid & others), we didn't spend as much time with PND & her family as we have in the past, and we scaled back on the presents considerably. But we still had at least one present each plus stockings to open, we still had a couple of really great meals with most of our traditional favourites, and we still played lots of cards & dominos. (We're still here.)  It's been a good holiday!  :)   

21. Did you fall in love in 2022?

Never fell out. :) 

22. What was your favorite TV program?

I don't watch a lot of TV shows regularly, and I don't do a lot of streaming/binge watching. We both still love watching "Bob's Burgers" (both current episodes and reruns). We enjoyed the most recent seasons of "Jann" on CTV and the latest season of "Finding Your Roots" on PBS (as well as several other PBS programs), and I was still captivated by the most recent season of "The Handmaid's Tale."  Also, several series/documentaries on CNN, most notably "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy." 

I STILL haven't yet watched anything past season 2 of "The Crown" on Netflix! 

23. Do you hate anyone now that you did not hate this time last year? 

Hate is a strong word, and I don't like using it.  Suffice to say, though, that I am definitely NOT a fan of the 45th President of the United States or his enablers! :p  Or, for that matter, the current Premier of Ontario. (See #13.) 

24. What was the best book you read? 

(See #1)  It's always very hard for me to pick a single book as "the best," and I gave lots of books four and five-star reviews on Goodreads!  My average Goodreads rating this year was 4.2. I've listed some of my favourite reads in my "Reading year in review" post (to be posted soon). 

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Heardle!!   

26. What did you want and get?

The Dyson purifier/humidifier. :)  

27. What did you want and not get?

The end of the pandemic and a return to normalcy (whatever that is these days...!). 

28. What was your favourite film of this year? 

Dh & I LOVE going to the movies, but that hasn't happened since very early in 2020 -- and we don't stream a lot of movies or watch a lot of pay-per-view.  

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I was 61. We spent some time with Little Great-Nephew at his grandma's, ordered in dinner, and had birthday cupcakes for dessert. :) (62 coming up shortly...!). 

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

My answer to this question is usually travel-related. That goes without saying, I suppose...!  But obviously, the end of this pandemic!!  

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2022? 

More of the same: mostly yoga pants and T-shirts (worn without a bra)(even more so than usual!  lol). 

32. What kept you sane?

(This question assumes sanity on my part, lol.  ;)  ) 

Spending time (almost) every week with Little Great-Nephew. 

Taking part in several online book clubs. 

Regular Zoom chats with friends (both online and "real life"), former co-workers and relatives. 

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Volodomyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine. THAT's leadership!!  

Jennifer Aniston, for her honesty about her infertility treatments...

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

The pandemic and how it's been (mis)handled by our leaders. (See #13.) 

The overturn of Roe v Wade in the U.S. 

35. Who did you miss? 

My parents & my sister... I didn't get "home" this summer for the third summer in a row (and the fourth in five years!), and it was a long stretch from Christmastime 2021 to (Canadian) Thanksgiving in October!    

36. Who was the best new person you met?

Needless to say, this year -- like the past two years -- was NOT a good year for meeting new people!! let alone seeing your longtime friends. :( 

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2022. 

Last year, I said: "Once again, this year brought home to me that life, youth & health are precious, and disappear far too quickly sometimes. Enjoy it all while you can!" 

I would reiterate that, and (thinking of my tumble down the steps at the zoo, lol) add "Watch your step!"  :)   

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

I'll have to think about this one...! 

Coming up:  2022 in blogging and in books!  

"Sarah Morris Remembers" by D.E. Stevenson (re-read)

My online D.E. Stevenson group has just finished our chapter-by-chapter reading and discussion of "Sarah Morris Remembers," which I read on my own first, back in August (and reviewed here). The book was first published in 1966, and is narrated by the title character, Sarah, as she looks back on her life.  

Sarah and her siblings -- two older brothers and a spoiled younger sister -- grow up in a pastoral setting in England in the period between the wars, the children of the local vicar.  When brother Lewis brings his friend home from school -- an Austrian named Charles Reeder -- Sarah's life changes forever:  she falls instantly in love with Charles, and develops an interest in learning to speak other languages (which comes in very handy later in her life). 

As Sarah grows up, Charles declares his love for her too. But the war intervenes before they can be married, and Charles returns home to try to free his father, who has been imprisoned by the Nazis. Then he disappears too. Sarah and her father move to London to help with the war effort, meet new people and have many new adventures, but thoughts of Charles are never far from her mind... 

Stevenson's wartime novels are among her best. I'll admit this one started slowly, but it hit its stride and got more interesting once the war began. While the story revolves around Sarah & her romance with Charles, there are plenty of subplots involving the lesser characters that added to my enjoyment of the book. And this re-read was enhanced by the discussion with the group members. There are a couple of plot points here that set this one apart from most other DES novels, which made for some lively discussion and speculation at times! 

My original rating stands -- 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 on Goodreads.  

There's a sequel to this book, "Sarah's Cottage," which will likely be on our reading list for the new year. Our first book for 2023, however, will be "The Empty World" -- a change of pace from DES's usual light romances.  It's a dystopian sci-fi thriller, first published in 1936 and set in 1973 Scotland.  

This was Book #50 read to date in 2022 (and Book #4 finished in December), bringing me to 111% of my 2022 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books! I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 7 books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2022 tagged as "2022 books."  

"Legend in Green Velvet" by Elizabeth Peters

I had another book in mind to start reading this past weekend on the westbound flight to visit my family over Christmas holidays... but I set it aside in favour of a real "comfort (re)read" for me, and one I've been meaning to re-read for a long time now -- one of my favourite novels by one of my favourite authors, Elizabeth Peters (whose real name was Barbara Mertz, and who also wrote thrillers under the name Barbara Michaels). I've written before on this blog about my long love of Peters/Michaels and her books -- including how seeing her speak and getting her to sign a special copy of her book for me in November 1998 was a welcome distraction in my post-stillbirth grief. 

Peters (who died in 2013) was probably best known for her Amelia Peabody books, about the adventures of a feisty Egyptologist and her family in the late 1800s/early 1900s, but she had two other series that were also a lot of fun -- about Vicky Bliss, an American historian working in a German museum, and Jacqueline Kirby, librarian turned romance novelist -- plus a lot of standalone books too. 

I first remember reading -- and love, love, loving -- "Legend in Green Velvet" when I was in high school, from our local library. I later bought a paperback version -- which I still have (it survived the pre-condo move book purge!) -- and have a digital edition on my e-reader as well (which is the one I had with me on the plane). It was published in 1976, when I was 15 years old and deeply immersed in my teenaged Bay City Rollers mania, with an adjacent obsession with all things Scottish -- which might explain why I remember it with such great fondness. ;)  

Our young American heroine, Susan, has also been obsessed with Scotland and Scottish history and legends her entire life -- and now she's scraped together enough money to spend the summer in Scotland, working on an archeological dig in the Highlands. It's a dream come true for her. But shortly after her arrival in Edinburgh, a strange old man slips her a cryptic message -- then her hotel room is ransacked -- and Susan finds herself being framed for murder, and on the run with a handsome (if rather cynical) young Scottish laird -- who (once he reluctantly shaves his lavish beard) bears a striking resemblance to a certain well-known public figure (then and now -- who was, at the time, one of the world's most eligible bachelors). This becomes a running joke throughout the book.   

I hadn't re-read this book in years. It's not very long, but it took me longer to get through than I expected (because life, Christmas prep, aging parents...).  It's a light read, full of lessons about Scotland and its history, and (as with most Peters novels) a lot of humour along with the action. (Romance too!) It's dated in many respects, but I still enjoyed it and (for me) it was the perfect way to kick off the holidays. :) 

4 stars on Goodreads. 

This was Book #49 read to date in 2022 (and Book #3 finished in December), bringing me to 109% of my 2022 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books! I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 6 books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2022 tagged as "2022 books."  

"Killers of a Certain Age" by Deanna Raybourn

I think it was Mel who flagged "Killers of a Certain Age" by Deanna Raybourn on Goodreads as a "want to read" pick -- and as soon as I read the premise, I knew that it was something I wanted to read too. :)  

This book reminded me a little of Richard Osman's "Thursday Murder Club" books -- but with a slightly younger and all-female cast of main characters.  And, oh yeah, THEY are the ones doing the killing.  All four women -- Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie -- have spent the past 40 years working together as a crack team of highly trained elite assassins for a secretive organization known as "the Museum," which had its beginnings in the aftermath of the Second World War.  After hunting down surviving Nazis, the organization turned its attention to ridding the world of dictators, drug lords, arms dealers, etc. 

Now about 60 years old -- all childless -- our four heroines have recently retired and are celebrating on an exclusive luxury cruise, courtesy of the organization they have served so faithfully and so well for so long. But then! Billie -- cooling off from a hot flash in a walk-in freezer (lol) -- spots the familiar face of a fellow operative on board, disguised in a staff uniform. They soon realize that THEY are his targets. But who ordered the hit on them, and why?  

The story is told mostly from Billie's point of view, and jumps back & forth between the present day and the past, beginning in late 1970s, when the quartet were new recruits and trainees. 

I found this book irresistible, just from reading the description, and it mostly lived up to my expectations. All the women were born in or around 1958, making them just a few years older than me (they'd be 64 today)  :)  and were recruited in late 1979, which is when I was starting university. There's some pithy commentary on aging, loss, sexism, retirement and the corporate world... and some laugh-out-loud funny parts too. 

Here's hoping for a sequel!!  

This would make a great movie -- there are fabulous parts for four actresses in their early 60s!  I Googled, and there's a huge list of possibilities for an age-appropriate potential cast. I thought of Jamie Lee Curtis & Emma Thompson right off the bat, but there are many others who would be equally great.  For "The Shepherdess" (the WW2-era assassin who trains the girls), I immediately pictured Vanessa Redgrave, or maybe Judi Dench, or, if neither of them is up it, perhaps Helen Mirren?  

I closed this book with a chuckle (be sure to read to the end of the acknowledgements) and a smile on my face. 5 stars on Goodreads.  

This was Book #48 read to date in 2022 (and Book #2 finished in December), bringing me to 107% of my 2022 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books! I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 5 books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2022 tagged as "2022 books."  

"Etta Lemon" by Tessa Boase

The December book for our Gateway/Lighthouse Women NoMo book club is "Etta Lemon: The Woman Who Saved the Birds" by Tessa Boase. 

In some editions/markets, the book has a different title: "Mrs Pankhurst's Purple Feather: A Scandalous History of Birds, Hats and Votes"  (see the cover, below). The edition I was able to get for my Kobo e-reader, however, was "Etta Lemon," so that's how I'll refer to it here. 

Many/most of us, even outside of the UK, will have at least heard of Mrs. (Emmeline) Pankhurst, who fought for -- and won -- the right for women to vote in Britain, 100+ years ago. But who was Etta Lemon? And which book title is more correct?  Is the book about Etta Lemon, or Emmeline Pankhurst?  

Both, actually. They were contemporaries, leading movements that flourished (and ultimately achieved their goals and changed Britain in dramatic ways) at around the same time in history -- but they were different women, with very different views and interests, and different stories -- and they can be linked in some interesting ways that the book explores. 

Emmeline Pankhurst, her daughters (Christabel and Sylvia), and the suffragette movement they led (under the banner of the Women's Social and Political Union, or WSPU) are very well known. But Etta Lemon -- who was childless -- and her crusade to save the birds has been mostly forgotten by history -- until now, thanks to Tessa Boase and this book. 

Elaborately plumed hats were a central part of the suffragettes' image, as they crusaded for the vote. "The ever-elegant Emmeline Pankhurst insisted that if they were to win the nation over, suffragettes must ensure that they were the best dressed, most alluring women at every social gathering,"  Boase writes in Chapter 31 ("The Feminine Arts"). In the Prologue, she reveals that the "purple feather" of the book's other title refers to the voluptuous purple feather Mrs. Pankhurst wore on her hat when she and her suffragettes stormed the British House of Commons in 1908. After her death in 1928, it was preserved by the Suffragette Fellowship and, since 1950, has been on display at the Museum of London.  

The elaborately feathered hat was an indispensable part of her brand:  a way of showing the world that she was no unnatural, mannish harridan intent on a 'petticoat government.' Yet she was also steely, autocratic and dictatorial. She liked a good fight. Like a strutting cock's extravagant tail, Emmeline Pankhurst's plumage signified power.   

Etta Lemon, on the other hand, was vehemently ANTI-suffrage -- but she too was a divisive, crusading figure, who helped found what eventually became known as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which still exists today and is Britain's best-known nature conservation society. There was a great deal of rivalry and tension between the two organizations. (Some women, of course, belonged to both and supported both causes.)  

Both crusades were eventually eclipsed -- and yet at the same time bolstered -- by the First World War.  During the war years, women stepped into men's roles and proved themselves entirely capable, while importing feathers was banned and domestic bird populations flourished in the absence of hunters. In 1921, after the war ended, the feather ban finally became permanent law. Some women gained the right to vote in 1918, and the vote was extended to all women age 21 and older in 1928. 

I had absolutely no idea about what a "thing" feathers were for Victorian-era women, or what a huge business they were -- or what a toll they took on bird populations around the world, with some species hunted to the point of extinction. Boase lays out the facts here in horrifying detail. I was reminded of how both the beaver and the buffalo here in North America were hunted and slaughtered in massive numbers -- primarily for their pelts -- between the early 1600s & late 1800s, almost to the point of extinction. 

(Slight personal digression:  there's a buffalo hunt scene in the Kevin Costner movie "Dances With Wolves," with what looks like hundreds of buffalo thundering across the prairies of South Dakota, that had me in tears when I first saw the movie in the theatre. Not so much because of the killing itself (although I am not at all a hunter) -- this was how the indigenous tribes survived, after all, before the buffalo hunt was commercialized by settlers -- but because seeing all those beautiful creatures running around in a huge pack in their natural habitat was simply so amazing, and such a rare sight -- something brought to life straight out of the history books. As someone who was born and raised on the Prairies, whose family came to the Red River Valley in the late 1870s -- not that long after and not that far away from the events and the setting of the movie -- it touched me deeply and made me homesick in a way that I can't really explain.) 

This was an interesting read overall -- a little dry/academic in tone, and perhaps a little more detail than most of us ever wanted or needed to know on these subjects...!  It did take me a little while to get into it. But once I did, it was a pretty fascinating piece of social history. The author has certainly done her homework and knows her subject...!  Etta Lemon is yet another unsung woman -- and a childless one, at that -- who did great things and whose story has been overlooked until now. Thank you, Tessa Boase, for (re)introducing her to us!  

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 on Goodreads. 

This was Book #47 read to date in 2022 (and Book #1 finished in December), bringing me to 104% of my 2022 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books! I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 5 books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2022 tagged as "2022 books."  

*** *** *** 

As noted above, Etta Lemon was childless. I was pleased to see Boase elaborate on this point in Chapter 33 ("Maternal Weakness"):  

The message of the National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage was that being a mother was the only importance a woman required. The earlier Women's League emblem showed a mother reading to her young son and daughter. Such women were well balanced, educated and intelligent, it implied. They did not need the vote to make them happy too... 

Childless women were largely regarded as unfortunate and neurotic. "The happy wife and mother is never passionately concerned about the suffrage," wrote the bushy eyebrowed bacteriologist Sir Almroth Wright, in an extraordinary letter to The Times in March 1912.  Under the heading "Militant Hysteria," he argued that not only childless women, but menopausal women, too, were unhinged and a menace to society.  Think, he asked his readers, of "the serious and long-continued mental disorders that develop in connection with the approaching extinction of a woman's reproductive function."  Wright concluded that peace would come again only when the present surplus of women (around one and a half million) had gone to outposts of the empire and found husbands...

No doubt Mrs. Lemon, breakfasting at Hillcrest's mahogany dining table, also read Sir Almroth Wright's letter in The Times. Perhaps, at some level, it hurt. Etta was 51 and childless. The birds had fulfilled many of her maternal urges;  they had kept her busy. But they were not enough. 

Boase goes on to describe the elaborate Christmas parties that Etta organized for the children of the town where her husband was mayor, and the close relationship they enjoyed with their nephew Hugh, whose father was in British Malaysia in the colonial service, and who was shipped back to England at age 5 to attend boarding school.  He spent his school holidays with them, "smothered in the loving attentions of Aunt Etta and Uncle Frank." 

Etta also helped run a hospital for injured soldiers during the First World War, and was a pillar of the community, supporting many other charitable causes and organizations. She remained devoted to the RSPB until 1939, when she was unceremoniously forced out of her position at the age of 79, her portrait relegated to a cupboard in the attic -- until Boase's book was published. The portrait has been restored, reframed and now hangs in a prominent place at the RSPB headquarters, and is also displayed on its website.  (Etta died in 1953, age 92.) 

As I noted above, this book has two titles:  apparently it was the first/hardcover edition of the book that was titled "Mrs. Pankhurst's Purple Feather" -- presumably because Mrs. Pankhurst was better known and her name would sell more books. (It was first published in 2018, the 100th anniversary of the suffragettes' initial victory in obtaining the vote.)  The title was changed for the paperback edition to focus on Etta Lemon, and in the acknowledgements at the end of the book, Boase thanked her paperback editor "for instantly grasping that Etta Lemon was the revelation, and for encouraging a rethink on the cover." She also saluted her late researcher:  "Beryl [Holt] always thought that Etta Lemon was the real heroine of these pages -- and she was right."  :)