Retro Reads discussion

So does anyone here celebrate Hallowe'en?

We don't get (m)any visitors, but I have bought a bag of mini Mars Bars in case any kids brave our hill!

I don’t get much traffic, so I buy a bag of a favorite type of candy and then wind up eating most of it throughout November. But I love Halloween! I have several costumes and lots of Halloween-themed jewelry, plus a motion-sensing wreath of rubber snakes that scream and wriggle when you walk by, and papier-mache ghosts lit from inside.

Apparently some streets in our town get literally van loads of kids turning up!

But in spite of The Warehouse's best efforts its not really a NZ thing.

Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "So does anyone here celebrate Hallowe'en?

We don't get (m)any visitors, but I have bought a bag of mini Mars Bars in case any kids brave our hill!"

Oh, I didn’t know you celebrated Halloween, I thought it was just an American thing (excuse to decorate and gorge on candy!😂) I did for many years, but since my brain surgeries, the constant up and down to answer the door is too much. We used to see a lot of trick-or-treaters, but it’s been trailing off as our neighborhood has aged a bit (not many little ones). I also think many young parents opt for more organized, safer events like Halloween parties or “trunk-or-treat”events at schools and churches. I can’t blame them, always seems to be at least one traffic accident a year - usually an unseen Trick-or-Treater hit by a car.

Abigail wrote: "I don’t get much traffic, so I buy a bag of a favorite type of candy and then wind up eating most of it throughout November. But I love Halloween! I have several costumes and lots of Halloween-them..."

Thank you, I wondered if other areas of the country were as into elaborate decorations for Halloween- just visited my sisters in Charleston, SC, they drove us by several elaborately decorated houses. Used to be a pumpkin, some mums, maybe a witch or ghost somewhere in a tree. Over the last 25+ years we’ve lived in the southern US, we’ve all noticed an explosion in the popularity of elaborate Halloween decorations!

Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "Apparently some streets in our town get literally van loads of kids turning up!

But in spite of The Warehouse's best efforts its not really a NZ thing."

In years past, we did have carloads, it got to be a bit much - seemed so risky for the little ones, the parents would let them run house to house, follow in their car - traffic going both ways doing that is dangerous for the little ones running around!

Susan:"Oh, I didn’t know you celebrated Halloween, I thought it was just an American thing."

We didn't use too, as it is very close to Guy Fawkes where we have bonfires & let off fire crackers. But more popular now.

No one came last night, so we'll see if we get anyone on the actual day.

Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "Susan:"Oh, I didn’t know you celebrated Halloween, I thought it was just an American thing."

We didn't use too, as it is very close to Guy Fawkes where we have bonfires & let off fire crackers. Bu..."
Of course I forgot about Guy Fawkes! I I imagine bonfires and fireworks beat costumes and candy…I don’t know, a favorite bit of candy can be a treat ;o)!

We have lost interest in Guy Fawkes in recent years. Our kids have gone & the neighbour who threw a party every year has moved.

We are thinking about going to an organised display in a nearby town.

Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "We have lost interest in Guy Fawkes in recent years. Our kids have gone & the neighbour who threw a party every year has moved.

We are thinking about going to an organised display in a nearby town."

So many things change when the kids grow up and leave home.

& I have a new phone/camera.

Taken a few days ago.

Wow, stunning!

So gorgeous! Where is this?

Elinor wrote: "So gorgeous! Where is this?"

My little town in New Zealand. The Pohutukawa is aka the NZ Christmas tree - flowering a bit early this year.

My kids used to climb this tree after they played tennis - all the kids did.

Gorgeous! Is it related to a coral tree?

Abigail wrote: "Gorgeous! Is it related to a coral tree?"

Don't think so.

They seem to be able to grow pretty much anywhere in NZ, including the sides of cliffs, but they are quite shallow rooting, so they don't help prevent slips as much as you might expect.

Flowering early! Harbingeer of settled weather by Christmas!

what a great tree! thank you so much for sharing it, Carol.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate the holiday!

It has been a fun year with this group. I'm looking forward to next year.

May you all have a Happy New Year, filled with good books and plenty of time to read them.

Thanks Barb.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Looking forward to 2024 with this group. X

Merry Christmas to all. Hope your day is joyous!
Looking forward to 2024!

Merry Christmas, everyone, and here’s to lots of books and reading in 2024!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I'm home again!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Wishing you all a happy, healthy, book-filled New Year! So very glad I found this wonderful group. 🥰

Happy Holidays to all! I hope you had a Merry Christmas and will have a festive and safe New Year!

Can someone please let me know how your "book pool" works and how I can join in.

Is it a monthly locked in challenge?

Hello Cphe! If you go to the first few posts of the Book Pool 2024 thread you will read the deets. The only thing that is closed for the year is adding books to the pool.

Hi Everyone

I don't have internet- probably till Monday my time. So frustrating.

See you when I get back!

Oh no, sorry to hear that, Carol. Hope you don't have to wait too long and that you have a good weekend anyway.

Carol She's So Novel ꧁꧂ wrote: "Hi Everyone

I don't have internet- probably till Monday my time. So frustrating.

See you when I get back!"

Sorry Carol! Look at it as a time to unplug from the interwebs…have a lovely, peaceful weekend!

Susan in NC wrote: "

Sorry Carol! Look at it as a time to unplug from the ..."

Ha!

Losing internet was a good way to realise how dependent I am on it - I lost it when I had very little money in my operational account & had stuff I needed to do for the museum I volunteer at. Plus, no Spotify!

Anyway I am back now & raring to go! 😁

Carol She's So Novel ꧁꧂ wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "

Sorry Carol! Look at it as a time to unplug from the ..."

Ha!

Losing internet was a good way to realise how dependent I am on it - I lost it when I had very little money in ..."

Welcome back!

glad you survived it, Carol, it's awful when internet is down or otherwise unavailable. Hard to believe I lived so much of my life before we had it!

Jackie wrote: "glad you survived it, Carol, it's awful when internet is down or otherwise unavailable. Hard to believe I lived so much of my life before we had it!"

Amen, sister, same here!

Well my ISP has credited me two weeks rental. He was a bit bemused at some of the things his underlings told me to do! It cost me more than that to get it my internet restored, but as a true addict I didn't care!

I'm just off to Auckland for a couple of days. See everyone when I get back!

Safe travels!

I'm still reading Retro but not from the Book Pool! I must get back to everyone else's recommendations! In the meantime I just finished The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald and I can say for the first time that I actually enjoyed the movie more. The ending was changed in the film and this time for the better. I also read The Two Faces of January by Patricia Highsmith only because the paperback was here in our rented condo in Mexico, but I thought it was something of a dud.

I’m reading retro, too - The Winthrop Woman from the Pool (big thanks to whoever threw Seton into the pool, always meant to read her, and I’m enjoying this very much!) Outside the pool, I’ve been reading a favorite for our upcoming group read, The Worshipful Lucia by E.F. Benson x I needed the laugh, so started early! ;o)

Also read a GA mystery, Death of an Author by E.C.R. Lorac, an author being reissued last few years I really enjoy, she deserves a wider audience.

Three Score and Ten by Angela Thirkell is $2.99 today for Kindle/Kobo (US).

Thank you!

& I've just had some not so much bad as disappointing news.

Our son is going overseas on Thursday. He was going to move in with our daughter last weekend but her wife got COVID. Now our daughter has it - which means she won't catch up with him before he goes. It's not the end of the world (he'll be back in August, before leaving again in November) but it is disappointing.

I am sorry they will miss each other, and hope your daughter and her wife are better!

I've just finished Three Houses by Angela Thirkell. I never quite appreciated how intricately her family was connected in the UK art scene, but as she describes her childhood, there are all these famous artists which she mentions in an aside with a child's acceptance of them being part of the furniture (in her case quite literally as the houses were full of William Morris creations).

I never knew she'd written a memoir; so, you enjoyed it Carolien?

Yes, I did. The three houses in the title is her own childhood home and her grandparents' house in London as well as their house in Sussex. Her grand-father was a famous painter Edward Burne-Jones who collaborated extensively with William Morris and had connections to the Rosettis. Her grandmother was probably William Morris's lover at some point. The local church in Rottingdean in Sussex had stained glass windows made by Burne-Jones and Morris (I wonder if they survived WWII?). Her cousin was Rudyard Kipling, he told the stories of Just so Stories to Angela Thirkell and her brother in Sussex before they were printed. It's a very late-Victorian childhood that she describes. The book was written in the 1931 and in it she laments the developments in London which had eviscerated the gardens and lanes of the Kensington of her childhood. I wonder what she would make of it now.

Carolien wrote: "Yes, I did. The three houses in the title is her own childhood home and her grandparents' house in London as well as their house in Sussex. Her grand-father was a famous painter Edward Burne-Jones ..."

Thank you, I’ve seen this title listed among my beloved Barsetshire series, never bothered to read the summary. Sounds interesting!

She's very funny on the pre-Raphaelite furniture which her grandfather and contemporaries designed. She's describes it as universally uncomfortable, beautiful pieces of furniture but comfort was never considered by the designers! In the summer house in Rottingdean were some chairs her grandfather had designed for a staging of the Knights of the Round Table and they were so comfortable that she thought the real knights would have been off on an adventure rather than sit on them!

lol!