Sunday Post - 1? It's Monday! What are you reading? - 1-ish

The Sunday Post - a chance for bloggers to have a chat and a catch-up - is hosted by Kimba, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/

I haven't blogged for about  ... five years I think? I didn't stop for any particular reason. I just sort of stopped. And honestly I didn't miss it for a long time. But lately I've been thinking that it might be nice to start up again. So I thought "why not?" and here I am. 

I'm still in the same job as I was when I fell off blogging. With everything that's gone on in the world in the past few years, I'm grateful that I do have a job. 

Spawn will be 16 in May, which is a lot for me to get my head around. And he's taller than me now. It's very disconcerting, having to look UP at the person that I built. He's doing NCEA this year which is always stressful but so far he seems to be keeping up with the work.

He's at DnD with a group of friends tonight. No matter how far technology takes us, I guess you just can't beat the classics.

We're in the process of buying the house we're renting currently. I don't want to say too much about it because I'm horribly superstitious but hopefully it will go the way we want it to.

Let's see ... we have 7 cats now, and poor Lily - who has been through a LOT the past few years - has hyperthyroidism. Which means daily medication that needs to be applied to her ears. Fun times, especially for a deaf, highly strung cat who develops trust issues every time we need to take her to the vet. 

What else. Currently I'm re-reading The Dark is Rising Sequence - one of my favourite series from childhood. It holds up really well. I'm about two-thirds of the way through The Grey King, so there's really not a lot of the series left to go.

I'm also reading The Embroidered Book by Kate Heartfield. It's a historical fantasy set in the 18th century. It's centred around Marie Antoinette, and her sister Charlotte, the Queen of Naples. The girls find a book of spells as children, and as they grow up and into their own lives and fates, they discover a hidden world of spells and magic. 

The two women take very different approaches to how they use magic in their lives.

Marie Antoinette I'm vaguely familiar with, obviously, but I knew nothing about Charlotte.

I've done more than one Wikipedia search while reading the book, and discovered that Charlotte was a fairly formidable woman.

I also discovered 18th century female artists who lived at the time, and who have cameos in the book - Angelica Kauffman, a Swiss history painter and member of the Royal Academy in London and Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, who painted Marie Antoinette many times. 

It's more history than fantasy, really, but I'm enjoying it greatly. 

I'm not sure what's up to the plate next, apart, of course from Silver on the Tree.

Anyway. How was your week? What are you reading? :)