Yes, it’s chilly winter weather. We haven’t received any snow yet but only because it’s been sunny. A few days ago, I woke to -6ºC weather and brrrrr!!! …. it certainly wakes you up in the morning!
© Cleo @ Classical Carousel
What’s up?
After a busy October and November, I’ve been up to very little lately which is quite unusual for me. I was able to get our Christmas tree early but was appalled when I arrived at the tree farm and all the pre-cut trees were gone. So with a saw and much trepidation, I had to trek out onto the fields and saw one down myself. It was SO difficult to cut that I thought it was going to take me two days to get it down. In the end, I broke about a third of the trunk to fell it. And the irony? When I arrived back at the front kiosk hauling the tree along, I learned that the tree that I chose, a noble fir, is the hardest tree to saw because of its thick trunk. Figures ….
Otherwise I’ve been trying to get back to this book blog and fit much more reading in. If you’re reading this post, of course you know that I moved to a self-hosted blog last month and it’s been a very nice change. No more pornography websites showing up in my stats. No more wondering how Google doesn’t recognize me anymore even though I’ve flushed my cache and am signed into my account. And I have more flexibility, especially if I can learn some coding and figure out how everything works. I’m already more website literate from building my food blog, and it’s now very apparent how much I’ve learned. However, if anyone can tell me how to put a blogroll on my sidebar, I’d be eternally grateful! 🙂
Blue Butterfly Matcha Tea © Cleo @ Classical Carousel
Bookish News
And books? Right now I’m going through my Literary Christmas 2018 challenge. I’ve finished A Christmas Carol and I’ve started Christmas on Cold Comfort Farm, with plans to begin some small Christmas books this weekend. I’m also making my way through The Age of Innocence, Bleak House, The Mysteries of Udolpho and am trying to fit in a few more reads for my Deal Me In Challenge. As for 2019, after reducing challenges for the last two years, I’ve decided to ramp them up for 2019. Even when I wasn’t finishing challenges, if I was participating in them, at least I’d read. These last few years (especially this year) have been dismal for reading and focus. So hopefully more challenges in 2019 will equal more books read!
So Merry Christmas everyone and may the new year bring you peace, happiness and much reading!
There should be a widget at wordpress.org that allows you to add a blog roll. See if this is any help:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/blogroll/
I thought I was going to get in A Christmas Carol, but Hogfather is taking me longer than expected AND I’m pretty much just coasting now until the end of the year. All my posts (except 2 reviews and my December roundup and then my Annual Review) are written. So I’m doing a LOT of nothing 🙂 It is great…
Thanks, Bookstooge. I did look there but the top two are broken link checkers and the blogroll one hasn’t been updated in a year. I perhaps need to buy a theme instead of going with a free one. And the self=hosted blog starts to cost $$$ …
You’re pretty clever to write your posts ahead of time. I always feel behind but I did have some ready to go and tried to schedule them but they didn’t send at the schedule times. Doing alot of nothing sounds great! I will try that sometime. 😉
Ahhh, the joys of owning your own blog 😉 Kind of like a house! Best of luck.
I started the whole scheduling thing about 5 months ago and it has taken me this long to get comfortable with it. The first 2 months were NOT fun but each successive month has gotten easier and now, I’m enjoying the fruits of my labor.
You definitely need to try doing nothing for a bit. It would be good for you 🙂
Tell me about it. WordPress just did a huge update and everyone is freaking out. I haven’t updated yet here. I’m going to wait it out but there’s so much more to be aware of being self-hosted.
I’m not sure if I could do -NOTHING- but one could always try … 😉
it’s not nearly that cold down here; we had two days that got close to freezing, but otherwise it’s just overcast and rainy… that’s a lovely christmas tree picture… ours is an oldpersons fake, short one with not much on it, but what can i say, we like it….. albert the dog likes it also: i saw him sniffing at his package, trying to determine how big the bone is, undoubtedly…
I admit I started this post a number of days ago and since then it’s warmed up to 5-6ºC but it’s rainy of course. Very rainy. Yet the mountains have snow so all is not lost. I had a fake tree as a child and was determined to have real ones as an adult. And the chopping down adventure makes pretty good memories. Albert the dog is a lucky boy. My two boys have squeaky toys, neither of which I can put out because they’ll get into them. Such are the antics of 2 year old and 10 month old dogs. Not nearly as well-mannered as Albert.
Albert is perfectly well-mannered unless your back is turned… haha
I have one of those too …… and the other one is too happy-go-lucky to be devious … 🙂
First of all I had no idea you had moved and have a new blog home! ( Completely my fault) Secondly I love the new site! It’s brilliant! Thirdly, I hope both of us get to read more again and I really hope we can get back to our Read Alongs! Wishing you and your loved ones much happiness and joy this season!
Knowing how busy you are, I should have sent you a quick note letting you know. I did e-mail you when I was thinking about it but I didn’t hear back so I assumed you were crazy-busy. Thanks for the kind words AND I would LOVE to do some read-alongs this coming year! Health and happiness to you too and your family during this Christmas season and all the year through!
Oh! Gosh! I am so sorry Cleo I missed the note completely. I am so sorry…life has just been ridiculous. Anyhow, here’s to getting back to the normal and simpler things in life, including Read Alongs and long email exchanges! Much love!!
Ha, ha! I thought it might be because of that ridiculous life. 🙂 Normal and simple are two very nice words. Let’s hope they materialize! Hugs!
What a contrast between the two trees, and they’re both lovely! <3
I have a break from work coming up on the 20th, at which point I plan to focus on reading. Other than that, I've been rewatching childhood Christmas movies, like The Snowman and Charlie Brown. They only get better as you get older. 🙂
I hope to be able to focus on reading too but I still have to deal with my taxes from last year. Ugh! I love Charlie Brown Christmas but my favourite is A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim. Love it!
Happy Christmas prep to you too! 🙂
Thanks, Jean! You too! 🙂
Love the tree and the blue cappuccino. I am again trying to subscribe to your blog because I am not getting new ones in my email!
I don’t see a new subscription for you. Did you have problems? I haven’t heard from anyone about problems on that end but please let me know. There always seems to be something to fix or improve!
Wow! Brrrr….is right. I haven’t experienced negative temps since I lived in New York, and I do remember how cold that was. It goes right through your bones.
Looks like you’re going to have a good reading year. At least you’re planning on it, and you have to start somewhere.
I have to confess…I haven’t started Age of Innocence. There have been some complications here in my life, and I’m just now trying to catch up in this last week or two of December. I need to get on Goodreads Group and see your next book on the TBR list, and maybe I’ll get it right in 2019.
It’s not so cold now ….. around 7ºC – 2ºC, so it quite manageable.
I’m going to join lots of challenges, and probably complete few but I’m determined to read many many more books in 2019!
If you wanted to, you could start and catch up with The Age of Innocence I’m not even halfway through and then put it on hold for Christmas stories. The Goodreads group reads many obscure books, so I don’t often participate but The Age of Innocence caught my eye. No problem if you want to pass and clean the slate for 2019. I hope everything is okay with you. Wishing you peace, happiness and many blessings in 2019 and a very Merry Christmas!
Glad to hear you’ve had a chance to get some more reading in – always nice this time of year, especially when it’s chilly. And Christmas reading is delightful–I’ve Hercule Poirot’s Christmas waiting for me as soon as I finish The Woman in White. Happy reading and Merry Christmas!
I so much wanted to read both the Halloween Party and Poirot’s Christmas but I found that, in spite of owning every other Christie published, I don’t own those two. Such disappointment! 😉 But I have so many other Christmas reads that I’m quite content. A very Merry Christmas to you too! 🙂