It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! I hope that you are all doing well! Last week was a busy one for us, but we had a lot of fun with family. I spent most of Wednesday baking and it was wonderful. I had my little assistant with me for part of it, which was nice as well. Today we are decorating for Christmas which makes me happy! We even have snow for it!
Read Last Week:
This was such a light read and perfect for a busy week. I didn’t like it as much as I liked the first in the series, but it was ok. I did love that there was a baby dragon. I am still planning on reading the next one in the series in December.
Reading This Week:
Last night we had our first big snowstorm of the year, and it felt like the perfect night to start Hogfather. I’ve been wanting to try Terry Prachett and this seemed like a fun one to start with.
We are not watching too much, at least last week. We finished up the Bake Off, and I think that was it. We did watch Mickey’s Christmas Carol with Wyatt, because I wanted to kick off holiday movie watching. And since then he has put it on a least fifty more times. Lol. Tonight we are going to watch another movie. We have them all in a jar and Wyatt draws a name and that is what we watch. Always a surprise now! I do plan on adding in other holiday movies from Hallmark, or that are for adults – the ones in the jar are kid movies.
Around the Interwebs:
Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are also beginning our Comfy Cozy Christmas Link Up! Comfy Cozy Christmas isn’t just about Christmas, it is anything holiday related – any December holiday – at all that strikes your fancy and you write about this month. Movies, books, traditions, activities. I am excited to read them! This link should be up today!
Also, just a reminder that Lisa hosts a monthly linky, that I help with, called A Good Book and a Cup of Tea. Make sure to link up any book related posts! We love to hear!
And that is it from around here today! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
Hello everyone!! This is just a little Saturday post, where if you want to chat about soup that you have made or eaten or a recipe you have, and tell a story about your life, a memory, a book you are reading, anything, here is your chance!
We have had wintery weather here this week, with snow flurries and cold temps, and was the perfect week for soup. It was also a good week for soup because Billy and I knew that we had a lot of cooking and baking ahead of us for our two Thanksgiving celebrations and we wanted to keep things easier during the week. So on Sunday we made a whole chicken, ate it with potatoes and corn like a little preview for Thanksgiving, then turned the rest into soup. I haven’t quite landed on the soup recipe I want for chicken yet. This one was good, but was a little too tomato-y.
This is the Chicken Vegetable Soup by Dinner at the Zoo. I actually really liked this one, Billy is the one that stated it was had too much tomato. And I didn’t have green beans and I think that might have been a delicious addition. It reminded me of being a kid eating soup on winter afternoons after playing in the snow for hours.
I’ve been sharing memories the past few weeks, so instead, let’s talk about something else today. Something recent.
Last weekend we took Wyatt to the local Christmas parade – for the first time. I felt so remiss as a parent that I had never taken him to this before, since I used to go every single year with my family. My dad was always about “travel fast and light” back then (although you wouldn’t know now by the amount of luggage he packs to go on vacations) so we just went to the parade, no blanket, chairs, just us. Thank goodness my aunts were not of that belief and brought chairs for the adults and blankets for us kids. So I had that in mind when we packed up to go to the parade with Wyatt. He has his own chair, but I wanted to make sure we took blankets too, in case he wanted to sit on the ground with his buddies.
We met my two friends Nicole and Shawnna and Nicole’s daughter A and Shawnna’s son Z. Nicole’s mom was there as well. We got there first and threw down our big wool blanket, and waited for the others to arrive. Nicole and Shawnna are neighbors so they were driving together and they were on the way. While we waited, Billy walked down to Tim Horton’s and brought back hot chocolate for Wyatt, and coffees for us which I was very grateful for since it was absolutely freezing out. Billy also bought one for the young police officer at the corner directing traffic, who was also very thankful and cold.
I realized I may have bundled Wyatt up a bit too much, much like my mom and aunts did to us when we were kids. We were all like the kid in the Christmas Story, and poor Wyatt was too.
In my defense, Wyatt does get colder in his wheelchair. He isn’t moving around generating body heat, and that metal gets so cold! However, I still sort of overdid it. Which I realized after I saw him with his friends. Whoops.
We didn’t have to wait long before the parade started, and seriously, I was like a kid myself! I love parades and we never go, and I was reminded of how much I do love them! Shawnna joked that I was just like one of the kids, and after I got pelted with candy I thought there was maybe some truth to that.
I’m the kid with the yellow hat. Brian is right next to me, and my cousin Melissa is the cutie on the other end.
We came home with so much candy, it was crazy! A and Z were so mindful of making sure to grab some for Wyatt, it was so sweet of them! They would run out for the candy, and bring a few pieces back for Wyatt’s pile.
I didn’t take many photos, as I was too busy chitchatting and watching the parade, sitting right on the curb like I did when I was a kid, waving to the people in the cars, on the floats, clapping for the bands and dancers, and making sure to point out the tuba players to Wyatt, who is recently obsessed with them. Tubas, not tuba players. There were also so many scout troops walking in the parade! I had no idea there were so many around us! I am going to see if our little Blackbirds troop wants to walk in next year’s parade.
I managed to grab these two photos. I thought the float of our electrical workers was a cute idea – plus they are heroes around here. Wyandotte makes it’s own electricity, and when our power goes out these guys rush to the rescue and we usually have it back on within an hour or so. So I definitely appreciate them, as they are out in the cold and snow in the winter, or in rain in the summer, spring, and fall.
We had such a good time, just being outside in the brisk air, taking in the crowds and the float, feeling the happiness in the air, being surrounded by friends. Our little group left smiling and laughing, and I am so thankful to have these people in our lives!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone!! I hope that you are all doing well. We had a pretty good week here last week, just a few bumps but mostly good. Today we are working on some projects around here before heading to my cousin’s house for a family get together of cousins, which my cousin hosts once a month. I love that our kids are growing up around each other!
Read Last Week:
I loved both of these books. How to Talk to Your Succulent is a middle-grade graphic novel, and deals with loneliness, grief, and the importance of open and honest communication, in a very whimsical and magical way.
I knew I had to read Shady Hollow. I love anthropomorphic animal stories, and the main character is a fox to boot? This book was really well-written, and I feel like I learned a bit about the process of journalism as well while reading (with a little extra clarification from Lisa). All in all, a very good cozy mystery, full of woodland creatures!
Reading This Week:
This week I am reading A Fellowship of Librarians and Dragons by J. Penner! I am looking forward to it; I mean, just look at all those cozy cute images on the cover! I want a unicorn teapot! And cinnamon rolls! And a dragon!
Billy and I have been watching The Great British Bake Off all week. It always makes us both want to bake! This time it was Billy’s turn, and he made a savory monkey bread last night that was delicious. It was filled with cotswold cheese and was so good. He is going to make a version for Thanksgiving and I am excited. He is going to add olives which I think will be the perfect touch.
Wyatt and I also prepped for Christmas movie watching! We decided to put all the names of the movies we want to watch into a jar and every time we are going to watch one, Wyatt will draw that night’s movie.
Around the Internets:
Just a reminder that Lisa hosts a monthly linky, that I help with, called A Good Book and a Cup of Tea. Make sure to link up any book related posts! We love to hear!
Also, we will be hosting Comfy Cozy Christmas starting the day after Thanksgiving! Anything holiday related – any December holiday – at all that strikes your fancy and you write about, please think about sharing on our linky – and I hope I can get it working again on my blog before then! Again, we love to hear everyone’s stories!
And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do, you do something that makes you smile!
Hello everyone! I am writing from my bed this morning, it is so cold and I am not ready to get moving quite yet. I do have a cup of coffee next to me though, thank goodness, that will help with both issues, although it is Friday and Wyatt and I have a lighter day on Fridays.
This past weekend was my birthday! I feel like I have been celebrating all month, with all of the surprises my family and friends have had for me. They have all been so thoughtful and made me feel very special for my 50th.
On Saturday, my dad and stepmom had a party for me out at their house, and it was so chill and relaxed and just what I needed. Good food, lots of cake, family, and laughter. I loved just hanging out with my family, chatting and eating and then I took the kids outside and they were all playing hide and seek, even Wyatt. It was a nice time.
Sunday morning Billy, Wyatt, and I had plans to go to Le Supreme in Detroit, which is a French brasserie. We love their brunch menu and we got all shined up to go (Marsha, I wore my fox dress outfit!) – however, my son decided to gift me a special surprise right as our food arrived, by throwing up right in my lap. I told him I have had better gifts before. We managed to keep things low profile and cleaned up and then packed Wyatt’s food up and went home. Billy and I both had egg based breakfasts and left them behind. The waiter was so nice, and gave me a raincheck for a free creme brulee when we go back. And we are having a redo, and this time I think Wyatt will stay home with a grandparent. Ah, life with a medically complex child. Lol. It is that pesky side effect of his medication – and we never know when it will occur since it is not everyday.
The day after my birthday would have been Billy’s older brother’s birthday, and we remember him every year on that date (well we remember him everyday, but especially the 17th). He passed at 26 from squamous cell cancer of the mouth, and we tell stories about him to Wyatt all the time. About George’s tarantulas, which is one reason I took Carl in, his love of old cars, his carpentry and automotive skills, which is where Billy learned a lot of what he knows, from his older brother. He would have been 53 this year, and probably still been giving Billy a hard time but then bailing him out as well. He was a good big brother. I remember one winter, Billy and I had been watching a movie and it was over about 1 am. Billy went out to his car, and the battery was dead, so he called George. George came over in the bitter cold, and together they jumped Billy’s car, while sitting in George’s. I would check on them occasionally out there, chatting while they waited, and I remember thinking how happy they both looked, despite it being freezing cold, pitch black, and jumping a car. Just two brothers doing brother things. He was one one of the good guys, and we miss him everyday.
On Wednesday my dad came by and kicked me out of the house, telling me to go do something for me. I decided to check out Brooks Books, a local bookstore. I knew they had decorated for Christmas, and I thought it would be nice to take Wyatt there next month for our book and cookie outing. However, it was very nice to go by myself for once. I had so much time to just look at everything, in quiet. I picked up a book while I was there, Cold Clay, the second book in the Shady Hollow series. It was a nice refresh midweek!
And, I also got my items from when I went to the tie dye place with my friends! I had made a pashmina scarf, a tote bag, and socks, which they donate to the unhoused. I really love how both my scarf and tote bag turned out! My scarf makes me think of malachite, and it is so pretty!
And I here I am, looking like an art teacher from a 1990s romcom!
And that is it from around here this week. I hope that whatever you do, you do something that makes you smile!
How is Christmas so close now? What is it, 35 days away? I am not even close to being finished with holiday shopping! I did see Amazon started its Black Friday Sale, so I thought I would share a few ideas of things that Wyatt has loved over the years, in case anyone needs a little inspiration. Some of these are Black Friday Deals, others are not.
These links are affiliate links, and I will receive a small commission if you were to purchase anything using a link, at no extra cost to you.
Outfoxed is a game that he got maybe a year or two ago from his aunt and uncle, and he absolutely loves it, as do all of his cousins. It is a mystery game where you eliminate suspects (all foxes) using clues and logic.
Hoot Owl Hoot is a game that we bought Wyatt when he was five. We gave it to some friends with young children a few years ago as he outgrew it, but it is an awesome game. Wyatt played the heck out of it with us. This is a cooperative game, and helps kids learn colors, strategy, and turn taking.
Pop the Pig. I can’t even tell you how many times we had to play Pop the Pig. Every teacher, every therapist I have talked to has said that they have this game in their classroom as well. Kids love it. It is also geared for younger kids. We still have ours and if you could see it – the box is tattered, the poor pig looks like he has been through the wars, but it had a lot of use and love.
This Makedo Discover Set is a current favorite. This is actually really cool, and Wyatt has fun transforming my Amazon boxes into art or tall buildings or whatever he wants to make. And we learned over Halloween that the sawing tool is handy for kids to carve pumpkins with as well! All of it is safe and not actually sharp. Wyatt will sit and create with this for a good while!
Picasso Tiles, all the sets, he loves. He wants a set like this with dragons again this year (and I already ordered it) and it is another thing he will play with for an hour or two. We have taken them with us on vacations, on his trips to the hospital for EEGs, for tests,and they travel well (as long as you don’t bring them ALL lol).
I bought this flower building garden toy for Wyatt when he was in pre-school and we were doing a unit study on plants. It was great to illustrate to him the parts of a plant, but I had no idea that he was going to love it as much as he did, or that his cousins would as well.
Hopper toys were always a winner around here, I mean who doesn’t like to bounce? Plus it is good for core building in little kids, and balance.
I got these little barns and farm animals for my niece’s second birthday this past March, and let’s just say, she didn’t care about any of her other gifts once she opened it. I was told I apparently bought her the winning gift, because she played with it the entire rest of the party. It has colors, animals, and little kids love to put things in things and take them out.
And then a bigger gift, but I would feel remiss if I didn’t share, just in case anyone is on the fence about getting one for their child or grandchild or whoever.
A play kitchen. Wyatt played with his for years and years and when he outgrew it I gave it to a friend for their child to use. This and kitchen toys to go with it – he was occupied for hours. I drank countless “cups of tea” and ate so many pieces of “cake” as did any other family member who came over. It was well worth the money. This is not the same one we had but it is by the same company, KidKraft.
If you search my blog, you might be able to find photos of Wyatt playing with most of these!
I hope that this gift guide gave you some ideas, and I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
Hello everyone! We have been keeping busy but finding a balance over here, finally. I like when we can have down time but also activities and for awhile there, it was either too much or too little. It is finally just right.
Wyatt and I had our monthly book and cookie outing last Friday! It’s such a small little thing but we have so much fun. This time we went back to Barnes & Noble; the local bookstore in our town turned their store in a Christmas wonderland so I want to save that trip for December. Anyway, Barnes and Noble turned out to be a good time – partially because the Starbucks sugar cookies are freaking delicious. Wyatt has been binging the Frog and Toad cartoon, and now wants to revisit the books, so he chose Frog and Toad All Year as his pick. I lucked out and got the $5 Barnes and Noble Cafe book promo, where if you buy anything from the cafe, you get that one particular book for $5! It is a book called Murder at Holly House and I am really excited to read it this holiday season!
The next day was a get-together with my girls for my birthday party. They arranged a whole night out for us and I had such a fantastic time hanging out with them. I am so thankful for their thoughtfulness and friendship. We have all been friends for 20-30 years and I am hoping to have that many years more with them as well.
Our first stop was the Detroit Dye House, where we made tie dye! Kelly had arranged for us to do the class, and with the class you make three things: socks to be donated, a tote bag, and your choice of a few pieces. We all chose the pashmina scarf. I loved seeing where my friends creativity took them in the making of their pieces, what colorways we all went with.
Chrissy went jewel tones, very royal, and it reminded me a little of a peacock. Kelly was more earthy, Jill went for the colors of the ocean, and then I went for a more monochromatic look of different shades of green.
That place is really fun. I also like that it is fun for all ages; this is actually the place we celebrated Wyatt’s birthday this year for his tenth birthday! I threw in a picture of us at another creative get together, that one more than ten years ago! After getting creative, we went to dinner at Ima, a noodle house which was amazing!!
We woke up Sunday to the first snow of the season, and we had a perfectly cozy day, which I blogged about here! It was also the perfect weather for the eve of the anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald tragedy. It went down 5o years ago, 6 days before I was born, and my great uncles helped build it. One of them, Hugh McIlroy was actually the superintendent of the shipyard where it was built as well. My mom attended the launch as a kid, and remembers the surge of water when it was launched that soaked everyone. Apparently the surge of water was so great that one of the workers there actually had a heart attack, poor man. Another tragic casualty of this ship. My cousin Brian invited my brother and I out for a drink (I had a cider that was described as “cozy”) that night, Monday, in remembrance of the crew, and he also surprised me with a birthday gift. He wrote me a very beautiful letter that made me cry, and then gifted me with a first edition, seventh printing, first book club edition of To Kill a Mockingbird and told me that I always reminded him of Scout. He also again made me cry by gifting me a decorative Hummel plate of my aunt’s, that I remember being displayed in her home. I miss her so much everyday, and I am so happy to have such a memento.
The rest of our week was just routine (the balance I needed for all those outings!) and yesterday we had our Blackbirds meeting. The kids seemed to really enjoy our activity! We started with spending some time in the courtyard at the church, doing some stargazing, then we headed inside for snacks, a little art project designing their own constellations, and then ended with potting paperwhites to take home, which was a gift from my stepmom to the troop. I love being outside at night this time of year, I find it so peaceful and I even enjoy the chill in the air. They also all surprised me at the end of the night with a cake and singing happy birthday, and the smiles on all the kids’ faces warmed my heart.
And that is it from over here this week! I hope that whatever you do this week, you do something that makes you smile!
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl
Today’s Prompt: Books Outside of My Comfort Zone
Hello everyone! Today I want to write about books I want to read outside my comfort zone. I actually had a goal to read some different authors and books next year, so my list of goal books are the books (plus a few more) that I will be including today. I don’t know if I will have ten, but I am excited about this goal! I like to push my boundaries sometimes as I think it is really good for our brains to be exposed to different type materials and different things.
First up, Terry Prachett. I have been toying around with wanting to read the Discworld series and next year I am going to start. I am not a binge series reader, so it will probably take a million years for me to read them all, if I even ever do. These are the ones I am planning on starting with. Let me know your thoughts about my choices!
I am hoping to read Hogfather in December, and The Wee Free Men in January. I feel like these are not too far from what I normally read, since I do like fantasy, but I honestly don’t read much comedy.
Next, science fiction and Becky Chambers and her Wayfarer series. Or at least the first book. I don’t mind fantasy but I am not usually a fan of science fiction or anything that takes place in space. And has spaceships. So, this will be interesting!
And following that, I promised Billy that I would read Dungeon Crawler Carl. Not usually my type of book at all, but I will read it for him. He has read so many of mine that I owe him. He is fairly confident that I will love Princess Doughnut. (Donut?)
Dungeon Crawler Carl
This next one is one that I have had on my TBR for a bit but I keep putting it off because the whole novel in verse is intimidating. However I do think it is sounds absolutely fascinating and like it would be a really good read!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone!! It is snowing here! Our first snow of the year! I always feel like it is my personal gift from Mother Nature when it is around my birthday, which is next week. I am very Lorelai Gilmore about snow, especially the first snow. Tonight I am going to make soup and if I can, I am going to try to make cinnamon rolls for the first time as well.
What I Read Last Week:
This book was the perfect pick me up, full of cozy moments, snow, soup, and winged cats. I loved it!
Reading This Week:
I had started Shady Hollow when I finished The Enchanted Greenhouse, so I am reading that, but I also want to read A Land so Wide.
Billy and I must be craving cozy, because we have started our umpteenth rewatch of the BBC farm shows. We just finished up Victorian Farm again, and will probably move on to Edwardian Farm next. The hold these shows have on us! Lol. I am not the only one though. I found this reel on Instagram and it made me giggle. I even commented about how we love to watch this show, blah blah, and a bunch of people liked my comment, probably because they are the same!
Tonight we are watching the last movie in our Comfy Cozy Cinema line up, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. Then after American Thanksgiving, we will begin our Comfy Cozy Christmas link party where you can all feel free to spread the holiday cheer, all winter holidays in December btw, not just Christmas, by linking up your holiday posts! With the snow today, I can feel the winter holiday season so clearly now!
Internet Happenings:
I’ve already talked about them all a little, but Lisa and I are hosting Comfy Cozy Cinema, then Comfy Cozy Christmas together. We are also co-hosting A Good Book and a Cup of Tea, which is a monthly book linky for anything book related. And finally, I am introducing my new Soup and Story Saturdays. It is, you guessed it, all about soup! Link your posts about a soup you made or have eaten, a recipe if you made it, and either a bit about the book you are reading, or a story you want to tell us about your own life. Pretend we are at dinner together, having a meal and sharing a tale. Because I want to be a hobbit with you guys.
I also just signed up for the Library Love 2025 Challenge – I guess better late than never. I will be watching for next year’s sign up now though, if it continues. 99% of our reads come from the library and I believe wholeheartedly in supporting your local library!
And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do, you do something that makes you smile!
Hello everyone!! Today is looking like a low key, read under a blanket rainy day! However, I don’t think my ten year old will let me do that all day. Lol. Maybe I can get an hour or so in though this morning. I did promise him that we would go out for our mother-son book and cookies outing today, which will be fun. The rain will make it even better I bet.
I feel like so much has happened since I last did one of these, which apparently was October 24th!
We carved pumpkins, which is always a tradition around here. Wyatt had a very visceral reaction to touching the pumpkin insides which could have been disastrous, but he held it together. He was very excited to carve them though, and was cracking me up giving his pumpkin kisses before he carved it. He is a super goofball. Last year for Christmas we had given Wyatt a set of Makedo tools (which he loves) and we learned that they are also useful for pumpkin carving! They are designed for cutting and creating things out of cardboard but it was good to know we can use it on different things!
Our Jack O’Lanterns from top to bottom – Wyatt’s smiley happy one, Billy’s classic version, and my dragon/lizard.
The next day was Halloween! Wyatt visited Billy at work in his costume for Billy’s Halloween work party. They go big there for Halloween! Wyatt ended up being entered into the costume contest and won. He was very embarrassed however from all the attention. Ten is a hard age! He did enjoy visiting and they know him there obviously from Billy and from Take Your Child to Work Day. Billy and some of his coworkers dressed together as minions; I didn’t get his entire costume in a picture although it was really cool.
I mean, his costume is pretty amazing. Billy did such a fantastic job making the Toothless head and the rest. I was in charge of the Hiccup/Wyatt while Billy did the rest. Wyatt absolutely loved his costume. My little viking. And strangely, this is the second time that Wyatt was a viking – the first was when he was one. This time it was his choice though.
We went trick or treating a few hours and a nap later with his cousins, my brother’s children, Mermaid Girl and Little Bit. Mermaid Girl was Coraline, and she looked amazing as well. Little Bit was Elsa, but we had a little excitement and tears earlier when she fell face first onto the pavement and scraped her nose up horribly. Poor baby. She didn’t let it slow her down or diminish her joy of trick or treating though! Although she did have a really long much deserved cry beforehand. She loves Wyatt so much though that she was distracted from it when her parents told her that he was on his way over. She calls him Wy-ee and was waiting at the door and windows for him. It is so sweet and warms my heart!
We had some much needed downtime after the whirlwind that was October! We did however, teepee my brother’s house for their anniversary on the 2nd. Kids need a little good old fashioned mischief sometimes.
And then my brother is set to repay us, I know it because he was mad he missed when we went out for our anniversary on the 4th! Lol. He had thought we were waiting for the weekend but instead we went out on our actual anniversary. His kids were disappointed they didn’t get to return the favor but I assured him there will be plenty of future opportunities.
Billy and I actually were celebrating our 25th anniversary. I have known this guy a long time I guess! We started dating at 17, got married at 24/25 and here we are, much grayer, a few more wrinkles on our faces, but still all in love and all that sappy stuff. He is my guy and my other half and I have known that since the summer we started dating. We didn’t go big for our anniversary, we didn’t have much time available, as it is hard for us to have anyone watch Wyatt but we went out for dinner together and I was so grateful for it and for him. He surprised me with a unique gift as well. He had bought a silver Indian spoon, that depicts a shadow puppet or puppet, and he built a shadow box for it to hang in. When you shine a light on it, the shadow is cast on the inside of the box and it is really cool. He is so clever! He also got me two little anniversary red cherry shrimp for one of our tanks. (Ok that wasn’t really part of our anniversary but I am saying it was lol)
We went to HopCat which is a place I have been wanting to go, and we had a blast. It was a very fun vibe there. Although my hair looked terrible. I decided to straighten it and it was so bizarre looking.
And that is it for now! I will have more to share soon!
I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and as we move closer to Halloween, spookier) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!!
This week’s movie is The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain. A very long title for a cute little movie.
This was such a sweet little movie about one of my favorite things, a quirky little small town that is full of community. Rotten Tomatoes describes it as “With an ample serving of Huge Grant’s trademark charm, a quirky Welsh town comes together to put their town on the map in this feel-good folksy tale.”
And that is a very simplistic way of looking at this film, since there was a much deeper story under it all, but I will get to that later.
On the surface, this movie is about well, a man (and his boss) who arrive in the small town of Ffynnon Garw, Wales. WWI is still raging, and most of the younger men, sons, brothers, fathers, are off serving in trenches in France. It’s a rough time for people, wartime, full of worry and hardship. But one source of pride the townspeople have is their claim to fame -their mountain.
The rug is pulled out from under them however when two English surveyors (Hugh Grant as Anson and Ian Macniece as Garrad) come to town, and remeasure the mountain – and find out it is a hill. It’s almost like the town visibly deflates. And the Reverend and his nemesis, Morgan the Goat, decide that the English are not going to steal this from them (lots of English vs. Wales banter in this movie). Morale is low, and they need every bit they can to keep a stiff upper lip and all that.
And from there the shenanigans begin. The town works together not only to build up the hill an extra twenty feet to put it over the measurement required to make it a mountain on the map, but to delay the departure of Anson and Garrad. Anson is sheepish, adorable, and affable, while Garrad is a bit of a dandy curmudgeon. His outfits and poses cracked me up. The scene where they were going up the mountain and Garrad was just sprawled out on the ground made me laugh and almost wake my child up. He always looked fabulous though despite his attitude.
The other supporting characters and actors in this were fantastic as well. Colm Meany as Morgan the Goat, was a bit of a slimy character who I didn’t really care for. But Betty played by Tara Fitzgerald was my favorite, besides Hugh Grant, of course. I am sure they are everyone’s favorite characters though. (also adding I love her in I Capture the Castle) She was drawn into the plan to stall the two surveyors by Morgan the Goat, who wanted her to charm and seduce Anson, whose head was turned but he “was a gentleman” which melted Betty’s heart in turn. She made me laugh as well, with some of her comments, like when Anson and Betty were talking about the beauty of some flowers and Anson said they were pretty, and Betty replied with “Not as pretty as me… YOU’RE supposed to say that.” It was just a cute little moment.
There were some serious issues however tackled, regarding the war, especially the PTSD, or shellshocked as they referred to it back then, that the returning men suffered. Johnny Shellshock just about broke my heart, and doubly so knowing that this is such a real thing, then and now.
This whole movie is based on a folktale, and I legit thought it was true because of the ending of the movie, but after reading about it this morning, I learned it is not. Which I am sort of sad that it is not, although I was a little weirded out by one part and was glad that it didn’t really happen.
And now, just some gratuitous images of Hugh Grant because he is adorable.
Overall, this movie is a fun, charming, sweet movie. One for a night when you need a bit of cozy and happy to fill your soul.
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 