I’m a little bit later doing this than usual, because I was away on holiday. The holiday was in June, though, so I won’t be rounding that up until next month!

What I have read

What I have read is:

• Love Your Life – Sophie Kinsella
• The Naughtiest Girl Marches On (Naughtiest Girl #10) – reviewed here
• Dilly’s Hope (Dilly’s Story #3) – Rosie Goodwin
• The Secret of Haven Point  – Lisette Auton, reviewed here
• The Sea of Adventure TV Novelisation – Nigel Robinson, reviewed here
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Neil Gaiman
• The Last Library – Freya Samson
• A Summer Wedding for the Cornish Midwife (Cornish Midwife #2) – Jo Bartlett
• Read Between the Lines (Ms Right #1) – Rachel Lacey
• Amongst Our Weapons (Rivers of London #9) – Ben Aaronovitch

And I’m still working on:

• The Diary of the Naughtiest Girl – Jean Willis
• Wedding Bells for Land Girls (Land Girls #2) – Jenny Holmes
• The Clanlands Almanac – Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish

What I have watched

• I attempted to make inroads into the many episodes of Hollyoaks I have recorded but I think I have more or less given up on it now. I have too many to watch to catch up, and so after more than ten years of never missing an episode I think I’m done with it.
• I have stuck with House of Games, though. Also Taskmaster.
• I’ve also carried on with Desperate Housewives and am on series five.
• We slogged through Zero Chill on Tuesday nights, and it remained awful so I don’t know why we bothered.
• We started the new series of Stranger Things and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

What I have done

• We went ten-pin bowling, first time I’ve gone in at least twenty years. Safe to say I was not good, even with the bumpers on. We also did crazy golf that day which I was marginally better at, but it was probably good that we didn’t actually record our scores.
• I did a few toy repairs with a 3d pen which is much harder than it looks, I can barely draw in 2d let alone with a third dimension. One held up quite well (the tow bar on a car) the other did not (the skids on a helicopter).
• We took yet another trip to the beach but also visited the castle beside it, something I’ve only done a couple of times before.
• Made my first cheesecake which although very runny tasted OK.
• I continued my sewing classes and learned how to do machine embroidery – basically setting it up and it does it for you with a preprogramed pattern!
• Visited the sea life centre for the first time since before the lockdowns, and also spent a bit of time at the beach
• Saw the Loads o’ Lorries event at the transport museum
• Visited the botanic gardens on their open day and went pond dipping
• Was a (fully-dressed) life model for the teenage art class in the library (I was asked to fill in at the last minute).
• Took Brodie’s Paddington to work and let him get up to all sorts of mischief

What I’ve bought

I often go months without buying anything Blyton-related and then buy two things another month.

In May I bought another issue of Enid Blyton’s magazine to fill a gap in my collection, volume 2 issues 14 and 15 still elude me, though.

I also bought this magazine as I hadn’t seen it before. It’s one from a series where you got a magazine and a classic children’s book every fortnight so it was nice to see Blyton be included as a classic.

What did your May look like?