Flying Machines–

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Jack’s guest blog today – – –

Some friends came past the house yesterday, walking their dog, and we got in conversation. They had recently visited a small airfield that is home to a gliding club and that immediately set off a memory for me.

When I was about seventeen years old and heavily into building model planes, I saw an advert in the magazine I subscribed to. It was for gliding vacations at a flying club in Yorkshire. One week of lessons with accommodation and meals.

All my previous vacations had been family affairs by the seaside.

Off I set, by train, to Thirsk, and then by bus to the small village where the lovely old inn was situated, and where I’d be staying along with the others who’d booked up. The village was near the foot of a steep cliff, and the field that was home to the gliding club was on the top.

The way the days went were – after a large breakfast at the inn we got into an ancient land-rover and drove up the hairpin bends to the flying field (and sometimes I got to drive!). Then some theory lessons in the clubhouse, as delivered by the chief instructor, who was Polish and had flown Spitfires during WW2. He was a real character! Then a series of flights – each one starting by hooking the glider to a cable attached to a large winch, being hauled up to around 200 feet, releasing the cable, and then sailing over the cliff.

But then, wonder of wonders, it was like sitting in an armchair in the sky. No engine noise and no whirling propeller in front! Then the search was on for rising air, either a thermal of warm air or an updraft from the cliff face.

The gliders weren’t the sleek machines of today – this was the 1950s and the club had rather boxy Slingsby sailplanes with side by side seats – one for the pupil and one for the instructor. The factory where they were made was nearby, and one of our day trips was to see them being constructed.

The only scary moment I remember is when, as we were floating along at about a thousand feet, a twin jet RAF bomber screamed past us heading to a nearby base.

Ah – memories!

Come back next Wednesday for more from Jack

The Monday Book – A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon

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Guest review by Janelle Bailey, avid reader and always learning; sometimes substitute teaching, sometimes grandbabysitting, sometimes selling books

A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon

A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon

I saw this one in the new books section of a bookstore earlier this year and added it to my TBR stack right away, having previously enjoyed Joanna Cannon’s Three Things About Elsie and immediately after that purchasing her The Trouble With Goats and Sheep, which I have not yet read. I was not expecting a murder-mystery.

While murder-mysteries are rarely my go-to genre, I do love all books British in setting, so thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of this book. If you have any fondness for that lovely English life, you will, I think, enjoy it for that even if you’re not typically a murder-mystery fan. And if you are a lover of murder-mysteries and haven’t yet read A Tidy Ending, simply head toward it next!

Main character Linda is someone I easily appreciated from the start. I suspect you may also find her to be someone likable, as she is simply always doing and being her best, despite others–even her own mum, at times–making things more challenging for her than they are supporting or encouraging her. Linda, like many of us, possibly, is simply working toward and always doing her best. She struggles, though, to fit in socially, not having a lot of good, true friends. Both at home and at work–she works at a local charity shop, long as a volunteer but now being paid a bit–Linda aims to make a good life and keep a tidy home for her husband and herself.

And there is much tidying to do, as her husband, Terry, is not so spiffy. Actually, he is rather careless and carefree–pretty “care-free” and reckless–in so many ways. And, to boot, there seems to be a serial killer on the loose and possibly right in their local neighborhood or estate. Neighbor Malcolm is on constant watch and uniting the neighborhood, keeping open clear lines of communication as well as making recommendations for safe behavior, all somewhat Neighborhood Watch-like.

Hopefully I have not spoiled a single thing so that you, too, will completely enjoy engaging in A Tidy Life yourself. I sure did. Soon, then, too, I must also read: The Trouble With Sheeps and Goats.

Come back next Monday for another book review!