Welcome to the round up with the posts from the week you might have missed.
A grey overcast day here in Ireland but at least it is dry and in fact I might have to water the pot plants in the front of the house which is almost unheard of during the winter months!
Not a great deal to report on the home front. I am just waiting until the end of the month to book my hotels for my planned trip to the UK for my sister’s 80th. We are still around the 6,000 mark here and the UK hovering around the 100,000. Hopefully that downward trend will continue in the next couple of weeks. Some of the paperwork, tests etc are being lifted from Monday.. they were put in place to prevent the spread of Omicron but that ship has sailed. There are murmurs about other variants but the general premis is that we are going to have to live with it. I am as boosted as I can be including the flu jab and have my travel permit, fingers crossed.
I did get out and about during the week and was delighted to be the guest of award winning author Janice Spina for an interview. Janice also very kindly reviewed Life is Like a Mosaic… so a double pleasure.
Interview with Author Sally Cronin
It is such a pleasure to welcome a fellow author to Interview an Author on Jemsbooks.blog. Today, please help me welcome talented author/poet/nutritionist Sally Cronin!
Thank you so much, Sally, for coming today to share a little bit about yourself and your lovely books. I am excited to have you here! The floor is yours!
As ever I am very grateful for the contributions by William Price King, Debby Gies and Carol Taylor and I hope you will check out their posts and enjoy the music, travel and food.
And thank you for dropping in and reading, liking, commenting and sharing the posts.. it keeps me motivated.
Welcome to the round up of posts you might have missed during the week.
I hope that wherever you live you are also seeing a drop in cases this week.. good news on both the UK and Irish front. Fingers crossed it bodes well for my trip to the UK at the end of February for my eldest sister’s 80th.. a chance to see family again after over two years.
Some sunshine this week and with the slightly longer days it certainly makes a difference. I actually wrapped up and sat outside for an hour which was just what I needed to boost my spirits….
Thanks to William Price Kingwho is now with us Tuesdays for The Breakfast Show and on Friday’s with his music column.. delighted that they are both being enjoyed and thanks for your comments.
This coming week Debby Gieswill be sharing some winter sunshine breaks along with an current advisory travel links, although most places seem to be open.
Carol Taylor will be joining me on Wednesday for another Cook from Scratch to prevent deficiency… and this week a look at Vitamin B1.
Although not with us this last week with their contributions on the blog, Debby and Carol have been busy as always with their own posts.
Debby Gies responded to the challenge set by D.Wallace Peach with a great poem that sums up the state of our TBR’s perfectly: Writing Challenge – The TBR Pile | Myths of the Mirror – The challenge runs to 23rd January so you might like to pay tribute to your TBR too..
Please don’t forget to let me know if you have a new books coming out soon either on pre-order or available on Amazon. Very happy to do a promotion… email me on sally.cronin@moyhill.com with the link. If I need anything else I will let you know.
Thank you very much for your support this week and I do love to hear from you when you visit.. it makes my day.
Welcome to the round up of posts you might have missed this week.
A strange bitty week with weather… a bit of sun, a bit of snow, a bit of wind… but a great deal of rain. We are lucky, as I know large parts of Europe and North America have been getting frozen blasts and metres of snow.
The first week of 2022 and some milestone birthdays in the family with David’s 70th next Tuesday and my sister’s 80th in February. We were laughing the other day about how we never thought one day we would be talking about events and people from over 60 years ago. Also how many iconic events have taken place in our lifetimes, and what amazing inventions we have incorporated into our everyday lives in the last century. Here are just a few that gives us reason to be grateful to be born in this day and age…. despite the current covid pandemic, which could be a great deal worse if not for the medical knowledge and scientific breakthroughs of the last 50 years in particular.
Clearly space travel and landing on the moon was monumental.
Listening to music moving through cassette tapes, CDs to digital downloads.
Mobile phones – smart phones
Computers – laptops – notebooks
Microwave ovens
Worldwide web
Digital cameras
3D printers
Sliced bread (1928)
Advanced anaesthetics
The first transplants of heart, liver and kidneys
Development of the artificial heart
Vaccines that have virtually eradicated smallpox, polio, TB, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, Scarlet Fever, Maleria and Diptheria.
I choose to be positive about the coming year with this very small selection of brilliant innovations from the last century behind us, and far more to come I am sure.
Tomorrow sees the start of the first feature from the new Smorgasbord Bookshelf where you will find all the authors and their books that I personally recommend along with one of my reviews for their books. Click the link to discover the authors currently on the shelves.
My intention is to read some of the older books of these authors in the coming year, as well as new releases, and I will change the reviews out as I post them.
I have some new authors that I am also planning to read and I will add those to the shelves too.
In this first feature I will be sharing bios, book covers and my review for all the authors presently on the shelves. There will be more regular features during the year including a Summer and Christmas Book Fair.
New book releases.
If you have a new book being released in the next few weeks please let me know the date if on pre-order or available so that I can create a promotion for you.
There are two links for new books released this week further down in the post to give you an idea of how they would look. One is for a new author to the bookshelf and the other for a resident author Email me on sally.cronin@moyhill.com so we can chat about what I need and dates etc.
As always my thanks to William Price King, who as well as joining me on The Breakfast Show, joins us on Fridays with his series Meet the Music Greats and Jazz Icons. To D.G Kayewhose Travel Column I am resharing through the first half of the year and to Carol Taylor with our joint series Cook from Scratch to prevent nutritional deficiency.
Welcome to the round up of posts bridging the gap between 2021 and 2022…
Happy New Year and wishing us all a healthy, wealthy and love filled year whatever life and opportunistic pathogens throw at us.
We had a quiet Christmas and New Year with plenty of movies, good food and the occasional glass of cheer. As with most countries there has been an avalanche of cases here topping 23,000 yesterday, which for a country with only 5 million people.. is high. Thankfully the trend of deaths associated with Omicron is lower than previous variants and there is evidence from other countries such as South Africa that it comes in fast and furious and then burns itself out… Fingers crossed it is its last attempt to infect the world and we see a more positive outcome in 2022.
We have not made resolutions for many years but we have made plans. To redecorate the house and put in the market by the summer. Find a new home further down the south east coast of Ireland, possibly between Wexford and Waterford. And once moved it would be good to be able to travel a little before coming back to settle down with a new fur baby.
Flexibility and adaptability have to be built in to those plans, but that is something we are prepared for. And there is also time allocated for me to finish some of my writing projects and read more books in 2022.
As always I have had help this week between Christmas and New Year by much appreciated friends and collaborators – William Price King, Debby Gies and Malcolm Allen.
In 2022 William and I will continue with The Breakfast Show on Tuesdays… and I am also sharing updated posts from William’s two series – Jazz Icons and Music Greatson Fridays over the year.
D.G. Kaye’s Travel Column Rewindbegins tomorrow morning with updates on travel restrictions for all the countries featured, which are open for tourism.
Carol Taylor and I will reshare the posts Cook from Scratch to prevent Deficiency from this Wednesday.
The Health Columnreturns on Thursday with the series The Gentle Detox to get you into 2022 in good shape.
The new Smorgasbord Bookshelf kicks off with two new releases during the week and the new series of Meet the Authors begins on the 10th.
There will be afternoon videos, some funnies, short stories and a blogger daily.
I hope you will enjoy the new schedule and join us when you have the time. As always I am so appreciative of your support
Welcome to the round up of posts you might have missed on Smorgasbord this week.
At last we can celebrate Christmas, online at least without feeling too guilty…now we are in December.
An early start here with the Christmas Fairs to make sure that I feature all authors currently in the Cafe and Bookstore and in The Children’s Reading Room.. The fairs will be posted until Christmas week.. so warn your Kindles that there will be influx of books.. I hope lol..This week is a taster of what is to come..
In 2018 and 2020 I featured the twelve days of Christmas and I am going to do so this year but I have amalgamated the two. In 2018 I shared guests each of the days with their most special Christmas gifts and as the guest included the contributors over the last nine years, I thought it would offer me another opportunity to thank them. Because of the time lapse I have updated bios, books and links (hopefully)… and I hope you will enjoy seeing them again or for the first time if you are new to the blog. There will be music, food courtesy of Carol Tayloron most days and my favourite drinks for the holidays.
As always a big thank you to William Price King, Debby Gies and Daniel Kempfor their contributions.. they are amazing.
Thanks to you for dropping in, liking, commenting and sharing.. it means a great deal.
Thank you very much for dropping in today and your support during the week.. have an amazing weekend and I hope you will join me again for more festivities soon.
Welcome to the round up of posts you might have missed on Smorgasbord during the week.
I hope those of you celebrating Thanksgiving this week managed to do so with family this year. Christmas here in Ireland is looking a little dicey with rising cases in line with the rest of Europe. I am grateful to have had my booster this week and it looks like the majority of Irish people are taking advantage of the opportunity.
The weather has turned very cold but it is dry with some bright sunny days… the birds are hungrier now that the harvest is over and there is less food available. This has led to an attempt at the world record to see how many starlings and sparrows you can get in our homemade pyramid bird feeder at one time… and I counted more or less 20 at one time the other morning.. The bird bath is still very active despite the cold snap and it can fit a similar number at one time being a metre square. I am having to refill at least twice a day as most of the water ends up being splashed across the concrete.. Better than Netflix… and when the crows come down to see what they can scrounge it is somewhere between Game of Thrones and a Carry On movie.
This week has seen another wrap up post for the year from D.G. Kaye.. Debby Giesand a wonderful summing up of the impact of Covid on key members of the community. As the world, despite rising cases is opening up again with a few fits and starts….we are repeating Debby’s Travel Column from three years ago which many of you may not have seen at the time… Starting in January 2022.
My thanks to William Price King this week for his great selections for The Breakfast Show… our weekly dip in the charts through the years… It is wonderful to be working together still after seven years…
And of course there would be no blog if it was not for your kind support throughout the week.. thank you.
Welcome to the round up of posts you might have missed this week on Smorgasbord.
The end of another week and winter is knocking on our door here with a cold front moving in. Like so many countries in Europe cases of Covid have been on the increase and I am glad to be having my booster on Tuesday… thankfully unlike last time where I had to make a 100 mile round trip it is locally.
The government is asking those who can to work from home again and there is a distinct possibility of a lockdown at Christmas which will be a sad blow for so many families who hoped that they could for the first time in two years enjoy a family celebration. However, especially with older family members it is safer to be safe.
I expect that those of you celebrating Thanksgiving in some states are also bearing this in mind on Thursday, especially as it is a time when millions board planes and travel through congested areas.
Still, however restricted it might be, I wish you a Happy and safe Thanksgiving. Whilst is not a holiday we celebrate here,I have a post going out early on Thursday to share my own thanks for special people here and in the writing community… and to share some news about 2022.
Tuesday however also marks the beginning of the Christmas Book Fair as there are a lot of authors to promote before the day. I will be featuring writers in both the Cafe and Bookstoreand the Children’s Reading Roomthrough the rest of November and then December, and hope it will help encourage readers to enjoy the books for themselves or for gifts.
Also this week on Wednesday D.G. Kaye, Debby Gies is back with her final Relationship Columnof the year… always wise words to look forward to.
As always I am very grateful to the contributors to the blog and this week William Price Kingand Carol Taylorprovided their expertise in The Breakfast Show and The Green Kitchen.
Thank you for all the support this week and I love both your visits and comments..they keep me motivated..
Welcome to the round up of posts you might have missed this week on Smorgasbord.
Hope all is well with you in your part of the world. Here the cases continue to rise following up the lifting of most restrictions on October 22nd. To be honest having seen the scenes of party goers piling into nightclubs that night I am not surprised that the cases are now around the 4000 mark.. So far there are only murmurings of another lockdown and hopefully the death rate will not increase at the same rate. Masks it is for me and most sensible people in enclosed spaces.
We are now book eligible for booster vaccinations and it will be interesting to discover which part of the country they will send us to this time. But very glad to be receiving the extra protection. We have had flu jabs too and it does offer some additional confidence when out and about.
Other than that we have had a month of rain this week which is great for the new parts of the lawn that are growing well. Inside we had the chimney for the wood burner swept.. fascinating machine like a giant vacuum cleaner that rotated in the chimney and not a speck of ash to be found in the dining room.. brilliant.
The weather has been much colder and the birds are certainly ready for their breakfast every morning.. and woe betide if I am a few minutes late.
On the menu is a mix I make up including wild bird seed, peanuts, sunflower hearts, meal worms and energy nuggets with a side of suet cake and fat balls made with sunflower seeds. It is very popular with the Guinness Book of Record for the number of starlings and sparrows in both the pyramid feeder and the bird bath broken daily. They do give a great deal of pleasure.
I have been working on some writing projects and four podcasts that will go out next week in my usual tribute to the war poets but with the poems in audio.
As always my thanks to William Price King, Debby Gies and Malcolm Allen for their contributions this week.. and to you for all your support which definitely keeps me motivated.
Welcome to the round up of posts you might have missed this week on Smorgasbord
I hope you are all doing well.. Still too many cases of Covid around the world but I am sure like me you are still taking precautions when out and about.
Nothing really to report on the home front as we are waiting on a couple of indoor jobs to be done this week.. chimney swept and the wood burner repairs. After a month of rain in three days, like much of the UK, we are grateful for a dry and sunny day. Just a brief respite but very welcome.
Happy Halloween and wishing you a great many more treats than tricks.. I have shared a party to celebrate the event which was first aired in 2018 with some great guests in costume.. and a guessing game as to who they are.. There is also food, drink and music.
Just to let you know that the current series is now closed but I have great posts to share with you up to December 8th.. All things being well I will run a new series early in the New Year. Thanks to all who have participated.
Huge thanks to William Price King, D.G. Kaye (Debby Gies) and Daniel Kemp this week for the terrific contributions.. and to your for dropping in and supporting the blog in many ways.
In 2018 I held a Halloween Party with a number of guests in costume with food and music to mark the occasion.. with various things going on … I didn’t have time to get a celebration together for this year.. So I have waved my magic wand and hey presto… 2018 is relived!!
I hope that you are going to enjoy the food, music and company. There are some wonderful guests who have shared their photos in various forms of dress..(and undress) and in some cases they have shared ghostly images from the past, and for some a total transformation into another being!
An example of that is the massive transition I had to make from my normal witchy visage… to this stunning creature above with her royal guard. The alchemist Dr. Cronin spent many hours perfecting the transformation and the only downside is that I don’t get to keep the body. He actually prepared two images to choose from but I felt that this one was better not shared in public. I don’t know whose body it is but I bet they are missing it!
Oops.. there I went and shared it anyway….never mind as the clock strikes midnight I will be returned to my former self.. the scourge of internet trolls and nincompoops globally.
My butler, Snarky, despite being the most grumpy individual I have ever come across, will be serving drinks and snacks throughout the day. Or he too will be turned into something considerably less savoury at midnight… he has a thing about cats…he has been warned.
Anyway time to get you warmed up, and before we get to the tequila shots, here is a Bloody Mary for you… or if you prefer to have without the alcohol (if you insist) Snarky has prepared Virgin Marys too. Excuse the jars.. I know when you lot get the worse for wear my nice crystal glasses will be in shards…
And a little music to get you in the mood for today’s darkness… courtesy of Bobby Pickett– Monster Mash
Time to meet a few guests and you will recognise some but others may have you stumped.
Now as a little party game.
I am going to give you all the names of the guests which link to either their blog or their books. Their photos will be scattered throughout the post and your job is to match the photos to their originator. Since some have sent stand-ins I will put little clues above each of the photographs which will be numbered.
I am relying on your honesty here (don’t forget I am a witch and will be able to tell). Put the numbers of the photographs that have you stumped (hopefully only one or two) in the comments along with your own links to blog or books.
The person who is the most honest (and I will know) gets a night out with Snarky…who I believe is an excellent dancer – Second Prize is two nights out with Snarky!
Here are names of the guests.. and if you click the name it will take you to their blog or books. They are in no particular order..
Guest number one shows us a glimpse into a particular each week on his blog.
Guest number two shares her memoir writing expertise and travels a great deal.
You must be a monkey if you don’t get this one!. Guests number three
I think you probably could use some food right about now and Snarky will be going around with some lovingly made Devilled Eggs, prepared by the catering team I brought in for the party… Snot and Dribble Party Food Purveyors…
And perhaps a little music before I greet my other guests..the one and only Michael Jacksonwith Thriller.. please feel free to have a twirl or two…
And here is the next batch of guests starting with number four…a witch and fairy whisperer.
Guest number five flirts with time….in a brilliant disguise…
Guest number six likes sherry trifle….so do flies
and guest number seven… travels the world with her teenage character.
Time for some more refreshments and music… first some red velvet cupcakes.. these were made by Drogo the vampire with leftovers…
And a little reminder off the holiday we are celebrating.
And my next guest.. number eight lives in a house without windows..
Guests number nine has sent an early photo of her helpers before she started making fondant characters.
Guest number ten sent a stand in – a boy called Rabbit..
And guest number eleven does posts that are a performance art with video and gifs
Guest number twelve is lucky for some and has created myths in a mirror.
The pumpkins have been peeled and mashed and made into delicious pies.. time to tuck in and gather your strength for the last few hours of the party.
Time to get on the dance floor and to the Time Warp instructions are included…
Guest number thirteen asked What Did I Do? And wanted to wear something cool so he could dance all night
Guest number Fourteen celebrated the launch of her book in style.. a bit of a giveaway and shame on you if you don’t get this one….
And guest number fifteen looks at things from a Haiku perspective and loves dressing up…
Guest number sixteen sailed into trouble with his shipmate John Cannon..since he is most comfortable in t-shirt and sandals.. this really is his fancy dress...
And guest number seventeen.. brought James Bond with her for moral support.. She must have met him when touring in her camper after the dog died…
And last but certainly not least…Guest number eighteen has brought a friend possibly one of the warriors from the labyrinth.
To finish off the party and to keep you warm on your way home.. some flaming shots…. Snarky will be around with those in a minute..
And to end the dancing.. one of my all time favourites that I hope you will enjoy as well.. Creedence Clearwater Revivaland Bad Moon Rising.
My thanks to Pixabay.com for the images… Snarky for behaving himself. Dr. Cronin for the transformation and all those who dared to share their photos..
Please do not leave without saying hello and leaving your links to blog, books or both. Stay safe tonight… those little trick or treaters can be persistent… and have lots of fun.
Normal service and body shape will be resumed tomorrow…
We all make daily choices, some easy some not so easy. In this blog we hope to help fuel those daily choices with content that is relatable, positive, and even humorous sometimes. Yes, we have made great strides in weight loss and health and are happy to help anyone who reaches out, but all in all, we hope to just be a light in your day.
Smorgasbord Blog Magazine 