So I read the Pumpkin Spice Cafe

I read the Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore.

I’ve had some thoughts so I thought I would put them here.

The book set in New England heavily reminded me of the Gilmore girls. A warm cosy vibe for sure. A sort of youthful tone on love, either that or I am a little too cynical and logical. It ended up with a nice set up for a sequel which I believe there is a related book.

The “plot twist” of the person responsible for meddling I felt was rather obvious early on.

The male lead definitely needed therapy before the book even started, but if he had half of the “conflict” wouldn’t have been a problem.

One thing I found weird was the time frame, my cynicism at someone falling head over heels, settled in a new job and in love in the space of time between fall and thanksgiving has me wondering if I might have the emotional range of a teaspoon. that or I might just be complacent or cynical.

Having just moved town myself I don’t think there has yet been an attempt to reinvent myself, I still have no pets and no cat has decided to adopt me, no café for me to manage or town meetings to attend. Mind you how do you actually reinvent yourself?

At 357 pages a lot of which would have been a smoother journey if only they could have learned how to communicate effectively.

The end of February

Just a small handful of photos here.

So we celebrated our second wedding anniversary with family before we went on a little day trip to Birsay. Sadly the causeway meant no mini island exploring but we will try again when the tide allows.

It was a beautiful view with rainbows and such.

The walk left me in a bit of a bust cycle for a few days especially with my knees so I am having to be more careful not to keep causing massive bust cycles like this. The boom and bust days are something I am having to learn to manage, like being more careful with my spoons. New location, new weather, means having to learn the new limits to what I can reasonably manage in a day. The variability of the weather all in one day is astounding so it means learning to adjust every five minutes it feels like. I am sure I will get a rhythm sorted one day, hopefully soon.

I know they say moving is a lifestyle choice up here. In a way I respect that it is, but it’s a soul choice. It’s a hell of an adjustment and there’s always so much to do and get done, it just feels different to down south.

Settling in

So we’re now at the middle of February in our Journey roughly.

Safe to say it was spent settling in and viewing the sights.

Yes, there was more snow. It made for incredible pictures and quite often it was breath taking. We took a few photos of our favourite views.

We have discovered a massive difference in the food quality here vs London’s supermarkets. Here it is certainly fresher and tastier, food tastes brighter almost singing. It’s very hard to describe just how different the quality is here. It’s certainly enjoyable.

I will try my best to slow down the photo dumps.

The Light Festival photo dump

So the first week in February, for a break in the mountain of unpacking we had to accomplish we ventured to go to see the light festival where “The travelling light circus” were a part of the action.

The toddler thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing especially the fire dancers!

Although the unhealthy part of my brain was trying to convince myself that I could totally take up fire dancing and not get any injuries or accidents… I won’t be taking up the hobby myself.

It was all very fun and exciting.

The First Week in Photos

So I will keep this brief. It was a very exciting first week, and we took a fair few photos of various sceneries we came across.

Though I would like it noted, it is cold and windy but the beauty utterly makes up for it. The very first week is best described as one of those times where you spend far too much time pinching yourself to see if you’re dreaming.

A long move, stressful without a doubt, with so many unusual obstacles, but it has been so worth it.

I’ll just photo dump below because all of these were taken the very first week, mainly around Kirkwall and also on a little outing visiting the ring of Brodgar and the Broch of Gurness where the sea was absolutely captivating and not the weird brown colour that you get down south. Oh and I couldn’t not include the amazing chocolate cheesecake from Lucanos in the picture dump because it was the best cheesecake.