Constant appeasement has been the cause of so much more conflict as a whole. No sane country wants conflict but when it arises, it needs to be crushed at its source. It cannot stand and each nation should be afraid to commit such atrocities in fear of the response. Tying conditions to aid given to the Ukrainian war effort is ludicrous. France should be very proud of their commitment to fight for what is very clearly right and other nations should follow in their footsteps. I am not advocating that Ukraine starts blasting missiles at civilians centres in Russia but they should be free to strike infrastructure that has clear ties to the invasion. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes

It must be so difficult to recognise the difference between agenda driven propaganda and genuine reporting, especially if the infrastructure for free press isn’t there. It’s really sad when you think about it

Are they African pigmy hedgehogs? They are all so cute

What a handsome fellow. Incredibly sorry for such a loss. I hope you are doing alright

That’s right! You’ve made an excellent decision. I sound like a PR person for Lev Grossman at this point but those books are absolutely fantastic.

Another one to check out that is slightly more adult oriented are the Bloodsworn books by John Gwynn. Sadly, his daughter passed away so he hasn’t yet spoken of the release date but of the third book yet, though the name was released recently so I believe it is being worked on. It’s too be titled ‘Fury of the Gods’. From what I can tell, that couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy so it’s truly heartbreaking, but his literature is fantastic.

Second the Hyperion books, though they are a fair slog, but well worth it!!

I see a lot of recommendations for the deadly education series but I did not enjoy it at all. I finished the first book out of pure sunk cost, but I really did not like the book or the narration.

If you’re looking for less YA, you could try my favourite book series, The Magicians.

We’ve got our garden back. Our retaining wall collapsed in February and we didn’t want to pay a contractor to do it so we decided to do it ourselves. We made a 15m³ gabion wall filled with found materials. We had to pay for laying of our new porcelain slabs but, as of this morning, there is only a slight tidy up left! Such a weight off. Now we can finally enjoy it… Going in to winter… a win anyway!