Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! . The Feature & Follow has two hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each has their own Feature Blog. How does this work? First, leave your name here on this post, (using the Linky tools below.)  Then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and leave a message in their comments section. And today's question, set by the FF hosts, is:  What’s your favourite Thanksgiving Day food? If you’re not American or Canadian, what is your favourite holiday food? Here in Britain, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving Day.  This festival's historical roots can be linked to our ancient harvest festivals and the English Reformation in 1536, and while some people still celebr...

City Stories: Tales of Modern Liverpool ISBN: 9781310916939 Love, terror and 21st century life! From the heart of cosmopolitan Liverpool come nine thrilling views of modern living. Blood-drinkers, killers and secrets. Old sorrows and new beginnings. The light and dark of human life set against the glittering backdrop of a reinvigorated city. City Stories. Tales of life today. Featuring:- Tim Hulme William R Jones Caroline Hubbard Andy Siddle Jason Barney Jack Horne Adele Cosgrove-Bray Pick up your FREE copy today here! Other distribution outlets will follow over the new few weeks.

I spent part of the afternoon in Birkenhead.  It must be close to a year, or perhaps even longer, since I last wandered round the shops there.  I was surprised to see how many empty retails units there are in the Grange Precinct and in The Pyramids.  For the benefit of non-locals, I should explain that this small shopping mall has neither pyramids nor an Egyptian-themed decor; indeed the only remotely pyramid-like aspect to it is its name. The high number of vacant retail units show how hard the recession has hit, despite debate about whether double-dip or triple-dip recessions are myths arising from the interpretation of statistics.  The Daily Telegraph reported that 27,000 small businesses failed during 2009, when the recession began to bite.  More recent statistics proved difficult to find.  Eighteen shops closed every day during the first half of 2013, just two fewer a day than in 2012 accord...

City Stories, FREE ebook anthology   Contributors : Tim Hulme William R Jones Caroline Hubbard Andy Siddle Jason Barney Jack Horne Adele Cosgrove-Bray   Here's a preview of the front cover for the forthcoming City Stories ebook anthology, which is currently being proofread with help from Andy Siddle and Tim Hulme.  The photo on the cover depicts part of the Albert Dock in Liverpool, and was taken by my husband Richard, (who's currently trying to mend a broken stand for one of my Tangkou dolls).   Frog pond with pennywort, water soldiers, fairy moss and shy goldfish.   Who'd have guessed that fish have personalities?  To prevent the frog pond from becoming home to a legion of blood-sucking mosquitoes, my brother Eric suggested adding a few goldfish.  Three have been making themselves at home beneath the gradually-spreading canopy of pennywort and fairy moss.  They seem to like snoozing under the water soldier...

Shabby Chic - Toad Style!   One of our compost bins has been selected as a desirable residence by a toad.  Here he is, perched on top of an egg shell amidst a colourful squelch of veg and fruit peelings.  Toady seems entirely content, and has shown a distinct disinterest in moving on despite the lower edge of the compost bin having been propped up on an old brick so Toady can come and go easily.  Each time Richard or I go to the compost bin, we first have to check to make sure Toady has ambled off to one side to avoid being buried by a small avalanche of soggy teabags and kitchen peelings.   Location, location, location...  It's a handy spot for an amphibian.  The decomposing compost will help keep Toady warm in winter, and the thick recycled rubber walls of the bin itself will protect Toady from the worst of the winter storms.  The neighbours are edible.  And come spring, when Toady's feeling especially so...

Entering the Grove is currently #97,303 in the Kindle 100 Bestseller list, and #78 in the Inspirational & Religious list.  

Steep steps leading up to Mariner's Point, West Kirby. A doorway in the woodland realm.     Fabulous red sandstone - with a strange light behind the fallen branches.     Part of an old train, half-buried on the woodland floor.   Four old train wheels.     Heather covers the summit of Caldy Hill.     Just one of many tangled thickets in Stapledon Woods.     The fairy pond, currently no more than a shallow smudge of mud.   Woodland canopy above the fairy pond.   Rain rolling in to the Dee Estuary.   To view these photos bigger, simply click on an image then use the slideshow.   All photos (C) Adele Cosgrove-Bray, 2013.