The Quality of Silence, by Rosamund Lupton

Such a brilliant story, a uniquely chilling thriller in an extraordinary setting. It features two resourceful women who ignore all advice to tackle the harshest environment in search of their beloved husband and father while in denial of official reports of his loss.  It is a book of the best, with suspense and danger aplenty.  Meanwhile, mother and daughter learn to know each other anew, revealing strength, intelligence and creativity as both strive for survival in the bitter bleakness of North Alaska in November.  An extraordinary.piece of writing, with a strong message we should all heed.

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler writes so well about family life, and I was totally caught up in the lives of the .Whitshank family.  It covers a long period of time, right back to when Red's parents meet and become involved, but not altogether chronologically.  I know some readers dislike tales that leap about the time continuum, but this is presented in clear and  manageable chunks which are easy enough to negotiate.
Some personality traits are passed on down the generations while individuals in families are affected differently by events and attitudes: the Whitshanks are no exceptions to this.  The story explores the details of everyday life, while not ignoring those influences which shape us in the background.  It would be difficult not to find characters to identify with in this story, and the events will resonate with the lives of many of its readers.  A good and enjoyable tale.

Where They Found Her

My goodness!  Where They Found Her is set in small town in the USA, where everybody knows everybody else, and so interconnected that it seems impossible anything can go unknown.  Newcomers Molly and Justin with their little daughter Ella are ready for a new start in life: Justin has won the post of Professor in English Literature at Ridgedale University and Molly finds work at the local newspaper.  When a body is found in the river, Molly is the only reporter available to cover the story.  Relishing the challenge, she starts investigating and gradually secrets begin unravelling.  This is a cleverly constructed story with many twists to the plot, which rewards the reader with  plenty of  suspense before the conclusion is reached.  It's a thrilling and enjoyable read.  

NetGalley has given me the opportunity to participate in this year's challenge, which sounds like fun.  Please come back to find out more about my adventure as a reading advocate.

The Girl Who Wouldn't Die by Marnie Riches

A brilliantly compulsive read, a thriller with plenty of suspense, twists and turns as the story of George and Ella unfolds.  The diverse settings are well and authentically described, and the characters are engaging and rounded: they have stayed with me beyond the ending of the tale, and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.  It is a crime thriller with a difference and a real treat to spend time with.

A Curious Mixture of Genres: Don't Look Behind by Caroline Mitchell

An unusual mix of genres  as Caroline Mitchell takes a police murder enquiry and stirs in a large portion of the supernatural, as a series featuring the supernaturally sensitive DS Jennifer Knight begins.  I liked the detective thread, which features some very interesting and well rounded characters, not least the heroine herself.  The evil horror strand gradually asserts itself and, while I found this very interesting, it often seemed, to me, a bit of a misfit, but it was a good story nonetheless.  Who can Jenny trust, and will she manage to overcome the danger to save those she loves?  Fans of the writings of authors such as Stephen King may recognise and appreciate this element more than I did.  I like my brushes of evil more if penned by such authors as Daphne du Maurier and Phil Rickman...  It is hard to see where policing evil spirits can go, so I will await the next instalment with interest.

Publisher Bookouture summarise this story as follows: Soon he would be able to touch her, to feel the warmth of her blood. And when the time came, nothing would stop him. As D.C. Jennifer Knight investigates a routine stabbing in the quiet town of Haven, she is shocked at what seems like a personal message from beyond the grave. When more bodies are found, Jennifer is convinced the killings are somehow linked. What she discovers is more chilling than she could possibly imagine. The murders mirror those of the notorious Grim Reaper – from over twenty years ago. A killer her mother helped convict. Jennifer can no longer ignore the personal connection. Is there a copycat killer at work? Was the wrong man convicted? Or is there something more sinister at play … With her mother’s terrifying legacy spiralling out of control, Jennifer must look into her own dark past in a fight not only to stop a killer – but to save herself and those she loves.

Falling in Love

I fell in love with Venice when I visited in 2007 and left part of my heart there.  A dear friend suggested Donna Leon's series of detective novels set in Venice, and on starting to read about Guido Brunetti, the principled Venetian Inspector, I fell in love with him and his wonderful family.  I was thrilled to have the opportunity to read his most recent outing, and "Falling in Love" did not disappoint.  I was transported into Brunetti's Venice and the problems he faced in working out what was going on, and how to protect the vulnerable.  Venice is as strong a character as is Vianello, or Elletra. or indeed, Flavia.  La Fenice, the Opera House, is at the heart of the  story, but the roots spread far afield.  Donna Leon's wonderful writing is in evidence: "Irritation packed its bags, opened the door and, pulling  impatience along by its sleeve, began the long walk downstairs."

It's a thoroughly enjoyable, beautifully written, constructed and characterised book.  It is a rare treat and I am very happy to recommend it.

A Place Called Winter

I found this book especially interesting as I had never given much thought to the colonisation of Canada, which, as in the USA, is a rather shameful period of history as land was seized from the original inhabitants and sold off to white settlers seeking a new way of life.

Harry Cane's attempts to conform lead him to marry and father a child when he meets a woman who seems as much an outsider as himself.  He is wealthy enough to lead a modest life of leisure as an Edwardian gentleman, until a series of most unfortunate events threaten public disgrace, financial ruin and criminal charges.

The only escape he can envision is to cross the Atlantic and, rather suprisingly, become a farmer settler in the New World.  Sadly, although he discovers satisfaction and solace in tending the soil, troubles old and new pursue him across the prairies and challenge his new way of life and new found contentment.

This is an epic story and a bit of a change for Patrick Gale, who says he has developed on the story of one of his ancestors to write this excellent book.  It was a pleasurable and compelling read.  

A Thrilling Adventure in Swansea

Hidden is the second novel by Emma Kavanagh and a brilliant whodunnit (so I can't say too much about it or I will spoil your fun). The story is told through a number of voices but mananges to unfold coherently with suspense and subtlety. as suspicion falls on different heads,     Seemingly unconnected happenings eventually combine to form a chilling, dangerous and dramatic climax.  It's a thrilling book, with believable and engaging and rounded characters in a well described setting.  I really enjoyed it and am now, having finished it, suffering a book hangover.  I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of  it: definitely a book to look out for.



The publishers describe the book thus:-  

HE'S WATCHING

A gunman is stalking the wards of a local hospital. He's unidentified and dangerous, and has to be located. Urgently.

Police Firearms Officer Aden McCarthy is tasked with tracking him down. Still troubled by the shooting of a schoolboy, Aden is determined to make amends by finding the gunman - before it's too late.

SHE'S WAITING

To psychologist Imogen, hospital should be a place of healing and safety - both for her, and her young niece who's been recently admitted. She's heard about the gunman, but he has little to do with her. Or has he?

As time ticks down, no one knows who the gunman's next target will be. But he's there. Hiding in plain sight. Far closer than anyone thinks...

The author, Emma, has this to say about her career (so far):-

I began my career a very long way from writing. I decided I wanted to be an author when I was five (I was that kind of kid!), and spent my entire childhood writing feverishly. But then, as I got older, something strange happened - I started listening to advice. You know one of the worst pieces of advice ever? Write what you know. What did I know? I was a kid. If I didn’t know anything, surely that also meant I had nothing to write about?

You know one of the other worst pieces of advice ever? Few people get to be authors. You need a stable career.

So, I set about choosing a stable career and rapidly fell into psychology. It was, in spite of the crummy advice, a love match. Psychology fascinated me then and fascinates me now. There is nothing more interesting to me than what drives the behaviour of my fellow humans. The problem was that, whilst I was learning about this new world, I had lost confidence in my old one, and so set writing aside in order to concentrate on a serious career.

I did my degree (great fun!) and my Phd (not so much fun) in psychology. Which was awesome. But I had officially run my course as a student and the time had come for me to pick my path again.

You see, in spite of all the advice, I just have never been comfortable walking the well trodden path. Nothing appealed to me. There were no jobs that I wanted to just walk in to. I remember telling a career advisor that I wanted to work with people in traumatic professions and help them to understand how the psychology of what they did affected their roles and their lives. I still remember the look of sympathy tinged with exasperation.

“I’m pretty sure there is no such job.” she replied.

She was right.

So I made one up.

I began my own consultancy business training police and military units on the psychology of critical incidents. I was twenty three, fresh from academia and green as grass. But I immersed myself in the world of policing and took every opportunity I could find to learn the job and learn what the challenges are. I discovered then that if you ask people to teach you about what they do every day, they can be extraordinarily generous. And because I was willing to learn, people were willing to listen. So my business took off.

I got to do pretty strange things. I have travelled across the UK, Europe and the US. I have taught group of three and groups of three hundred. I have designed live fire exercises for police firearms units. I have fired more than my fair share of weapons. I have been involved in crisis negotiations, have run about in muddy fields attempting to evade capture, have worked in some of the weirdest military bases in the world and generally had way more fun than anyone should have in work.

And then one day it occurred to me, I knew things now. Which meant that maybe, just maybe, I had something to write about. 

Emma Kavanagh has worked as a police psychologist and this gives her special insight into the world of criminal minds and crime solving, which she puts to excellent use here.

The book is due for publication by Century on 23rd April 2015 in hardback (£12.99) but if you fancy a free taster, here's a link to dip your toes in the water.  Enjoy!

This post should have appeared on 6th April as part of a blog tour hosted by CrimeThrillerGirl, but sadly a technical glitch caused me to be late to the party, for which many apologies. Thanks for the opportunity to take part - you might like to join me in tagging along the rest of the tour.

The Second Sister by Marie Bostwick

An agreeable visit to Wisconsin, to me an unfamiliar part of the USA.  Marie Bostwick's descriptions of life there in Door County make it tempting to plan a visit in the real world.  Life on the Lakes sounds delightful and real.

If you've had a very unhappy upbringing and have left behind your home town as soon as you can, what will it take to make you go back?  How truly satisfying is a life and career which give you no opportunities to sleep more than a few hours a night, make friends, or develop hobbies?  What will it take to make you visit your sister, in whose shadow you grew up in and who now makes you feel guilty?  These are the issues facing our heroine, Lucy Toomey, who has to make some choices and chooses to learn some patchwork and quilting on the way.

This is an enjoyable book by an author I've not encountered previously. It is a story of family, community, values, creativity and love and well worth choosing for a satisfying read.

Thrills in Bed

Nothing to do with the over-hyped 50 Shades stuff, but I've been spending a lot of time in bed with a nasty flu bug and, when not sleeping, books have been a great solace and good companions.

My most recent read was by Lisa Gardner, a psychological thriller named Crash and Burn.

This story kept me guessing, right to the end.  Clearly all is not as it seems when this psychological crime thriller opens on the scene of a nasty car accident and an injured but lucky-to-be-alive victim who is anxious for the safety of her missing companion - daughter? - Vero.   A police sniffer dog fails to find a trail other than Nicky's at the scene of the car wreck  at the bottom of a woodland ravine on a remote road in New Hampshire, USA.  Poor, concussed Nicky awakens in hospital to be confronted by a man she does not recognise - who says he is her husband.  There are so many layers to the plot and, as one mystery is apparently resolved, another is revealed. What is the truth about identity, crimes and victimhood?  Nicky is well described, as are the investigators involved in the case, who at times have to question whether there is a case at all.   It really is a jolly good, satisfying read.

A Familiar Landscape: Daughter

A marvellous book, "Daughter" is unbelievably good for a
first novel.  It was totally compelling and I've read it over three days and two nights, reluctant to put it down to do the other things I must.

Jane Shemilt's starting point has been what she knows: family life for two doctors (Dad a neurosurgeon, Mum a GP) living and working in Bristol.  However, she takes this normal family into a hellish situation that is every parents' nightmare, and charts its destructive effect.  Is anything ever what it seems?  How can we survive compound losses and tragedies?

The writing is poignant, insightful and engaging, the characters all too familiar and sympathetic, and the plot is finely wrought and well-paced.  Highly recommended, and I hope her next book is published soon!

Different Travels in my Magic Armchair - The Great British Knit Off

So, one way to travel in my magic armchair is by curling up with a good book.  I love to do so, and do so voraciously.

I the run-up to Christmas I read The Great Christmas Knit Off by Alexandra Brown and this is what I thought about it:-

A book full of comfort and joy: an absolute joy to read at Christmas, but this charming story of love, betrayal and starting again is an equal pleasure at any time of year.

A weekend in the countryside to escape London, where everything is going wrong for Sybil, leads to the chance to recover her spirits and find  new directions in life, both in work and in love.  Having myself experienced the therapeutic effect of knitting and the benefits of swapping capital living for a home in a country village, I enjoyed these aspects of the tale.  Sybil is fortunate to be taken into the hearts of the locals, and manages to make friends and save Hetty's House of Haberdashery from ruin and redevelopment by a neat bit of community work.  She also finds love again, and a whole new future.

I am looking forward to revisitng Tindledale in future stories - this is glorious and well-written escapism from a hard, cold world.

It's been a long time, baby...

I wanted to do a brain storm on the word singular, and then make a word cloud with the results.  I used wordle and got this.  Frustratingly, I couldn't determine how to make "Singular" the most significant, central and largest word in the collection.  Anyone know how to do this?

What do you think?  Click on the image to see it bigger in Wordle.

          title="Wordle: sugular 2">

             
My good pal Jordi over at Above the GWB told me that repeating the most important word several times was the way to embiggen it, so now you can see Mark 2 for my Singular Wordle.  Now, how can I make that image larger - anyone know, please???

Another journey

One journey I have been taking over the past few years has been that of learning to eat a diet and prepare food that is gluten free, having discovered the hard way that I am sensitive to gluten.  I'm not sure when this realization took place: maybe ten years ago?  I've not been definitively diagnosed as coeliac because I never wanted to go back on the gluten in order to test its effect on my body, and when I had a blood test, I had already been gluten-free for quite some time.

Gluten-free food has improved no end since the early days of my need for it.  Back then, the bread resembled Madeira cake more than bread and was really hard to swallow as it seemed to swell in the mouth, while gluten free pasta was inclined to disintegrate into a starch paste in its cooking water.  More recently it has been possible to cook gluten free penne al dente and the breads are much more palatable, although still prone to disintegrating into crumbs or transpiring to contain such large air holes that the slice falls apart and the filling of a sandwich is not contained.  I have had spells of trying to make my own bread, with and without a breadmaking machine.  I had a long love affair with spelt pastas and flours until those too seemed to cause my symptoms of sensitivity and I had to stop using them.

Earlier this summer I discovered a gluten-free baking course at the Waitrose Cookery School where Adriana Rabinovich taught a heartening session on making gluten-free pastry and bread.  She uses Dove's Farm Gluten Free White Flour for most of her recipes, and this is increasingly widely available in most supermarkets (though sadly not in our local Co-op).  I have been making my own bread, quiches and sweet fruit tarts since then, not often as I don't want to put on all the weight I have lost over the past 15 months, but enough to stay in practice and to feed visitors!  Earlier this month I attended a second of her workshops on Pizza and Pasta making, this time in Abingdon.  Today I have made some Buckwheat Lasagne, which I intend to serve for dinner tomorrow, but it's looking good.  Adriana has given me a lot more confidence in preparing good, gluten-free food which does not feel like a compromise and which will be willingly eaten by the rest of the family (because cooking "normal" food for everyone and something different for me is too much faff).  I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to benefit from her excellent teaching and hope I'll have future opportunities to learn more from her.

I recently visited a friend who gave me a Herman (Friendship Cake Starter), which was not gluten free, but by feeding this sourdough starter with gluten free flours, the gluten content should soon become infinitesimal, or maybe homeopathic...  My thoughts were not of using my Herman to make cake (lovely article here) but as a sourdough bread starter: other friends have been raving about theirs.

Today seemed the right day to proceed in my endeavour.  My Herman had reached critical mass, I had found a recipe (here) and had eaten all of my last loaf of bread, and the ingredients were all present in sufficient quantity in my larder.  

Well, when I say the ingredients, I did my own twist on the recipe and used 8oz of Buckwheat Flour and 7oz of Doves Farm Gluten Free Plain White Flour in place of what the recipe specified.  I used most of my Herman mix, so my friends can rest easy, safe in the knowledge I will not be trying to pass on pots of the stuff (though it could probably be arranged, if anyone is desperate) - in fact, I may have to build up my Herman supply to keep up with my breadmaking requirements!

This recipe calls for baking the slowly risen bread in a Dutch Oven - which seems to be American for cast-iron casserole, and thus my trusty orange Le Creuset pot was called into service and preheated in the oven once the dough had risen.  Then the whole package was transferred from bowl to pot, still wrapped in a couple of tefal baking sheets (we'd run out of baking parchment) and put in the oven for an hour - it didn't seem quite there when I looked after the specified 45 minutes.

Look at that texture!  Isn't it beautiful?  And the flavour is really, really good.  My best beloved described it as having a slight tang of treacle, in a good way.

Now, the challenge is to eke it out rather than wolfing it down - I may well slice and freeze a good part of it, to be defrosted as required.  I am looking forward to sandwiches and toast from this loaf.  Herman certainly came up trumps for me on this occasion!

I'd love to know if anyone has a recipe for making their own starter/Herman/mother from scratch.
Oh, the satisfaction in making a loaf like this!

May in an English Garden

The wet weather which greyed out most of this month has allowed a lush abundance to greet the warm (sometimes hot) sun at May's end.

The wisteria on the archway has this year been absolutely gorgeous, like a glorious lace pelmet at the top of this viewpoint into the garden.

I'm glad the sunshine allowed us time to enjoy the flowers and the winds did not rip them untimely from their vines.  The scent, too, has been glorious, mixing with that of the Philadelphus and Choisya ternata.

The blousy lushness of the red paeonies does not last long but delights the eye, a reminder of the glory of roses still to come along on their heels.

The plants mound up into proud significance in the borders, painting their colours with fresh foliage and flowers.  There will be more, much more to enjoy as each day brings new delights.

I love reading

I really love reading and it is my local library that enables me to indulge this love without becoming bankrupt or running too quickly out of shelf space.  Today I finished a book by a new-to-me author, Deborah Crombie, which I am so happy to have stumbled across on my last library foray.  There were coincidences in the book to what I've been doing lately, and also pause for thought: how we can be divided by the same language.

For the last week, I have been visiting my childhood home in North-East London, staying with my Mum and helping to look after her while she had and recovered from a surgical procedure for a minor complaint.  My Mum is amazingly fit, well and independent in comparison with many of her contemporaries, but I thought she needed a little spoiling and coddling as she's the only parent I have these days and, besides, it was a good excuse to spend some time in her company.

On the way to her home, I made a couple of stops at places I have been longing to visit: Loop in Camden Passage, Islington (a wonderful wool shop I've bought from by internet shopping but never in person) and also The Shop (no web-site) just off Brick Lane, a delight for lovers of vintage clothing, linens, scarves and similar textile-y products.  This meant passing through areas redolent of my past life in London, as I attended university in Islington long, long ago, and then worked in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and also had friends living in the area. so it was quite the trip down memory lane, as well as providing the opportunity for some retail indulgence.

So, once at Mum's, I completed reading an excellent novel by Elly Griffiths (The Janus Stone) and started a new read, "Necessary as Blood" by Deborah Crombie.  The setting of this book was around Brick Lane and mentioned a number of places (eg Columbia Road Flower Market, Spitalfields) familiar to me.  It is a detective novel, the thirteenth in a series about Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, two London Police Detectives.  One of the main characters is a textile artist, which is also close to home.  It was a really goos read and a coincidence that it was set so close to areas I'd been to in the previous couple of days and known so well in the past.  The geographical setting is well researched, since Deborah Crombie, while having lived in the UK for periods in the past, is a Texan who lives there still.  There were a few incidences of dissonance in the text - phrases which did not feel very English, "Sit down, why don't you?" being an example of this.  The term "slipper chair" had me searching for a definition on the internet for all that I have studied upholstery - it does refer to an upholstered chair with a low seat and high back, such as might be used in a bedroom, but I've never heard the term before.  Also, a "pink dress shirt" comes across to a Brit as infinitely grander than the sort of smart shirt to be worn to the work it refers to.  I am nit-picking to mention these instances because it is an excellent book and I will look out for more examples of the writer's work.  It had an excellent plot which kept me guessing and interested, great characters and more depth than many books in the crime genre.  I'm really glad my library has introduced me to this series (and to Elly Griffiths, another great author).

View from the Coffee Shop at Whipps Cross Hospital

I returned home yesterday, as my Mum had much more energy and seemed ready to cope with life on her own again (but with my daughter staying during the week, as normal), but I'm hoping her recovery continues as well as it has started, and that I'll have the opportunity to visit again before long - she'll be working on her list of jobs for me already!

Back to Celebrate Mothering Sunday

I did not mean to take such extended leave from my blogging - but time passed, recovering from my operation, and my mojo was well and truly absent.  Then the usual winter thing happened with my health, and I had a small run of fluey bugs which put me into a state of semi-hibernation.  However, spring is coming and maybe my energy-sapping illness is regressing.  Time to get back into the swing of things: so here are some photos of flowers currently enhancing my life, indoors and out, which I photographed today.

I bought the lilies for painting, but they also take a good picture (they smell delicious, I wish I could share that too).

This is one of the lovely camellias blooming in the garden at the moment, under the still-bare branches of the walnut tree.

I nearly missed noticing these lovely tulips flowering in a couple of pots by the garden door.  I'm so glad to have noticed them because they are so pretty.

It's Mothering Sunday and I so appreciate the love and good wishes of my children, the cards and flowers, and the delicious meal my husband is cooking to celebrate the day.  I sent my Mum some freesias but she has been away at my sister's for the weekend, so she may not yet have received them or my card (which await her return, on her mantelpiece).

Long time, no see

It was not my intention to disappear off the face of blogland, but getting over a major operation and used to living with a bionic hip is extremely tiring.  Things are going well, even if I do keep overdoing it and needing to rest to recover from the pain from healing tissues.

I'll post a bit more soon, but thought I'd share news of a rather splendid blog giveaway, which you can see more of by clicking on the button below.  Silverpebble makes some lovely jewellery herself using silver clay and you can also link to her Etsy shop, if this interests you.  What is attractive is that you can fire your silver clay on an ordinary domestic gas hob, so no special kiln is necessary.  It certainly appeals to me.

Life goes on and my lovely husband has shared his latest virus with me, so I've had a day in bed to rest up.  My 15 year old son wants to go to a friend's house party this evening so we've been having a chat about appropriate and responsible behaviour at such events.  He sees it as a rite of passage and, of course, he is right.  I guess I'm old enough to have a youngest child going to teen parties as well as a new hip!

After the Operation - Day 8

It is exactly a week since I woke up in the recovery room following my hip surgery, and it is hard to believe that it is only that long.

My husband collected me from the hospital in my Zafira, which is high-seated, and getting in was not too difficult or painful: we used a plastic supermarket bag to help me slide in, and pulled it out from beneath me once I was in the right position and ready to do up my safety belt.  The ride was a little uncomfortable - not the bumpiness of the roads, but simply being sat in the same position for however long it took - maybe 40 minutes. I was able to get down from the car with only a little pain, and walked with my two sticks into the house, managing to negotiate the two steps in without a problem.

Since coming home, I have spent quite a lot of time snoozing, either upstairs or in a chair or on the sofa downstairs.  My lovely man very kindly went out and bought me a special cushion to help me sit and lie more comfortably, as I was getting a little sore on behind and heels.  I have been using pillows in bed to help get better support, either under my feet, knees, between my knees and to support my back.  I can only sleep on my back at the moment and pain prevents me rolling onto my side in my sleep.  The sofa is a little low but using the special cushion helps by raising me a bit more, and I can lie on it once I am upon it.

The stairs have not proven a problem, remembering to step up onto my operated leg but down onto my good leg.  I am so glad we had the walk-in shower installed as that is easy to manage to get access to.  We have a non-slip grip mat installed on the shower tray.  When I washed my hair on Saturday I moved my perching stool into the cubicle to sit upon, but normally I can stand comfortably long enough for a quick shower, and use the perching stool outside the shower to help me get dry.  I was provided with two loo frames as part of my care package, which certainly help with sitting upon and getting up from the toilet (one of which needed a seat raise as well, whereas the other was high enough not to requite one.

Sitting at the dining table is, for some reason, quite uncomfortable, even with the special cushion, but is manageable for the length of a meal - then I am very happy to move elsewhere to sit in more comfort.

I can dress independently, and it is just the compression socks which I need assistance to put on and take off.  I am taking care to wear loose, stretchy clothing so that no unnecessary pressure is put on my wound.

As far as walking goes, I have not yet ventured outside the house.  I am generally using my two sticks, and now am beginning to be able to use them in opposition (move one stick, then opposite leg and so on) rather than move both together, then walk bad leg then good leg into the space between them, then repeat).  I have used the walls and furniture for support when moving from bedroom to bathroom upstairs.  Clearly there has been a massive improvement in weight-bearing and balance since I was in hospital.