Anita Shreve's A Wedding in December is the tale of a group of former college friends coming together after twenty-odd years to celebrate the wedding of two of their number.The whole concept of coming back together with people that you used to know so well, but have been separated from for many years is always a strange thing. Everyone always has their own stories and secrets and the characters in this book are no different. The death of one of their number at the end of their college years hangs over many of them and the circumstances surrounding Stephen's death are ... read more
Archives for August 2008
Books, books, books!
I love shopping for books and have been quite lucky recently in finding loads of good ones in charity shops. It was only when I came to choose what to read next through that I realised just how many I had stacked up.Above is my "to-read" pile. All bar one are either charity shop purchases or borrowed from friends and family. The weather here has been so awful recently that the idea of curling up with a book in an evening is really quite attractive!As for the books I've got - they're quite a mix really. I'm in the middle of an Anita Shreve marathon at the moment ... read more
Towards the End of the Morning – Michael Frayn
Towards the End of the Morning was another charity shop find, picked up as I recognised Michael Frayn as the author of Spies his novel which won the Whitbread Award (now called the Costa Book Award). I'd thoroughly enjoyed that book so was interested to see what else he had written. This book was originally published back in 1967 and tells of life in a small department in a Fleet Street based national newspaper. There are a couple of central characters in the book in the form of two journalists (or maybe newspaper employees would be a more accurate term) John Dyson and Bob, Bob's neighbour Mrs ... read more
A birthday cook book
My parents have always been under the impression that I have no cooking skills what so ever. Whilst my skills in the kitchen may be limited I certainly don't think that Mr C and I are going to starve. Over the last few years I have been trying to extend my cooking repertoire and I have certainly been more adventurous in what I choose to try from cook books, as well as having more confidence when I try new things. For my birthday last month my gifts from my family seemed to focus around the kitchen. My sister H bought me a copy of Tessa Kiros' Apples for Jam: Recipes for Life which I have been ... read more
Rowan Denim Bag
Just in case you haven't picked it up from some of my previous posts I'm a big fan of Rowan yarns and get so excited when I get my hands on their latest magazine. Last month my subscription to Rowan International was up for renewal and I didn't hesitate at all before putting my credit card details into their website. The free gift this year didn't initially excite me as much as the last one, but that all changed over the weekend. I've written before on this blog about how I missed the regularity of knitting in some projects I've started recently yet this back is the complete opposite and gave ... read more
Sunflowers
After being away with work it was great to get home on Monday night and even better to be welcomed by the sight of these wonderful sunflowers (and the smell of a Waitrose curry in the oven!) Here we are in the middle of quite a miserable summer (when I looked out of the window yesterday evening it looked more like November than August) and yet the fantastic warm yellow colour just looks so cheerful and bright. They've certainly made me smile - thank you Mr C! ... read more
Gardens of Delight – Erica James
Gardens Of Delight is the second Erica James book that I have read after picking up Act of Faith on a previous charity shop trip. The book tells the story of several residents of the Cheshire village of Swanmere who, despite the spread of ages, are brought together by their passion of gardening and the local gardening club. Like in Act of Faith the theme of the different types of love runs through the book, but I have to say that I found myself enjoying this read more than the previous book. I was entranced by the different stories in it of how different people had engaged with gardening and ... read more
More life…
Once again those things on life that need doing are replacing those things in life that I want to do. Work and other things are still preventing me from finding the time to do those quality things that I want to spend time doing. Mr C and I spent the weekend up north visiting my mum and dad and whilst there I was able to take advantage of their garden and start my latest Rowan knitting project whilst sat in the sunshine. I've started work on the bag project that came as this year's free gift with Rowan International membership. I particularly am enjoying the regularity of row after row of ... read more