Books read 2014 #3

Having been back in my last books read update and read a book I enjoyed back in the Dark Ages when I was young, I found second-hand copies of some books I enjoyed as a teenager via Abebooks.


#11 Liz Berry Mel 
It turned out that I had managed to remember Mel and The China garden as one book, which isn't the case, although having now re-read both of them I remember why I enjoyed both. Funny what the brain remembers 20 years down the line, isn't it?
Mel is about somebody called, funnily enough, Mel, a 17 year old whose Mum has just had a breakdown and who decides to redecorate their house over the summer. Which doesn't sound that exciting, but I found it quite inspirational at the time, I seem to remember. So, it's about a seventeen-year-old who turns her life around and sorts out her career, and does it on her own (although there a couple of love interests, she isn't dependent on them, which makes for a refreshing change in books) with a bit of help from her friends. I seem to have completely missed the predatory school teacher though when I originally read it!

#12 Liz Berry The China garden
The China garden also features a teenager, Clare, who moves with her mother to an ancient English estate, where strange things start to happen. She slowly unlocks the secret behind the myths around the place, and discovers the meaning of the China gardens. I found this totally compelling as a teenager, and loved the mixture of mystery and history woven into the story. Funnily enough it arrived on time to take on holiday with us in June, and it turned out we were heading to the same sort of area in which the novel is set!

#13 100 gardening questions answered
This is a compilation of gardening questions from Gardeners' World magazine, which the OH saw in WHSmith and bought for me. It's grouped into sections covering In your garden, techniques and problems and I've found it quite useful to dip in and out of.

#14 Liz Trenow The forgotten seamstress
I saw a copy of this book in a bookshop on holiday and thought it sounded interesting, but I get most of my fiction from the library (sorry, bookshop) so I popped online and reserved a copy to read when I got home again. A woman called Caroline discovers a quilt in her mother's attic and tries to find out more about it. Caroline's modern day story (fairly chick lit standard of girl in a mess looking for boy, finds boy, but with added quilting) is interspersed with the story of Maria, who created the quilt and who worked at Buckingham Palace and, ahem, caught the eye of the Prince of Wales. It is quite predictable, but it's a good read and I enjoyed the quilting stuff, although I don't know how realistic that is as I'm not a quilter myself...

#15 Julian Fellowes Past Imperfect
This was a chance find at the library, as it was on a display near the self-issue terminal as I took another book out and I ended up taking this out as well. It covers two periods of time, the Season in the 1960s, looked at from the perspective of someone who knows that way of life is coming to an end, and forty years later as the characters consider the consequences of their actions then. It took a while to get into it, and the ending wasn't altogether a surprise, but I found all the class snobbery amusing, with plenty of detail included. The story revolves around the central character, who is contacted by his enemy of forty years earlier, who is now dying. It turns out that this man conceived a child back then and now needs to track down his heir to leave his fortune to.

Second honeymoon part 1

For our first wedding anniversary we decided to return to Stratford-upon-Avon for another week's holiday. We went there on honeymoon, but only got 5 nights away due to difficulties getting time off work, so didn't get to half the places we intended to. We booked to stay in the same flat this year as we'd liked it so much.

We travelled down on the Saturday and found a lovely independent bookshop in Thame on the way, called the Book House. It has two puffins sat outside its front door, one called the Fat Puffin, one called Muffin! I would love to live near a shop like this - it had a great range of books, including an enormous children's section and a little garden you could sit in too. I bought a copy of the Morville Hours by Katherine Swift too, a book I've been meaning to read for ages.

On Sunday I went to church at Holy Trinity, Stratford, where Shakespeare is buried. It was fun going somewhere different to my usual church - at this one they sang the hymns twice as fast as at home!

Then we went to The Lunt Roman fort, just outside Coventry.  c. 2000 years ago this was the frontier of the Roman empire (slightly hard to imagine now, with the traffic noise from the A46!). But it's a fun sight, lacking all the usual tourist amenities (no overpriced tourist tat on sale, no extortionate admission fee but there are loos and a few picnic benches). Bits of a mock Roman fort have been built on some parts of the archaeological dig, so you can climb on the ramparts and pretend to be a Roman legionary, and go in the gyrus (a horse training ring, this is the only known example in Britain).

And on to Coombe Abbey country park, once the site of a monastery until the Reformation in the 16th century, then a country house, with grounds designed by Capability Brown in the 18th century, the park now belongs to Coventry City Council, although the house itself has been sold off and turned into a hotel. And it's really lovely. Although the part around the car parks and visitor centre are quite crowded, it's easy to get away from those into peaceful woodland. You can walk part way round the lake, and visit a bird hide (parts of the site are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and there are lots of herons nesting). There are formal gardens and a deer park to explore (but we only saw some sheep). There is also the pleasant and reasonably priced herons café on site, where we had lunch, and later a cup of tea.

On Monday, we did some shopping in Stratford town centre, then went for a walk along the River Avon, up one way, crossed over, then walked back along the other bank, stopped to watch some barges go through a lock on the way. One barge was called "Cheeky Monkey" and had monkeys in the window...

Tuesday we headed over to visit Charlecote Park, a National Trust property not far from Stratford. It dates from the 12th century, although most of it is mock Tudor (actually 19th century) in appearance. The rooms are huge and there is a restaurant in what was the Orangery, as well as a garden centre (at which I may have indulged).

We then drove on into Warwick, where we had a cup of tea conveniently close to Warwick Wools and I bought some Sirdar Simply Recycled DK to make one of the patterns from the summer Interweave Knits. We also visited Warwick Books, where I picked up an Alan Titchmarsh gardening book. We also had a look in Warwick Museum - which was rather good. Small and free, but well thought out with displays aimed at all age groups. If you're in the area it's well worth a look. I took a picture of a plesiosaur, which died out about 65 million years ago, as it reminded me of reading Remarkable Creatures for reading group last month.

Then it was back to the holiday flat ready for an outing to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre to see the Merchant of Venice. Unfortunately the OH had done his back in that morning so I ended up having to go on my own. And WHAT a disappointment. Bad signage meant I couldn't find the entrance I was supposed to use, then I was sold a programme for a different play (despite showing the seller my ticket), by the time I'd sorted that out and found the entrance the play had started and they'd given my seat(s) to someone else and I got shoved behind a pillar! Then it turned out to be the biggest load of complete rubbish I think I've ever seen at the theatre - involving an Elvis impersonator, Batman, Robin and a blue teddy bear cavorting round the stage. I left during the interval...

To be continued....

Speedy 4ply knitting

So the 4ply jumper isn't taking as long as I thought. I thought I'd be knitting forever, but the front is already finished:

and I'm well on the way with the back. I'm pleased with the way the colours worked out too - the front above looks like I got the two sides of the neck to match colour-wise, except I didn't, I just kept going and this is how it turned out! I'm pleased with the Noro Kureyon sock yarn too, not sure I'd want to knit socks with it and it's a bit thick-and-thin (the front took nearly a whole ball and it had a knot in it too) but I think it's great for a jumper. And it will even out a bit once it's blocked. I've added about an inch to the length (why have I started thinking in imperial again?!) as it seemed quite short in the pattern.

The OH and I had an afternoon in London last week too. We visited John Lewis on Oxford St to look for yarn for his jumper, and he chose some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, which I've enjoyed knitting before. Not sure I'd have chosen this colour myself, and I was expecting him to go for black or grey!

We had a really nice afternoon, including a trip to Foyles bookshop (so many books, so much better than Waterstones, I love it) where we had chocolate fudge cake in the café and a walk in Regents' Park. We also indulged in a few book purchases as well as the yarn...

And a friend of mine has started making cards to sell on my Fair Trade stall - not sure if anyone out there is interested, but these are some of the sheepy and Easter ones she's made for me so far. She does take commissions...
They cost £1.50 each, with 50p going to Traidcraft (a charity that works to promote Fair Trade, and improve conditions in developing countries). Let me know if you're interested!

Honeymoon purchases

And to round off the series of wedding/honeymoon posts, only getting-on-for-two-months-since-we-got-married, here are my honeymoon purchases!
First of all from the Yarn Gathering in Coventry. 7 balls of Grignasco Merino Gold in burgundy (and one in grey which isn't pictured). This is  really good value, machine washable 100% merino wool. Hopefully to make the Essential Cardigan, from Interweave Knits Summer 2010.

Then from Warwick Wools 8 balls of Sirdar Supersoft Aran to make jumpers for the nephews for Christmas. Although it's 100% acrylic it doesn't feel like it. And a ball of Regia Hand-Dye Effect sock yarn, 'cos it looked fun.

And this pattern for the Supersoft Aran jumpers for the nephews.

Warwick was also good for bookshops, I bought one of these from the secondhand bookshop, and the other one in Warwick Books!

The final purchase, from Web of Wool in Leamington Spa has already found its way across the Atlantic as part of Tabitha's thank you present for the wedding shawl she made me!

Bank Holiday Monday and everything is shut

We had a bank holiday last weekend for the May Day holiday, so the Monday off work = bliss! . We decided to have a day off from frantic gardening/unpacking/wedding preparation and went to Twickenham for the day, where we'd been assured there were plenty of independent shops to look round.

Very true, but unfortunately most of them were shut for the bank holiday! Still, we had a good wander around, had lunch in an Italian café, tea (both) and brownie (me) in the bookshop café later on and just generally wandered.

The church (St Mary's) was very pretty from the outside, but locked so we couldn't see the inside. Apparently it opens on Sunday afternoons in summer if you want to see inside (and not go to a service).

We also wandered around the gardens near the river. Once all part of York House, a stately home which is now the town hall (it looks very nice for council offices, doesn't it?!).

The gardens are bisected by a road with a bridge over (so the original inhabitants didn't have to cross the road to enjoy their garden?) and run along by the Thames. This is the cascade, pool and Oceanides.

We also found Twickenham Museum, also shut for the bank holiday (which means a return trip sometime) and wandered to find the yarn shop, Mrs Moon, nearer St Margarets station than Twickenham. Of course, this was also shut, so I stared through the window at some rather tasty looking yarn. Definite return trip sometime?

The bookshop was one of the few shops open. It's very small, but an independent with an organic café at the back. It's a shame it's not bigger, but it's so nice to see an independent bookshop...
I bought "Nine parts of desire: the hidden world of Islamic women" by Geraldine Brooks as I thought it looked interesting.

This weekend one of my bridesmaids came to stay, partly to meet the OH for the first time (she totally approved and thought that he's lovely, which is very true, although I'm possibly biased so there is also some unbiased verification of this now), partly to do some wedding stuff. We went off into town and looked at make up. I had a makeover in the Body Shop:

I'm not sure what I think about the shop. I used to use them all the time when I was a teenager/student etc, but then they were bought by L'Oreal back in 2006 and I was sceptical about whether they'd retain the ethical stance that first attracted me to shopping there. But I still buy Ben and Jerry's, and Green and Black's, both of which have also been swallowed up by Evil Multinationals... I was impressed on this outing. I don't normally wear make up, and didn't want to try the make up counters in the dept store as the girls on there look like they put it on with a trowel (!!!). Not the look I was going for. The shop assistant in the Body Shop was very nice, not at all hard-selly, helped me choose some foundation, blusher and eye shadow, didn't force me into trying lip things or mascara (neither of which I wanted) and answered questions very patiently. There was no expectation I'd buy anything, she even said they could do a make-over on the wedding day for free (with donation to charity), and I liked the look she gave me - natural and subtle looking, so I was still recognisably me. So I may be going back there for shopping again!

This Sunday we also went beating the bounds, where we walked the (adapted) boundaries of the parish and the church wardens, erm, beat them with rods. Actually, it was a good excuse to walk around the parish, looking at Staines Moor and ending up back at the pub with a drink afterwards.
The church wardens did beat a few gates we came across,

but mostly we just walked. I was amazed at the variety of vegetation and wildlife (Staines Moor is an SSSI), considering we could hear the noise from the M25, A30 and Heathrow airport most of the time! We haven't had a lot of time so far to explore the local area so it was nice to get out in the "fresh" air for a while.

The recent lack of knitting

The eagle-eyed may have noticed a massive decrease in the amount of knitting I've done over the last two months. There is a reason. Exciting things have been going on in part of my life that appeared to be in terminal decline. And I'm very happy about it. ;-)

Yes, Monkey and the nephews are no longer the only men in my life. Actually, are they men at all? One is a knitted monkey and the other two are small, noisy, energetic sprogs who like making Play-Doh hair with garlic crushers and making their Auntie get up horribly early to read books about Big Diggers when she's on holiday with them.

Anyway, a picture I took with a certain someone, as we wandered along the South Bank and watched sunset over the Houses of Parliament.



And I may have got slightly diverted into Stash on the same day and came away with some Koigu PPPM (you would have thought a trip to a yarn shop was enough to frighten any man off, especially on a first date, but not this one). And some people, like Nickerjac, Grit and Michaela saw him (briefly) that day!

Other places we have wandered over the weeks:

Cookham, where we had some lunch, then had a look in the church (bits of which date back to the Saxons), saw Stanley Spencer's grave and then

wandered by the Thames in the (sort of) sunshine.

Another time we wandered along the Thames a bit further down and stopped at Boulter's Lock,

which was evidently a bit busier in Victorian times.

We've also wandered around Wandsworth Common. This is the station, which featured in the film "The Waiting Room", which I borrowed from him a few weeks ago. I loved the film, it appealed to my soppy nature.

And there's a great bookshop (LibraryThing link) nearby too. Very small, but one of those independent ones that somehow manages to pack an enormous amount into a tiny space.

I've had a similarly detrimental effect on the number of books he's getting read...