The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help is a pretty amazing book. It's one of the few I've read recently that I literally haven't been able to put down. It's about three women in 1960s Mississippi - Skeeter, who is white and has just finished college, and Aibileen and Minny who are both black maids. Each has their own problems, Skeeter has a mother who is very keen to get her married off well as soon as possible, as well as some pretty unbearable "friends". Aibileen, who works for one of Skeeter's "friends", and Minny have the problem of being black in an incredibly unequal society. This is what gripped me and totally appalled me - this is only 50 years ago, after all. The white and black people, although they can now use the same buses, thanks to Rosa Parks, have separate schools, housing areas, libraries, even different toilets for the maids in the white person's house. How on earth anybody ever thought this made any sense at all is beyond me. What seems worse (?) than the visible racism of this though, is the patronising attitude of most of the white employers - that they know best, that things like separate toilets are a good thing (eh?), even though the black maids are trusted with the care of the white children.

The action is narrated in turn by the three characters, giving an insight into the different perspectives. Of course, I had the advantage of knowing what would happen in the end - and several times I longed to be able to whisper to the characters that 50 years later there would be a black President. What is also shocking, is the way that anyone who stands up against the inequalities risks their life. Several times in the story someone gets beaten up and their life changed forever, just because they dared to do something like go into a white shop when they're black. Skeeter begins a project to publish the stories of the black maids, and it is clear that even by talking to her like this, the maids are risking everything.

So, I recommend reading this. It's definitely not in the "To kill a  mocking bird" classics category but it is very very readable as well as shocking. This is the copy of the book I read:

 

Apparently the book was published in the US with a different image on the cover.

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....

Garden at the beginning of June

The garden's beginning to look like it's finally coming together now we're in June. Things are shooting up (although not as much as if we'd actually had some rain!). I've also filled most of the raised bed in the picture with a perennial plant collection (72 plants!!) from JParkers, although mostly they're too small to be seen yet. Hopefully they will spread out (if we get some rain) and fill in the gaps. If we get some rain.

I'm really pleased with this miniature rose. It was a housewarming present when I bought my house in Newark five years ago and has been living with Mum for the last few years. It came to Staines at Christmas, and I've since potted it on and given it a big prune, and it's completely covered in flowers now!

Some of the salad leaves have bolted and gone to seed due to the lack of rain, but these are the latest sowings coming along (I plant another couple of rows every fortnight), with some autumn fruiting raspberries in the background.

And my sweet peas started flowering yesterday, just in time for garden-at-the-beginning-of-the-month. I'm really impressed with them as I love sweet peas, but had never grown them myself. These are the Old Fashioned mix Sweet Pea from the Organic Gardening Catalogue. They smell glorious.

I'm really impressed with this hydrangea too. A year ago it was a semi-dead mess of bits of stick, clinging onto life underneath a particularly rank diseased buddleia. But removing the buddleia, a massive prune, lots of soil enrichment and some Sequestrene and it's looking a lot better. I think the leaves look pretty like that, although I suspect the yellow veining affect may be due to iron deficiency and it could do with more Sequestrene?

Our neighbour gave us some self-seeded hellebores from his plants. Haven't decided where to plant those yet, but it's nice to have something that will have some colour earlier in the year. I'm quite tempted to get a Dicentra plant for the same reason, and I think their little heart shaped flowers are cool.

And I am very very very pleased with this:

It's a fuchsia I grew myself from a cutting. Clever or what?!

Bank holidays # three

We didn't do as much this bank holiday weekend. For a start, it was shorter (only three days, unlike four last time round. Humph), and we're going on holiday soon, so there wasn't quite such an urge to go out and see things. We had a nice time though, pottering around the garden (update coming soon with Garden at the Beginning of June), some reading (update coming soon), a bit of wandering round Staines, and a visit to Weybridge and Walton-on-Thames. Neither was wildly exciting (!) although I liked Fabric Warehouse at Weybridge and there was a nice church to wander round. Of course, as is usual with bank holiday Mondays, most places were shut. Including the tile shop where we'd wanted to go and choose tiles for the downstairs loo.

I've got a couple more blanket squares done, which  means I'm up to date (I think?) with where I should be on the KnitALong. This is the May square, which I've done partly in Jamieson & Smith Shetland Aran, which I ran out of near the end, so the rest is in North Ronaldsay wool, purchased several years ago from the Woolclip in Cumbria.

and I used the rest of the ball of North Ronaldsay for the April square. This one hasn't been blocked yet!

I also got started on the jumper for the OH. It's the Neck-down pullover by Diane Soucy, and so far I'm really pleased with the pattern. The yarn I'm using is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, which, as always, is nice and smooth and squooshy to knit with. And it's going really fast - I've already knitted up 3 balls so only 9 left to go. Considerably faster than knitting with 4ply.

Knitting group is always dangerous for new patterns and at the meeting last week Wannaknit was giving away some she didn't want any more. I picked up this one, which uses Patons Fusion (bizarrely Ravelry says this yarn is discontinued, yet I can find it for sale on several websites with no mention of that?!). Anyway, I thought it would be a good jumper to have around in summer, to pull on in the evening when it's a bit cooler. The official yarn is an acrylic/rayon mix so I may attempt to sub with something a bit more natural...

And this jumper in Sirdar Peru. OK, so I am unlikely ever to be seen outside in snow leaning against a tree whilst wearing sunglasses, but I like the jumper. I can't find the pattern on Ravelry, but I often find that the patterns you get on British pattern leaflets don't seem to appear on there, or else hardly anyone has made one and posted it on Ravelry. Apparently the yarn for this is discontinued too, although this time I found this on a website and it doesn't say it on Ravelry!

And I like She's Electric in the Knitty surprises too. Of course, I'll never have time for half of this!

I've been trying out new things in the kitchen too. Last weekend I roasted a chicken for the first time. It was deeply traumatic, once I realised that the thing actually resembled a dead thing when I got it out of the packaging (yes, I know it's a dead thing, but most lumps of meat look fairly anonymous, whereas chickens have legs and wings and bones and stuff). So I cautiously bunged it into the roasting tin. It came out OK but that left me with the problem of how to remove the legs from the body. This involved bones and I was far too squeamish. The OH doesn't like chicken legs anyway, so I just left them attached and ended up making soup from what was left on the carcass including the legs the next day. I did however, also produce a chicken pasta bake that I was rather proud of. Recipe adapted from this one on All Recipes.co.uk

And this is a carrot and mushroom lasagne, from a recipe from Riverford veg boxes.

Well, I think that's all for now. I have various posts planned about gardening and books so watch this space!