I’ve read three ripper books recently that I’d like to share. I’ve also read a few so-so books but I won’t talk about those because it only means they weren’t the right reads for me. Reading is so subjective, isn’t it? Here we go. The Fiction Writer by Jillian Cantor This story is about a […]
Spotted in my winter garden
After a couple of weeks of showers, frosts, and gale force winds blowing straight from Antartica (or feeling like it, at least), it was soothing to spend an hour in my garden this afternoon. I’d written an article for my garden club’s newsletter on one of the worst days. I bemoaned the lack of colour […]
Book recommendation: The Fog
I always enjoy a good Gothic novel. The Fog is a pageturner that has all the classic elements (fear, horror, death, high emotion). Add a remote island location and a sociopath who tries unconventional psychological ‘therapies’ at a supposed writers’ retreat and you have a great read. Lots of twists and turns here! Five stars […]
The stories of things
If you think people collect physical objects and hold on to them solely because their looks appeal, think again. Objects hold memories of people, places and events – stories – and the objects are simply prompts for these stories. It’s no surprise that many memoir writing courses start with an exercise to write about a […]
Writing a memoir
I started a memoir last year but hadn’t made a much progress until recently. Perhaps I wasn’t ready to write or maybe I hadn’t worked out what to write? It doesn’t matter. My thoughts have been slowly coming together as I grapple with my memories. It’s an emotional process, choosing the words that best recall […]
Learning about bluebells
I’ve been researching bluebells this week, to use as background in a chapter of my book. I’ve found useful information but have been sidetracked by pictures of bluebell woods in England. Masses of these glorious flowers (Hyacinthoides non-scripta – the English bluebell) are in bloom there now and, although the photos are beautiful, I am […]
Recording rainfall
For the past four years, we have kept rainfall records based on the amount of rain collected in our rain gauge. We have a lovely spreadsheet where we record the numbers by the day, with monthly and yearly totals. We have graphs! The spreadsheet provides valuable information about the microclimate at our place. I also […]
New Elm Creek Quilts book
This morning’s purchase: The Museum of Lost Quilts. I have high hopes for this story, mainly that it engages me and is a worthy addition to the Elm Creek Quilts series. Like many other quilters, I was thrilled when the first book in the series, The Quilter’s Apprentice, appeared in 1999. Here was a novel […]
Citrus and embroidery
Ooh, a weekly catchup! I can probably only manage to recap three things in these regular posts, so let’s start a new month and see how it goes. After writing about orangeries a couple of weeks ago, I did buy a dwarf Imperial mandarin tree from the local nursery. Once it stops raining, I’ll plant […]
The world’s slowest knitter?
It’s getting chilly here, so I thought I would knit a new cardigan. If I had any sense, I would have started it six months ago since I’m such a slow knitter. This required a decision about what pattern to use (cue hours of internet searching for a pattern I liked) and a decision about […]