Reading reports, Fall falling

Bookworm Boud checking in to say Still Life is back in the library. I did my best but I just couldn't. Stilted, trying hard to be significant, oh well, some people liked the Italian art history take, the wartime setting, the love interest, maybe, I dunno.  I was just not in tune with this writer.

Likewise A Well Trained Wife, by Tia Levings, a nonfiction account of a woman growing up in Southern fundamentalist church, finding herself in a violent marriage, eventually,  managing to leave. 

It's a well written, and chilling, account of white male church-centered patriarchy and family dominance, enforced by husbands with violence. 

I read as far as I could, out of respect, and would recommend it, if you have the tolerance. My own trauma, not of marriage, but of war, got in the way.  Mainly I think it was her helplessness and isolation that got me racked up. And her courage in the face of massive social coercion and danger.

On the other hand, volume two of the Cazalet Chronicles, continues to be very good, with some piercing insights from the younger characters. 

I'm reading this on hoopla, since only volume 1 was available in paper form.  I could use the diagram showing the family tree. A lot of characters.

Still to be read is Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower, another Susan Hill favorite.

It's fall, wonderful walking weather, and the cod and broccoli continue to please, also the afternoon tea with Misfits snickerdoodles, much bigger than the ones I've made. I've put a a couple in the freezer for Handsome Son's next visit. 

He needs his strength, because I'm going to ask him for help turning the queen size  mattress, a test of ingenuity and strength in my smallish bedroom.  Usually one or other of us gets pinned in a corner and we're laughing too hard to escape. You can't just flip it, it's a onesided mattress design. You have to turn it through 180° in a pretty confined space.

Happy day, everyone, and I hope your mattress turning is rare, safe and successful. Sounds like something else..

As well as walking there was stretching, surprisingly energetic.

They say gentle, hm.

Later I did 20 rapid sit to stands just to see if I could. In about 45 seconds.  S to s is a great exercise for anyone.

 Keep resisting,sez

Ted and Big Ursy 

Except when it's futile like here

Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of orchids, socks and books

Update on the houseguest orchid. I did get the plant, rammed tight in the pot, out, over the sink, just as well, and found that there was an inner plastic pot which took a hook and cursing to remove.

Just as well I did all this because I found the poor thing was sitting in water, the last thing an orchid needs.  So I drained it, then replaced it in the inner pot which I boosted up with a bit of fiber underneath so it can be removed again next time it's watered. I think she's looking more cheerful now.

And while I was there, I noticed my small collection of cookbooks had got into frame, so I thought you might like to see what I think is important enough to own.

Considering I'm always going on about food and my attempts to make it. It's a small collection, and I use all of it.

One time back in petcare days, I did a series of drawings of client desks,  since that's a good bio of most people. Book collections are, too.

Here's my textile section

And the group of books that have helped me keep going st times

Mental health, physical health, artistic health, it's all there!

I do like squinting at other people's book shelves, particularly when I'm encountering them on zoom, and want to ask them to move over so I can see more titles. Never mind what they're talking about..  So I thought you might like this too.

Then, to prove that I remember the dinosaurs, here's my collection of DVDs

Mysteries, comedy, and for a change, comedy mysteries.

I'll leave you with three views of a sock

It needs to be finished, that is,  ends woven in, and pressed, then it will look presentable.  After I make the other one.

Candle by AC.

Keeping Ukraine front and center in thoughts while I knit for the Sock Ministry.

Twenty five squares and counting

 With the addition of this cheerful mob

recently, the selection has a lot more energy

and here's steaming in progress

In fact all the current squares are steamed and squared up. From this point I'll lay them out on the dining table, which is the computer table, the cutting out table, and the tax filling out table,  to see how to arrange them, as I go. Since there are no beloved cats to rearrange and bite them, the squares can stay out as I go.

I need to decide how many solid colors I need to knit to balance the stripes. And laying it out will tell me what manner of thing it will be in the end. 

The four squares I started with and knitted together will probably work like a center or anchor piece. 

Meanwhile I have to keep my reading and watching going. 

I've been waiting forever for the Joan Didion essays. Her work is so measured and modest and mind-blowingly accurate that it's great to find something of hers I haven't read yet. She's a California person with a viewpoint I like to know more about.  And a world class analytic ability. Crystalline prose style. 

Flambards I know nothing about except it's a costume drama, and I'm in it for the hats. And horses. And carriages. And interiors. I expect there's also a storyline, too, come to think of it.

And the craft book was recommended by a person who loves crafts. She keeps renewing her library loan, so I need to see what it's about.

And that's us today, steaming, knitting, reading, watching. I was hoping for tea on the terrace, well, patio, when Handsome Son comes over later, but the weather changed and it's tea in the drawing room, milady, instead.  

Friday, I think, plans

 

Today, for the first time, I took advantage of a senior hour, where only seniors can come and play. No, not to the shops, they're doing it at some unearthly hour I can't possibly get my eyes open for, this owl says.  But the library, where the hour starts at the ten o'clock opening.  I was picking up books and a movie about which more anon.

Librarians overjoyed to see actual face to face people, even though there were maybe two patrons there at the time, very much outnumbered by library staff.  One was stationed at the door to make sure people were masked correctly, and to count comings and goings, to have no more than 25 at a time. Which I'm told hasn't happened, or anywhere near it.

Nice chat with librarian friend who runs the knitting group, and is currently not only working at the library, but, as a county employee, also working on the electoral system, alphabetizing voting certificates.  They have lent staff, paying them as usual, to fill up the gap left by the older people who can't do what they've been doing for many years, too risky. Evidently all county employees can be called on, and the election people are particularly happy when they get library staff who know all about orderly handling of documents and organizing and alphabetizing, this year especially being heavy demand, because most votes are on paper.

And this is why I went

The Boy in the Field I know nothing about, but a writer on Book Passage recommended it, so I thought why not.  The Salt Path is Mary M's recommendation, and I'm going to embark on it this weekend.

And Best in Show is Christopher Guest, seen it before and it's well worth another run.  Well, anything by Christopher Guest is.  He's wonderful, the kind of satire doc that some people think is a real documentary and get all flustered about.  This one is about the world of dog breeding and showing, and I've been to enough shows and known enough breeders and showers over the years to absolutely get these characters and their hermetic but unknowingly funny, world.

Which reminds me to see Princess Bride again soon, another Guest brilliant one.

So this is my Saturday movie.  All set.

If you're interested in my adventures with the therapy lamp, I've been using it for nearly a week and notice that I'm sleeping much better, starting a bit earlier, like 11 instead of midnight, calm dreams.  Whether it's connected I don't know, but certainly nothing bad has happened to me.

I did do an online quiz  created by eye doctor people to determine what would be the best time of day for a person like me to do the half hour light session.  I'm a Moderate Evening type they tell me.  And they recommended trying to do it about 7 a.m.  Hm. Not happening. 8.30 is as early as I can do this, complete with tea, and eyes more or less open.

You're supposed to have your eyes open for the maximum effect on the pineal gland, which is the little seat of power in the brain over your circadian rhythm.  It's working away affecting us all the time and a lot of us don't even know we have one. So I'm hoping to fend off the down mood that usually happens with November and December and starts to improve in February.

I had a bowl of that Green Powerhouse Soup just now, and I think the baharat is excellent with the cabbage content.  It just works a nice balance.  So I must note that somewhere, not that I write down any of these soups, just mess about making them.

Enjoy your, wait, checking again, oh, yes, Friday!

Misfits, prepping, books

 My misfits box arrived today, the first time it's been on time. Usual nice quality.

Top layer

Next layer

Everyone takes a bath

And the current state of play: beet, steamed, cooked, diced, now in pickling liquid in the fridge. Bags of leek greens, leek whites, quartered cabbage, quartered onion, in the freezer.  Bowl of carrots, peeled, diced in fridge ready for carrot cashew soup. Granny smith apples waiting to go in a crumble tomorrow with peaches and plums. Frisee and grape tomatoes ready to be a salad tonight.

Now I need to see what cabbage can do aside from coleslaw which I don't like. I think caraway seeds go with it. I tasted it, very tender and sweet.

Woman cannot live by veggies alone. She needs books. So I've listed the books recommended lately for your saving and reading pleasure. Some are from emails from readers who don't comment in here, so I thought I'd share.

Becoming, Michelle Obama

Little fires everywhere, Celeste Ng

Caste, Isabel Wilkerson

The Color of Law, Rothstein

How to be an Anti-Racist, Ibrahim X. Kendi

The salt Path, Raynor Winn

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See

A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles

I have read and loved Snow Flower, and have Salt Path requested. Have I missed any recommended in here? 

On the subject of books and great opportunities on Kindle, since I like plenty of emergency reading on Kindle in case of WiFi outage, I got a great deal: the whole canon of EFBenson for 99cents. And a collection of Agatha christie including a couple I haven't read, amazingly, for I think $2.99. 

So Amazon's good for something. And nobody has to run about loading and delivering. It's already on my Kindle, which is the original model, from when there was only the one. People sometimes ask which Kindle! It's like asking what color Model T Ford.

MIF and a squint at books

I heard yet another rerun of the tea discussion today: milk in first or not. The original idea being, and I strongly doubt it, that putting a drop of milk in first prevented  your china cup from cracking.

 Except that real tea drinkers pour the tea first, around a silver spoon if you're nervous about grandma's cups, then add milk to taste, depending on the strength of the tea. First cup out of the pot not as strong as later ones. It's a minor art.

 My mom used to say the best tea with milk in, was the color of a golden sovereign. A useful tip if you'd ever seen one, I suppose. She had, they still being legal tender, if very hard to come by, in her youth.

Vital supplies, more under the shelf.

Speaking as one whose tea is more builder's than Downton Abbey, charges roaring like a wild beast out of the pot, I still put milk in second. In my Chinese mug. No saucer, my dear, averted eyes, pearls clutched.

So that being settled, and I'm sure you were engrossed, on to snooping.

I like how many people's homes we can see into via online meetings and newscasts. I always like to see the books and wonder if they've hidden the Agatha Christies and put out the Decline and Falls for bragging rights.

Here, with no editing, is a ramble round my four walls, getting closer by the day. Enjoy peeking.

 Cookbooks, not many

 More cookbooks

 Writing, musing

Wildlife

 From art teaching days

 Knitting, see that ww2 British one?

 Weaving, stitching, tapestries

 Handmade

Handmade and blanks

Rereads, Heyers, Pyms, Bensons, Delafields. Handsome Son gallery on top. Frames of handmade paper.

I gave away many artbooks and other readables during the Great Winnowing. Haven't missed them, what with Kindle, ebooks, audiobooks.

But I still enjoy browsing in paper books.

The Great Indoors

Current reading, picked up before the libraries closed, no reviews, only just begun.

 The Caroline Harveys are not very promising, though. It's Joanna Trollope, earlier nom de plume. Few pages in, much earlier in her career, may not measure up. But we'll see.

I'd been waiting for the Mo Rocca one for months, and I wonder now about the timing. .

Haven't even opened the Kiley Reid, so tba.

Last night's Guinness Festival was The Captain's Paradise, funny as ever. Great cast of stars who probably had a good time making it.

Thinking about watching Kind Hearts and Coronets this evening.

I do recommend a personal film festival for people who live alone particularly now. It's something to look forward to each day.

But first, chop wood, carry water, write postcards.

Reading, there's always reading

A lot of mental activity in these short days. Curtains drawn soon after four in the afternoon, so outdoor items need to be done by then.

I like to use all the available forms of delivery for my books. Here a book on color, by Kassia St.Clair, not an artist sort of study, broader than that, taking in history, origins, significance of the spectrum. It's physically lovely, with great color printing separating the essays, recommended.

And How we got to now, by  Steven Johnson, on the Kindle, essays on inventions and discoveries that escalated far beyond their original concepts to influence all the life on the planet. Written in conversational style but well researched, you just keep finding stuff out that keeps you going. 

I didn't know the invention of the Gutenberg press led to a quick need for eye glasses, once a lot of people found they were too farsighted to read up close. Didn't matter before they were reading. And so on. A lot of ideas. Some inventions worked out quite differently in use than intended, too. Read it, you'll see.

Then there's Portrait of the Artist, by Joyce, which I have in this ancient paperback edition, and in audio form on my tablet, so I can crochet those meditative little pieces you see there. They are reminding me more and more of bacteria seen on slides. A bit of a slog this time, this not being my favorite Joyce. Less accessible than Dubliners, a whole lot less engrossing than Ulysses. It's a book club choice.

Another book club choice on the Kindle is The Rights of Man by Tom Paine, which I just should read, one of those cornerstone documents that you tend not to get around to. He spends a lot of time and energy snarking at Burke, but finally does some interesting analysis of the French revolution and politics. One point leapt right out at me: his insistence that people must assert not only rights for themselves, but the obligation to make sure everyone else gets their rights, too. Very apropos right now.

Other books in progress too, why read one at a time when you can read a lot..but these are the most worth their energy.

So that's me, improving the shining hour.

Woman proposes, God disposes

So last October I met an artist friend I hadn't seen for ages, and invited her to afternoon tea.  Pause while we set up a possible date. Then she got sick and had to postpone for a long time while she dealt with that.  Then she got back and we set up a date in the new year.  That turned out to be the bomb cyclone sideways snow day. So we postponed another week. That would be today. Then her furnace went south, and the only day she could get the repairman in is, yes, today.  We shall prevail.  I have now put her food goodies back in the freezer till the season thereof.

So this freed up a bit of time for other pursuits, aside from practicing recorder, which is incredibly rusty after weeks of postponement there, too, similar reasons.

And reading.  And I just finished another Joanna Trollope.  That's a good way of putting it, since she's a steady reliable predictable writer, a good cosy read.  This one was a bit irritating to start, until I got into the characters and stopped being so judgy about them. Good for a rainy day.

And the Printmaker's Daughter, nearest I could get to dogonart's recent recommendation, only thing by Katherine Govier in my libe, a novel set in the Edo period, which involves all kinds of famous rl printmakers. This should be fun, haven't started yet. 

The warm day and rain have washed away the snow, so I'm going to get waterproofed and go out in search of my snowdrops, just in case anything's showing yet.  And to cut a couple of branches from next door friend's catkin shrub, to bring in and force.

Baked apple and reading on a rainy day

It seems that the summer may be for the moment, gone. We usually have great weather in September.  But meanwhile, since the winds are pretty stiff, I took down the awning from outside the front door and rolled it up for next year.

And decided on baked apple for dessert.  Seems autumnal.  I got some Stayman Crisp from the farm stand.  And though they look rosy and are sold as eaters, they are whoa, too tangy for that. Made my face sort of crumple up.  So I decided they would be great cooking apples.

And tested my theory by scrubbing, coring and stuffing one with golden raisins, drizzled with good honey (not that supermarket stuff that's a lot of corn syrup, did you know they can legally do that without mentioning it?).  And microwaved it for four minutes.  Worked a treat.  Very tender, still tart but edible.  Highly recommended.  The beautiful cobalt blue ceramic bowl, guaranteed micro safe, from the thriftie, played its part, too.  Always more appetizing to eat from a bowl the right size and a good heft and color.

Front end of a storm here today, rain all day.  Good day, if you don't have outside commitments, which I didn't, to read.  Since I'm in the middle of four books at the moment, I thought I'd just mention them.

The biggest (though I didn't realize it, since it's on the Kindle) is 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.  Set in l984 Japan, it's a long long sort of post apocalyptic/sc/fantasy or something, and really more gripping than I would have expected for me, not being my usual route.  You find out after a while what the title means, but I shan't explain it here, better to make the discovery.It involves vengeance, cults, publishing, strong women making stuff happen.

Then there's the never failing Philippa  Gregory and The Last of the Tudors, a lovely, leisurely, history-packed, very accurate, fictionalizing of that period, starting with the ill fated Lady Jane Grey, who seems to have been a bit of a pill, all things considered.

And I'm in Jhumpa Lahiri's latest, In Other Words, a memoir of the adventure of learning to live in another language, not her original Bengali, nor her fluent English, but Italian, with all the traps and rewards you can imagine.  She's an engaging writer.  I think I'd gladly read a treatise on how to fill out my tax forms if she wrote it.

And those of us who have lived in a country where another language is spoken, no matter how fast we learn and get fluent, always have that feeling she expresses, of not being able to sound as thoughtful and adult in the foreign language.  Like David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day, mocking his own struggles in French to sound like an actual adult rather than a kindergartener.

Then, just in from the elibrary, Death on the Downs, by Simon Brett.  Another in the Fethering series, with the redoubtable Jude and Carole at work again finding bodies and mysteries.  A lot of sly wit in here, too. Kindle and other electronic things are putting a real crimp into my book reviewing, no pix..