Welcome to the final post of the week. Today I am going to show you the outfit I wore last Saturday when we went out to have our latest vaccinations. I have already written about the event itself and the aftermath, so this is just a quick “Outfit of the Day” post.
Last Friday, I wore an outfit with one of my gorgeous blue Hermès scarves, Plumes en Fête. Here it is as a reminder:
Outfit of the day 18/10/22 with Hermès’ Plumes en Fête scarf
I wore the same jewellery with this week’s ensemble, but swapped around the blue clothing a bit: a cobalt blue twinset and dark denim jeans. So, this is the outfit with Hermès De la Mer au Ciel scarf. The colours are quite similar to my Plumes en Fête (blues, purple and green), but the effect is quite different.
Outfit of the Day 19/10/22 with Hermès’ De la Mer au Ciel scarf
I must show you a larger image of this lovely scarf:
De la Mer au Ciel scarf by Hermès
I now have a stack of scarf boxes in my bedroom with the scarves and shawls suitable for Autumn/Winter. My plan is to just open the top one and see what comes next! I’m hoping for a change in colour, but we will see.
Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup post! After the previous three weeks, where I was working my way through a brilliant, but extremely dark, trilogy, I decided to turn to something more lighthearted. My favourite science fiction with humour author is John Scalzi and this is the book that I chose:
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi is actually a reworking of a much older book, by H Beam Piper, called Little Fuzzy. At some point I intend to read that as well and it will be interesting to compare the two. Anyway, getting back to the point of this post, here is the blurb for Fuzzy Nation:
“Jack Holloway works alone, for reasons he doesn’t care to talk about. Hundreds of miles from ZaraCorp’s headquarters on planet, 178 light-years from the corporation’s headquarters on Earth, Jack is content as an independent contractor, prospecting and surveying at his own pace. As for his past, that’s not up for discussion.
Then, in the wake of an accidental cliff collapse, Jack discovers a seam of unimaginably valuable jewels, to which he manages to lay legal claim just as ZaraCorp is cancelling their contract with him for his part in causing the collapse. Briefly in the catbird seat, legally speaking, Jack pressures ZaraCorp into recognizing his claim, and cuts them in as partners to help extract the wealth.
But there’s another wrinkle to ZaraCorp’s relationship with the planet Zarathustra. Their entire legal right to exploit the verdant Earth-like planet, the basis of the wealth they derive from extracting its resources, is based on being able to certify to the authorities on Earth that Zarathustra is home to no sentient species.
Then a small furry biped—trusting, appealing, and ridiculously cute—shows up at Jack’s outback home. Followed by its family. As it dawns on Jack that despite their stature, these are people, he begins to suspect that ZaraCorp’s claim to a planet’s worth of wealth is very flimsy indeed…and that ZaraCorp may stop at nothing to eliminate the “fuzzys” before their existence becomes more widely known.”
I really enjoyed this book and it had a lovely uplifting effect on my mood! This is my four star review on Goodreads:
I have probably written this many times before, but I really love John Scalzi’s writing. This is a quick and humorous read which also has a strong message for human beings. Just how would we behave if we could reach other planets? Would human nature rule with us exploiting every resource to make money? I’m sure most of us can answer questions like these.
This is apparently a reboot of a book written in the 1960s. I may try to find that to see what Scalzi added or subtracted from it – could be interesting!
Anyway, once again I will say that Scalzi’s work is well worth reading. Although simple, it is clever and funny and thoughtful. Great stuff!
After this book, I chose at random from the library’s ebook catalogue…
The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel
On Goodreads, The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel had pretty good ratings and reviews, so I thought that I would give it a go. Well, I got through the first fifty pages and gave up. I just couldn’t get into the plot at all. The only thing that I liked about the book was its cover. In my opinion, life is too short to persevere with a book that you aren’t enjoying!
I chose another book, which I am now half way through and enjoying immensely. What is it? Well, you will have to wait until next week. Or you could just check the sidebar of this blog!
Well, that was an unpleasant weekend! On Saturday, Lovely Husband, Elder Son and I all went to have our flu and COVID jabs done at our local surgery. For some reason I felt nervous, although I am not worried about injections at all. Anyway, we arrived OK but on entering the building I began to feel dizzy. This was my usual low blood pressure issue. ES quickly sat me down and the staff were very kind. A nurse was called to do the inoculations in situ for both me and ES, whilst LH joined the queue. Everything went well and then we drove back home.
Then I had a bad reaction. I expected that I would have the usual stiff arms, but, on Sunday I had awful nausea and really painful arms all day. I couldn’t do very much or eat as I felt dreadful. Both LH and ES were OK.
I think I have had some improvement today and hope it continues! Of course, I am so thankful that I live in a country where we get healthcare free at the point of need. The NHS is a wonderful institution!
Now, I will cheer myself up with a lovely image:
Springtime in Eskdale by James McIntosh Patrick – screenshot from Henry Rothwell on Twitter
I love the brilliant painting of sunshine on this painting! So cheerful!
Welcome to today’s post! I am really pleased because I actually managed to go out again this week. On Tuesday, I was actually feeling quite strong and asked Lovely Husband if he could drive us around the countryside (some of you may remember that I am no longer allowed to drive since I had a stroke back in 2019). So we did our usual thing of going to a garden centre, having a drink and then walking around for a while. I felt so pleased by even this little bit of exercise!
Also, it gave me the opportunity to wear something nice! Here is my outfit:
Outfit of the day 18/10/22 with Hermès’ Plumes en Fête scarf
Outfit details:
Navy short sleeved cotton top – Lands’ End.
Navy cotton cardigan – Lands’ End.
Navy stretch cord trousers – Lands’ End.
Blue crystal and silver earrings – Sonrisa Boutique.
Blue enamel and gold curb chain bangle – Halcyon Days.
Purple Africa leather handbag – Massaccesi.
Silk scarf, 90 cm, in cobalt blue, turquoise, and green – Plumes en Fête – Hermès. Tied in an asymmetric wrap.
A navy blue “column” (top and bottom) like this is very useful and versatile. You can do this with any of your base colours in your wardrobe. My other base colour is grey. Against the base, you can choose any accent colours that you have. In this case, I used brighter blues with a pop of purple for interest. I might use this set of clothing again next week with a different scarf, just to see how it works.
This Plumes en Fête scarf is so gorgeous that it needs a larger picture:
Plumes en Fête scarf by Hermès
You may remember that I also have the cashmere/silk shawl version of this design:
Plumes en Fête shawl by Hermès
And on that note of feathery loveliness I will sign off, wishing you all a very Happy Weekend!
Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup post! Today, I am bringing you the final book in The Broken Earth trilogy by N K Jemisin…
The Stone Sky by N K Jemisin
The third book is The Stone Sky. As I was quite seriously ill at the beginning of last week, I was unable to fit in another book. So I only have this one to tell you about. To make up for that, this is a quite brilliant book in an amazing series overall. Anyway, here is the blurb:
“The Moon will soon return. Whether this heralds the destruction of humankind or something worse will depend on two women.
Essun has inherited the phenomenal power of Alabaster Tenring. With it, she hopes to find her daughter Nassun and forge a world in which every outcast child can grow up safe.
For Nassun, her mother’s mastery of the Obelisk Gate comes too late. She has seen the evil of the world, and accepted what her mother will not admit: that sometimes what is corrupt cannot be cleansed, only destroyed.”
And here is my response to the book on the Goodreads website:
This was a good final part of the trilogy with everything nicely tied up by the end. I can’t quite give five stars because I felt that the early part of the book dragged in places. Also, nothing could quite live up to the amazing first book! The three books were extremely dark with pretty grim characters too, but I am glad that I read them. If I were younger, I would re-read them over and over as I think that there is so much to get out of these extraordinary books. But, I haven’t enough time to do that, so I will look out for other books by this author and read them instead!
This trilogy comes highly recommended if you enjoy very dark and grim plots, intriguing and complex characters and utterly incredible world building. The author’s imagination is amazing! I am definitely going to try some of her other work, although I will probably wait a while as her writing is quite overwhelming!
Hello all and welcome to a new week on my blog! Today, I have some random thoughts about some of my favourite things. I have written about my love of Ancient Greek and Roman art and architecture many times before on here. Some of you may also remember that I have managed to collect some of the Hermès and Fetolia scarves inspired by the same. Here they are:
Olympian Gods scarf by FetoliaMare Nostrum by Annie Faivre for Hermès Escales Mediterranéenes – Hermès Musique des Dieux by Claudia Stuhlhofer-Mayr for Hermès Les Secrets de Minos by Hermès Olympian Gods scarf by FetoliaScarves inspired by Ancient Greek and Roman art
Oops, a random Ancient Cretan inspired scarf slipped in there, but you get the general idea! And we should not forget my most recent purchase: Sous Le Charme d’Orphée by Hermès…
Sous le Charme d’Orphée by Hermès
My first Master’s degree involved the study of Ancient Greek vase painting and I still love the wonderful images created, such as these:
Ancient Greek black and red figure vases (not all in the British Museum)
Anyway, as I was wandering around the web, as you do, I came across these items that made me smile. I don’t suppose that I will purchase any of them – after all, they don’t fit into the colour scheme for my wardrobe – but I found them interesting. Apologies for the lack of links. I found them on eBay and, probably, Etsy or Not On The High St. I can’t remember which.
Ancient Greek inspired fashion items
Here is a Twitter post about the t-shirt image:
Screenshot from Archaeology & Art on Twitter
I think I will dream about beautiful blue Greek skies above the glittering sea tonight!
Hi, and welcome to Friday’s post! It’s been a very strange week. On Monday, I felt well enough to go out with Lovely Husband, then fell really ill on Tuesday, started recovering on Thursday and today I feel almost “normal” again.
I actually have two photos to show you. As I am still a bit wobbly, I don’t have enough energy to make collages, but I will describe the outfits as well as I can…
Outfits of the week 14/10/22
The image on the left shows the outfit I wore on Monday. LH asked it I was strong enough to go out for a drive, which I have not been able to do for a while. So we drove around our neighbourhood and then, because I was feeling able to, we went to a garden centre and had some drinks and a short walk. I felt so happy when we arrived back home!
The outfit was a study in purple and navy. With my Hermès scarf, L’Arbre du Vent, tied using a purple scarf ring from MaiTai, I wore a purple Lands’ End twinset, navy cord trousers also from Lands’ End, navy Hotter shoes, bangles from Halcyon Days and amethyst earrings from Blue Nile. To add even more purple, I carried my gorgeous purple Africa leather handbag from Massaccesi. Here it is below, as a reminder, with the same scarf:
Handbag by Massaccesi, scarf by Hermès
This is a larger image of the gorgeous L’Arbre du Vent scarf by Hermès:
L’Arbre du Vent scarf by Hermès
The other outfit in the top image was just a quick “throw on a scarf and go downstairs” outfit. With some navy lounge clothes, I put on my Liberty of London varuna wool shawl in the iconic Ianthe pattern. Although the fabric is quite thin, it is still warm and cosy. Here is an old collage from when I bought the shawl on eBay (and before I stopped dyeing my hair!)…
Ianthe shawl in veruna wool – Liberty of London
I am hoping that I can shake off this present condition quickly and go out again soon. Those scarves and shawls need to be worn!
Happy weekend to you all!
Love and best wishes,
Anne
💕💗💖💗💕
P.S. If you want more information about that lovely Hermès scarf, L’Arbre du Vent, you can read my Scarf of the Moment post. It was one of my early attempts at this kind of post, so is not as detailed as the more recent ones.
P.P.S. Also, I have written a detailed post about Liberty of London’s Ianthe design.
Hello and welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup post! Last week, I wrote about the first book in this amazing trilogy: The Broken Earth. The series is by N K Jemisin and the first book is called The Fifth Season. Well, I was so taken with this book that I simply had to move straight on to the next one…
The Obelisk Gate by N K Jemisin
The second book is called The Obelisk Gate. Here is the blurb:
“THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS… FOR THE LAST TIME.
The season of endings grows darker as civilization fades into the long cold night. Alabaster Tenring — madman, world-crusher, savior — has returned with a mission: to train his successor, Essun, and thus seal the fate of the Stillness forever.
It continues with a lost daughter, found by the enemy.
It continues with the obelisks, and an ancient mystery converging on answers at last.
The Stillness is the wall which stands against the flow of tradition, the spark of hope long buried under the thickening ashfall. And it will not be broken.”
I am finding this series so absorbing that I find the books difficult to put down! They are definitely not easy or simple reads, indeed the plot and the concepts involved are very complicated and inventive. I do find them incredible, though!
I am knocking off one star because of the almost unrelenting grimness of this book! Apart from that (although it is a big part), the book is an amazing feat of imagination, just like its predecessor. The story moves forward with new discoveries and revelations about the world around the protagonists and more becomes clear to the reader.
Unusually for me, I am moving straight on to the final book of the trilogy because I cannot wait to find out how the author resolves all of the different strands with her inventiveness!
As you can see above, I have now moved to the final book in the series and I hope that I am able to write about it in next week’s post. This is very unusual for me as I tend to like to break my reading up a bit. These three books demand a level of concentration from me that is quite difficult for me these days. I am finding that I have to read this series in shorter chunks. That’s why I am only managing one book per week at the moment. These books need to be savoured and fully understood, in my very humble opinion! Of course, now that I have found this author, I am going to have to explore her work in more detail…
Hello everyone and welcome to a new week! You may have noticed that I am changing the titles of my posts. It’s just to make things a bit clearer and also to open up the subjects I want to post. As my health issues are increasing, I can’t really stick to the Friday “Outfits of the Week” posts, for example.
So, I will try this pattern moving forwards:
Mondays will be “Monday post (date): (subject)”. Anything I think is interesting enough to write about!
Wednesdays will continue being “Reading roundup” posts.
Fridays will be “Friday post (date): (subject)”. I will try to stick to posts about clothing and accessories where possible. If it isn’t, then I will choose another topic!
Right, now I am going to break that whole plan by writing about Hermès scarves and shawls!
Sorry! Well, I’m not really because I wanted to get this information to you as quickly as possible…
OK, here we go…
Hermès, like other fashion houses, has two “seasons” in a year: Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter. At this time of year, the early photos from fashion events start to appear online for the next year’s Spring/Summer season and all of the speculation about colours and designs begins! On the Purse Forum a new thread has been opened to discuss the scarves, shawls and twillies for Spring/Summer 2023. At first, we will only see hints from mostly blurry photos but, eventually, the designs will become clearer as more and more images appear on websites around the world. The actual scarves will start to make their way into Hermès’ online shop and actual boutiques in around January, but a few may become available before Christmas.
Here is the link to the Purse Forum thread about the new season:
And this is my post covering the Purse Forum’s Hermès scarf threads. Please note that it was last updated in 2020 so I probably need to tweak some links again. I will try to do this as soon as possible:
Hello and welcome to Friday’s post. Yes, I have renamed this post from “Outfits of the Week” because I am finding it so difficult to actually get dressed properly at the moment. I seem to spend my days in “leisure” clothing or my smarter nightwear and don’t have the energy to do very much. I hope that I can return to regular “outfits” very soon.
I am, however, thinking about the change from Summer clothing and accessories to those more suitable for Autumn days. My handbags are in the process of being reorganised and I am ready to look at my scarf collection. Unfortunately, that is in a real muddle with various piles of scarf boxes around my bedroom as I don’t really have enough wardrobe or other storage space for them. So, I will have a look through the boxes and decide on a selection that I will try to wear over the next couple of months.
Now, that is easier said than done! I could go by Hermès’ own seasonal categories: Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer, but sometimes the actual colourway of the scarf doesn’t quite fit the category.
These fit beautifully with their Spring/Summer season:
Dans un Jardin Anglais by Alice Shirley for Hermès Au Pays des Oiseaux Fleurs by Christine Henry for Hermès Hermès Spring/Summer scarves
But perhaps these don’t and would look great with Autumn clothing:
Jardin de la Maharani by Annie Faivre for HermèsHermès Story by Jonathan Burton for HermèsHermès Spring/Summer scarves
So, perhaps I need to think about this another way? Thankfully, I have an easy solution. As I catalogue all of my scarves (Hermès and other makes) on Evernote, I can easily look through the images on there and select the scarves which will look best with my Autumn wardrobe. That sounds like a good idea!
But… there is another problem! I still haven’t got around to labelling all of my scarf boxes. So I will have to go through all of them to find the ones I want.
Aargh!
OK, I will now calm myself down with a lovely slideshow of suitable Autumn/Winter scarves. These are a mixture of Hermès, Fetolia, Liberty of London, and Ferragamo.
Ianthe Star scarf by Liberty of London
Tyger, Tyger scarf by Hermès
Plumes en Fête shawl (H243433S 04)
Olympian Gods scarf by Fetolia
Jungle scarf by Ferragamo
L’Arbre du Vent scarf by Hermès
Daimyo Princes du Soleil Levant scarf by Hermès
La Femme aux Semelles de Vent scarf by Hermès
Lazy Leopardesses scarf by Hermès
Persepolis scarf by Hermès
Sweet Dreams shawl by Hermès
Hera shawl by Liberty of London
Ianthe scarf by Liberty of London
Plumes en Fête scarf by Hermès
De la Mer au Ciel scarf by Hermès
A L’Ombre des Pivoines scarf by Hermès
Appaloosa des Steppes gavroche by Hermès
Cosmographia Universalis scarf by Hermès
Such a gorgeous selection, but I will now have to find them all and put them in a good place in my bedroom. Please contact me if you want to know more about any of the scarves, or have a look at the Scarf of the Moment posts for the Hermès designs.
Right, I had better save some energy so that I can begin the Great Autumn Scarf Hunt 2022 this afternoon!
Former professional school librarian, now retired through chronic illness. Trying to keep cheerful by reading, drinking lots of tea, blogging my new life, and my love of bling!
The Librain
The Librain......retired 
[…] If you would like to read more about this scarf, here is my Scarf of the Moment post with…