Here we are at Friday once again and also the first post of a new month. I was pleased and surprised that the statistics for August were the second best ever! It is so lovely that this little blog is reaching so many people around the world. Thank you all for visiting 💕💗💖💗💕.
You might remember that we took some items to be framed into town last week. Well, we went to pick them up yesterday and so I had to actually get dressed properly. The two items are birthday presents for Lovely Husband’s 70th birthday in a fortnight and I will show them to you after he has seen them. I was really pleased with the final result – the framer did a wonderful job.
This is my full outfit:
Outfit of the day 01/09/22
Outfit details:
Cobalt blue sleeveless dress – Toast. Well, this is actually their Marigold Block Print Cotton Nightie that I bought last year and decided to wear as a dress!
Silver butterfly earrings – Sainsburys. This is a similar image. Gift from Elder Son.
Silver bell and bow pendant necklace. Bought for me by LH on our honeymoon.
Blue and white beaded bracelet. Gift from my sister.
Navy leather sandals – Suave.
Navy metallic Africa leather midi-Selene handbag – Massaccesi.
This is a larger image of the dress/nightie:
Marigold Block Print Cotton Nightie by Toast
The pattern on the dress is in a golden beige, darker than in the photos above. There are pockets and side slits that make it very comfortable to wear.
I have enjoyed one great book during the last week. It was quite long, so I have not had enough time to read another one…
A Dark So Deadly by Stuart MacBride
Regular readers may remember that I am a huge fan of Stuart MacBride’s books. I was thrilled when I found A Dark So Deadly on our Library’s ebook service. Here is the blurb:
“DC Callum MacGregor’s career was going pretty well until he covered up for a cock-up to protect his pregnant crime-scene tech girlfriend.
Now Callum’s stuck on a squad with all the other misfits – the officers no one else wants but who can’t be fired, never likely to get within reach of a decent case again. Until they accidentally get handed the biggest murder investigation Oldcastle has ever seen.
When a mummified body is found in the local rubbish dump, the top-brass assume pranksters have stolen it from a museum. But as Callum and his colleagues investigate, it starts to look less like student high-jinks and more like the work of a terrifying serial killer…”
As I wrote above, this was a long read, but I felt sad when I got to the end! Definitely a five star favourite.
This is my short response on the Goodreads website:
I absolutely adore MacBride’s books, but even I baulked a bit at the length of this one. By the end, however, I understood why he wrote such a long tale. The darkest of dark humour and the grimmest of grim plots kept my attention from the beginning to the end.
And I will never be able to face a kipper ever again!
How on earth will I follow that? I have a long list of “to reads”, so I will go through them to see what could possibly measure up to a great MacBride book.
Today has been very annoying so far… grrrrrrr! Sorry, I won’t take it out on you, my dear readers, but I am feeling rather grumpy this afternoon.
Elder Son kindly offered to give our (mine and Lovely Husband’s) bedroom a “spring” clean today. I spend so much time in it that it needs a through going over very frequently. Anyway, he had just got started when we heard a loud noise, followed by some very ripe language. It turned out that one of the heavy curtains plus the track had fallen off the window, breaking all of the connectors. Now, this track is very old and had fallen before. But only three of the connectors broke that time and we had exactly three spare ones. On this occasion, the whole thing has come down. Yet another thing to sort out with this house!
I won’t write much more about this, but we are really struggling to find anyone to do minor or major work on the house and we have a lot that needs doing. We have lived here for over twenty years now and we did a major refurb on the whole house ending about ten years ago. It really needs a second refurb now and we are having so many problems with our health issues, Elder Son and other matters that it all feels overwhelming.
Right, now I had better find a lovely image to help me calm down…
From History Defined – Twitter (accessed 11/08/22)
I find it astonishing that something so breathtaking can be carved from stone.
On that note, I will take my leave until Wednesday’s Reading Roundup post.
Well, we have arrived at the end of the week once again and I have a proper outfit to show you! If you read Monday’s post, you will have seen that I had to go out to organise Lovely Husband’s birthday presents. Two of his gifts need to be framed, so we went to see an expert who gave us excellent advice.
I decided to wear my bright pink dress from Marks and Spencer with some lovely accessories. Here is the outfit…
Outfit of the day 24/08/22 with Hermès Cosmographia Universalis scarf
Outfit details:
Bright pink, cotton t-shirt dress – Marks and Spencer.
Bronze leather sandals – K Shoes.
Pink, white, gold and brown earrings by Chalk Jewellery.
Multicolour enamel and rose gold bangle – Hera by Liberty of London.
White leather handbag – Massaccesi.
Silk scarf, 90 cm, in bright pink, sky blue, white and navy – Cosmographia Universalis – Hermès. Folded on the bias then tied casually at the front.
At least I won’t fade into the background wearing that ensemble! I wish I had remembered my bright pink lipstick too.
Here is a larger image of the scarf:
Cosmographia Universalis by Jan Bajtlik for Hermès
It is a very cheerful and colourful scene and I have no idea why the model looks so miserable wearing it! The colourways of this scarf are wonderful. If you are interested, have a look at my Scarf of the Moment post about it.
I do hope that your own reading has been great recently. I have enjoyed two books since I last wrote one of these posts.
The Girl Behind the Wall by Mandy Robotham
The Girl Behind the Wall by Mandy Robotham was one of those random choices from the Library’s ebook catalogue – and such a good choice.
Here is the blurb:
“A city divided.
When the Berlin Wall goes up, Karin is on the wrong side of the city. Overnight, she’s trapped under Soviet rule in unforgiving East Berlin and separated from her twin sister, Jutta.
Two sisters torn apart.
Karin and Jutta lead parallel lives for years, cut off by the Wall. But Karin finds one reason to keep going: Otto, the man who gives her hope, even amidst the brutal East German regime.
One impossible choice…
When Jutta finds a hidden way through the wall, the twins are reunited. But the Stasi have eyes everywhere, and soon Karin is faced with a terrible decision: to flee to the West and be with her sister, or sacrifice it all to follow her heart?”
I may have been a little harsh in my review of the book. Certainly, other readers have been more generous in their ratings. Anyway, this is mine:
I enjoyed this book, however it fell just short of being a really good read.
What I liked: I can remember the Berlin Wall coming down and over the years leading to that, I often read about incidents at the wall. So I found the subject of the book interesting. The main characters were quite well drawn and there was a good sense of tension and suspense at times. It was also interesting to read about life in East Berlin. The final chapters lead to a satisfying ending.
What I didn’t like: the alternate points of view didn’t quite work for me. Perhaps longer sections should have been given to both sides as it all felt too rushed. There were tense moments, but everything ended far too neatly. I kept waiting for a serious betrayal or something really “gritty” to happen. The book seemed as if it was written for a younger audience, not for adults.
Verdict: worth reading, but could have been a lot better!
From one historical fiction book to another, this time set in the early 18th century:
The Winter Sea by Susannah Kearsley
I went against all my librarian’s training and…
… chose a book because I liked the cover!!!!! Eek!
Seriously, I also liked the blurb:
“History has all but forgotten…
In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown.
Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write.
But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth-the ultimate betrayal-that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her…”
Perhaps I was a bit over generous with this response!
Well, I really loved this book. Just for once, I decided to indulge in a historical romance and it worked as pure escapism from my daily life.
OK, perhaps I’m being a little indulgent with the full five stars. There were flaws, such as the often-done alternating timelines and the DNA/memories, but the whole tale transported me out of my worries and onto a wind-swept coast with a gorgeous view of the sea.
I simply refuse to be cynical. At school, I studied the Jacobite “Rebellions” but not this earlier episode, so the setting was very interesting. Especially knowing that it would all end in tragedy. The book itself, however, although very sad in places, has given me a real lift.
For the last few weeks, I have been planning for Lovely Husband’s 70th birthday in September. He doesn’t want a big fuss, but I think that it needs marking properly by his closest family. Younger Son is planning to visit, which is great, and I have asked him to organise and cook a lovely celebratory meal for the four of us. Elder Son can be his “sous chef”. LH has always been the cook in the family and YS has enjoyed learning from his Dad over the years. He is now a proficient cook in his own home. As I am unable to commit to going out for a meal, this seemed like a great alternative.
I have also been planning gifts with my two “boys”. We have clubbed together and bought some gorgeous lead crystal wine glasses. In addition, I have organised some cricket memorabilia and have to get two items framed. Unfortunately, as I cannot drive any longer, I have had to tell LH about some of this, so that he can drive me to the picture framers for quotations! I also had an issue resulting from my stroke and had a bit of a meltdown about all of the planning as I couldn’t manage it all on my own. LH kindly stepped in to help. So, some of the surprises aren’t surprises any longer.
Never mind.
Anyway, here is an image of the wine glass from Royal Scot Crystal:
Westminster large wine glass – Royal Scot Crystal
Isn’t it gorgeous?
I will show you some of the other gifts after LH’s birthday as I have at least managed to keep one as a surprise!
Hi everyone and welcome to Friday’s post! The really hot weather eased off at the beginning of the week, but I have still felt rather uncomfortable on many days. So, I have only one “outfit” for you this week. As we move towards the end of the summer, I am sure that I will be able to get dressed properly on more days. Those gorgeous scarves need to be worn!
Before I show you the photo, I would like to mention that I have removed some pages from the blog. The other week, I had a bit of a moan/rant on here and many of you kindly responded. I had a think and decided on a few things, one of which was that it seemed the right time to move on from my days as a school librarian. So, I have broken the links to the pages about my career and also the section on diet and exercise. All of this is rather irrelevant now. I haven’t completely deleted anything, just in case the information is needed in the future, but it is all hidden for the time being. Thanks again for your input!
One other change has been made. Some of you may have noticed that the menu sections for my scarves has been moved up the right-hand sidebar. Promoted, if you like. I decided that I would like to give the links more prominence. After all, those Scarf of the Moment posts do take a lot of writing!
Right, here is the “outfit” photo that I took yesterday. The scarf is Hermès’ Escales Mediterranéenes, worn with a purple t-shirt and my pyjama trousers! My earrings (that you can just see) are amethyst and silver by Blue Nile and the mother of pearl scarf ring is by MaiTai. Oh, and I forgot to remove my glasses!
Outfit of the day 18/08/22 with Hermès’ Escales Mediterranéenes
As you can see, I felt too weak to take the photo standing up, so here I am sitting up in bed!
Here is an image of the whole scarf. I love the colours, especially the pretty shades of lilac…
Escales Mediterranéenes by Christine Henry for Hermès
I am going to look through my scarf list and decide which ones I consider to be “summer scarves” – because of the colours or the themes – and try to wear them over the next few weeks.
On that lovely thought – rummaging through beautiful, colourful silks – I will sign off and wish you all a very Happy Weekend!
Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup! This last week turned out to be rather annoying in terms of my reading. Unusually for me, I had three false starts (awful clunky writing) before turning to something more tried and tested. The extreme heat didn’t help. In the end, I returned to the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold, as I knew that I would enjoy her writing.
Here is the book…
Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold
I am still trying to tackle this series in the reading order, rather than publishing order, although, in this case it didn’t really matter. Ethan of Athos is a kind of side story to the series and doesn’t involve any of the previous main characters. Anyway, this is the short blurb:
“Dr. Ethan Urquhart, chief biologist from the all-male world of Athos, must travel to other planets in search of new genetic material, as their current supply of ovarian tissue is no longer viable. Ethan encounters what to him is practically an alien species — women! — and also finds himself hunted by Cetagandan ghem lords and helped out by Miles’ Dendarii officer Elli Quinn.”
I am really enjoying the Vorkosigan Saga so far but I think that this book is not my favourite. Just a note that I am using Bujold’s reading order for the series.
The idea behind the book was interesting: a world without women and how a man from that world would cope when he left the planet. I just found the whole thing irritating after a quite amusing beginning. There was definitely Bujold’s wry humour in parts and this lifted the story, but I became rather lost in the plot twists this time.
So, I am not sure what to read next. I only gave this book three stars – is the Vorkosigan Saga losing its spell? Oh dear! Anyway, you will find out my choice of book in next week’s post.
Welcome to a new week on the blog. Phew! We are just coming to the end of a heatwave in this part of the UK. Those of you who live in much hotter climes are probably rather surprised that we react so badly to temperatures that are much more common where you live. The thing is that the infrastructure here cannot cope with extremes of weather. Our houses don’t have thick walls, in the main, most of us don’t have air conditioning or window shutters. That’s because we only need these for a few days every couple of years. It’s the same with snow. Some years we have quite a lot, other years we don’t have any at all. So it is not worth investing in counter measures.
But… with climate change we have to face a different world and that will be difficult or even extreme for many people.
I am not going to go into a political rant on here, so I will bring this subject to a close. All I will add is that the heat has had an impact on my health and I have been really struggling. It has also had a bad effect on tempers in this house, so I hope everything will calm down soon!
Now, I will leave you with a beautiful image or two…
Vases found on Twitter
I found both of these lovely images on Twitter. Aren’t they beautiful?
Now, I will try to return to my latest book. I am finding it so hard to concentrate in the hot weather, so I hope I will have something to write about in Wednesday’s Reading Roundup post!
Apologies dear readers! We are again under a heatwave in this part of the UK and my health issues are giving me real difficulties. Therefore, it is proving impossible to concentrate on writing a proper post today. And, to be honest, my “outfits” consist of a vest and knickers – definitely unsuitable for posting on here 😂🤣😂🤣!
The sheer elegance of this woman is a vision to behold…
NOT!!!!!!
Anyway, I will stagger through the next few days and try to put something together for Monday’s post. I will leave you with this image from Twitter:
Seashells by Florence Pindrys – womensart1 on Twitter (accessed 10/08/22)
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…