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)
Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup! Unfortunately I have been struggling a lot with my illness and family issues, so have only managed to finish one book because my concentration has been so poor. Let’s hope everything improves in the following week.
Here is the book that I have read:
Femlandia by Christina Dalcher
This week’s book was Femlandia by Christina Dalcher. I have read her debut novel, Vox, and really rated it, so I was looking forward to this book. This is the blurb:
“The United States has sunk into total collapse.
Men in positions of power have wrecked the economy and left women to suffer and pick up the pieces.
Miranda Reynolds has lost her husband, her job and her home. There’s only one place left that she and her daughter Emma can go. Femlandia.
Femlandia is a female-only community. A utopia for women. There’s a reason Miranda never joined before. Now she has no choice.
With what Miranda knows about Femlandia’s founder, she’s right to be wary. While life outside the gates is fraught with danger, there’s something just as sinister going on within.”
I was really excited about the book after reading the blurb. Here is my response on the Goodreads website:
Goodness, I don’t really know how to react to this book. I am a feminist, married to a man and a mother of two sons, so my feelings about it are coloured by my background. The idea that a feminist “utopia” could turn out like this feels like a slur on feminism. So much about the lifestyle and relationships were not even tackled; so much was missed out in the cause of what seems to be sensationalism.
Once again the responses on here are widely mixed and I can see why so many readers enjoyed the book. It would certainly make a great discussion topic! Just not to my taste.
Welcome to a new week on the blog. Today I want to respond to the comments on here and elsewhere about last Monday’s post. Thanks to all of you who took the time to write to me, I really appreciate you all.
So, I had a bit of a moanfest last week about how I should or shouldn’t move forward with the blog. These are the kind of questions that I am asking myself at the moment. Shall I simply post less frequently? Are the topics that I cover useful or interesting enough? Can I sustain posting when I am becoming increasingly housebound? Am I becoming addicted to buying stuff so that I can post about it here?
You all gave me very sensible and helpful answers. I felt very encouraged and uplifted as I read them and basically came to the conclusion that I was overthinking everything! Thank you all so much for your generosity in taking the time to respond.
So… I have decided to carry on with the same pattern on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but not get worried when I feel too ill to post. After all, it is only one little blog in amongst millions out there on the web!
I will probably continue to buy one Hermès scarf per season (sometimes maybe two) until I disappear under a mountain of orange boxes! But, I must try to wear them more often, even if I am not leaving the house. I am also planning to list them all and put a label on each box so that I can get them properly organised. Now, that’s definitely something that I will be able to write about!
Another aspect of the blog that I am intending to change is the section on my career in school librarianship. It is such a long time since I retired that I am sure the profession has moved on by leaps and bounds. So, I think that my CV and other pages about my working life can now be archived as they are not relevant to my new life. I think I will also work through some of the other stuff that is now very dated and remove it – The Diet and Exercise Plan, for example. I don’t diet and I can’t exercise!
OK, I think that is enough for now. I will leave you with this lovely image that I found on Twitter…
Long Summer by Katharine Burns – Twitter (accessed 08/08/22)
I just love that gorgeous sparkling sea! Aren’t we so fortunate that technology allows us to see such wonders from the restrictions of our bedrooms?
Welcome to Friday’s post! Today is a very special day as it’s Younger Son’s 30th birthday. Time has passed so quickly and Lovely Husband and I sat looking at photos of our two “boys” over the years wondering how it has gone in the blink of an eye.
The weather is still hot and sunny in this part of the UK with no change in sight, so it has not really been a week for scarf wearing. I did manage to wear Mythiques Phoenix Coloriage by Hermès, tied in a necklace knot, for an hour or so on one day, but soon had to take it off. Here you can see the two sides of the knot. Apologies for the photos. My arms aren’t long enough to get the knot in proper focus!
The full outfit consisted of a navy Lands’ End vest with my Isle Collection linen trousers. I also wore pretty gold and silver feather earrings and a matching necklace.
Outfit of the day 04/08/22 with Hermès’ Mythiques Phoenix Coloriage scarf
Here is an image of the full scarf:
Mythiques Phoenix Coloriage by Laurence Bourthoumieux for Hermès
Earlier in the week my Marks and Spencer navy and white dress coped well with a hot day, but I couldn’t bear to try a scarf and instead chose this Bill Skinner lapis lazuli pendant…
Outfit of the day 02/08/22 with Marks and Spencer dress
This is a larger picture of the Bill Skinner necklace:
Lapis lazuli and gold pendant by Bill Skinner
I must thank everyone who has responded to last Monday’s post, either on here or elsewhere. Over the weekend, I am going to look through your comments again and try to respond next Monday.
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 
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