So, we have come to the end of the week and the beginning of a new month. The weather is very changeable here with bright sun, crisp and cold air, then drenching rain – all within a few minutes. But then, that’s the UK for you!
I have been really struggling with my health and have spent a lot of the week in bed fighting quite spectacular coughing fits, but I did manage to wear one nice outfit. This gorgeous scarf from Fetolia, that I bought earlier in the year, was just perfect for an Autumn day with grey items from my wardrobe…
Outfit of the Day 28/09/21 with Olympian Gods by Fetolia
The outfit:
Dark grey cotton mix short sleeved top – Lands’ End.
Dark grey cotton mix cardigan – Lands’ End.
Mid grey cord trousers – Lands’ End.
Orange enamel flower earrings – old, no image.
Animal print and gold enamel bangle – Halcyon Days.
Silk scarf, 90cm, in grey, gold and ivory – Olympian Gods – Fetolia. Tied in an asymmetric knot.
I really like this combination of clothing, scarf and jewellery, although I think I would look a lot better with a haircut and a little makeup. I have no idea what colour lipstick I should wear! Any ideas?
Having just realised that I haven’t yet worn my new Hermès Lazy Leopardesses scarf, I must remedy that next week. We are definitely back to scarf wearing weather now – hooooooraaaaaaay!
Gosh, we have reached the final Reading Roundup post for September already! This last week, I only managed to finish one book. The was relatively short and I read it quite quickly. I have also started a second book, but it is much longer, so I haven’t reached the end yet. It’s not a race, after all!
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
This week, I tried another book by Kristin Hannah: The Great Alone. This is the (long) blurb:
”Alaska, 1974. Unpredictable. Unforgiving. Untamed. For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival.
Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: he will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.
Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate for a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if it means following him into the unknown.
At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers. In a wild, remote corner of the state, they find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the Allbrights’ lack of preparation and dwindling resources.
But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own. In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves.”
I gave this book three stars on the Goodreads website and wrote the following review:
I’m beginning to realise, after two books, that Kristin Hannah likes to write about total misery and then leaven it with a more positive ending. To say that I enjoyed this book would be wrong. I did enjoy parts of the book, but was, rightly, horrified by others. The descriptions of Alaska were interesting and well written, but there was far too much repetition. I have read other fiction based in the State which has given me a taste of the scenery and living conditions already.
The characters were either very extreme or sketchy. The issues raised were terrible and heart-breaking but also piled on brutally. I have one more book by Hannah in my library queue but after that ai will definitely take a break!
“Oh, there she goes again!” “Spending money!” Some of you may say. OK, I know I must seem to be a spendaholic these days. But, this time I am planning ahead.
Lovely Husband never knows what to buy me when it comes to birthdays and Christmas. So I usually start to plan a few months before and get something suitable myself. My birthday is in November and I have already purchased that gorgeous cashmere stole from Johnstons of Elgin, that I showed you all a while ago. It has gone into storage and won’t be used until my birthday comes around, although it is hard to resist the temptation to get it out and stroke it!
When it come to Christmas presents, I sometimes spot something really early as has happened this time. As Autumn approaches, I begin to think about gaps in my wardrobe for the colder months. I had a look through my jumpers and saw that some of them either no longer fit, because of my weight gain, or were wearing out. My old John Lewis navy cashmere v-neck is now far too small and needs replacing and I also decided that something in a very dark grey would fill a gap. For cashmere, I usually go to Pure Collection, John Lewis or Marks and Spencer which seem to work well for me. This time, however, I was browsing the WoolOvers site (I have bought from them before) and looked at their cashmere/merino v-necks. As these are considerably cheaper than pure cashmere, and they were doing an offer, I decided to buy navy and dark grey v-neck jumpers.
They arrived this morning and look fine. I like the looser fit that a larger size gives me. They are good colours and quite soft, although, obviously, not as soft and cuddly as pure cashmere. I would post a nice photo of each, but they only have modelling pictures on their site! Instead, here are photos of them hanging on my wardrobe door…
Navy and dark grey v-necks by WoolOvers
I wonder if I can wait until Christmas to wear them! I may try to take some modelling photos with some of my scarves, if I have enough energy later in the week. I have lots of scarves and shawls that would look great with them as these are the base colours of my wardrobe, as outlined in last Monday’s post!
I intended to write an Outfit post today. It was all planned. A nice top, jeans, my new scarf and a new item. But it was not to be. It seems to be all too frequent these days, feeling very weak and ill. Not strong enough to get dressed properly. Although, I did manage to put some jewellery on with my nightdress and slippers!
Here is the quick photo…
Outfit of the day 24/09/21
The jewellery above was a present from Elder Son and is by Sainsburys’: silver butterfly earrings and a blue crystal pendant.
I wandered around on eBay this week and was lucky enough to find a Halcyon Days enamel bangle in just the right shade of orange to go with my new Hermès scarf: Tea Time. I don’t intend to branch out further into orange clothing or accessories (I already have a necklace and earrings in amber which might work with this scarf), but I thought that this little friendship bracelet, especially as it is decorated with gold hearts, would look great with it.
Here is the scarf, as a reminder, with the bangle below:
Oh, reading has been such a joy during the last week! For once, my choices were perfect for me and I found both books really absorbing, in their different ways.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
My first book, which was a completely random choice, was The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. Here is the blurb:
”“My land tells its story if you listen. The story of our family.”
Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she barely knows.
By 1934, the world has changed; millions are out of work and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as crops fail and water dries up and the earth cracks open. Dust storms roll relentlessly across the plains. Everything on the Martinelli farm is dying, including Elsa’s tenuous marriage; each day is a desperate battle against nature and a fight to keep her children alive.
In this uncertain and perilous time, Elsa—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or leave it behind and go west, to California, in search of a better life for her family.”
I read this book very quickly and wrote the following review on the Goodreads website:
Well, this was an absolutely incredible book! Heartbreaking, tragic, but in the end uplifting. The story of an amazingly brave woman battling everything life could throw at her and her family in 1930s America.
In places, the unrelentingly grim and miserable story was almost too unbearable to read. But what would it have been like to live like this? To watch your children become thin and starved, to have to battle every day to earn enough to feed, clothe and house them.
I will be haunted by this book for a long time, I am sure.
“Enjoy” is not the word for this book! It was, however, totally absorbing and well worth my time. For my next read I turned to a totally different genre: fantasy.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas
I have had this book on reserve from the Library’s ebook service for some time and, on finishing it, I rushed to reserve the rest of the series! That gives you an idea of my reaction to Sarah J Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses!
This is the blurb:
”When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.
As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.”
I think the series is probably Young Adult, and I am certainly not in that category! Anyway, I really enjoyed this book and you can read my reaction below:
Well, I love this book! I don’t care about other people’s opinions, or whether it is the best written book, or about flaws in the plot, or that other renderings of the Beauty and the Beast tale might be better etc., etc. I enjoyed reading it and I lost myself in it and it took away all of my worries whilst I read it. It also left me feeling happy, uplifted and looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
So, thank you to Sarah J Maas. You have really helped me to experience the magic of reading again during this time of chronic illness and severe depression. I am so glad that you have written lots of books as I now have another author’s works to explore!
It is such a long time since I last looked at the colour wheels I created to help me organise my wardrobe! Back in 2018, I thought I had reached a final version but I should have known better. Nothing stays the same and, as my hair is now grey, I have included more grey items into my wardrobe.
Here are the older colour wheels to show how they have developed since I started this blog:
Wardrobe Colours chart version #01
Wardrobe Colours chart version #02
Wardrobe Colours chart version #03
Wardrobe Colours chart version #04
You can see I was using Excel and PowerPoint to create these charts! The new one is not quite as “pretty” as I used the “Numbers” app on this iPad and I am still learning how it works.
Today’s Wardrobe Colour wheel:
Wardrobe Colours Chart version #05
Anyway, this is what I am aiming for with my colour choices for my clothing. I sometimes branch out a bit with accessories, but a plan like this helps to avoid the scattergun approach. With that, you often find that nothing in your wardrobe works with anything else!
The navy and grey are “base” colours, often called “neutrals”. These are the basic items that hold a wardrobe together and I have these colours in a range of clothing (tops and bottoms) and accessories such as boots, shoes and handbags. At the moment, I have a lot more navy items than grey. The other colours are “accents” which bring life to a wardrobe. Mine change slightly according to the season, like this:
Purple: Spring/Summer – lilac, lavender, bright and mid-purple. Autumn/Winter – deep, rich purple and mauve.
Cobalt and bright blue are year round colours for me.
Both pink and white/cream tend to be for warmer Spring/Summer days.
Jewellery and scarves can be in all shades of both my accent and neutral colours. In addition, I also have some in colours that are outside this plan, such as orange, red or amber. These are either old items, or gifts or simply bought on a whim!
Some purists also say that you should limit your jewellery and metallics to yellow or rose gold, or silver. I don’t go that far!
Phew! I think that is enough for today.
Love and best wishes,
Anne
💕💗💖💗💕
P.S. If you are interested in how I have developed my colour wheels over the years, please click on the Wardrobe Planning tab at the top of the blog and you will see the posts in the list. Oh, and I must say that I saw the original idea on The Vivienne Files blog!
Well, again it is only one outfit, but I actually managed to get dressed in something nice and go out of the house (which I haven’t done for a long time!). Wednesday was Lovely Husband’s birthday and we had some chores to do, which needed both of us. In addition, I wanted to have a ride out in the new car for the first time. So, we completed the chores and then I suggested that we could drive over to one of the garden centres, have a walk, and then sit down for a drink.
And we managed to do just that. At least we tried a kind of birthday celebration 🎉!
This is the outfit that I assembled…
Outfit of the day 15/09/21 with Hermès’ Tea Time
Here is the full list:
Grey short sleeved cotton top – Lands’ End.
Navy jeans – Klass.
Orange enamel flower earrings – old, not shown.
Cream and gold enamel bangle – Halcyon Days.
Silk scarf, 70cm, in orange, white and grey – Tea Time by Hermès. Tied in a simple triangular knot. As this was the first time of wearing, I need to practise a bit more so that more of the design is shown and also try to get the hearts the right way up!
With this outfit I carried my navy Massaccesi handbag and wore navy shoes. If I had had more energy, I would have dug out my gorgeous silver and grey Massaccesi bag and my grey jeans. I definitely need some grey or silver footwear to match!
OK, I know I need a haircut! I haven’t had it done since May!
Our week of peace and quiet will end this evening when Elder Son arrives home from his holiday. I have really missed him and it will be nice to hear all about his adventures.
This will be a short post this week. It’s Lovely Husband’s birthday today so I am quite busy for once! More about that in Friday’s post. Anyway, I have one book to tell you about…
Find Them Dead by Peter James
I have already read quite a few books in Peter James’s Roy Grace series. This one, Find Them Dead, is actually the 16th! Here is the blurb:
”Ending his secondment to London’s Met Police, Roy Grace gets a tip-off about a county lines drugs mastermind operating out of Brighton. On his first day back in his old job in Sussex, he is called to a seemingly senseless murder.
Separately, Meg Magellan finally has her life back together, five years after the car crash that killed her husband and their son. Her daughter, Laura, now 18, is on her gap year travelling in South America with a friend, and Meg misses her badly. Laura is all she has in the world.
In between jobs, Meg receives a summons for jury service. She’s excited – it might be interesting and will help distract her from constantly worrying about Laura. But when she is selected for the trial of a major Brighton drugs overlord, everything changes.
Gradually, Grace’s investigation draws him increasingly into the sinister sphere of influence of the drug dealer on trial. A man utterly ruthless and evil, prepared to order the death of anyone it takes to enable him to walk free.
Just a few days into jury service, Meg arrives home to find a photograph of Laura, in Ecuador, lying on her kitchen table. Then her phone rings.
A sinister, threatening stranger is on the line. He tells her that if she ever wants to see Laura alive again, it is very simple. At the end of the trial, all she has to do is make sure the jury says just two words . . . Not guilty.”
And this is what I wrote on the Goodreads website in response:
This was an OK read. I have read other books in this series before, so the main recurring characters were all pretty familiar. Most of the plot took place in a courtroom, which was quite interesting, although there were passages that felt too long.
Most of the issues in the book were wrapped up neatly, with a couple hanging around to be resolved later in the series. There were certainly some dark foreboding clouds on the horizon!
This is the kind of series that you can slip into like a familiar police soap opera on TV. It’s an easy read, with some challenges along the way.
After that book, I decided to completely change genres, so I am currently reading The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. It is really engaging so far and I will let you know how I get on with it in next week’s Reading Roundup post.
Well, this is going to be an unusual week for me and Lovely Husband! Elder Son is away until Friday for a holiday on his own. He has been looking forward to it for months and, in recent weeks, has become very nervous. Usually, he is a very confident traveller, but under the present circumstances he has been worrying about how COVID my affect his trip. He is terrified of catching it and then being really ill and is also scared that he might pass it on to us. So, I have spent a lot of time trying to reassure him in the hope that he can have a really enjoyable holiday, which he deserves.
ES is so sweet and helpful. As I spend so much time in bed, he makes and brings me meals and snacks, treats me to all kinds of buns and crisps (which I shouldn’t eat!) with copious pots of tea, and also makes sure that my box of medications is up-to-date and well-stocked. In addition, he loves hugs, watching silly videos on YouTube together and telling me all about his current interests. All of this is amazing when you consider he has Autism and Learning Difficulties. He is a wonderful person for 99% of the time and can be very difficult to handle and live with for about 1%!
Despite me telling him to save his money to spend on his own needs, he loves to cheer me up with unexpected gifts. This collection recently appeared in my bedroom. The two outer scarves are very large and will be great for snuggling in the colder months. One has a very loose weave in an ice blue colour; the other is pale blue and is more substantial. The shiny satin scarf has a large initial “A” in the centre and is a smaller size. The black woven-effect zipped pouch with the gilt “A” will be handy inside my larger handbags or could be used as a clutch.
Isn’t he kind?
Gift items from Primark
It is also LH’s birthday this week. I don’t think I will be strong enough to go out for a celebratory meal, which I would love to do, but I am sure that we will manage to mark the day in some way. It will certainly be very strange to be on our own! I think it is over 30 years since we last had a birthday without either of our lads.
See you on Wednesday for the usual Reading Roundup post.
I haven’t used the title “Outfits of the Week” for ages! We have had hot, sticky weather this week and this has really taken its toll on my health. Most days, I have stayed in bed with heat exhaustion, despite the fan next to me. On Wednesday, however, I managed to put on a nice outfit, which gave Lovely Husband quite a surprise!
You may remember this “dress” that I bought earlier in the year…
Marigold block print cotton nightdress in cerulean blue – Toast
Well, yes, it is a nightdress but I have decided to wear it during the day instead! This collage shows how…
Outfit of the day 08/09/21 with Toast nightdress
I think that all of these blues are wonderful! The bracelet is by Halcyon Days and the earrings were from a boutique that has sadly closed down. My navy or tan sandals would have worked well with this ensemble.
Once the weather cools down again, I must put together more outfits. Well, I will try!
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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