Monday again

Yesterday was rather wet and I got stuck into my reading and forgot to blog or read my e-mails.A book which will vie for number one position this year is 'Stargazer' Linda Gillard> This is the story of a blind girl, who one day drops her keys in the snow and can't find them. A young man helps her and they become friends.His main home is on Skye and he invites Marianne to his home because he wants her to 'see' the stars.how is she going to do that ?He relates sights to music. Marianne is a keen music lover. This enables her to' see'.This is a also a romance so naturally there have to be difficulties which are resolved by the end.My favourite description is of Moonlight.
Moonlight?It's eerie like cold,still water....You know when there's a mist in Edinburgh and the air is full of vapour? You feel like you're breathing water.The air's clammy and it seeps into your clothes, into your bones. That's a bit like moonlight. cold And mysterious..It can look very beautiful or sinister.
Paper back version p 80-81
Today it isn't raining but it's cold and damp. I think autumn is becoming winter quite quickly this year. I've just had my 'flu' jab always a sign of winter precautions. Also have begun putting summer clothes into their winter home. Now I begin to buy for Xmas. If I start early I manage to buy nice things. Later and the money runs out if there is too much at once.
Bought a book on Saturday. It's the only paper back version I've seen of Dumas 'The Last Cavalier'. It is a late find apparently.
Today did a little trawl of the charity shops.I bought 'The Tower' Manfredi 99p. I really like his books. Then I went to Oxfam and they were 'doing buy one get one free on their hardbacks. So I bought 'hemingways Chair Michael Palin.Deafening Frances Itani,The Money Box. Margaret Forster and Triumph of the sun Wilbur Smith.SO 4 BOOKS FOR £2.00. How good is that!!!
The next rainy day the great book sorting out will begin- a daunting task.

here again

we had a wonderful few days in Haworth last weekend. Our guest house was superb. It is called 'Aitches' and is run like a really good hotel by David.The breakfasts were all locally sourced and as much as one could possibly eat. Since I never cook except porridge at breakfast time, I had two fat free slices of bacon and 2 fried eggs for the three breakfasts we had.saturday we explored Haworth and visited the Parsonage. I was very lucky and managed to get the price reduced on a paper back Oxford Companion to the Brontes because the cover was bent.I've been to Haworth before and have always had a strong sense of the girl's presence. this time I was thinking about Their father. How did he manage with all his children dead?Despite his losses he soldiered on.
The weather was so good we were able to have a 'cuppa' sitting outside and ditto with our 'bijou lunchettes'. Noone needed much lunch. Then we explored all the little shops. I was lucky and found the first three Josephine Tey's for 50p each. I think we all found books we liked.In the pm we went to East riddlesdownn Hall and another online friend joined us. it's great to meet people and find they're as nice as one expected. the Hall is one of those places which despite being stately one feels one could live there very cosily.Both sat and Sun evenings we ate in the Black Lion( I think that's its name)where Branwell bronte used to do his drinking. the meals were excellent and the service great . We found whereever we were that people were pleased both to see us and to serve us.Very different from Surrey.
Sunday we went to Bolton Abbey, which is set in lush, green dales with a river running through. We were pleased we were there early because as we left most of the families in that part of Yorks seemed to be arriving. we decided to go on to Skipton, which was buzzing. My friends went to see the castle. I didn't because I've been before and knew I couldn't manage the stairs. I 'reccied the Charity shops. We all did well but none of us bought in the Heart Foundation because they charge far too much. It's much better to sell lots than hardly anything. I find this especially in Brighton that all the charity shops charge too much yet in Norwich and Liverpool there were Oxfam books mainly and they were really fairly priced consequently between my brother and I we spent quite a bit.
As usual when i've been in good company it took me time to adjust to being alone again, hence no posting. Noone wants to read miseries.
I took a very unusual book with me 'The Night Library' Alberto Manguel. Manguel has written widely on books and reading. this is about libraries. he has had the good fortune to be able to build a library in France. In the daytime it is his study and place of work but at night he sits in a comfie chair , thinking about his books and reading.Each chapter is about different aspects of libraries for example 'The Library as Myth'. he discusses ways of ordering a library Dewey Decimal, Library of Congress, by genre etc. His love of books and reading shine through.He quotes from the Aztec Codex from 1524, which is in the Vatican Archives at the end of the book and it sums up how many of us feel about books and reading.
Those who read,those who
tell us what they read,
those who noisily turn
The pages of their books,
Those who have power over
red and black ink
And over pictures,
those are the ones who lead us,
guide us, show us the way.
This is a book I shall buy when it comes out in paper back because each chapter has profound things to say and to think about.
Now I've finished my wanderings until December I shall try to write every day. i have so many books to talk about.

Monday musings 3

I just had to blog about Maestro. i only began watching because my Bro and sis in law did and then I was hooked. goldie was amazing but Sue perkins could be a professional conductor. i was disappointed when they were talking about women conductors that no one mentioned Janet canetty-Clark who conducts a choir in Burgess Hill and I believe the brighton festival choir. But she conducted a choir in Vienna long before there were other women. she is also a brilliant lecturer and knows so much about music and can convey it all to the novice as indeed can Pauline greene who lectures at Birkbeck and has worked with Janet.
Sue conducted before 30000 in the park as if she always does this and brought new meaning from the Elgar. i also liked the way she conducted Lesley Garrett.
have been running around to day collecting my ticket for thursday. I bought on line but had to go to Redhill to pick up. In Smiths I spotted Mary Beard's latest book 'Pompeii'. I want it but don't know if I shall be able to afford it. i'd like to write about it here because it's so exciting.( You can see I didn't just look!!). I don't know where she finds time, energy or stamina to research, lecture, write and run a family. Then she writes a blog always once a week and sometimes more and they're longer thananything I've yet written.
By the end of next week I shall be able to scan photos in to my blog because random is giving me the means to do this.More technology for my aged brain to master haha.

satuday catch up continued

Something went very wrong, my post disappeared and came back as a draft. I didn't know how to publish so cut and pasted now I don't think it's all there. I was talking about my conspiracy theory relating to new computers. Most people seem to have to replace modems and printers too.
Now I'll just write alittle about books and write tomorrow. I'm in a state of shock at my mising post. i think the bit where I thanked treva has vanished too. i'm such a slow typist I can't begin again,
have just read 'Caesar's Triumph' by Stephen saylor.This is about a conspiracy to assassinate him during a triumph. These were several :the one most written about was to celebrate the return from Gaul. a triumph was rather like a huge parade containing soldiers and slaves ie those captured and the material spoils of war.Mary Beard has written a wonderful book about Triumphs which I shall be blogging about soon. If you remember Shakespeare depicts a triumph in 'Julius Caesar' and it is this which makes those who later killed him begin to plot because he was becoming so imperial and they feared the end of the republic.Saylor has his characters discuss this too.
a complete contrast is the reading I have in the meditation room (also known as the loo)Here I've been reading Victoria Holt. Alas I've now read all those I've managed to find. Holt was also Jean Plaidy and Philippa carr. Each alter ego wrote a different type of book. I'd forgotten how well she wrote. They are not literature but they have good plots and strong characters. The one I have just finished called 'The House of the thousand Lanterns' contains many details about late 19thc HongKOng and about Chinese artefacts and Chinese customs.sometimes we need books that just take us away from our own worlds and worries.

saturday catch up

a saturday without rain whee. i didn't blog every day as I hoped. My son and his lady were over from Hong Kong and we had a lovely time together on Monday but then it took the rest of the week to regain my equilibrium.

had a lovely comment from Treva to continue blogging. It's so nice to be encouraged

rain

More rain again today. I wonder if anyone else finds it hard to motivate themselves in the rain. this morning I was so cold I put my heating on for a while seemed awful to do that in Sept.brighton on tuesday was the wettest in three years so we can't complain. there were only 6 of us on the bus. still we all had a good time. It's really nice to breath fresh air.
I've been having a 'lack of concentration' period so have taken up reading Nora Roberts in her JD Robb incarnation. These books are set in the future around 2056 and are really well written, have interesting plots and over the series the characters develop and we find out snippets of their past in each book.
Monday I trawled the charity shops in Crawley and found a brand new Brideshead for a £1. Mine is very tatty and then a new copy of 'the Post birthday world' Lionel shriver 50p and 'the memory Keepers Daughter' also 50p. Some people when given books as presents seem to just run down to the charity shop without even opening them. In our Oxfam I saw an unopened as in unread and with no creases on the spine'Larks rise' with the inscription mother's day 2008. it did quite horrify me. Hope the daughter doesn't live locally.
Now going to pop over to random and see what she's up to. I love blogs but i find everyone is more interesting than I am. I wonder if \I should continue and then I do if only to practise my typing. i must try to buy a scanner so that I can liven up the appearance of the blog.

return of the wanderer

here we are again. I've been away at my bro's since I last wrote on the 10th. No more missing my blog as i only have a jaunt to Hawarth with random on Sept.19th and a visit to my cousin on the 3rd dec. until these dates I shall try and blog every day.i hope I haven't lost those who read me by not being here.
N.Norfolk was wonderful. i beat all my previous bird totals and saw 120 species. My highspot was a little owl just sitting on a branch looking at me. I have a passion for owls. I have over a 100 of all kinds including a broach and earrings.Also surpassed my second hand book total. My bro has stopped smoking and gave me £20 to spend on books. I found 35. Most of them are still in Norfolk but They'll be here by 19th since my sis in law's sister is going up with a car and will bring them back. I broought a few back with me.
1) Reader, I married him-Patricia Beer
2)The Medieval Papacy-Geoffrey Barraclough
3)Emily Bronte -Winifred Guerin
4) House of a thousand Lanterns-Victoria Holt
5)teach Yourself New Testament greek
6)Homer's the Illiad and the Odyssey-Alberto Manguel:This is a beautiful ,like new hardback, which no library had in stock so i was really pleased and with 1-3 which I('ve wanted for ages.
7)The Cat who went Underground-Lillian Braun Jackson
8)The Sand Reckoner-Gillian Bradshaw. This is brand new and cost £2.00
So you see how well I did.My greatest find were for my daughter's Xmas pressie (part thereof)
ADorita Fairlie Bruce stand alone and a Dimsie book. Charlie read these as a teenager from the London Library and has always wanted them herself. They are very scarce and most often too expensive so to find one for £15.00 was super even though It's the last in the series so we're starting back to front.
In Norwich, which is the first time I've used my bus pass out county,we found an Oxfam the bigger part of which was books. They were reasonably priced so quite a few came from there. Some Oxfams are becoming greedy and charging too much. Then they wonder why their books are not selliing.we also visited the Cathedral,which is fairly interesting but still leaves Winchester as my personal favourite.We stuck with 'old' Norwich and explored the little lanes, which was where we found areally nice used bookshop with an owner who wanted to talk books.
went to several art exhibitions too. Most were amateur but excellent quality and two were professional. One in Holt and one in Salthouse Church. the artist there was Elizabeth Humphries,who does these really big unusual works in vivd colours.Many of her works would be unsuitable for ordinary houses.
Also managed some reading but I'll blog daily about them rather than make this too long.I read 'Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth'- Frances Wilson.this is really interestingly written. As DW didn't live a rackety life a book about her could be very tedious but this isn't. There was quite a lot new to me too.I hadn't realised that William gave her Mary's wedding ring to wear the night before the marriage. D was too overcome to go to the nuptials and waited at the cottage until the bridal party returned.wilson reads the Lucy Poems' as potentially celebrating an incestuous relationship between W and D. Their relationship was certainly intense.'D often describes herself as a half. She is afterall Someone who quarrels with herself. But this( just as W is going to marry) is the only occasion in her journal where she can be heard referring to herself as possessing any poetic talent at all'
This inspite of it being obvious that she played a large part in the 'Lyrical Ballads'.This small quotation shows the clarity of Wilson's writing style.
I collect books on the Romantics so would like to own this one when it comes out in paperback. Another aspect of Mary which is discussed is her relationship with the coleridges. She really didn't like Sarah C. and actively encouraged C in his approaches to Sara Hutchinson.I was so surprised to read this since I'd have thought she'd be more conventional than this.