Tulips and Childrens' Books

Thanks for your encouraging comments on my previous post! I wish that I could report that I am better but am still feeling mighty rough! Five weeks of sheer hell! I have a chronic sore throat and cough!  I can't sleep lying down because as soon as my head hits the pillow I start coughing! I have therefore been trying to sleep whilst sat upright - which is no joke! I think that I've probably got the flu as I've been feeling hot and sweaty one minute and then chilly the next! I am exhausted by it all to tell you the truth! I haven't been back to the doctor as my doctor is pretty crap if I'm honest!

The OH has been absolutely marvellous looking after me and doing all the shopping and taking Miss. K. to and from school. I don't know what I would have done without him!

He bought me the beautiful tulips above to cheer me up!

It's that time of year again when Miss. K. has her English Studies Board exam - she has to recite a poem, give a presentation and a demonstration and answer questions about them as well as reading  from a book of her choice!

Her presentation is going to be about "Matilda" - The Musical - and she is going to sing parts of two songs for her demonstration! She does a pretty mean impersonation of Miss. Trunchbull!

The exam is on Wednesday - so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well for her!

A closer look at the tulips!

I am a bit of a collector of childrens' books and I thought that I would show you some of the beautiful covers that these books have!

Most of the books I have purchased from a local second hand book shop - some for as little as 20p!

Aren't the covers just stunning! So evocative of their time!

Some have been presented to children for good school attendance or as a prize!

Some of the books also have colour plates in them!

The covers just make you want to grab the books and read the adventure stories within!

Wonderful drawings of children at play!

One of the colour plates!

Another look at those tulips!

One last look!

Righty-ho - I'm off to make myself a lemsip with some honey!

Be back soon!

June.

Another Books Round-Up

Well, doesn't he look pleased with himself! I found a dead shrew outside the front door - a little gift left there for us to find as soon as we opened the door in the morning - delightful! At least he hadn't brought it indoors as with the mouse we had last week! He's now fast asleep on the bed in Our Daughters room having a dream about another catty adventure, no doubt!

Whilst in Our Daughters bedroom I took a photo of the books on her bookshelf as they looked so colourful.

That book in a handbag shape called "Handbag Friends" was one of her favourite books when she was little and I've lost count of the number of times I was asked to read it and to sing the handbag song! (to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star). It is a lovely book for little girls. It starts off like this:

"In a pink handbag, all glittering and bright, live six little handbag friends ..."

 The little animals who live in the handbag have their own song:

"Pretty handbag we love you

Pinky Winky Winky Woo

Tra La La La, Oh so pink

Inky, Dinky, Linky Pink

Pinky Winky Winky Woo

Yes

Oh Yes

Oh Yes

We Do!"

The book then goes on to tell you the story of how they came to live in their pink handbag:

"Once upon a time, far, far away, there was a beautiful place called Planet Pink Handbag, where all the handbags come from."

Then someone steals all the handbags ... the six friends plan to save the day and go in search of the handbags!

They come across a big bad handbag called CLASP "I'm going to eat you with my mouth!" roared the big bad handbag - Open, Shut, Open, Shut. Snap! Snap! Snap! went her mean mouth.

The friends are chased by the bad handbag and they decide to sing the handbag song - three times! A miracle happens, the big, bad handbag begins to sway gently in time to the music and is tamed! The handbags are recovered and all is well.

But what of our six friends - Well, they get invited to a party held by a beautiful Princess and they go and live in her handbag:

"One by one, the six little handbag friends jumped and hopped and skipped and bounced into the pretty handbag."

If you're ever looking for a birthday present for a little girl this is it!

I thought I would show you my boudoir doll who rests on the bed in the spare room. I purchased her from Niki at Nostalgia in the Stone House's shop in Shepton Mallet. Niki has a wonderful array of things in her shop. She really does have a good eye and her shop is pure eye candy - I could easily walk out with a lot of her stock!

I've now finished reading the four books that I purchased in the second hand book-shop in Lyme Regis some weeks ago and thought I'd do a quick books round up. Four books for £9.50. It makes sense to buy second hand. I love the graphics on the front covers - modern day covers aren't half as interesting.

"Gideon's Staff" is by J. J. Marric aka John Creasey who wrote the Inspector West books.

The back cover says the following:

"In London, dangerous men are loose - ruthless thugs like Micky the Slob and small-time crooks with big-time ideas that do not stop at armed robbery ...

A maniac, obsessed by little girls with golden hair, roams the crowded beaches of an East Coast town ...

A sensational wave of crime gains momentum as Scotland Yard faces the axe of economy. Commander George Gideon C.I.D. knows that more police are needed, not less; and to avert crisis is prepared to risk everything - even his job."

There is a part in the book where the author describes the child killer stalking his next victim - it sent shivers down my spine.

I also liked the front cover of this book - although it is of a suicide!

The back cover says the following:

"He had friends, money and a beautiful wife, yet he chose to commit suicide from a New York skyscraper."

Doesn't that sentence draw you in from the off. As soon as I read that and flicked through the book in the shop I knew that this book would be on its way home with me. It doesn't disappoint.

When I was at school I read many, many Agatha Christie books. I hadn't read one for years. When I saw a whole shelf of them in the bookshop I was made up! I went for one Hercule Poirot and one Miss. Marple.

Agatha Christie's books are always a fabulous read.

In "The Murder of the Blue Train" - "One of Europe's crack trains roars through the night. The wealthy passengers retire to their compartments for the night and the car attendants settle down for another routine trip. But the next morning when the train glides past the blue Mediterranean one compartment carries a corpse!" And who should be on the train - why, Monsieur Poirot, of course!

"The Body in the Library" - "No breeze to stir the curtains - yet they moved ... nearer and nearer to the bed the intruder stole ... a finger and thumb ready to pick up a fold of skin, in the other hand the hypodermic needle was ready. But suddenly, from the shadows, an iron grasp seized the hand that held the needle. An unemotional voice, the voice of the law, said: "No, you don't. I want that needle!" The light switched on and from his pillows Conway Jefferson looked grimly at the murderer of Ruby Keene."

And near the very end you have Miss. Marple in her quintessential English elderly spinster way telling you how and why the crime occured - fabulous!

From my ramblings you can probably gather that a lot of books are read in this house. Here are some of the books on the box room window sill - we have so many books but not many book shelves! Too busy buying books to think of shelves!

Thankyou for your comments on my last post - the puppy has really settled in well.

It is so lovely to see him and Charlie playing tug of war with a piece of rope. The puppy growls as he's pulling as if that is going to scare Charlie and make him drop his end!

The sun has come out and it's promising to be a lovely week-end. Let's hope the weather man is right.

Until next time.

June.

Books, Cats and Things

This posting will be mainly about books and cats with a few other bits thrown in!

I will start with a books round up. Here are the books that I read last month.

You may remember that I had purchased four Dennis Wheatley books at a second hand book shop in Honiton some time ago. I had read one of them and it was included in my last books round up.

This month I read the remaining three and two Graham Greene books which I purchased from the Waterstones near Trafalgar Square when in London in April.

"A Gun for Sale"

Raven is an assassin, a hired killer, and his brutal murder of the Minister raises the spectre of war across Europe. As the nation prepares for battle, Raven goes on the run, hunted by the Police and hunting the man who paid him in stolen banknotes, eventually unearthing the terrible truth behind the killing.

"Travels With My Aunt"

Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time in over fifty years at his mother's funeral. Soon after, she persuades Henry to abandon Southwood, his dahlias and the Major next door, to travel through Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, Paraguay ... Accompanying his aunt, Henry joins a shiftless, twilight society: mixing with hippies, war criminals, CIA men; smoking pot, breaking all the currency regulations and eventually coming alive after a dull suburban lifetime.

"The Scarlet Imposter"

When Gregory Sallust landed in wartime Germany he had as much chance of coming out alive as a mouse in a cage of cats. His job was to contact an anti-Nazi organization ready to overthrow Hitler and sue for peace.

Masquerading first as a German General, then as an SS Gruppen-fuhrer, he stayed the course to the very end. A hundred times a day he risked death and the vilest tortures. With all the stealth and cunning of a tiger he pushed forward, leaving a trail of blood behind him as he fought desperately to elude the enemy closing round him.

"Contraband"

'Midnight at the Casino' is the first chapter heading in this strange story of international intrigue wherein planes flit by night to secret landing-grounds and lightless launches nose their way up narrow creeks in a low desolate coastline.

From the moment we meet the beautifyl Sabine, during La Grande Semain at Deauville, until the last page which discloses the end of the romance, the reader is caught up and lives for breathless hours through scene after scene of swift action and stealthy secret work at night.

We meet again that sinister figure of twisted body and twisted brain, Lord Gavin Fortescue, who escaped all penalty for the havoc and suffering he wrought in "Such Power is Dangerous"; and pitted against him we find that cynical but charming egoist Gregory Sallust, whose courage and imagination saved his friends in the dark hours of "Black August."

"The Secret War"

'War is an inexcusable act of barbarity entailing mass murder, mass mutilation, and every other crime in the calendar. Nothing is too terrible a punishment for those who set it in motion.'

Thus a handsome, wealthy young man proclaims his allegiance to the "Millers of God" - self appointed executioners of the world's warmongers. Fed by lust for blood, the young man pursues his quarry across Europe and Africa, relentless in his determination to kill the killers.

Rather than write up my own account of the stories I thought that I would copy what's on the dustjacket - to give you a complete flavour of these books and without spoiling the endings should you wish to read them yourself!

I had read some Graham Greene books whilst at University - a long time ago now and had forgotten how fantastic a writer he is. You just want to carry on reading. Unputdownable!

I also admire the writing of Dennis Wheatley - clearly written in a different age as they are a bit chauvenistic and not very politically correct but still absorbing and thrilling nonetheless. I have now read nine of his books and can't wait to get back to the second hand book-shop in Honiton to buy some more!

Only trouble is I have four books which I recently purchased in the second hand book-shop in Lyme Regis to read and three books which I purchased from our recent trip to London!

This afternoon shortly after lunch I went to throw some rubbish in the bin. There on the path to greet me was a dead mouse! I wondered which of the cats had been so generous in depositing this little mousling almost on the front door-step. I went looking around the house - Oscar was fast aleep in Our Daughter's bedroom amongst the teddies and Mr. Twitter-Hoo on her bed - Not Guilty I thought.

Millie was fast asleep in the lounge on the back of the sofa - Not Guilty I thought.

Ruby was also in the lounge - fast asleep among the cushions - Not Guilty I thought.

Poppy had been asleep in the laundry basket but when she saw me entering the kitchen she jumped out of the basket thinking there's a chance for food here. She's the greediest of our cats and its no contest when it comes to eating as to who will get first dabs - she wins hands down every time.

So until I woke her up by going to the kitchen she had been asleep in the laundry basket - Not Guilty I thought. There was only one cat missing from the house - Archie!

When I showed the Other Half this photo of Poppy he said "Looks as if she's been botoxed by the same guy that did Simon Cowell!"

Here she is cleverly telling me what she wants - I have to feed the cats on the work surface in the utility room otherwise the dog would eat all their food. She doesn't need to talk does she - she just looks at the work surface! Telling me to get on with it!

I opened the front door and there he was, as large as life, coming out from behind a bush - our cat, Archie.

Guilty, I thought!

He turned his head very quickly and I'm sure that he thought there was something in the undergrowth. Shortly after this photo was taken he was off. I'll let you know if I have another little gift waiting for me tomorrow!

Whilst in Our Daughter's bedroom I took a photo of Little Ted.

And a photo of Big Ted - otherwise known as "ESB Ted" as I gave him as a present to Our Daughter when she did well in her ESB exam last year. When she did well this year you may re-call that we bought some wool and knitting needles as she wanted to learn to knit. We have now knitted a few squares in anticipation of making a blanket for a dolls bed - I'm not as fast and enthusastic as other bloggers who create such beautiful blankets and cushions amongst other things and as she's learning Our Daughter is much slower. But, we'll get there in the end!

Until next time.

June.

The Week That Was ...

A photo of the bunch of flowers that I purchased today whilst shopping at M & S. They smell heavenly!

The Other Half had to go to work even though he'd only arrived home at 2.00 a.m. from work!

That's what happens when you're self-employed.

It has been a busy old week here. Something happened to Blogger during the week as well. Reading other people's blogs it appears that some people lost posts and others lost comments and some lost both!

 It has been a week of non-stop activity here.

Our Daughter played Cricket, had Tennis and Swimming lessons.

On Thursday evening her school had their Summer Arts Festival which involved Year 5 pupils doing some May-Pole Dancing.

There was a lot of twisting and turning and going around and around - making pretty patterns with the May-Pole ribbons.

It was very difficult to get photos as the children were moving very quickly. Such energy! If only I had half of it!

Here they are again. At the end of their dancing - the parents were asked to join in. I did a dance partnering Our Daughter and after one vigorous dance I was quite exhausted! I think that says something about my level of fitness! Must do more exercise!

On Saturday Our Daughter's School had an Open Day in the morning and then she had a Birthday Party to attend to in the afternoon. By the time I picked her up at 6.30 p.m. yesterday she was well and truly a tired little girl. The Birthday Party had been a Dance Party with a dance instructor (who apparantly was quite strict!) teaching them various dance moves! She went to bed last night without any hassle!

A few weeks ago I blogged about buying Daphne du Maurier's "The House on the Strand". I had read it previously but it is such a good read that I just had to read it again!

The book tells the story of Dick Young, an unhappily married man with two step-sons. He arrives in Cornwall for a holiday and stays at the home of his friend, Magnus - a scientist. He takes part in an experiment and by taking a potion is transported back in time to the 14th Century. He meets the people who really existed and who occupied the farms and houses that still exist in the 20th Century of his real life.

There is no happy ending. Magnus is killed as a result of his own experiment and Dick is left increasingly isolated. He lives in the present but is obsessively drawn to the past.

As always with du Maurier a fantastic and compelling read.

This book made me want to go and grab and read all her other books again - Jamaica Inn, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel, etc ...

Whilst in Honiton a few months ago now I had purchased four novels by Dennis Wheatley in a second hand bookshop. One of these was "Black August."

The background to the story is England "some years hence" - England is faced with complete financial ruin and faces a Red Revolution - panic and fear lead to street fighting and a mass exodus of people from the cities to the countryside. One of the key characters is Gregory Sallust - a man with little or no scruples. Self-preservation always being his highest priority. Sallust appears in later books by Dennis Wheatley when he becomes a World War II hero! The character was too good to be just left to end in this book!

After I finished "Black August" I moved on to read Erich Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front."

A very moving account of the plight of a group of German soldiers during the First World War. The book tells the story of Paul Baumer, a schoolboy and of his classmates - urged on by their school master to join the German Army shortly after the start of the War.

The book does not focus on heroic stories of bravery but gives us an insight into the conditions that the soldiers found themselves in. The monotony of battles, the threat of artillery fire, the struggle to find food, the lack of training for young recruits, etc.

The language of Remarque is superb.

"We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces."

So much said in one simple sentence. The futility of war. How young men are killed having yet to experience life.

This book really moved me. Possibly one of the best books I have ever read.

Book round up!

Earlier today Our Dog, Charlie was in the garden - looking straight at me. I rushed to get the camera - look what happened!

I have this watercolour in the spare bedroom upstairs. I love the lady's eyes. I purchased it from Niki at her shop in Shepton Mallet. Niki has a blog called Nostalgia at the Stone House which is on my side bar and is well worth a visit.

Well there goes another week - they just seem to fly by.

Hope you all had a good week.

Let's hope for some rain - the gardens need it but lets hope it only rains at night and that we continue to have good weather during the day!

Until next time.

June.

Books and Things ...

A short post today as the weather is glorious and I can't wait to get out there!

A photo of the lovely tulips which the Other Half gave me this week.

A recently purchased tin from e-bay. I liked those cute cats with the bows and so had to place a bid. I then forgot all about it and thought that someone would have put a bid on at the last minute and beaten me to it but no, my luck was in and so this delightful tin found its way towards the ever growing tin collection!

The book that I'm reading at the moment is "The Flying Squad" by Edgar Wallace. It was written in 1928 and the subject matter concerns drug smuggling - namely, cocaine and the attempts of Bradley, a Police Officer in the emerging Flying Squad to catch the criminals. Although it is written in 1928 it is very relevant to the drug problems that we have now - murders, people being hoodwinked into smuggling, etc ..

When we were last in London I purchased the above "Dr. Zhivago" and I have now finished reading it. Growing up I never saw the film which starred Omar Sharif and Julie Christie as Yuri and Lara all the way through but caught a few snatches of it here and there. It is beautifully written and of course a fantastic love story. A comment on the back cover :-

"Belongs to that small group of novels by which all others are ultimately judged."

That comment says it all really - if you haven't read it, you will not be disappointed. It is a bit hard going at first as the names are in Russian and sometimes the characters are referred to by their first name and then by their surname and then by a shortened version of their name - so there was a bit of flicking backwards and forwards initially to the list of the Principal characters! For example, Lara's husband is called Pavel Pavlovich Antipov. Sometimes he's referred to as Pavel, sometimes as Antipov and sometimes as Pashenka or Pasha!

At the same time that I purchased "Dr. Zhivago" I also purchased Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go." I found this book very hard going and the subject matter something that was difficult to grapple with.

The plot concerns human cloning. Humans being created simply for their body parts. The three main characters just seem to accept their lot in life and you just want to scream - run away, set yourselves free ...  

I have also read Carola Dunn's "The Winter Garden Mystery". This was a very quick and easy book to read - a perfect holiday read. A body is discovered in the Winter Garden at Occles Hall. It is the body of the missing parlour maid - her boyfriend is wrongly accused of the murder - Daisy Dalrymple who is staying at the hall calls on her friend from the Metropolitan Police to come and help solve the murder mystery.

Yesterday was the last day of term and school finished at 12.30 p.m. I was supposed to be doing the school pick-up but work meant that the Other Half's mum was requested to help out at the last minute for which I was truly grateful.

It was a lovely Spring day. Here is Our Daughter and her friend posing in-between playing a game of rounders on the green near to our house.

Our Daughter's friends mum arrived to pick her up at 6.30 p.m. and we sat in the back garden and enjoyed a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio while the girls went to the shed / playroom and read some old Beano annuals and ate ice-lollies.

 I will leave you now with another photo of those beautiful tulips.

I hope that you all have a fabulous weekend and that the sun shines wherever you may be!

Until next time.

June.