Six Degrees of Separation: from The Paris Wife to …

It’s already time for Six Degrees again, hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavouriteandbest.

From the starter title provided by Kate, create a chain of six books, each one linked to the one before.  This month is a wildcard: we each start our chain with the book we ended on last month.  For me that was The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.  Although each book is only required to link to its predecessor, often a theme arises or a choice spins back to an earlier link.  This month is no different in that regard.  It is different in that beyond the starter book, none of the others are books that I’ve read; they are all books that I very much want to read.  So perhaps this chain will give me a nudge!  It also takes me on a whistle-stop tour across the globe, sampling cultures far removed from my own.  We begin in France. Continue reading “Six Degrees of Separation: from The Paris Wife to …”

The View from Here: as August arrives

There is always renewal; there is always change

The final hours of July passed wet and cool, brooding and overcast.  And welcomed.  I applauded the dimming of the light; I turned inward and pondered the prescience of autumn.  My heart has always belonged to autumn. Continue reading “The View from Here: as August arrives”

The View from Here: colours of July

… from the garden

It is high summer.  We’ve had some very fine weather but also brumous days when the mist and clouds merge and don’t lift all day, and smuggy days when the humidity hits hard and strong.  But we have escaped the fiercest temperatures of this month.  There are occasional compensations for living in an area that is wetter, milder and more temperate than most. Continue reading “The View from Here: colours of July”

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Women have such vivid imaginations and lead such dull lives.  Their pleasure in life is so soon over; they are so dependent on others, and their dependence so soon becomes a nuisance. (p. 234)

Published 1926

Read for Sylvia Townsend Warner Week, 20 Books of Summer, and the Classics Club Continue reading “Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner”

The View from Here: colours of July

… from the lanes

 

Thus far July has been glorious.  I want to capture these fleeting days, these colours of July.  As the month opened, I walked for a while, not far from home.  Sometimes, pictures are all that’s needed.

Up the hill under cerulean skies… Continue reading “The View from Here: colours of July”

Six Degrees of Separation: from Where the Wild Things Are to …

It’s been exactly a year since I last participated in Six Degrees which is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavouriteandbest.

From the starter title provided by Kate, six links create a chain of books which invariably surprises me by where it finally ends up.

Continue reading “Six Degrees of Separation: from Where the Wild Things Are to …”

The View from Here: poppies past and present

downloadThe same thing happened to me this June as apparently happens to many when it comes to buses.  Jude posted a photo so stunning that I immediately shared it with a dear friend with the entreaty that we must visit this place together next year.  But a year is a long time to wait, and – here’s where the buses come in – over the next little while it seemed that all my usual online Cornish haunts were filled with fields of poppies.  I had never heard about the poppies at West Pentire in previous years; now they were everywhere.  I had to see for myself. Continue reading “The View from Here: poppies past and present”

Birds on the Balcony: undesirable nest box for occupation

Forgive me for anthropomorphising, but I immediately thought of outraged teenagers. 

When we first met, Bernie had no interest in garden birds.  He professes never to have noticed a single bird.  These days he takes on the task of cleaning out and siting our bird boxes and earlier this year he devoted significant time to constructing and trialling protection for last year’s swallows’ nest in which, very sadly, the three babies drowned during a downpour.  (We have swallows nesting again now.  We’re hoping for a happier ending this year.) Continue reading “Birds on the Balcony: undesirable nest box for occupation”