A poor effort, but 'tis all mine own!

I have been looking at the blogs I follow, and the thought came to me that by comparison, mine are poor efforts really. There is Calico Kate this week with her wonderfully descriptive way of writing, which I am sure lots of us could do if we actually sat and thought carefully, about things like the noise the washing makes on the line when there is a strong breeze blowing. But instead we tend not to mention it. The minutae of people's lives interests many of us, which is why we follow the likes of Calico Kate, and Maddie Grigg, Vanessa too, as well as all your other favourites. They write about the everyday things, but somehow make them interesting, or perhaps more interesting than they would seem if they happened to us. Some of them add beautiful photos, of crafts, their surroundings, family and pets, which certainly add to the blogs. Mine own efforts seem paltry to me now, and I am left wondering should I discontinue this blog and just carry on with my 'Tales from...' blog?
I am sure my life is so mundane as to not be of any interest to anyone. I don't have exciting things like blowing down greenhouses to write about.... day trips either with or without huge dog.... I don't go anywhere much, though there may be some excitement at the weekend with a book sale in aid of charity to go to, if I can be bothered to get out of bed early enough on Sunday! The world from my window isn't worthy of note... though last Friday there was a farmers market for the first time in the car park of the lovely old social club just across the road and down a bit. However, it hadn't been advertised in the local papers, hardly anyone knew it was there until they passed by and saw about half a dozen stalls. It doesn't seem, by all accounts, as if it did very well, and may have been a feeble and useless waste of time and effort. There have been rumours that the social club might be closing, so maybe they are looking at ways to increase income and thus prove it's viability? If it goes, then some builder will come along and shove at least half a dozen small starter homes on the site, and I am sure the people living closest to it would rather suffer the occasional loud 'music' (for want of a better word for the cacophony of noise) from the disco, and cars leaving the car park at closing time, than the more constant noise from housing.
I can't talk about what I'm growing, because despite the lovely raised bed I still haven't sown seeds! Well, I do have a few pots, of tomato seeds, purple sprouting broccoli, and some rather special poppies, but that's about all. Oh, and a potato in a compost bag!! The grand plans have so far remained on paper and in my head only. But my excuse is that we were told there was to be heavy rain and strong winds this week, the temperatures have certainly dropped so the soil isn't very warm, and I thought, naively perhaps, that the rain would nicely moisten the soil, then we'd have some sun at the beginning of next week, which would heat it up and then it would be ideal for the seeds. Nice theory, shame about the practice - again!
However, come next week I shall be too busy to do any gardening as I have this workroom to dismantle, hundreds and hundreds of books to take off decrepit shelving, fitted cupboards to rip out, repainting and filling (not in that order of course) to do, before the new furniture can be installed over the long Bank Holiday weekend. Ikea assure me it will be delivered next Friday.. they better not let me down!
So my life is very mundane and normal and ordinary, and frankly boring probably, to those not closely involved in it. Are you remotely interested in the fact I have two new drugs added to my daily list of eight others since my transplant clinic check up last week? No, why should you be? Yet others manage to talk about their daily lives and I can't wait to read it.

Well, books are always a good fall back..... here are some of the books I have read, or have on the go. THE MAGICIAN'S DAUGHTER is written by a friend of mind, and is all about her life and some of the spooky, magical, and often weird things that have happened to her as a 'reluctant psychic' as she puts it.
I love Alexander McCall Smith's books, though only the ones set in Scotland, and this is the latest, The Incredible Lightness of Scones'. Now how could you resist at least picking up a book with a title like that? I have no time for his African detective series at all, having to slow down to pronounce the names properly slows me down which I hate, and I am not a fan of reading detective fiction.. though give me an episode of LEWIS or MIDSOMER MURDERS, and I'm a happy bunny. Erm.. .maybe that has something to do with the lovely Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox and John Nettles? Well, a little bit, but not a lot.

My husband has lots of books about Ley Lines and stone circles etc., but they are not something I have ever taken much notice of. Having said that, I love to visit old ruins and stone circles, my favourite being Long Meg in Cumbria, which I visited on a misty day, which added to the feeling of the place. However, of late I have had an interest in ley lines, and wanted to read more about them, and this, although it's over ten years old, is a really well written book for those who are new to the subject, it doesn't try to baffle you with science or high-falutin' language. The various theories for the lines I found interesting, and like to think that rather than having some prosaic reason for their being, it is all mystical and spiritual.

Having watched HELL'S KITCHEN recently, I was intrigued enough by Marco Pierre White to want to read more about him, and so bought his autobiography. There has been much written about him over the years, some of it true and some of it made up to look thrilling and so sell newspapers and magazines. It was ever so of course. Far better to read about his life from the horse's mouth I thought, and so it has proved. I don't know about you, but I prefer reading an autobiography to a biography, though if it is a properly authorised one by the subject, then I may be tempted. Mind you, there is no guarantee that the subject is being 100% truthful is there? Says she, ever the sceptic.

MOLLY FOX'S BIRTHDAY is by an Irish writer called Deirdre Madden, who has written several books though this is the first I have read. Molly Fox is an actress who goes away to New York and then London, lending her house to her closest female friend, who is a playwright and there ostensibly to work on her next play. However, being in the house of her oldest friend takes her mind away from the present day and to shared memories, and so we get to know about Molly and the circle of friends they both inhabit. It's a novel about friendship and 'how the past informs the present'... and it was a really good read.

So what do you think of this selection of wool then? It is just part of a large collection of wools in shades of pinks and oranges, with a bit of acid lemon, sharp turquoise blue. There are ribbony threads, knobbly wools, some wools with gold and silver threads woven through, some furry wools, some silky threads, cool cottons. They are for a throw, the idea being in a book on knitted throws, where you just chuck all the balls of wool in a basket at your feet (a la Kirstie Allsop for those of you who have been watching her rather expensive at times, makeover of a cottage, which by the way, for any of you interested, is available as a holiday let!) and just take out any thread you fancy, or take one without looking. You use it for one row, or two, more if you fancy. You leave a longish thread at the beginning and end of the rows though... you don't have to start rows at the same edge... the idea is that when it's finished all these hanging off threads give it a ready fringed look. Should be colourful, to say the least.

Well that brings me to the end of this, mine own poor effort compared to others more sumptuous in words and pictures. But I enjoyed rabbiting on anyway, and maybe someone else enjoyed it too?