Book Haul

Usually, like so many people all over the world, we buy our books from Amazon.  But sometimes this just won't do.  Sometimes we feel the need to browse along book shelves in a shop; hold a book in our hands; read the blurb on the back and absorb the picture on the cover.  If all of these acts combined make our hearts leap and our fingers itch to turn the pages, we buy the book.  Quite often I will continue to pick up my new purchase, flick through it, read the headings, the reverse, study the cover, smell it, hold it and savour the moment still to come when I turn to Chapter One and begin.

So on a warm and breezy day, Pea and I drove down to Bangor and headed straight for one of the two bookshops in the city and spent a very content half hour doing just that.  Being of one mind, we both stopped in the aisle containing classic novels.  We leafed through the Jane Austen titles, hoping against hope that by some miracle, a new JA book has been discovered and published and is awaiting discovery on the shelf.  No such luck!  I did find a Charlotte Bronte book that I neither own nor have read; Tales of Angria, so I clutched that in my expectant hands and carried on looking.

Unexpectedly, I came across Dracula.  Not something I would usually get all that excited about, but having read Frankenstein last year and found it incredibly absorbing and a little sad, I decided to buy Dracula as my summer evening read!  Probably not the best thing to go to bed on, but I don't mind being a tiny bit scared, providing the threat isn't real.

I couldn't really justify spending any more money at that point, so I contented myself with just looking and enjoying the atmosphere that only a book shop can bring.  Meanwhile, Pea was really going for it and had quite an arm full!  She has worked hard and saved up for this moment and I loved to see her get so excited when she came across a Charles Dickens set for £3 and better still it was the only one left! So she felt she had secured a real bargain with that one.  She also bought herself a copy of Frankenstein, my ancient book clearly not being up to the mark, (only kidding Pea, I know you like to own your own copies), along with Tess of the D'Urbervilles, a Dan Brown and a huge book of photos taken by the Hubble space telescope of things like the Orion Nebula, Saturn's rings and the Milky Way.  Gorgeous.  It took us less than an hour to purchase this lot and as it was such a beautiful day, we made our way home.

Yesterday, we had a fairly productive morning in the kitchen.  We had been given a huge arm full of rhubarb so a mammoth chopping session ensued before bagging it for the freezer.  Months of rhubarb and custard tart in the waiting.

After my disastrous attempt at making sweets a few weeks ago, I tried again, but this time with something a little more fail-safe; fudge.  I have made tons of fudge over the years and given a lot of people piles of teeth-achingly sweet, crumbly confections.  I hadn't tried this one before, so with a little trepidation, I had a go.

We made a huge (3lb) slab of the stuff and once set, I cut it into bite sized squares.  Oh my goodness, this is one incredibly seductive mouth full.  The sweetness hits your tongue, then begins to melt slowly and you are left with soft, creamy sugar interlaced with morsels of salted and roasted peanuts.  One piece is never enough.  It is dangerous.  It calls to you to taste more and you give in to it's velvety temptation, knowing all the time that you should resist, you should stop, you should put the lid on the tin and forget.  But it is almost impossible.  The best way round it is to give it away, or give it to two boys to eat.  They can wolf it down with no fear of spreading hips and all is well.  Problem solved, until next time.

My Honey Blossom and Beeswax and Oat soaps are ready to use now, having spent six weeks in my airing cupboard curing.  We all tried them out and found them to be very easy to lather giving medium bubbles and best of all leaving your skin feeling soft and smooth.  Goody!  I have wrapped some up and will be taking them to Babs next week.  I hope she likes them.

After a busy few days, we all sat about in the garden this evening and H2 made a sun dial.

It is far from scientifically perfect, but it suited him fine and it did actually work.  Unfortunately the dogs kept on scattering the stones as they ran about.  H2 very patiently put them all back several times and then turned round and trod on the stick.  Oops.  I couldn't help but laugh and thankfully so did he!  The joys of Summer evenings hold no bounds!

I hope you have a lovely evening and find time to have some fun. xxx