Sunday, June 22, 2008

Surfacing briefly

Its been a very busy few weeks, so my apologies for no new posts.

I've been a bit naughty - I managed to get rid of quite a few books recently................. but I have also added some new textile books to my collection and some CDs to my music collection. Ooops! In my defence, I ws taking advantage of a sale that Amazon were having and the local Library's Big Book Sale. Here are some of them.



This is the first of the books. It has this gorgeous dragon inside as well as a wealth of amazing textile pieces. You might not be able to read the title, since the cover is rather too shiny to photograph well - it is "The Shining Cloth - dress and adornment that glitters" by Victoria Z. Rivers. Published in 1999 by Thames and Hudson (ISBN 0-500-28374-5), I just love the fantastic illustrations.




The next one may seem an odd choice, but it contains some interesting information about how drapes and curtains were used in the past.


I do enjoy Library sales, you never what what gems will turn up.

These are some of the items I ordered from Amazon. At the time this photo was taken, two music CDs had not yet arrived. There was a DVD too - a collection of Jane Austen videos which I love watching when I have the chance. Pure self-indulgence.
The next few photos were taken recently in the garden. Today is a really windy day, best suited for staying inside and getting on with things. The day I took these it was sunny and everything looked gorgeous.
A climbing rose, I think it is called "Schoolgirl". Gently scented, its really pretty.
This is my favourite. A thornless climber, it is called Zephrin Drouhin (sorry about the spelling, not sure if that is correct.) The scent of this rose is unbelievably rich and wonderful. I wish I could record it and send it to you.
And now the Crown Imperials - these are tall and quite magnificent plants. I just love the colours of the flowers.
The same day I took the flowers, I managed to get some time knitting quietly in the garden, listening to the birds. As you can see the blanket has grown. I now have a further three squares to add. I shall run out of the cream colour soon, so at that stage I shall start adding a border.

5 comments:

Toni said...

Love the flowers, and the books look like such fun! I have the older BBC Jane Austen DVD collection & it basically lives in the sewing room with me!

Mandy said...

Thanks Toni. These luxuries are so necessary to an enjoyable sewing session.

Barbara Cheeseman said...

Thank you for your comment Mandy! Interesting choice of books. I like the nice easy method of drawing plaits etc in the 'Celtic' one as well as all the ideas for working.

RhettaRic said...

My husband enjoys Jane Austen movies as much as I do. I think we own all but Mansfield Park and have watched them over and over - I'm surprised they don't skip when we put them in! Our favorite version of P&P is the BBC one. Love the language and we seem to find ways now and then to work in a few phrases here and there to amuse ourselves. And then on our cable DVR we've saved other versions of P&P just to compare.

Mandy said...

Yes, those videos are so enjoyable to watch again and again. My elder daughter owns the BBC's version of Pride and Prejudice. Its nice to able to see the different versions. They all have something different to bring to the story.