Thursday 29 April 2010
Quantum entanglement
Tuesday 27 April 2010
Work Perk of the week ... and wool winge
... into a slightly softer pile of fluff (and leaving plenty of bits floating round the garden for the birds to gather). Unfortunately bits of the fibre were so coarse that they would not felt and simply moulted back out of the felt, so the whole thing turned out to be a waste of time, who wants slippers that shed white fibres everywhere.
But I did also spend some time the other week making blended batts from what was left of my coloured roving collection, there were only a few colours left but by combining them in different ways I have ended up with a lovely selection ... and might even get around to doing something with them.
Wednesday 21 April 2010
Giving up - not really a book review
Tuesday 20 April 2010
Work Winge of the Week 2 - rental firms, breakdown services ...
Friday 16 April 2010
Margaret Atwood poetry
Wednesday 14 April 2010
200th Post - a post script
Tuesday 13 April 2010
Johnny Appleseed
This is coincidentally the second Pulitzer Prize winner that I have read recently (though looking down the list I have previously read quite a few others, but then never even heard of many of the authors .... now there would be an interesting challenge.) Initially it was called the 'Pulitzer Prize for the Novel' until 1947, then renamed the 'Pulitzer Prize for Fiction'. American Pastoral by Philip Roth has been quite a challenging read. I have not quite finished it and decided to review it now mainly to stop myself focussing on the 'story', to allow myself to just read the writing, to get the essence of what he is trying to say. In fact I find myself hoping desperately that there is not a nice neat ending, but something suitably inconclusive.
Work Winge of the Week 1
Rooks on the radio
Saturday 10 April 2010
W.B. Yeats
Being Guy (more work winge)
Or of the toad that I rescued from someone's doorstep
Or of the people 'Sphereing' at Sweetslade Farm, which looks brilliant.
Anyway, will be back to normal next week.
Monday 5 April 2010
Away We Go
Silly questions
I keep seeing these silly question lists, how to sum up your existence in single words, so I did this one, to see if I felt it said anything about me (my thoughts were that they are superficial and tell you nothing), and it kind of does, but in ways so subtle that you would have to know me to understand.
Where is your cell phone?
work
Hair?
mousy
Mother?
normal
Father?
ditto
Favorite Food?
mushrooms
Your dream last night?
disturbing
Your favorite drink?
tea
Your dream / goal?
self-reliance
What room are you in?
bed
Your hobby?
books
Your fear?
enclosure
Where do you want to be in 6 years?
seaside
Where were you last night?
sofa
Something that you aren't?
demure
Muffins?
yeuch
Wish List Item?
spinning-wheel
Where did you grow up?
various
Last thing you did?
breath
What are you wearing?
silk
Your TV?
off
Your pets?
moulting
Friends?
few
Your Life?
content
Your Mood?
relaxed
Missing Someone?
sons
Vehicle?
galaxy
Something you're not wearing?
deodorant
Your favorite store?
charity
Favorite color?
purple
When was the last time you laughed?
regularly
When was the last time you cried?
suppressed
Best Friend?
julie
Place you go over and over?
outside
One person who emails you regularly?
freecycle
Favorite place to eat?
yo sushi
And then M took the computer off me, so I insisted she write a blog post and when she couldn't think of anything I gave her these questions, so pop over to her blog and fail to get to know anything about her too.
Saturday 3 April 2010
Saturday haul
- 'Notes from an Exhibition' by Patrick Gale, a title I have read about in several places, enough for it to stick in my mind.
- 'A Quiet Belief in Angels' by R.J. Ellory, on my 'to find at the library' list, but I had failed to write down the author so could not find it, and there it was for a mere £2.
- 'Mary Reilly' by Valerie Martin, picked out because of 'Property', that I read and reviewed back in February
- 'The Clothes of their Backs' by Linda Grant, picked out because of 'When I lived in Modern Times', that I also read and reviewed back in February.
- Finally, 'Uncommon Reader' by Alan Bennett, because I have nearly bought it on numerous occasions, I like the idea of someone writing a story about the queen, making her more real, and it was only one pound.
- The other book in the stack is 'The Rehearsal' by Eleanor Catton that arrived by post this morning from my mum, for me and M to read together.
Friday 2 April 2010
Friday Felt
After rolling for about an hour and then rubbing with soap for another 30 minutes or so it has felted quite satisfactorily. I like the way it looks quite widely spaced when you lay out and then the shrinking closes up the spaces and makes the design look much more dense. It is sitting here on top of the new vivarium we acquired for Nix (the carpet python), which has now been placed on the fireplace to cover up the ugly gaping hole. He is not in it yet as it needs light and heating fitted. I guess a vivarium cover is as good a use for it as anything:-)
blogger (a poem)
Thursday 1 April 2010
A variety of things saved up over the last few days
This is the state of our front room, but it's brilliant: we have had a new central heating boiler fitted this week. This is the hole where the previous one was behind the gas fire. Hopefully it will cut our bills, being nice and economical, and we have hot water on demand, replacing the old furred-up hot water tank, though I have lost my 'hot cupboard' which was great for drying washing in the cold weather.
This is my second attempt at felted slippers. The are lined with some alpaca to make the insides soft, but the alpaca migrated through the felt as I made it and I fear they will moult somewhat. I have sent them as a 'un-mother's day' present for my mum. You can pop back and see the previous pair here to see the construction method.
And finally some poetry. Apparently April is National Poetry Month (in America I think) so lots of blogs have been mentioning it. I found this Simon Armitage book in the library (and also found a surprisingly good selection of poetry books that I wll definitely be revisiting regularly). I have not had the chance to read the whole thing but wanted to share one to whet your whistle. I did like the one called 'Learning by Rote' but it is printed in reverse, and very challenging to decipher (I resorted to the mirror in the end), and two extracts, one from 'The Bayeux Tapestry' and the other from 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, made me want to go and seek out these longer works. Another I read to the girls is called 'Horses M62' is about a group of stray horses on a motorway, very spooky and atmospheric, almost a ghost story. But am going to give you this one, entitled simply 'Sloth':