The Real May Reading Post

 Clearly, I am very tired and feeling the seasonal ick because I started my May reading post, saved it as a draft, scheduling it to post later so I could add to what was there. Somehow it posted anyway with just the one book on it so I'm sure I did something wrong. I've deleted that post and am now writing the real May reading list. 

It was a very Trollope heavy month and I did finish the Palliser series, which has now been donated in its entirety to a charity shop.

The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope (personal copy)

From the title, you'd expect this to be a book about politics, but parliamentary politics are a relatively small part of the story. However unofficial politics play a pretty big role. In this book, Plantagenet Palliser, now Duke of Omnium, formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer, has been named Prime Minister in a coalition government. This provides the backdrop for the political maneuverings of his wife, the former Lady Glencora, now Duchess of Omnium. Much of this reminded me of my own corporate suburban childhood--the parties and the 'proper' behavior and all that. The other major storyline in the book is the growing awareness of Emily Wharton, who is young, compliant in some ways and stubborn in others, and who learns pretty quickly that she made a foolish choice in marriage. One thing I found interesting in this book was the way in which Trollope explores the ways in which the society of the time limited women's personhood and how women pushed back against this. Lady Glencora and Emily Wharton both acknowledge that husbands and fathers control women's activities, both legally and through societal norms, but while both are pretty submissive to these rules, both also find ways to push back. Emily tends to be more willing to go along until she's pushed too far and she has a lot of trouble fitting her moral sense into societal expectations because of it. Lady Glencora tends to just do what she wants in manipulative ways until she pushes others too far. Both strategies have their strengths and weaknesses. I quite liked this book and felt it was one of the best of the series.

The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope (personal copy)

This is the final book in the series and perhaps I was suffering from a bit of Palliser fatigue, having read 4 of the books in about 6 weeks, but I didn't like this one as much as I like The Prime Minister. It was fine. I didn't dislike it, but there were some general similarities between one of the storylines in this book and Emily's story in The Prime Minister. When this book opens, Lady Glencora has recently died, leaving the Duke to deal with his young adult children. He is ill equipped to do this, particularly when the heir and the only daughter fall in love with people he considers unsuitable. Of the middle child, we see little. He does provide some tension, but is not a main player in the story. The book is pretty much about how these relationships unfold, how they illustrate the changes in society, and how the Duke has to learn to lighten up a bit, adapt to change, and be less uptight. 

The Fixed Period by Anthony Trollope (my e-book)

I was watching a booktube video and the woman mentioned Trollope's satirical dystopian novel. Well, I had no idea Trollope wrote such a thing, but knew at once that I wanted to read it so I grabbed a copy online and stuck it on my e-reader. It's a strange little book about the president of Britainulla, a country which has gained independence from Britain. The story takes place primarily in the late 1970s and involves a crisis. Decades ago, when they were forming their constitution, the people in the government of Britainulla agreed to set a fixed period for people's lives. When they were 67, they'd be brought to a facility in which their every need and wish would be provided. When they turn 68, they'd be euthanized and cremated. No one thought much about it in the intervening years, but now the president's oldest friend and the oldest person on the island is about to turn 67 and he is having second thoughts about this. The population takes sides and there is tension, even within the president's family. A big cricket match plays a role in how things conclude. It's an interesting book with some humor and some weirdness. The bit about bringing someone to the facility reminded me a in a general way of the Book The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist. The section with the cricket match seemed too long and detailed--I know nothing about cricket so that was all meaningless to me. Still, it was an interesting read. I'm always interested in these old books that are set in the future, because I'm fascinated by what they thought life would be like.

Stay Alive: Berlin 1939-1945 by Ian Buruma (borrowed from the library)

This is a relevant, powerful, and important book about what life was like for people of all persuasions in Berlin between 1939 and 1945. My father, born in 1938, happened to be one of those people and his experience, although almost never talked about with me, obviously shaped his life and to some extent my own. The author's father was a young man then and was a conscripted laborer from the Netherlands for part of that time. Buruma does a fine job of illustrating what the city was like for all kinds of people during this time. It's not a happy book and there is much people will find familiar from today, but it's worth a read. One thing I was particularly pleased to read was Buruma's reminder that the US was an inspiration for the Nazis--the genocidal formation of the country and the segregation laws were what Hitler built on. I think that bears repeating, because only when history is confronted and dealt with, whether on a personal or a societal level, can real healing and progress be made.

On Blackwater Pond by Mary Oliver (BorrowBox audiobook)

This is Mary Oliver reading 40 of her poems. It's an excellent listen. I do enjoy listening to poets read their work because the pauses and intonations are as they intended. Highly recommend.

An Arrow in Flight by Mary Lavin (borrowed from the library)

This book is a new collection of Mary Lavin's short stories. I love short stories and have been wanting to read more by Lavin. I'd only read one or two of her stories in anthologies so I was thrilled to see this at the library. The stories are set mostly in rural Ireland and are centered on the lives of women. I'll be reading more of her work.

Dream Latitudes by Alia Kobuszko (BorrowBox e-book)

To be honest, I wasn't sure what to make of this book, so I'll just put the description from BorrowBox here:

I am drawing a map of distances.

The swimmer. The sleeper. The dreamer.

Another afternoon traipsing the incomprehensible

corridors of the brain. Nothing uttered.

Alia Kobuszko's poetry is as immediate as it is mysterious. She is unafraid of detonating form or trusting a quiet phrase, and saturates these poems with surreal and sensuous aspects. In this enchanting and piercing debut, strange horses gallop - embodying metamorphic freedom and power. The speaker becomes the rider, the horse itself and even the field, enacting how the poet inhabits and unanchors their subject so that 'girl and horse / stand still- / field runs through them.'

The Hog's Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts (personal copy)

This is a British Library Crime Classics republication that I found in a charity shop. I brought it because it was a BLCC, even though I wasn't sure I'd like it. I'd started this author's first mystery novel, which didn't involve his series detective, Inspector French, and found it to be a slog, so I didn't finish it. It was on audio and perhaps I'd like it better in print. I may go back to read it at some point. I enjoyed this one. It's the 10th Inspector French novel, but I had no problem reading it as a standalone. In this novel, three women who were friends at school gather at the home of one of them. It soon becomes apparent that the marriage isn't a happy one and there are things that make the other women uncomfortable. Then the husband disappears in mysterious circumstances. There's no body and no indication that he was elsewhere. The local police are baffled and call in French. He starts digging but before he can solve the case, one of the houseguests goes missing and things get more complex. I'll probably read more in this series.

The Feast by Margaret Kennedy (my e-book)

I read about this book in a book blog, I think and knew I wanted to read it so I went clicking around and found an e-book. And what a great book it is! As I've said several times already in this post, this is an author I will definitely read more of. As this book opens, readers learn at once that a cliff has fallen into the sea, taking a hotel and its inhabitants with it, leaving no survivors. The story then turns to the week before the collapse and shows what happened leading up to the event. Who was in the hotel at the time and who wasn't? The ending mostly ties this up, but I did feel it was a little abrupt and there was one person that was left unknown. I went back and read the prologue after I finished the book and I think it's still an open question about the one person, given the last scene in which he was present. 

The people in the hotel are all from different backgrounds and have different temperaments. Many do not get along with others in their family and those outside it. Class and status resentments are at play. Emotional abuse within families is evident. Religious tensions exist. I loved this book and I can't wait to read more of Kennedy's work.

I read one book that will be published soon. Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a digital review copy.

The Clew Bay Detectives by Pam Lecky

to be published on June 16, 2026 by Storm Publishing

ISBN 9781837005079

This book opens with a man, lying in a ruin on a small island in Clew Bay, off the coast of County Mayo, Ireland, aware that his death is imminent, and reflecting on his life. The action then moves to the Westport area, where readers meet master gardener and landscape designer Ali Brennan. Ali is new to the area, having moved there from Dublin after leaving a long-term relationship. She and her brother had been wanting to expand their business and this seemed like the perfect time and place. Ali's cousin, Jacinta Burke, owner of Burke's Hotel, has a holiday let that needs some refurbishment so Ali moves in there, paying a reduced rent in exchange for some work on the cottage. Ali's nephew, Gavan, soon arrives. He's at a bit of a loose end since he dropped out of Trinity College. He's there to get some part time work and to room with Ali. Little do they know they'll soon be working together as amateur detectives. As Ali tries to get the word out about her business and find her way in rural Ireland, she meets locals, learns about feuds and small town rivalries, and unwittingly becomes involved in an international crime investigation. Then she's asked by his widow to find out what happened to the guy on the island. She reluctantly agrees and she and Gavan find themselves investigating what law enforcement thinks is a case of natural death. Are they right or is something more sinister going on? There are other aspects to the intertwined stories, but I won't say anything more here because I don't want to give anything away.

When I saw that this book is set on the Wild Atlantic Way, I knew I wanted to read it. I've lived on the Wild Atlantic Way for several years, albeit further north. I haven't spent much time in the area where this book is set, although a town I lived in when I first got to Ireland is mentioned a couple of times in passing. The author's note stated that there will be at least two more books in the series and it'd be fun for me if one was set up here in Donegal, but it seems like the areas she's most familiar with are further south. No matter. I will look for the next books and happily read them. I enjoyed this one a lot. I think the author captured the setting beautifully--the landscape, the interpersonal relations in the rural area, the feuds, and the friendliness and willingness to help a newcomer all rang quite true to me. The plot was very well crafted and the story unfolded at just the right pace--as Ali and Gavan learned more about what was going on at the dead man's home, readers began to understand why it could be that someone wanted him dead, while at the same time, the possibility of a natural death was kept open. The mystery at the heart of the book was well done and pretty unique. The ending was satisfying with loose ends in the various plotlines tied up well, but with one ongoing. All in all, I'd say that this is an excellent cozy mystery--one that I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with. I'm thrilled that this will be a series and I look forward to reading the next one.

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Almost!

 It's been a busy week. I was hoping that we'd be able to fit everything in my friend's car for one last run. Well, everything except the few things we'd need here for our last days in this cottage--sheets, a few bits of clothing, and that kind of thing. My thinking was that if we could get stuff there we could take the last bits on the bus after meeting with the guy who manages this place. LOL I underestimated a bit in terms of the amount of stuff we had left to take. We got the stuff in the car, but that left no room for our plants. We're very lucky that my friend M is enjoying these jaunts to Killybegs and is quite happy to keep going back. She has offered to take us with the plants on the day we leave here so that's the plan. We are grateful.

Bill and I spent a very long day Tuesday getting things organized for Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday morning, M came, we loaded up the car, went to drop everything off, had a visit with my friends, and played with Finn. We then went to have a quick late lunch and headed home. When going through one of the towns on the way there, M saw something in a charity shop window that she was interested in. We stopped on the way back so she could get it. Then we stopped at a grocery store and I picked up something for supper and breakfast the following day. I didn't get home until after 6. It was a hot (for here) and sunny day. We were all wilting. Even Finn didn't care for it. He loves to walk with the wind in his face, blowing his ears back. Wednesday was not his (or my) kind of day.

Thursday was another long day. It was my last time attending the knitting and crochet group at the library. I will miss it. I said goodbye to the librarian on duty--and apologized because we stayed about 10 minutes past the time when she would have closed for lunch. With her two colleagues out on holiday and sick leave, she's run off her feet and would have really, really wanted her downtime. She was very gracious about it though, telling me that she could make allowances on my last day. I said goodbye to the woman who asked me to teach at the art gallery and thanked her. She gave me a hug. I felt a little sad. Then it was back home to load up the car again, this time with bags and boxes for donation to a charity shop, some things for the recycling center, and a bunch of houseplants that we weren't taking with us. There used to be a covered platform at the recycling center where people could leave things that were still usable and I was planning to put them there. But that was gone and when I asked the guy about leaving the plants, he shook his head and explained that they couldn't take them because they'd just get drowned in the rain and they'd have to throw them away. Most of the plants were small--we'd grown them from bits that came off the larger plants--but one was a large jade plant that someone gave us 10 years ago when we were moving into a new place. It was much smaller when we got it but it just kept growing. We've started so many jade plants from that one so we still have some decent sized jades to bring, but we really would have no place to put that one and we figured someone else might enjoy it. But I couldn't leave it there so the next stop was a charity shop. We'd stopped at one on the way into town. The sign indicated that it should have been open, but it wasn't. We stopped to check the one on Main St and it was open. I went in to see if they'd take donations--mostly books and houseplants but a few odds and ends as well. M had seen a few books and other things she could use so she took those, but there was still plenty left. The women in the shop were happy to take it all, including the plants, so we started carrying stuff in. Once I'd handed it all over, I had to stop at the (very small) book section. I mean, I couldn't leave without looking, could I? That would be rude! The book section consisted of a single narrow, but tallish, bookcase. The books were in rows, one in front of the other, so I did have to pull books out to see what was behind. No matter. I was thorough. And I found four books to bring home with me. M found a pile of books for her grandkids and other children in her family. 

By this time we were both hungry and ready for lunch, so we went and got some food. I was feeling quite light after having successfully done the recycling and donating and I was feeling good about where things stood. The lunch was excellent and I ended up bring a fair bit of it home with me, which Bill and I shared with our supper that night. After lunch we did another grocery store run and I'm pretty sure I have enough food to get us through our remaining days here. It was another long but productive day and I was so tired, but happy too.

So now we're in a bank holiday weekend. It was roasting on Wednesday, still warm but without sun (yay!) on Thursday, and cooler and windy yesterday. Today is like yesterday with some rain mixed in. Of course it will rain--it's a bank holiday weekend! Things are looking good at our new cottage. There is a problem getting the plumber to actually show up when he said he would to install the new shower, or to get a different one to respond to queries, so it looks like that won't be done until sometime after we move in. We'll be taking showers at our friend's house in the meantime. The plan is to do the final walkthrough and get the final meter reading here on Thursday morning. Then M will pick us up and we'll all head off to Killybegs. Then I'll be looking at all the stuff I have to put away. I won't be doing too much of that on the first day, but I will be getting the coffee maker out of its wrappings and into the kitchen. It'll be the very first thing that gets used in my new kitchen. Well, that and the fridge, I suppose. I am muddling along without it for now, but I will be greeting it like a long lost friend on Thursday. It went in the last load and is easily accessible. 

That's where things stand as far as our transition goes. I hope all is going well in your part of the world!

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Counting Down and Progress in the Meantime

 This is one of those weeks where I am constantly having to stop and think abut what day it is. Over the weekend, we packed some more stuff and on Monday morning, my friend, M came over so we could load the her and take off for Killybegs. Once again I was amazed at how much we fit in her little car on this second trip. There wasn't much that was heavy this time--a few books and my slow cooker. The rest was lighter. Before packing things into the car, I laid down one of my knitted blankets and then on top of that, a big, heavy, thick blanket that a friend gave me years ago. I used it for a while as a blanket in one of the places we lived when we had a real cold snap, but other than that, it's been used as a cover for chairs or couches. The colors are deep, rich, and gorgeous. If I'd folded it up, it would've taken up lots of room, but laid flat, it took up none at all. Anyway, we got there, unloaded, went to a delightful little place for lunch, which hadn't been there when we lived there before, and enjoyed a lovely lunch. I shall go there again. I got some food to bring home for Bill and me for supper as well. I was glad I did because it was a long day. After lunch, we went to Fintra Beach with Finn and his mom and were there for over an hour playing ball, of course.

When we arrived, everything was blue--the sky, the sea, and even the rocks and hills had a blue tinge to them. In the photo above, in the far distance, you can just see Benbulben in Co Sligo. Even that seemed faintly blue. But as we were walking and kicking balls, the clouds started rolling in, as you see above. We walked to the far end of the beach and played there for a while before turning around and heading back towards the car. We were almost back there when we felt the first sprinkles whipping around in the wind so we picked up the pace and got inside the car before it started raining in earnest. Then we dropped off Finn and his mum, said good-bye to my other friend, and headed home. Now we just have odds and ends and houseplants left to move.

It was nice to see the new cottage after it was painted last week. It looks beautiful. Work there is continuing with the cast iron bath removed from upstairs and the shower that will replace it arriving yesterday. Someone is coming to clean the cottage on Friday and some furniture is being moved in. 

Yesterday was a much needed quiet day. I stayed home, drank tea and coffee, read a soon-to-be-published cozy mystery, and enjoyed the sound of the splattering rain. This morning I was off again with M, this time to a knitting and crochet group that started at a place down the road from me. If I was going to be here, it's one I'd continue to go to. The women seem quite nice and I enjoyed their conversations. I think I would've had the possibility to do some teaching there as well, but it's not practical--I'll be too far away. I'm sure they'll find someone to teach what they want taught and I'll probably have opportunities later in the year. I'll look into that once we're settled. One thing I am sad about is that some of the women are making blankets for a children's ambulance service--something to give the kids when they have to be in the ambulance and that's something I would definitely contribute to. Perhaps there's a similar initiative in Killybegs. I'll find out. After the group, we went out to lunch. I had a lovely bowl of soup and picked up a couple of slices of white chocolate raspberry cheesecake so Bill and I can have a nice dessert later. Then we stopped at a grocery store where I was able to get some yummy farm fresh chard and other things. Tomorrow is the library knit and crochet group at the library, which I will miss very much. That's a smaller group, but a very good one and I've made friends there--people I wouldn't have met without the group. 

So we've got a couple of weeks left here. We won't be bringing any more stuff until the cleaning is done and the furniture is in place there. That's fine. I can use a couple of quiet days at home. 

I hope you're enjoying your days, whatever you're doing.

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Will It Work?

 Some months ago I watched a video of Katherine making a hexagon cloth bowl on her youtube channel, k3n. If you're into slow stitching, eco printing, upcycling, and various ways of working with textiles, it's an excellent and relaxing channel to watch. I love her approach to her work. But, but, but. I know myself well enough to know that while I love the bowl she created in this video, this particular process isn't for me. It's a bit too fussy for my taste. Obviously (and unbeknownst to me) the idea continued to rattle around in my brain because several days ago it popped back into my consciousness and I wondered whether I could make one using Tunisian crochet. There was only one way to find out so I grabbed some Tunisian hooks and a cone of bright yellow wool yarn that someone gave me and I started experimenting. I'm not fond of the yellow so I wasn't going to be bothered if I ended up with a mess that I had to rip out. Also, since the yarn is wool, I figured I could full or felt it if it turned out too floppy, which was my main concern. I knew that if I got to the point of attaching the hexagons, I'd use the green, which I do like, to make the bowl in Donegal colors. 

I had to swatch a bit and go down a few hooks sizes to a smaller one than I would normally use for this yarn, but then I was off, making 7 Tunisian crochet hexagons. I had planned to bring the hexies and the green yarn to our knit and crochet group at the library and attach them there, but I finished the last one whilst listening to a podcast and since that wasn't over, I decided to start the finishing process right then.  Once I'd started, I couldn't stop, finishing the bowl just before 2 am, so I just brought it with me to the group and wove in my ends there. I am thrilled with the end result and I will definitely be making more of these in different sizes. It occurs to me that they can be stacked as well, which will be useful.

the finished bowl--you can see how the hexies are attached together

detail of the Tunisian crochet

the bowl filled with wool roving--it holds quite a lot

In case anyone is wondering about Tunisian crochet, I used the basic stitch--sometimes called simple stitch or afghan stitch--to make the hexagons. They're constructed using short rows. I chained 13, but any number will do. The length of the chain will be approximately half the width of the finished hexie. Pick up a stitch in each chain, leaving the loops on the hook, then work them off. There are many videos around that show how to do this if you're interested. For the next row, pick up a loop in 12 stitches, leaving the last one unworked. Work off the loops. Next row, pick up 11 stitches, and so on until there is just one stitch remaining. There will be little stairsteps along one edge and the next segment of the hexagon is made by picking up a loop in each stairstep (13 stitches, including the loop left on the hook from the previous row) and working it off as before, until there's just one stitch. Repeat this until there are 6 wedges. At the end of the 6th wedge, slip stitch in each stairstep. Cut the yarn, leaving a long tail and use that to sew the row of slip stitches to the starting chain and there's your hexagon. I've used these hexagons to make bags, dishcloths, and now this bowl. They're fun to make and look quite nice, especially in a variegated yarn.

And now I'm off to gather some thread to make a smaller version of this. I think I will find these to be quite useful and I'm quite taken with the stacking idea. I guess I know what I'll be doing for a while--at least until some other idea leaps to the front of my mind and sends me off in another direction!

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The Things We Do For Love

 One thing about getting yarn from charity shops and from people who no longer want it, is the mystery that is sometimes involved. often there's no ball band so I have to guess about exact fiber content, although doing the burn test will tell me some basics. For example, acrylic and other man-made fibers will burn easily and leave a hard black bead at the burnt end. This is why making pot holders from acrylic yarn isn't a good idea. Cotton, linen, and other plant fibers will leave ash behind and will also burn easily. Wool and some other animal fibers will not catch fire easily and when they do will burn out, leaving a kind of crumbly black residue. To go back to the potholders, I made mine from wool. The information I get from the burn test is quite enough for me to go on.

Sometimes, in addition to the mystery of the fiber content, there's a little work involved to get a particular bit of yarn into a usable form. Recently, I was given some yarn which included a pull skein of a lovely grey-black variegated yarn that is all or mostly natural fibers. It's gorgeous to touch--very soft, squishy, and has a bit of a halo. It's also a bit slippery. This was a good sized skein and either full or very close to it--probably the latter for reasons which will become clear. As is so often the case, someone didn't want to pull from the middle when using this yarn, so they removed the ball band, found the outside end, and tried to do whatever they were doing with it. I get it--it's frustrating to start a center-pull skein sometimes. You pull and a big clump of yarn comes out because of the way it's twisted around inside (some people charmingly call this clump 'yarn vomit' 😶). But it's usually fairly simple to deal with that small bit of yarn and proceed with the project. Often people try to avoid this by starting on the outside and depending on the yarn, this can work. I happen to find that very annoying so I don't do it, but it doesn't matter much of the time--it's just personal preference. But with a slippery yarn like the one I had, doing this is almost certain to end in tears. As one pulls on the outside end, the skein rolls and flops around. With slippery yarn, twists, tangles, and bunches occur, as was the case here. It wasn't usable as it was. I wonder if that's the reason its original person didn't want it any more. Well, I love it and I do want it, so I sat myself down on a quiet afternoon and I started untwisting, untangling, and slowly eliminating the large clumps and bunches, just following the strand of yarn and letting my mind wander. Two hours later, I was close to the end, but I had other things to do so I set it aside. The following afternoon, I worked on it for about another half hour and then I had this:

I didn't have to cut it once. 🎉🎊It's ready to go whenever I'm ready to use it. I don't yet know what I'm going to make with it, but I'm very glad it ended up with me instead of in a trash can somewhere.

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Notebooks

 When I walked into the art gallery on the first day of my cloth journal workshop a couple months ago, someone handed me two bags of yarn. They were from the home of her partner's mother, who had recently passed away. Some members of her family were starting the process of going through her things. No one wanted the yarn, but this person said she knew someone who would and she brought it back for me. Inside one of the bags were two granny squares that this woman (I assume) had made. I set them aside and considered what to do with them. Then it dawned on me--duh!--I was tutoring a cloth journal class and my journal was dedicated to the textile and other work done by women from previous generations. I suspect that this woman was probably not older than me, or if she was then not by much, but I knew I'd add these squares to my journal. I decided to make a small notebook with them and then attach it to a page in the journal. 

I crocheted the squares together across one side, then cut some paper slightly smaller than the size of the attached squares side by side. I happened to have some heavy-ish, good quality blue paper, which belonged to the woman who knitted the sleeve I made into a journal page so I used that. I simply sewed it into the notebook with crochet thread and then sewed the back onto the journal page.

I used some of the yarn in the bags and some novelty yarns given to me by friends to make another notebook. First I wove two squares on my pin loom. On one square, I wove with some smooth acrylic and some novelty yarn and on the other I wove with the smooth acrylic and did some surface crochet with the green eyelash yarn. Then I crocheted a small yellow flower and sewed it on along with a plain button. Yellow and green are Donegal colors, so I think of this as my Donegal notebook. Inside I used some scraps of card stock and some mixed media paper.

i'm calling this the front

i'm calling this the back, but it really doesn't matter yet

Finally, I saw someone's tiny scrap cloth journal constructed in such a way that it kind of folds closed. I liked it, so I dashed off an experiment. I haven't finished the inside yet--I think I'm going to put paper inside, but I could change my mind. The one I saw was all fabric scraps and embellishments inside and out. I really like this format and will do a neater, more careful one soon, possibly woven or crocheted.

closed (the front embellishment was inside the button band of a shirt I got at a charity shop)

opened--the square in the middle is the back when the flaps are closed

partially closed (the flap on the left is the back of the front)

I brought all of these examples in to show the workshop participants so they could perhaps get some ideas for their own work, now or in future. I mentioned that these could be a fun way to add little photo albums to their journals. I suggested that if they have photos they can take photos of the photos and then they'd have digital copies that they could manipulate if they wanted or they could leave them as is. These could then be printed out at a pharmacy, many of which have kiosks where digital photos can be printed. Then either glue them to the notebook pages or used those little adhesive corners to stick the photos in. 

I do plan to make more of these. I will probably do collage in some but I plan to use them primarily for writing. It's possible that I'll do some combination of writing and photos as well. Who knows how they will evolve! I do know that they're fun to make and a great way to use scraps of stuff--yarn, cloth, paper, and more. And you know how I love to play with scraps 😏

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A Lovely Start to the Process

 Today I went with a friend from here to Killybegs with a load that consisted mostly of books. She came over last evening with her son so he could load them into her car and this morning I added some lightweight stuff in the nooks and crannies. I'd prepared for the loading of her car--or so I thought. 

In addition to these, there were a few more bags and other boxes of books that I could grab if there was room, but I didn't think there would be. Boy was I wrong! I was grabbing books and sticking them into bags as fast as I could. Almost all our books are now in their new home waiting for us. But since there's work still being done on our new cottage and our lease here isn't up until June 4, it'll be a few weeks until we go. So now we are kind of in a waiting mode. We will have a few things we can do later this week or next week, but other than repotting plants and possibly going to donate books to a charity shop, we will be in waiting mode--we have a bit of calm before the next rush, which is very welcome.

We got there midday and I introduced my friend from here to my friends there and of course had some quality time with little Finn (Bill stayed home because we could fit more into the car if that passenger space was free). I knew my friends there and my friend here would get along well and they did. We chatted for a while and then started unloading the car and bringing stuff upstairs. I left the books that were in boxes, but the ones that were in backpacks and bags were removed so I could bring the empty bags back to use for other things. Then we went back to my friends' house and had a lovely 'tapas luncheon.' The food was yummy, the conversation never stopped and the company was wonderful. I was very content. I even had a caramel square--my friend had gone into a bakery in the town to get some because as she said, 'We can't have Shari here and not have caramel squares for her!' I do love a good caramel square and these are very good indeed. They bought extra so I could take some home. I might even have to nibble on another one later.

Bill and I are both shocked at how much was moved in one trip. We're very grateful for friends. We have no furniture, so the slow cooker is really the only heavy item we have left. 

It was a long day, but I hope to be able to read more of the next Palliser novel tonight. I read the first 100+ pages last night and I'm into it now so I should be able to read some in spite of being quite tired. As I mentioned in my book post yesterday, I want to donate the complete series before we move and I have two books left. I'm off now to make a cup of tea, put my feet up, and pick up my book! It's been a lovely start to our moving process and I'm so grateful.

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