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Category Archives: books

Carnations, Seeds and Snollygoster

There are just a couple of white roses and two beautiful carnations left from the bouquet the family gave me on my birthday over three weeks ago. .

Our gardening magazine arrived with a free packet of seeds. They suggest we plant them along with Cosmos which I love so we’ll try that. Watch this space in the summer!

Regular readers will know that I love words and here’s one I found today in a wonderful book, The Horologicon by Mark Forsyth, snollygoster. The O.E.D. defines snollygoster as ‘A shrewd, unprincipled person, esp a politician.’ It was defined in the 1890s by an American journalist thus:

I just love the phrase ‘Monumental talknophical assumnacy!” A number of people come to mind!

I was just checking which words I have used before from Mark Forsyth’s book and came across a post from 2012 which has lots of photos of my knitting of that year! I was amazed to see everything I’d created in those 12 months! https://mybeautfulthings.com/2013/01/04/weekly-photo-challenge-my-2012-in-pictures-a-year-of-knitting/

7 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 24, 2026 in books, knitting, nature, Postaday 2026, Uncategorized, Words

Cornish Saints and Sinners and A Song

15 Jan

Another of Mum’s books that I have always loved is “Cornish Saints and Sinners” by J. Henry Harris, a quirky and entertaining look at the stories of places and people who feature in Cornwall’s history.

It amused me today on looking at it again after many years, that there’s a whole chapter dedicated to Dolly Pentreath about whom we sing at choir, a song written by Claire and Anna Maria Murphy.

You can listen to the song here, sung by Femmes de la Mer, Claire’s all female shanty group.

The Call of the Sea

14 Jan

For some reason today, I remembered a beautiful little book, The Call of the Sea, and found it. It was printed in 1907 and is in a very delicate state. It fell open at the page, Night in a Cornish Port so I’m thinking, since this book was my Mum’s, she must have loved this excerpt about Newlyn from Eden Philpotts.

Leather cover

Painted frontispiece

End leaf

I love the thought that my hands are touching something loved and touched by my beloved Mum.

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 14, 2026 in antiques, art, books, Cornwall, nature, Newlyn, painting, Postaday 2026, Uncategorized

Tags: Fishing in Newlyn text

Good Read, Amaryllis and A Tote Bag

13 Jan

I finished the latest book from the ShelterBox Book Club just in time to see the wonderful Q&A with the author Melissa Lucashenko. What a novel that was – two timelines set in Australia, in 1854 and in 2024, that meet each other towards the end of the novel. The whole story is beautifully crafted and draws the reader in despite much Aboriginal language the meaning of which one just picks up from the context. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

I was given an Amaryllis bulb in a beautiful pot for my birthday and it has grown several inches already. I’m looking forward to seeing its glorious bloom.

Thank you, Sue

Post arrived from family in Atlanta today, a delightful little tote bag with the name of the bookshop, Books Are Magic, and the best answer to a question. I absolutely love it.

The tote comes from an independent bookstore in Brooklyn called Books are Magic, owned by the author Emma Straub.

I find poetry can ofter be of assistance, hence so many on my blog. 🙂

Remembering my lovely Dad today too, on his birthday. If you’d like to know more about him, put ‘David Wiseman’ in my search bar.

1 Comment

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 13, 2026 in books, friendship, nature, poetry, Postaday 2026, Words

Tags: ShelterBox book club

Storm, Almanac and A Journal

08 Jan

We are in the middle of a Red, danger to life, storm warning, winds expected between 80 and 100 mph so we are staying. tucked up indoors. Our supermarket delivery driver rang to say he’d been called back to the store to keep safe. Fortunately, we have enough in so for us that’s not a problem. It may well be for others. We are also hoping that the poly tunnels at Community Roots and at the allotment all stay safe.

We have been buying Lia Leedertz’s Almanac for several years. If you haven’t seen them, have a look. I love that there’s information about skies and stars, tides and a monthly planting guide and I especially like the seasonal song and the recipe.

One of my birthday presents is a very lovely journal, “Thrive Where You Are Planted – A guided journal to help you connect with the natural wonders in your neighbourhood.’ This is such a perfectly chosen gift from someone who knows of my love of the natural and the beautiful. It begins in March as Nature wakes up from its winter sleep and I am really looking forward to recording the wonders all around us. In the meantime, I’m going to read from cover to cover as I do with new cookery books! Thank you, H, a perfect present.

8 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 8, 2026 in books, environment, friendship, nature, Postaday 2026

Tags: Andrea Debbink, Lia Leendertz

Membrillo, Salad Leaves and A Turnip

07 Oct

Instead of a cake for the volunteers today, I took some of the Membrillo I made on Sunday with some bits of cheese, for people to taste the produce from the quince that was available last week.

We have finished potting on all the winter salads so there were some baby plants left over, destined for the compost. I rescued some of them as we can grow them on in our new greenhouse.

Rocket

Purple Frills

Mizuma and Lollo Biondi

Somehow, some time ago we must have dropped a turnip seed in the corner of the propagation tunnel and now look at it! It made me think of the delightful children’s story The Great Big Enormous Turnip by Alexei Tolstoy and Helen Oxenbury, the copy of which I have just pulled from the children’s shelves. It needs a bit more growing time to reach those proportions!.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on October 7, 2025 in books, Food, nature, Postaday2025, Uncategorized

Tags: Alexei Tolstoy, Helen Oxenbury, The Great Big Enormous Turnip

Birthdays, Jigsaw and A Good Read

17 Sep

Forty eight years ago today, I held my new baby twins for the first time, two beautiful babies born either side of midnight so having their own birthdays! Here they are at about two years old.

We’ve just finished a jigsaw that daughter no 2 bought for us, lovely memories of a holiday in Venice with my Dad as we did this one. It was a particularly poignant memory as he had always loved Italy and this was his last holiday before suddenly losing his sight a few months later..

I’ve just finished reading this one and thoroughly enjoyed it. One of my lovely friends lent it to me but I can’t remember which one! I’ve asked two but to no avail so if it was you, please tell me so that I can return it!.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on September 17, 2025 in books, friendship, Postaday2025, Uncategorized

Tags: David Nicholls

Trinket, Book and An Illustration

06 Jan

This beautiful little thing was made for us some years ago by LiveWire no 4 and we love it.

One of my birthday presents was a beautiful book, “Blowin’ in the Wind”, an illustrated version of the Bob Dylan song. There is also a cd of his original recording.

The water colour paintings by Jon J Muth are very lovely, with a paper aeroplane motif representing the thought that is blowin’ in the wind.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 6, 2025 in art, craft, painting, picture story books, Postaday2025

Tags: Blowin in the wind, Bob Dylan, Jon J Muth

New Earrings, Moth and A Poem

28 Jun

Some time ago I saw some book earrings and discovered that they could be made for any book cover so I ordered some of my Dad’s most loved story, The Fate of Jeremy Visick, and they arrived today. I am absolutely delighted with them!

We found a moth on the side of the shed, very well camouflaged.

I think this is a Galium Carpet moth

I have a new poem for you. It is written by Rachel Rooney who once said we should ‘start the day and end the day with a poem’ – an excellent rule to live by! This is Seeker

Eyes as wide as continents brim with the water between,
Seeks a different future. Looks back on what has been.

Mouth seeks another language. Shapes a different air.
Unfamiliar classroom ways. The other whispered prayer.

Heart seeks home. One it left and one it took along.
Echoes in the distance. Skips to a playground song.

9 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on June 28, 2024 in books, nature, poetry, Postaday 2024, quotations

Tags: Callie, Rachel Rooney, The Fate of Jeremy Visick by David Wiseman

Lost Words, Shadow and Relief

10 Jun

I have just finished reading one of the most enjoyable and pleasing novels I’ve read in a long time. Someone on our Italian trip was reading it and recommended it. She was right.
“The Dictionary of Lost Words” is an imaginative and engrossing story about words, language, love and loss all tied up in the life of a growing-up narrator who is five years old at the start in 1886 and helping her “Da’ in the Scriptorium. The novel ends in the 1920s as the Oxford English Dictionary is published.