RSS

Category Archives: books

Membrillo, Salad Leaves and A Turnip

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.

The evening sun makes lovely shadows above the mantlepiece – here of a beautiful piece of Esther Smith’s work, an automaton of a Hare and a flower.

We have had a torrid three weeks with a medical problem hanging over me. Today, it has been resolved and all is well, much to our enormous relief.

13 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on June 10, 2024 in art, automaton, books, Celebration, Happiness, Postaday 2024, sculpture, Uncategorized

Tags: Esther Smith, Pip Williams

A Day at The Redruth Book Feast

20 Apr

What a day we’ve had!
First was the Saturday Brunch debate, all about food and food production in Cornwall. The Breakfast in a Bap from The GrowBox was delicious and followed by an excellent debate with really knowledgeable people – a very young food writer, Fliss Freeborn , Graham Harvey, the agricultural story editor for the Radio 4 serial The Archers and the author of books including The Killing of the Countryside and The Carbon Fields, and one of The Bearded Farmers, local food producers. The debate, both enjoyable and informative, became quite lively. It was chaired by Orlando Murrin, a very experienced cookery writer and a semi-finalist on MasterChef some years ago. .

I loved the afternoon session too and before the last talk had already bought myself a cookery book (I have well over a hundred but can’t resist another good one!) This one is Two’s Company by Orlando Murrin and I have already marked a good number of recipes that I plan on trying.

After Orlando Murrin’s conversation with Tim Hubbard, the last session of the day, I was also won over by his first novel , a culinary crime story. I’ve read the first chapter while the FA semi final was playing and I’m loving it! (One for you to borrow, H?) It includes recipes too!

Signed copy 🙂

And there’s more tomorrow! We are so lucky to live in Redruth.

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 20, 2024 in books, Celebration, community, Cornwall, Postaday 2024, Redruth

Tags: Knife Skills for Beginners, Orlando Murrin, Two's Company

Rain and Reading

17 Feb

Rain every day isn’t all bad as it means I can’t do the gardening that needs doing but I can read – all day! I am absolutely loving Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait, lent to me by our lovely neighbour. What a beautiful cover to enhance the magic inside. .

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on February 17, 2024 in art, books, Postaday 2024, Uncategorized

Tags: Maggie O'Farrell., The Marriage Portrait

New Book, New Recipe and Cake

31 Jan

Many of you will know Jenny Joseph’s wonderful poem about growing old, “Warning” which you can read here. When browsing, I came across another of her books, not poetry this time but all about her garden and it came in the post today. As the title suggests it is about the smells and scents of the garden and I am really looking forward to reading it.

A couple of weeks ago I spotted a recipe in the paper that I fancied and cooked it tonight – Rukmini Iyer’s Mushroom, Spinach and Leek Tagliatelle with Pangrattato. I used vermicelli and it was delicious!

I’ve made a cake for us! Most of what I make is for others – today, the Heligan Pineapple Cake is for us as a birthday cake for my lovely Mr S tomorrow.

7 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 31, 2024 in allotment, books, Food, poetry, Postaday 2024

Tags: Jenny Joseph, pangrattato, Rukmini Iyer

John Donne, Sign and A New Word

23 Jan

Yesterday was John Donne’s birthday. I love this poem.

22/01/1572: Birthday of John Donne

A friend has a second-hand bookshop in Falmouth and today has this delightful sign in her window.

Today seems the right time to share this wonderful new word. I just love the smell of old books and the feeling of wistfulness that wraps one up in a second-hand bookshop like Bookmark, shown above, in Falmouth.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 23, 2024 in books, Cornwall, Falmouth, poetry, Postaday 2024

Tags: Bookmark

Roasted Rainbow and Another Good Read

20 Jan

One of our favourite meals tonight, a rainbow of roasted vegetables with halloumi cheese – scrumptious!

Red Pepper, Sweet potato, Carrots, Yellow pepper, Broccoli, Red onion

My lovely book buddy, H, brought me up another good read yesterday and I have just spent two days reading! I thought I would just read a page or two and then get back to the various things waiting for me but I haven’t been able to put it down!