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Image: myself and beautiful friend's at Jen's wedding. A very happy moment captured.

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Library Loot 14th June

Thanks to Mollie from Book Fare Delights for the 'Library Loot' Logo, which is great!

My 'loot' this week is 'Toast' an absolutely brilliant book (I've actually already read it ~ basically in one sitting!).
This novel is an autobiography of the cook Nigel Slater (www.nigelslater.com).
Each chapter's title is named after some kind of food that has influenced his life (from childhood to adolescence) and is told with wit and sarcasm appropriate to an English male.
Throughout the novel his honesty is touching and his anger and loneliness are palpable ~ other male's will be able to sympathise?
I enjoyed the theme of food ~ comforting almost! Especially the opening, which I couldn't help but read aloud to my friend, and will write for you now......
"It is impossible not to love someone who makes toast for you. People's failings, even major ones such as when they make you wear short trousers to school, fall into insignificance as your teeth break through the rough, toasted crust and sink into the doughy cushion of white bread underneath. Once the warm, salty butter has hit your tongue, you are smitten. Putty in their hands."
~Does this make you want to reach for the toast? Who cannot identify with this sensation??
I wholeheartedly agree, want me to love you? Make me some toast please!

to blog

I've been blog searching .. blog surfing.. (is there a technical term for this?)
and I've found this quote that I particularly like:

"I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out” - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I feel that I'm allowed to 'steal' this: EBB was, after all, English, and so am I.
(I'm thinking about things like this because my friend Jen has to write her wedding vows by Sunday...)

I'm loving at the moment that I have time to blog. to read. to blog about reading (!) to look at and admire fashion and photos that have inspired others.
Have to remember to appreciate this, as Alice says, just when you're realising that you've got time to enjoy yourself/are enjoying yourself, that's when it ends. Ahh, Alice. ever positive!! Kinda true though. love you.

Library Loot - 7th June

My 'library loot' this week is Helen Dunmore's 'Talking to the Dead'. I havn't started it yet as I have been preparing for an interview, but it has been staring at me all day and I think I'm just going to have to give up on what I'm doing and get started on the novel instead!
I love Helen Dunmore's novels, her writing is quite remarkable. She has a gift for drawing the reader in that I really love: the layers of her novels are unwrapped slowly depite rapid reading. (another reason why I havn't started yet: because of the inevitability of not being able to put it down!). I only hope it lives up to my own hype!
If you havn't read any Dunmore before ~ I urge you to!

school trip!

Today I went to Westonbirt Arboretum with the year 2 class. It was lovely, exhausing, but lovely, the children were fantastic and really enjoyed themselves.
The arboretum was beautiful...

here's to happiness

The luxury of having ansolutely nothing to do is mine today. Lucky me.
I have been pottering about cleaning and tidying the flat, which is being viewed this afternoon.
anyway, 'This morning' was on the tv and the last feature was about Maxwell Caulfield and Juliette Mills. Two actors, who I dont really know, and it was their story that I was interested in ~ they married when he was 21 and she was 39 and have been together 30years. their relationship caused scandals in the 80s, but has been successful because they really do love spending time together.
another thing, which is faintly embarrasing to admit to, was that jeremy kyle was on the tv too this morning....(pause. yes. embarrasing.)...but, there's so many miserable people out there, it's terrible. i'll never understand why some people are intent on making others miserable. we only get one chance. why not spend it being happy? why don't people try to do at least one good thing a day?
Because of my friend's wedding which is coming up, I've been asked a couple of times about how I feel about marriage and tim...and etc. it's easy to imagine the questions that a wedding have prompted... the point is, that tim and i do get along incredibly well: we enjoy each others company. we tell each other that we love each other. he brings me flowers home. i cook for him. we make sure that we do things that prevent our relationship from becoming boring. people may think we're odd because we've been together for so long and that's weird in this day and age. (?)
but i believe that happiness is better than fitting the norm.
so, whilst there's no rush for wedding bells. I'm happy, we're happy and that's just lovely.
here's to happiness and remembering that doing things for other people really can help you find it.