dovegreyreader scribbles

Wishing you...

...a very Merry Christmas and the best of days that we can have given the constraints. 

I’m so sorry for those who have had plans curtailed and changed at the last minute and if anyone is going to be alone rest assured you’re not and we’re here. Please do stop by and chat in comments if you want to, I’ll be dropping in during the day as usual as it gets me out of the washing up...just got to go and check the scribbles etc.

Meanwhile the twinkly fireplace (and clome oven) in the kitchen has been a triumph and we plan to keep it going (minus the Christmas deccies after Twelfth Night) until the light proper returns. 

Christmas Reading...

We do it every year and I love this post....it's time for the 'What Will You Be Reading Over Christmas' post.

It's almost as traditional as me decorating the bough in the kitchen wherein I have gone slightly off piste with the lights this year. They were half price in Tesco's and suddenly I decided twinkly light was what we needed. I've threaded them along the shelves...

Another set swirls around the dresser...

The fireplace and clome oven (just visible on the left) were begging for the stable treatment...

 

And then the bough in the corner as per usual.

It all looks so lovely as the winter light fades on those grey afternoons, which is by about 3pm now. But listen, we are beyond the Winter Solstice and before you know it we'll be at that day in February when the light returns. (sorry to go on about it Southern Hemisphere).

But I digress. Christmas reading. 

Well as usual I have plans which, for yet another year, don't include an attempt at Bleak House, because I've made that mistake so many times before, and I know my limitations. This year I've picked out a few children's books 

The Eagle of the Ninth (1954) by Rosemary Sutcliffe. I have a lovely Folio edition but now that I'm wedded to my Kindle Oasis I was delighted to discover that, at some point, I must have bought the trilogy because there it was with The Silver Branch and The Lantern Bearers. Surely I read these as a child, but I have no recollection. I know little about Rosemary Sutcliffe either but am intrigued to discover that she was disabled in childhood as a result of Still's Disease (juvenile arthritis) and spent most of life in a wheelchair.

I'm wondering about some Alan Garner too. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960)  and The Owl Service (1967) are here ready and waiting and will either work or they won't.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In keeping with more Christmas tradition I have copies of the newest pamphlets from Candlestick Press and can heartily recommend each one...

'If we could gift each other moments
I'd wrap up that bauble sun we felt
warm our backs to the tip of Mam Tor.

I'd box the two hours spent tracing
the tinselled reservoir, no two miles 
the same as we ran and ran..'

This Year by Ben Wilkinson starts the Christmas Presents - Ten Poems to Give and Receive pamphlet beautifully, and if perchance you know anyone who has known sadness, or a difficult time being apart this year, this would be the most perfect collection to send them, and my apologies for being a little late in the day about this but I think you can still order via the website.

I'm not quite sure where December has gone this year...has anyone else found this. All the time in the world but I seem to be treading water, or asleep by the fire.

I also have a new volume of poetry from Di Slaney, Candlestick publisher. Di's last collection Reward for Winter is a real favourite of mine, I wrote about it here, and Herd Queen looks just as good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We've never met but Di and I have been in touch for years thanks to the scribbles and I know she has kept ships various afloat despite enormous challenges this last year. I see Di as a real powerhouse of a woman who achieves more in a day than I think I manage in a week. Not content with publishing these pamphlets and writing poetry herself, Di also runs an animal sanctuary. We think six chickens and two dogs keep us busy, well Di cares for 170 animals of all shapes and sizes and I love her writing.

So that's me sorted, how about you...

Please do share your planned Christmas reads in comments, you know how inquisitive we all are...

 

 

FOOTNOTE : For anyone wondering what a clome oven is (thank you Wikipaedia)

A clome oven (or cloam oven) is a type of masonry oven. It has a removable door made of clay or alternatively a cast-iron door, and was a standard fitting for most kitchen fireplaces in Cornwall and Devon. The oven would be built into the side of the chimney breast, often appearing as a round bulge in the chimney. This bulge consisted of the masonry surrounding the oven, and was intended to be dismantled should the oven ever need to be replaced. During installation, they are surrounded by packed clay to prevent the actual oven cracking

To use a clome oven, one must enter the fireplace and build a fire within the oven. Dried gorse or blackthorn was traditionally used. As the oven has no internal chimney, the smoke is allowed to escape through the oven door, and into the adjacent fireplace where it leaves through the main chimney. Once the oven is white hot, the hot ashes are either raked out or pushed aside, then the baking is put in, and the door propped up to the opening.

The Mirror & the Light...’tis done

22.15 Sunday November 29th 2020

I flicked over the final page of The Mirror & the Light and I really do feel as if some sort of medal, honour, award, Damehood or something should be in order. And not just for me, for any of you who have also finished (or are in your way to finishing) the nine hundred pages of this book after our shared read through November, and into December for some.

There wasn’t a lot of jolly was there and from my point of view I’m not sure I could have chosen a worse month...

Unexpected Lockdown...

Grey chill November days...

Dark afternoons...

A month of toothache  culminating in finally passing the telephone exam on the third attempt and getting a dentist’s appointment for what I had told them was ‘only a small filling’ that ‘wouldn’t take a minute.’  It turned out to be a fractured tooth needing  root canal, rebuilding and will eventually need a crown, all of which took an hour and half ministered to by people in full hazmat. Bookhound, waiting outside (don’t worry I’ll be out in fifteen minutes) thought I’d probably died. All this followed by a week of soup and porridge.

And so it’s been a bit of a slog this end. But I’ve stuck with it because it was my bright idea so thought I better had. I've done a mix of book, Kindle and audio and feel as if Ben Miles lives here after so many hours of listening. 

As always Hilary Mantel is superb on her textiles and colours. Tawny and russet cloaks trimmed with ermine, lush brocades, it’s the way I find she locks me into a particular scene and some of those scenes were breathtakingly good. One that comes to mind is Cromwell’s realisation that Wolsey may not have trusted him. Memorable too, the betrothal mix-up, the garter ceremony, the ongoing reminders of Cromwell’s lowly beginnings and inferior status, and, running through the entire book, the status of the women. Well, lack of status really, child-bearing vessels, pawns in the marriage game, commodities to be traded.

In the end I could hardly bear to look, but along the way ...well I got lost quite a few times and if I’m honest, whilst I’d have paid good money for another few hundred pages of both Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, I think I’d have been happy to have lost a few from this one. I’m prepared for those of you who have loved it to challenge me on this. I feel like a traitor because I am such a huge fan of Hilary Mantel, and doubtless it has been more to do with me than the book. Nevertheless I do feel a huge sense of achievement for now having the trilogy tucked under my reading belt, a bit like the day I finished Ulysses.

I stopped taking notes (thank you Penny Gardener for showing me the error of my ways in this instance) and just let the book make its way to the inevitable conclusion and I felt a bit hollowed out by the end truth be told. The aftermath has been interesting too. I barely feel I have settled to a good book since, almost as if I ran my reading batteries as a flat as a pancake. To the rescue a jigsaw puzzle and Olivia Manning, and a book I’d put on my Kindle ages ago, The Doves of Venus.

And so over to you. If you have managed to read along with The Mirror & the Light I'd love to know your thoughts...mine are a bit of a blur so it would be good to have a chat in comments.

And, though I realise reading shouldn't be about this, are you relieved it's done...

I do feel a sense of pride now as I look at the three books on the shelf, along with huge admiration for Hilary Mantel who brought us Thomas Cromwell, warts and all. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puzzling...

I’ve been trying to remember the last time I did a puzzle and I think it might have been with Offspringette who was staying here in the weeks before she headed off to New Zealand. That was over eight years ago, and we’d been sorting her ‘stuff’ in the loft.

I wonder if your children do, or did this.

For a few years, their often peripatetic lives mean no permanent base, so they come home with boxes and say ‘I’ll just put this in the loft,’ and so it goes on...and on. Our biggest mistake was probably building on a large single storey sitting room (which is now more of a studio and Bookhound’s lair with just the two of us) and creating a huge loft above with a lovely safe ladder, making it readily accessible. 

Anyway Offspringette got ruthless with her stash and in amongst it all we found a puzzle still in its shrink wrap which we decided to do. It was a wonderful few days as we commandeered the kitchen table and chatted as we puzzled, and it was this I recalled as I headed back into puzzle-dom last week.

Tavistock is very fortunate to have quite a few unique little shops and one of them is Howard’s puzzle shop, I’m not sure that’s what it’s called but it’s in King Street and it’s been there forever. Howard’s parent’s used to run a bookshop next door. Owen’s was quite an unusual bookshop back in the 1980s. Every book was in a plastic bag and if you had children in a buggy they had to be parked by the door and were allowed no further, so I never really looked on it as a treasure of a shop, but the elders of the town most certainly did. Everyone ordered their books from Owen’s until a rival user-friendly indie bookshop opened and then along came W.H.Smiths. Owen’s limped along for years and Owen’s son Howard would eventually open his puzzle shop next door, his parents died and he’s been going ever since. 

We’ve often wondered, through the onslaught of online selling, how this little shop has stayed afloat, but somehow it has. Sometimes it can look a bit sad too, there’s no denying it; the completed puzzles in the window display faded by the sun, the paint peeling around the shop front.  And yet inside it’s a riot of colour and nirvana for any keen puzzlers as we’ve recently rediscovered.

One of the things we had noticed about Tinker’s Cott was that our guests often brought a puzzle along with them and kindly left it behind, so last year Bookhound and I decided a trip to Howard’s might be a good idea to increase our stock. We hadn’t been in there for years, but what an Aladdin’s cave it turned out to be, and what a lovely time we had choosing.

And there the puzzle has sat undone until last week when I finally cracked open the box, set myself up in the lovely cosy Tinker’s Cott sitting room, lit the fire and proceeded.



The best thing about this room, and one of the things we’ve always loved about it, is the winter sun. It faces south and when the sun is low in the sky it shines in to brighten and warm the room all the day long. Light matters in the depths of winter and we follow it around the house and soak it up. 

Finding my puzzle brain has been really interesting and very therapeutic. It's about flow and very quickly the world and its worries disappears.

First off you tip it all out, 1000 pieces, and think maybe I’ll just put it all back in the box right now...

But maybe I’ll just find a few edge pieces first...

And as I laid out the pieces my heart sank a bit as I looked at the picture and wondered why we’d chosen it...

That rug...that sofa. Impossible, every bit looked the same.

Slowly the edge pieces emerged and I discovered that old feeling because it only takes a few moments of joining them up for the bug to bite doesn’t it. 

And gradually my brain slipped into puzzle mode...

Searching for colours...

’Learning’ my picture...

Sometimes looking for a piece by shape rather than content...two sticky out bits on the side, one higher than the other...

I switched on a new audio book, Erika, I think it was you who recommended The Testament by John Grisham as one of his best books. Thank you, it is spot on, I’m really enjoying it as I puzzle.

'Troy Phelan is a self-made billionaire, one of the richest men in the United States. He is also eccentric, reclusive, confined to a wheelchair, and looking for a way to die. His heirs, to no one's surprise - especially Troy's - are circling like vultures.

Nate O'Riley is a high-octane Washington litigator who's lived too hard, too fast, for too long. His second marriage is a shambles, and he is emerging from his fourth stay in rehab armed with little more than his fragile sobriety, good intentions, and resilient sense of humour. Returning to the real world is always difficult, but this time it's going to be murder.

Rachel Lane is a young woman who chose to give her life to God, who walked away from the modern world with all its strivings and trappings and encumbrances, and went to live and work with a primitive tribe of Indians in the deepest jungles of Brazil.

In a story that mixes legal suspense with a remarkable adventure, their lives are forever altered by the startling secret of The Testament.'

 

I've struggled to settle to any reading after the marathon that was The Mirror & the Light, (my thoughts coming soon) so the puzzle interlude has been good.

And of course the upshot is addiction.

’I’ll just go in and do a bit more sofa...”

’If I could just find that cat’s ear....’

’It’s no good, I can’t go to bed until  I’ve found this piece with a bit of blue on the sticky out side...’

And so Saturday morning found us in town for a return visit to Howard’s to buy more puzzles to see me through to next year, and  how lovely it was. We had coffee and cake in the Bedford for the first time since February,

We wandered around our favourite shops and the market, spoke to lots of people,  and the atmosphere was so warm and friendly. Everyone released, albeit under caution, but plenty of us trying to support local business. Easy enough to buy a puzzle online and have it delivered the next day, but how much better to go into Howard’s, have a chat, browse the shelves, get one of his meticulously hand-written receipts and listen to his patient and detailed summary of the benefits of our Ravensburger loyalty card, which now has three stamps on it. 

Anyway, that’s me stocked up for the foreseeable and now over to you. There must be more puzzlers out there, or perhaps something else has claimed you with a very slight addiction.

I’d welcome any good puzzle tips too...

Do you work on small patches...

Work by colour...

Choose by the shape of the piece...

Honestly, who’d have thought it.

Oh yes, and I finished it...

 

Thank you again & puzzles...

I’m so pleased the tins are arriving safely. We did two excursions in the end because of course this time of year the PO is heaving on the best of days, now the queue snakes halfway around town. But we found a little sub PO who we knew would be happy to have the business, and they certainly were, and then a quick swoop in Okehampton to seal the deal....whilst on yet another trip to the dentist (first me, then Bookhound, don’t ask). 

Thank you again everyone, we’ve had huge fun putting this together. From helping Tommy with the tins...he and Bookhound had a day of sticking the stickers on (I went out) and you can have no idea of the precision involved, or what happened if there was a ‘bubble’. Bookhound, a graphic designer by training and eyes like a spirit level, but little did I know our son had developed similar traits, so nothing but perfection was good enough. 

Well, father and son...you had to be there apparently, and I’m quite glad I wasn’t. But worth it for the smiles on their faces when it was done.

And then holding our breath as we waited for the things to arrive from Africa, and huge gratitude to the friend who was heading back to the U.K. from Uganda and very kindly brought everything with them and then posted it to us.

There is something magical about the waxed fabrics, such incredibly beautiful designs and it is lovely to share them with you. Although the Kayaker has no idea when he will be able to get back to Africa, you can be sure he will be bringing back more of the same, bought from Mama Joy’s shop, when he does.

And since then, having slipped into a post-Mirror & the Light reading slump...I mean what on earth do you read after that...I’ve finally flipped and started doing a puzzle. We’ll be having a conversation about puzzles any day now, because I bet I’m not the only one who has rediscovered jigsaws and how good they are for distracting times like these. 

 

 

Thank you...

Thank you so much both for buying tins and sending donations, and for good wishes and encouragement, you are all amazing.

The remainder of the thirty seven Borehole tins sold within hours (that's a lot of Christmas dinners in Africa) and the packing department has been very busy here (Bookhound and moi) wrapping and labelling and tomorrow we post. We've had order numbers and spread sheets and tin numbers and heaven knows what, it's been quite the operation.

Thinking we might do a tour of about three different post offices (nice day for a drive around, chance for an outing on first day of freedom) because I can see us getting drummed out of town if we do them all at once. 

As I packed each box I had names in front of me, so packed with lots of good wishes to each of you, plus I raided my postcard box so expect a thank you card on top as you open. It will double as a bookmark.  Each tin has a number inside the lid, and the winner of a print from Tommy’s 2021 calendar will be picked by the people in the Africa on Christmas Day.

And to those who missed this episode, have no fear, I’m planning more of similar in  2021 and there will be more of a heads up too.

I'll be back dreckly with news of The Mirror & the Light marathon because, determined not to let the inevitable ending segue into December, I turned the final page on November 29th and I'll own up, it wasn't the easiest of reading months. 

Oh yes and one more thing...

Susan Hill has opened an online shop (UK addresses only) raising funds for charity, and one of the two she has chosen to benefit is the Kayaker’s Think People Think Story. Lots and lots of lovely things, and Christmas goodies too (don't miss the felt mice ) but also, in case you haven’t got your Advent calendar yet, the Roger Borde pop & slot ones are there, and much cheaper than eBay.

We've bought Paw Prints in the Snow...

 

Right, we're off on our Post Office jaunt and with humblest apologies to anyone who is behind us in the queue. Honestly, don't the simplest of excursions take on new and exciting meaning nowadays...I'm going to have to think what to wear.