Friday 26 February 2016

Celebrate the small things

It's been such a mixed bag this week, sadness and joy in equal measure, but in keeping with the spirit of this hop I'm going to share the good things.

* Last weekend I was up in London. We had a great time and packed quite a lot in, including a river trip dinner cruise, a show and my first ever trip to a football match!

* I received some really positive initial feedback on my ms.

* My youngest daughter is coming home for the weekend. Yay!



Thanks to Lexa and her lovely co-hosts
 L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge 
Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog

Thursday 18 February 2016

A little bit of history

Do you like old books, I mean really old ones that you stumble across from time to time?

I have been delving into a few old books recently. Some I inherited when I cleared my late aunt's house and some, well to be honest,  I'm not even sure where they came from, but it must be through the family.

I thought it would be interesting to share a few with you on the blog.

* The Works of Shakespeare, has pages so fine they are like tracing paper and the print so small it would require excellent vision to read!  The cover is red and textured like leather and the edges of the pages are gold embossed. The only date I can find in it says 1916 which, if correct, would make it 100 years old. Amazing when you think about it.

                         

*The next one is  a copy of Stories From Grimm. This one is particularly precious to me as my late father's name is written in the front with a date of 12th April 1943. I suppose he must have been given it as a present. Sadly, it has obviously got a little damp over the years and some of the pages are quite fragile and stained. The paper, though, is much thicker than that of the Shakespeare above, and the print is larger. Looking through the pages I can see that punctuation styles have changed over the years. For example there are extra spaces between sentences and spaces before colons, semi-colons and question marks.




*Then there is a poetry book by Ethel L. Fowler called The Daffodil Poetry Book. It has a price on it of 2s and 6d. (old British currency pre 1971). Inside there is a library stamp from London dated 20th March 1929 (I guess it is probably a bit overdue now!). I was quite intrigued to read inside the front cover that: 


        "This book can also be obtained in cloth at 3s.6d. net. and in two Parts in stiff paper covers, 1s. each Part."

As a matter of interest I looked this book up on Amazon and you can purchase a historical reproduction. It says the poems are all pre- 1923. 



The verse inside the front cover, which I thought very true.


*Or, how about Philips' A.B.C Pocket Atlas Guide to London priced at 1s. 6d. It contains times of the coaches (the ones pulled by horses) and some restaurant recommendations. Sadly, I feel this may well be out of date now. A shame because I am visiting London this weekend and I could have taken it with me!




*A small and sadly, quite battered addition to my collection is titled The Farmer of Inglewood by Elizabeth Helme. This was found in the things belonging to my late aunt when we cleared her house. Inside there is a handwritten inscription. I can not read it all but I think it starts of with a variation of the rhyme, "Steal not this book for fear of shame for here you see the owner's name . . ." I understand it was quite popular to add variations on this rhyme to the front of books during the 19th Century.

There is a name, which I can't make out clearly, and the date 1864, Hough, Lincolnshire. Making this the oldest book I currently own.

Interestingly, a reproduction of this book is also still available under the same title but with the addition of, Or, an Affecting Portrait of Virtue and Vice.





* My final book for today is one of my favourites, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. This is probably a book most of us are familiar with. This is a hardback copy with some lovely illustrations by Harry Rountree.


I can't see a date in this book but a little research leads me to think it was around 1928. The cover depicts Alice as a 1920's girl.



Extract from The Lobster Quadrille



I wonder how long some of the books written today will last? Will they become heirlooms to pass down through families? Maybe we should all think about passing something down to future generations. I'm glad these examples survived the years.

Please note; due to commitments I will be unlikely to return comments until Sunday/Monday so no specific Celebrations post this week. 

Many thanks for visiting and happy weekend











Friday 12 February 2016

Celebrate the small things

Here in the South West of England we have been experiencing the force of storm Imogen this week.

Naming storms in the the UK is a relatively new thing. The Met Office invited the public to suggest names for autumn/winter 2015/16, following the alphabet and alternating male and female names. I believe the idea was that it would help raise awareness of the approach of severe weather and thus help people prepare. The arrival of storm Imogen therefore indicated the ninth storm to hit the UK since the pilot project began. I think naming the storms has made it seem like we have suffered more severe weather (although I don't think this is necessary the case) and in my small circle of of people it has been a topic of conversation, so maybe it is highlighting the potential problems.

Storm Imogen brought very strong winds, heavy rain and high seas. The pictures of some of the waves were phenomenal! We suffered some damage to our fence and a few small tree branches down, but nothing serious, so I will definitely celebrate that fact this week. My thoughts are with those that have been affected by any of the winter's storms. The power of mother nature will continue to test us.

I am also going to celebrate . . .

Next week is a half-term holiday so it means a few days from the day job and a chance to get in some extra writing time.  Yay!

My cute unicorn pen!








Happy weekend everyone. 

 

Thanks to Lexa and her lovely co-hosts
 L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge 
Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog

Wednesday 3 February 2016

Insecure Writer's Support Group

Oh gosh, yes it's IWSG day! Just turned on my computer and seen all your lovely posts in my blogroll. I had remembered at the weekend but it sort of slipped my mind with everything else that was going on!

Luckily, I don't think I have any new insecurities this month. The same old ones hover around but I try hard not to listen to them too much. Although progress on my edits is a little slower than I would like, I am moving forward and am generally pleased with the way things are going.

I'll hop around and see what writing insecurities are afoot around the blogosphere this month.

Happy writing all.



Thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for hosting our monthly meeting and to this month's co-hosts 
Allison Gammons,Tamara Narayan, Eva E. Solar, Rachel Pattison, and Ann V. Friend