The monthly book group at the library in the park gives me the opportunity to meet with others who enjoy reading. The group has been going now for over a year and there's a relaxed atmosphere where everyone is welcome and it doesn't matter if a book hasn't been read that month. We also talk about books that we've read in the past and can recommend. I'm winding down in preparation for October activities so my books that were on loan were taken back this week. Instead I shall be reading my own books for a while. When visiting a charity shop I'm always on the look-out for books that I want to read and I'm never without a book in my bag that I can read whilst waiting my turn during an appointment. Today I have a routine MRI scan to measure bone density. A book of short stories is usually the best option for this situation.
On the other side of the library beyond the walled garden is a wild area in the park. More natural cover for wildlife has been added and there's also a small pond. The former Squirrel Corner is now called The Wildlife Garden. When I went there after the book group meeting the grey squirrels were there as usual and they seemed less shy than when I've been there before. They come right up to a visitor as they search for fallen acorns on the paths in the woodland during these Autumn days? They are fascinating to watch.
There are many images from our time in Italy in May that I haven't shared, but they'll have to wait for another time. Mr P's sister phoned us on Sunday and told us that she and some of the family have gathered our grapes from the vines on our land. However, we know there's always plenty to do in the garden. Last time I hardly got any crocheting done and books that I read were those that I'm already familiar with by favourite authors and those I could dip into such as this travel/cookery book Honey From A Weed by Patience Gray: Fasting and Feasting in Tuscany, The Cyclades and Apulia with wonderful drawing by Corinna Sargood.
Here is what is written on the dust jacket:-
Patience Gray was first known for the 1950s classic, Plat du Jour, but her greatest work was her autobiographical cookery book Honey From a Weed . It is Mediterranean through and through and as compelling as a first-class novel. She shared her life with a sculptor, Norman Mommens, whose appetite for marble and sedimentary rocks took them to Tuscany, Catalonia, the Cyclades (Naxos) and Apulia. Everywhere she learned from the country people whose way of life she shared, adopting their methods of growing, cooking and conserving the staple foods of the Mediterranean. She described the rustic foods and dishes with feeling and fidelity, writing from the inside and with a deep sense of history and continuity of Mediterranean ways. Her life in Salento contrasted with an earlier and indeed glittering career in Fleet Street, but she sacrificed the deadlines of the past to the rhythm of wine-making, seasonal sowing and gathering.
Corinna Sargood's drawings, in another dimension, evoke the underlying spirit of the book, which has to do with the landscape, people, art, imagination, as much as with fasting and feasting.
I'm hoping to get back to some crocheting which is another activity I can pick up and put down.
I'm now going to take a break from blogging.