Another week's flown by ...

 

Saturday's rolled around again, and it's not been the most eventful of days.  Cleaning and hoovering, a walk to the shops to buy groceries, an hour on the allotment, then home to do some odd tasks in the garden.  The strawberry plants are sending out runners, so I've been dealing with those, plus deadheading the perennial sunflowers, and cutting back the gone-over flowers on the sage and marjoram.  I'm sad to see those blooms gone as the bees loved them.  This afternoon I spent a few hours finishing 'Dawnlands' by Philippa Gregory.  

It's a really good book, a page turner where you care about the characters and want to be reassured everything's going to work out well for them.  Plus you become enraged about the corruption of the so-called justice system at the time of the Stuart kings and queens, about transportation of prisoners to the West Indies, and about the vile nature of the sugar trade in the 1600s and the vast profits made from it.  

The next book I'm going to tackle is a whopper.  A massive doorstep of a novel, 'The Luminaries' by Eleanor Catton.  It's been lurking on my To-Be-Read piles for months and months, and it's time has finally come.  

Speaking of books, I found another couple on a charity shop bookshelf (as well as this beautiful Indian bag in pristine condition, a mere £4.00).  'Anderby Wold' is set in Yorkshire, and written by the same author - Winifred Holtby - who wrote 'South Riding', which is a classic.  The slim volume by Margaret Atwood caught my eye too.  I used to read a lot of her books, and wouldn't mind re-reading ones like 'The Robber Bride'.  Though I don't think I could face 'The Handmaid's Tale' again.  Too bleak.  Thinking of that horrifying story makes me think of the women and girls of Afghanistan.  It's bewildering and deeply shocking that only a plane ride away, on the other side of the world, the female half of the Afghan population is treated as mere property.  As having no more rights than goods & chattels.  Or fictional Handmaids.  Where's the world's outrage about them? It feels non-existent.  

It seems so frivolous to move from that hideous matter on to something so inconsequential as crafting, but here we are.  

I've been experimenting with making different types of junk journals.  One using an existing book cover, having gutted it of its original pages.  Another with a leather cover made from an offcut bought from the scrapstore. 

Another with a painted cardboard cover that I went crazy with the alcohol inks on, and one with a fabric cover.  I'm trying to work out which style I like best, and am planning on doing another YouTube video about that.  Possibly also setting up a Kofi shop and trying to sell handmade journals.  I've sold the odd things on Etsy before, but apparently Kofi is cheaper and I've seen lots of grumblings about Etsy lately and the amount they charge for each sale you make.  

Okay, I need to start chapter one, page one of 'The Luminaries'.  Possibly accompanied by a large mug of tea and a chocolate bar.  Oh yeah, my Saturday nights are pure rock 'n' roll, aren't they?  

Actually, that's just the way I like 'em!  

Have a great weekend.