fourth edition

I appear to be having one of those days when coffee is keeping me upright. I’m working, let there be no doubt about that, but I’m also clutching my coffee cup like there is no tomorrow.
First, though, there is the Booker longlist. After a few years where the prize appeared to be a tiny bit [...]

A few weeks ago my partner, David, came down with the flu and I succumbed a day later. I suspect it was the dreaded H1N1 flu, although we cannot be sure. I was cooped up in bed for a few days which obviously led to me devouring one book after another. That is, one Georgette [...]

(yes, I came home with a tonne of ideas for future projects)

Today’s a very quiet day in Casa Bookish. I believe my parents are currently looking at marching penguins in Edinburgh Zoo (or possibly at shoppers on Glasgow’s Buchanan Street – not that much difference, anyhow). I’m still in my jammies and have been working away on the body of my Pine cardigan. I might just [...]

My parents are currently visiting these shores and today we treated them to a visit to New Lanark,  a former cotton mill village and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, about an hour from Glasgow. I have long wanted to visit New Lanark although prior to my permanent relocation to Great Britain the words “industrial revolution” [...]

Ooooh, nice location and a suitable size! I also like that it hasn’t been refurbished beyond recognition (I have a particular bone to pick with developers putting Poggenpohl-knock-off kitchens into Victorian properties).  Shame about the price, of course.
A few months ago David and I went to see the Swedish vampire film, Let the Right One [...]

To be honest, I thought it would take me longer to knit this little cardigan and that I’d have plenty of work-in-progress pictures, but I started and finished this little cardigan within twenty-four hours. I think it is a new record.
Abigail is my own pattern – straight from my head through my fingers and into [...]

After having drop-spindled for a few weeks, I’m now happy enough with the results to try and spin yarn I might conceivably work into something worthwhile.
I’ve chosen some merino fibre in one of my favourite colours and am simply trying to spin as thin a thread as I possibly can. Depending upon how much I [...]

When I talked about independent bookshops and Glasgow, I mentioned that my neighbourhood has several excellent secondhand bookshops. This is my favourite: Voltaire & Rousseau just off Otago Street. Sometimes I even think it is my favourite bookshop in the entire universe, full stop.
As someone whose idea of a good time is digging through piles [...]

The other day I tried on a wedding dress.
Now before you all start screaming with joy and gushing – hold on for a minute and let me explain.
Principles is yet another UK clothes chain in deep financial doo-doo. It sells really nice stuff, though, and I went into one of their closing-down sales to have [...]