Scavenger Hunt ~ On My Shelf

Well, I've lost my dinky camera so I've had to resort to my iphone for the photo challenge today.  Maybe my camera is somewhere on one of these shelves.  Hopefully it will show up when it's good and ready, I know it's in the house somewhere.

My Bear and Book collection 

The shelf in the Loo

The only orderly shelf in my Craft Room

My softies resting on a shelf guarding one of my very amateur paintings

A messy corner shelf displaying creations by me, the 'Wanna Bee Artist'

Linking up to Deb's weekly photographic challenge at Ramblings of a Square Peg in a Round Hole

The Slap - What's the fuss all about?

I've just finished reading "The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas.  It had me spellbound from beginning to end.  As well as having devoured the book, I'm watching the eight part drama series on the ABC.


So many issues come to a fine old head throughout this drama.  Particularly the backyard BBQ where it all started.  How many family and friends get into a right old pickle when they've had a few too many drinks, got personal issues and perhaps, just perhaps not everyone gets on that well.  Add a bit of weed and a few happy pills to the mix and the day is not going to turn out all sunshine and roses.

The story raises a plethora of social issues.  Yep, there really is a slap to a child, the book wasn't given this name just to suck you in.  I felt a bit uncomfortable that readers might construe this story as typically Australian, honestly it can happen anywhere.

There's heaps of hard core swearing as well, so you need to get past that if you want to experience "The Slap".

That's the book now for the TV series.  I do not want to watch the drama on TV with my mother in the room.  No sirree, no way hosay!   Way too uncomfortable for me.  Is that another issue the story raises?  No, that's my very own personal issue, not something you have to worry about.  If you get the chance have a read, it's not going to give you sleepless nights, just get you thinking about some real social issues.

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When Is An Old Book Vintage?

Does it have to be 100 years old to be vintage? These delightful books belonged to my mother-in-law, she had them since her baby days, so they're not quite 100 yet.  They have only just worn the test of time.  Most of the binding is brittle and breaking away.

 The pages are old and yellow and have that stale smell that comes with age.  'Our Kiddies' Yarns' was given to me not so long ago and it has 1936 written on it.  The publishers back then didn't seem to want to give much away, although each story has an author.  Some of the stories are delightful and funny, some would no longer be acceptable today regarding political correctness.

'Let's Go Shopping' has no dates, only the name of the publisher, authors don't get a mention.

This is a lovely picture book (quite faded) and the only way I can identify it's origin is by a stamp on the back cover.  'Printed in the Netherlands No 1480 A'.  This book belonged to my husband and I would read it to my boys when they were very young.

'Weekday Story Book' is another new acquisition, which my mother-in-law gave me just recently.   The binding has completely crumbled.  It was given to my mother-in-law in 1934 for second prize in a kindergarten class.  No idea what she had to do to get second.  At the end of this book is an advertisement.

Isn't that just the cutest thing you've seen in awhile?  It think it means 'Chill Proof for Children'.

This is 'Walt Disney presents Pluto's Play-Time.  There's nt dates, no clues as to how old except it has brown and brittle pages.  I can't imagine my kids being too taken with the text in this book I think the unknown author wasn't much into relating to children.  Not sure if you can see the text in the photo above but this is a line from another page.

"The end of the game comes when the cat flies up the fence again and vanishes from sight although, of course, I do a spot of cheering for a few minutes afterwards - winners always cheer their defeated opponents, don't they?" 

Super serious, the only way to save this story is with a funny voice. 

If these are to make it to 100 I had better do something to save them.  So does anyone know how to preserve these treasures?  

Beatrix Potter - Favourite Stories

The other day I watched a movie called "Miss Potter".  

The credits said:- MISS POTTER is the enchanting, inspiring tale of one woman's quest for happiness, love and artistic acceptance.

Beatrix Potter was played by Renee Zellweger and I thought it was a great portrayal.    Briefly the story went like this.  Beatrix was mind set on getting her book "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" published.  It eventually happened with some reluctance by the publishing company and they sort only to humour Beatrix.  They never believed it would be taken seriously by the general public.  As it happens, the man assigned to be her publisher Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor in the movie)  believed in the book.  

As with all love stories Beatrix fell in love with Norman and they became unofficially engaged due to the fact that her parents disapproved of Norman because he was only a 'tradesman'.  By this time Beatrix was 32 years old and regarded a spinster, yet very much under the control of her parents.  Since Beatrix had rejected all the appropriate suitors her mother had chosen and approved, her parents had determined she would not marry. 

After much arguing about Norman and her intended marriage, Beatrix agreed to go away for the summer months to Scotland with her parents with the understanding that on her return she would marry Norman.  Her mother was hoping the time away would cool Beatrix yearnings, but it was quite the opposite.  

During this period away, Beatrix received a letter saying her darling Norman was quite ill.  She raced back to London only to find she was too late.  Norman had died and the funeral had been the day before she arrived.   Naturally Beatrix was grief stricken for a long time and only found solace in her illustrations and writing.

The upside of all this was that "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" was a huge success.  As she was now independently rich , Beatrix bought a house in the country where she lived happily ever after and some eight years later married an old friend and lawyer, William Heelis.  Read more about Miss Potter here.

This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons.

Beatrix Potter
Born	28 July 1866 Kensington, London, England
Died	22 December 1943 (aged 77) Near Sawrey, Cumbria, England
Occupation	Children's author and illustrator
Genres	Children's literature
Notable work(s)	The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Spouse(s)	William Heelis

I remember reading "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" to my children when they were one month old.  I don't know if it really did them any good, but it was heaven for me to sit quietly and read to them while they slept. To hear their quiet breathing and smell their beautiful baby smells is a lasting memory.  Neither my boys are voracious readers, but they're doing quite well in the world, making it successfully through University.  So at some point their reading prowess paid off.  Well I just love to read and this movie about Beatrix Potter and her gorgeous Peter Rabbit just made my day.  I'm off to re-read all her stories.

“To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.”

- A C Grayling, Financial Times (in a review of A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel)

This post is also part of Friday on My Mind link back to Rhonda at Down To Earth to find out what's on other people's minds to day.
This post is also part of Katherine's Corner blog hop.

Glorious Books

I use to read 'Possum in the House' to my children all the time.  We had so much fun; I would deliver the story with flare and flamboyancy much to the delight and giggles of my boys.  My husband would come in and remind me that I was trying to get the kids sleepy, not all hyped-up.  My boys can remember this story and well it’s my plan to read it to the grandchildren one day.  Just as well books last a long time.

This book was written by Kiersten Jensen and illustrated by Tony Oliver.  The book is full of beautiful drawings and when trying to research on the net to give credit where credit is due, I couldn't find much about author or illustrator.  A little bit about Tony Oliver is here and I noticed it can still be purchased via Amazon and other online book stores. I have read this book so many times that I know it by heart and have told the story heaps of times to children of friends before they pop off to bed.

One of my boys favourite stories was the one about a rabbit.  Well, it was my story not from a book, but I still remember my boys giggles when I told it.  Do you want me to tell you the story?  Yes, well here goes.

Once upon a time there were two young boys walking along a lane near a dark and scary forest (bush if you live in Australia).  They were a tiny bit frightened but they kept walking hoping to get home real soon.  As they walked along this lane up jumped a rabbit out of a hole in the ground.  Well, the boys were startled but curious.  They eye balled the rabbit but said not a word. No, no, nope not a word. The rabbit eye balled them back and said in a high pitched squeaky voice “Hello, what's your name?"

That's it folks, the end.  By this time my boys would be rolling around the bed with tears in their eyes because, well it was just so funny!  I guess you had to be there.  But sometimes the best kids stories are the ones we make up on the spot.  Why not try it.

I read 'James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl as part of the Retro Reader Club which I signed up for recently.  It was fun to read and only took a couple of sessions.  I would so love to have been able to read it to someone.  I always fancied myself recording books for sight-impaired people, but you have to have some kind of a degree, so that's the end of that long held dream.  Back to James and the Giant Peach.  I'm glad Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker got what was coming to them.  Squashed, yup that's right the giant peach made sure they paid a mighty high price for the way they treated James.  But James was a brave little boy and as we all know 'goodness wins over evil' every time. 

In between reading kids books and making up stories I like to give myself a challenge.  I've recently re-read Pride and Prejudice by Miss Jane Austen.  Can you believe that I've read it twice?  For me anyway, the old world writing can be a bit over the top and I find I have to go back and read a paragraph, because I just don't get what they are trying to say.  Conversation back in the 1800's in England was rather dramatic even corny in places.  But that aside, oh how I would love to wear those clothes, go dancing at a beautiful mansion and feel like a princess. 

 Never any mention of the poor and suffering, I guess Miss Jane was protected from all that.  I'm now in the middle of reading Emma by Jane Austen. What's so good about these three books is that they were written during the life of the author and she lived from 1775 to 1817.  She was writing in actual time.  Apparently, in real life Jane loved to dance and these three books mention lots of dancing. I can tell you, I don't like the fact that back in them there days, women could not inherit the family home.  If there were no boys in the family the home went to the next in line like a cousin or nephew.  Just as long as it was a he and then he could banish the ladies from the house if he felt so inclined.  Thank goodness that doesn't happen these days.

Finally, I just like to put it out there that a follow up to Pride and Prejudice has been written by Colleen McCullough and it's called 'The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet'.  I loved this book and I love Colleen, read most of her books.

If you've read Pride and Prejudice you will remember that Mary Bennet (one of the sisters of Jane Bennet) didn't get much air play.  She was the quiet, bookwormy type not worth mentioning.  But Colleen has done the right thing by Mary, yes she has and given her a book with Mary as the star.  Colleen is a feisty writer quite the opposite of Jane Austen.  If you're not a fan of Jane Austen books you should still enjoy 'The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet'.  Colleen tackles real issues like poverty, love, sex, yes sex in a discriminate way of course, we are talking about 1800's here..  You won't get any mention of sex from Jane Austen, but she does refer to 'love making' but not in the terms as we would think of it, but rather meaning a couple chatting intimately.

Well, listen to me.  I sound like a book critique, which I am not.  I just like to share and seeing I love to read, I'm sharing some books.  More in a few days.  Now remember to come and see me.  Hope I haven't frightened you away.

PS.  Any spelling mistakes my DH will pick them up and make sure he points them out to me.  Thank goodness this post can be edited.  Cheers

Happy Hour

Finished reading The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet,

Drinking freshly brewed tea,


Listening to the rain outside and dogs snoring at my feet,


Best friends with the English Dictionary,


Following baxter street and watching Sister Wendy video,


Planning to clean up the house but not too much,


Commenced re-reading Pride and Prejudice, just because I can,


Hoping to invent a beautiful dinner tonight for my two sons,


Sewing a new oven mitt because I burnt my one and only last night,


Discarded a large pot of lemon marmalade jam because it didn't set and I don't know how to make it,


Have to get out of my PJ's - Jane Austen would be horrified,


Hope you get to have a happy hour like me.




Cheers