Words and Wool

I am slowly working on my sweater. We are taking two weeks of fall break here at home and perhaps I will make some real progress on it. I also find myself working on simple crochet tea cozies because no pattern is involved and very little thinking. :)

I finished wool plaid roses for my Etsy shop. Maybe next week I'll get them posted! 

And I picked out a stack of books for my vacation reading:

I've already started A City of Bells by Elizabeth Goudge and am enjoying it very much -- set between the wars in a little English town and it is lovely, easy reading.

Howards End Is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home by Susan Hill was a very enjoyable read. Hill is a well-known British author (although I have never heard of her before) and has a deep knowledge of literature and authors both past and present. This book is a sort of annotated bibliography with short chapters covering all sorts of books which she finds on her own bookshelves. I enjoy reading others' takes on books and this book yielded a whole new list of books for my "to-read" list.

The Far Distant Oxus by Hull & Whitlock was just finished with the children. I only discovered it a few months ago and knew right away we would have to read it. Written by two school-age girls who were fans of Arthur Ransome, the book chronicles the adventures of a group of children on Exmoor (England) with their ponies. It is similar to the Swallows and Amazons books though, of course, in a different setting. We all enjoyed it and I rated it as about 75% as good as Ransome's books.

Looking for the King: An Inklings Novel by David Downing was recommended by a friend. It is a novel set during World War II in Oxford and follows the adventures of two young Americans as they research Arthurian legends. Woven throughout the book is their interaction with CS Lewis and the Inklings group. It also had a slight mystery feel to the story. I appreciated that the story wasn't romance-driven which often takes away from, or rather becomes, the plot.

  Eyes Wide Open: Enjoying God in Everything by Steve DeWitt was such a good book on beauty and art and the Christian that I devoted an entire post to describing it. You can find that post here.

The Big Milly-Molly-Mandy Story Book by Joyce Brisley is an adorable series about a little girl named Milly Molly Mandy who lives in a little white cottage with her parents, grandparents, and aunt and uncle in 1920's England. Rachel and I read these together when she was young and now Laura and I are reading them. It's so fun to watch Laura enjoy the stories and to re-read them myself.

Tales from the End Cottage (Puffin Books) by Eileen Bell is like Gladys Taber for children. I finally broke down and bought this book since that was the only way to access it. It is adorable! The book tells the stories of the animals and Mrs. Apple who live in the last cottage on the street in a little village in England. It is very nature based, and the animals talk and have names such as Shoosh, George Fat, and Tooty. There are also sweet illustrations. David and I end up laughing every time we read a chapter.

And that is it for now! For more ideas on reading and knitting visit Ginny's Yarn-a-Long.

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