Old books....

There is something special about old leather bound books.....the smell, the gorgeous, dark conker colour of the leather.... with a patina that can only be created from years of holding, opening and reading.

The raggy end papers....

And the wonderful print type set....with those great 'f's instead of s's so typical of the 18th century.

Bought yesterday at the very busy Hexham Fair in Northumberland from an exhibitor who has a great eye for the unusual and decorative....and one of my favourite haunts first thing in the morning.


So, last night, instead of slumping in front of the TV watching repeats of Grand Designs et al...... I sat and read The Romance of the Highlands.

Not exactly "romantic" ....

In fact it was more of a battle drama with mortal wounding, slaying, cruelty, tyranny and oppression raging between the Scottish clans.
Lots of drawing and wielding of swords...so typically male.

But to me, the most fascinating bits in the book ( which were originally library books from a Scottish border town ) were the sepia ink comments from an incensed reader...

He just couldn't bring himself to write the full word poor man!

Julie x

Rain....

With all this rain...some days of biblical quantities....the garden has gone into serious overdrive.

Impossible at times to get out and cut the grass,

The ferns are in heaven,

And so are those pesky slugs and snails, laying waste to my poor hostas.

Plants spilling over from the borders,

The fig with the biggest ever leaves in all its 6 years,

And an imminent, bumper flowering of the agapanthus.

At least with all this rain I don't have to drag the hosepipe out and fill the watering cans every few days,

But...why does it have to be so torrential?

I still managed to paint this dresser however....dodging the showers...

Rain can't stop play at The Cloth Shed .......x

Bye for now,
Julie x