Kiss the Book on Facebook!

This is just a quick little post, as I've been setting up a page on facebook. Juggling photographs seems to take forever!
I hope that this link below works and if you are a user of facebook, please come along and have a look.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Kiss-the-Book/205051982868914?fref=ts


I plan to post about new stock, taking photographs and describing the exciting things I find.
Have a happy Tuesday everybody!

Artisan Spring Fair

Hooray! Spring is here and with it comes the first of this year's fairs for the Artisans.

This Sunday, April 28th we will all be gathering at the South Newton and Wishford Village Hall

(Just outside Salisbury, Wiltshire on the A36 two miles north of Wilton)

I will have raided my shelves in the love shack-

And hope to make my table tempting!

There are over a dozen stall holders and the fair will run from 11.00am to 4.00pm with FREE ENTRY and a large free car park nearby.
There will be an exciting mix of stalls with fine vintage and ephemera, alongside the handmade and inspirational.
You can find textiles, knit ware, linens, jewellery,paintings, glass and china, photography, home wares and more..

There will be refreshments and delicious homemade cakes available throughout the day.

Oh yes, I ought to mention... I'm bringing along a few books....

To find out more details please follow this link

http://artisanfairs.blogspot.com/

A sad start to the day

Just as Spring is creeping in and all is beginning to bloom, in a quick, cruel moment the other side of Nature is shown to me.
Last night a fox visited our terrace gardens. My neighbours hens have all gone and my three ladies were wiped out too. He took and ate the youngest and then, with that senseless side of fox nature, bit the heads of the other two and left them. Perhaps he plans to come back and eat them later and maybe there is his family to feed but I am left hen-less and feel bereft indeed.
I'm very fond of my chickens and watching their simple, vigorous enjoyment of scratching, eating and dust-bathing in the sun never failed to give pleasure.
So, to mark their passing, I thought I'd post a few photographs, to make me smile as I remember them.

This is Madame Pompadour guarding her chicks and settling down for the night in their tree-

A closeup of our little grey hen at about a week old

The two ladies in the garden last year-

And this winter, in the tree despite the snow-



Marie Antoinette



And finally, as is fitting, the last photo of the most beautiful eggs that they laid

I will have some more hens, but I shall leave it a while, especially as Mr Fox may still be sniffing around.

In Pursuit of Spring

Thaw

Over land speckled with snow half-thawed

The speculating rooks at their nests cawed

And saw from elm-tops, delicate as flower of grass

What we below could not see, Winter pass

This perfect short poem by my favourite poet Edward Thomas, seems to capture that subtle shift from one season to another.

Warm days, with the sun on our shoulders, buds bursting and the trees blossoming are on their way!

Bite each day to the core

As I left my daughter Emily at her student house, I felt the usual natural feelings of slight sadness and loss. However, as I drove home, I realised that I was also pray to another emotion- nostalgia.
Emily is blissfully happy in her second year, sharing a house with five other drama students. The tales of their antics, the photographs I get to see and the very smell of their home, transported me back to a golden time in my life. In 1982 I was living in Ferncroft Avenue in North London, reading English at London University and making the most of every minute, day and night.

My reminiscent mood has stayed with me, so today I dug out my old photograph albums and brought together two happy lives- thirty years apart.

To start with, I should let you know that our house was known as "The House of Ill Repute"



( in our costumes for a Brecht play, before you get too worried)

Theirs is simply called "Brian"...

We seemed to spend most of our lives in fancy dress- going to dozens of parties




Stone Age Vamp

As do they.

Halloween

Goodness knows the theme of this one!



I think we can guess this party

Every day brought a new chance to dress up and laugh at ourselves. This next photograph is my closest friend and room-mate Gillie, who we dressed up in an approximation of the extremes of 1980 fashion- all because she was dyeing her hair and had wrapped a rather large towel around it as a turban...

One evening Emily's housemates dug out every hat they could find...and wore them in character.

As always, there are private jokes-

The contents of a cupboard cling-filmed and guarded by an ancient Nan bread at Emily's house

 And rituals

Gillie and I set up a chess board. Each and every man we knew was on that board and we solemnly moved the pieces every day, depending upon their conduct towards us!

One day we made a huge poster but were disconcerted to find that the paint we used was permanent.

One riotous evening, Emily somehow ended up balancing most of the kitchen's utensils on her head...

Emily and her gang are lucky to have a garden to enjoy the recent snow

We did not but that didn't stop us sitting out on the window sills to enjoy the cool of the summer nights

We were always up to something. One of my most memorable pranks was holding a Christmas Dinner in the middle of Whitestone Pond on a very cold day in March. This event was complete with butler, wind-up gramophone and carol singers...

Emily has had her chilly moments- the boiler broke down for several days over the last freezing spell

We too were such close friends, there was nothing we didn't share or do together

There was often a gathering together at supper time

And it is the same at 'Brian' too

The decor may have changed




Ellen and Gillie in our room



Ems in their home-made fort

But there is so much the same.

One of my strongest memories is awakening early to the bright sunshine of an early summer morning. I lay in bed and realised that this was a unique period in my life. I had been given a one-off chance to live without care, to study and mix with so many like-minded people. I asked myself  "was I making the most of this wonderful gift". I lay and pondered and finally came up with the answer "yes, I was".

I could honestly say I was making the most of every single moment, on all levels. I have never quite been able to say the same since but I'm so glad I 'seized the day' during that wonderful, magical year of 1982.

My friend Gillie and I enjoyed every minute

And, from the looks of things-

Emily does too!

(With many thanks to Emily and her friends for the photographs I've snaffled- please don't borrow or re-use  them or any of mine! )

A Secure Home

I nearly called this post 'The Healing Power of Laughter'. Emily, Sam and I have just laughed until we cried and it has made me feel so much better!
But to start at the beginning.
Emily (with new purple hair) is back for the weekend from university to celebrate her forthcoming 21st Birthday

I have been battling with the most revolting fluey cold and Emily caught it too. Sam was away working at his Saturday job and so feeling rather horrid,  Emily and I decided to take to our beds.
I awoke to the sound of the kitchen door opening and called out ' Hi Sam'. When he came upstairs to my bedroom, he was doubled up laughing. Emily came down and then Sam explained what had happened...
( Emily and I made him show us what he'd done and I took photographs)
On arriving home he realised he had forgotten to put the spare key back in it's hiding place and despite ringing and calling out got no reply. The house was in darkness so he assumed we'd gone out and he was locked out. After 20 chilly minutes waiting outside for us to return he decided to be a little enterprising...

Firstly he tried to reach through the cat-flap to open the door-

Nearly there but not quite.... so he tried something else...

Even his trusty cricket bat couldn't help!
He was getting desperate now so this was his last and equally unsuccesful attempt-

By now Emily and I were crying with laughter.
Can you imagine the shock I would have had if I'd tottered downstairs all weak and light-headed and seen THAT coming through the cat-flap? A true " Honey I'm Home" moment!

Sam was not daunted. He is made of sterner mettle and extremely bendy and skinny, so-

He decided to climb through the tiny kitchen window, first prising it open with a pair of garden shears.

Because he is a good boy, he spent some time leaning in and moving everything he could from the window ledge and surrounding area, so nothing would get broken- I've brought up my house-breaking boy well!

You see, it's easy when you know how!

What made him laugh was the irony of him opening the back door to pick up his bag and coat left outside and on slamming it shut, hearing a weak voice from upstairs saying   " Hi Sam, you're back late" and realising that I'd been at home all the time.

The morals of this tale are
1) Make sure you close every window ( however small) properly
2) Listen to your Mother when she tells you to return the spare key to its proper place
3) If feeling ill and sorry for yourself, get your son to break into your house and you will be much cheered up