Pages

Saturday 31 October 2009

Starting

So, said this was going to be ponderings, books, films and stitching...

It's Saturday, and ponderings don't happen on Saturday, involves far to much brain power, and I haven't seen any films recently so that crosses two of the four out.

Stitching: Currently meant to be stitching my Christmas cards, but haven't touched those in about a month, somehow I don't think I'm going to get them all done in time for Christmas, sigh, every Christmas with such good intentions, but it always falls apart. Having said that I'm currently stitching (with the help of my dearest darling) some very cute Margaret Sherry designs, designed to go round the edge of a table cloth, but make very sweet cards. Winter penguins doing winter and Christmassy things.
Also recently started Winter's Majesty my Main which I'm really enjoying stitching, very much liking the chart, although it is rather scattered stitching, so I'm a little concerned about trailing threads across the back of it. But it's an absolutely beautiful chart and an absolute pleasure to stitch so I'll keep up with it and see how I go along, will put a picture up of progress so far when I get a chance, just as a starting off point.


Books: Finished Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P. G. Wodehouse a few days ago. Rather typical Wodehouse fair, but throughly enjoyable, coming from someone who rather enjoys standard Wodehouse fair.
The plot is a little indecipherable, items and money pass between characters at a rather alarming speed, making it difficult to keep track of who has what, who wants what and why at any one time, and Wodehouse's usual genius for names making difficult to keep track of who is who anyway. I have to admit that by the end of it I was letting the character's wash over me and just enjoying the ridiculousness of it all.
In a nut shell, if I can... Uncle Fred's wife has banned him from travelling to London but she has gone away to tend a sick aunt(?). Uncle Fred's nephew owes £250 to someone for gambling debts and so goes to Uncle Fred for the money, but Uncle Fred can't help him. That's the simple bit. The nephew's friend, Horace has asked a private detective (Potts) to watch his fiance while she's on holiday to make sure there aren't any other men, she finds out she breaks up with him. Potts has a daughter who Fred's nephew falls in love with but who already has a fiance, and the fiance wants to open an onion soup shop and wants the money to finance this (also £250). Add to this the owner of Blandings Hall who is devoted to his pet pig, a duke who wants the pig himself, and the fact that Uncle Fred decides that to resolve everyones' problems is to impersonate a mind doctor to gain access to Blandings hall and try and resolve everything, and you can guess roughly how confused the plot gets.
Having said that, I really enjoyed it, Wodehouse has a wonderful witty style and a beautiful use of language 'dragged out of the room like a used gladiator' for instance, makes this a throughly readable book that I demolished in three days flat.
Personally, I wold much rather read a Jeeves and Wooster rather than a Blandings book by Wodehouse, but that doesn't mean that this isn't a good light hearted read to curl up with for a bit of a giggle.