April

April you absolute winner with your rain and your holidays and chocolate everything.....

I've just read Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. I consumed it in a record two sittings/ reclinings (a couple of nights I couldn't sleep so I thought what the heck let's go for broke). It contains most of the elements of what I consider a perfect read; 

• Intelligent, well researched and lyrical prose.
• Glorious descriptions of nature.
• Self-sufficient, rural life, wherein things are made with reverence and skill (and lots of mention of knitting..)
• Wonderful characters preferably belonging to days of yore...(unless they are featuring in a Tim Winton novel)
• Unpredictable dialogue.
• Enough tension and unraveling of narrative but not so as to be a full-blown mystery novel.
• Spiritual/philosophical contemplation.
• Horses.
• Journeys - physical and/or internal.
• And yeah, a bit of lovin'/romance/sexual-emotional tension but not the Rip, Tear, Fondle, Fondle/Barbara Cartland type...

  I'd add dry wit too, if this were a general list.  I've been trawling Literary Award websites for reading inspiration. I always feel a sense of woe at the end of a really good book, in case I won't find another as riveting. I've borrowed so many books from the library that haven't caught me by the first chapter. Word of mouth always works best.

Tell me your top 10 (or more!?) favourite books in the comment section below (so other people can see too). Mine are listed in the page tabs above, and more recent ones to the right here. 

Apart from reading and building a music teaching business, and gazingly longingly at yarn colourways online, April has unfolded something like this -

Bit of tidying up, preparing and planting for winter.

Bit of dyeing for Class 3 - chair bags in fiery (or fruity) hues.

Bit of knitting - not as much as I would like! but fun winter garment making. Camp Out Fingerless Mittens raveled here, and throwing the Dovetail Cowl in the cotton dye bath to see what would happen. Kinda nice, but i think I'll go again with wool dye for a stronger shade.

Oh and you know, a bit of baking because it's raining, and tea, cake and rain go so nicely together. Pear cake. 220g butter. Yep. As my brother maintains (and probably every single French person on the planet) - nothing delicious was ever made without butter.....   What are you planting, knitting, cooking, reading, listening too?