Two books I enjoyed recently - and the advent catch up.

Just about the most sensible thing I did before we went off on our trip last month was download four books from the historical crime section of Borrowbox, accessed through our brilliant local library. It was something that stood me in good stead during our enforced stay at The Gatwick Hilto, not to mention the hours we had hanging around in airports and on planes. . 

I have only read two and a half of them so far, but I really enjoyed the two I've finished so I thought I'd report back. I didn't do much choosing, just opened the program at that subheading and stabbed my finger; I didn't exactly just borrow the first four, but it was close. I wasn't sure whether I would love them or hate them but I wasn't feeling particularly judgemental at that point. I just wanted some stuff to read. 

Anyway the first one was Murder in an English Village by Jessica Ellicott. Ellicott was new to me but I gather she has written lots, and this is the first of a series about two maiden ladies, one English and one American who join forces after World War 1; the Englishwoman needs the money the American provides as a lodger and the American has no desire to return to her Prohibition homeland until she's legally allowed to drink there again. They get embroiled in the case of one missing and one murdered girl. It  wasn't great literature, but then again that wasn't what I was looking for. It was well written and well plotted and I was able to overlook the occasional unimportant anachronism. I wouldn't buy any of her books, but I'd borrow more from the library. 

The second one, and the one which has reignited my interest in Margery Allingham and her Mr Campion books was Mr Campion's Fox by Mike Ripley. This is a Campion mystery set in the 1960s; as such Campion and his wife Amanda don't do much rushing about, leaving the active side of investigation to their son Rupert while they look fondly on from the sidelines and given him the occasional nudge in the right direction. I did find Ripley's constant references to 1960s things; music, fashion, food etc irritating, but a younger reader might not mind that. I wouldn't have minded it either had there been less of it. |It smacked a bit of, 'Do you remember this?' or perhaps even 'I was astounded that my research threw up this' but in the end I decided to let it all roll over me and just enjoy the plot and the characters. Ripley has certainly managed to take larger than life characters and slightly off key situations and combine them in a story that is slightly off kilter without ever totally slipping into the surreal, something of which Allingham was a mistress. You think that people like this surely couldn't; exist but there is something in you that says ' oh well maybe they could ....' I am hoping to go back to the original Campion books over the next few months but I certainly wouldn't object to reading more of Ripley's Campion take. 

And now for the advent catch up. Yesterday was Day 8 and we had cherry honey (?) and bayside cedar 

 this was the mini skein

It was also the day for opening Week 2 of the Lay Family Yarn weekly advent 

The thing at the front is a pom-pom. I am not really a pom-pom person, on hats or anywhere else, and there wasn't a hat pattern included, which I was sort of expecting, but no matter. I spent some time this afternoon looking at patterns on Ravelry for a hat ( with or without a pom-pom) using DK weight and suri alpaca fluff. There were quite a few. My eyes get bored after the first half page - don't judge me, there are 48 patterns to a page the way Ravelry is set up on my computer. The colours of the yarn are deeper than shown, it's difficult to catch them properly when I'm taking the photos in artificial light. 

Today we had 

Blueberry and maple syrup ( that's the jam!) and black cherry, whicc is the candle. 

The miniskein

the famous sunflowers make their inevitable appearance.

It was also the day for opening my Skein and the Stitch Alice weekly advent and that looked like this. It's Alice. 

Ant then postie brought me this. It's not the bag I should have had with my advent but it is a van Gogh themed bag from the same dyer and made by the same supplier. It's a standard item that she has in stock from time to time so not the exclusive-to-the-advent one I should have had, but there was none of the fabric for those left. In addition to sending me this the dyer refunded the money paid for the exclusive bag, so this one was free,  and  also  gave us a code for  a discount on the next order so she has fallen over herself to put things right. 

And last but not least here is the Van Gogh blanket and it's still up to date, and in fact I shall be finishing today's square later while catching up with Masterchef. 

I'm not totally convinced about the much brighter blue that was the starter square but I'm keeping the faith and assuming she knows what she's doing.