A New A to Z for the New Year

| Jane @ Stumbling Beyond Eden Rock

A is for A YEAR OF WAR AND PEACE is a lovely proposition.image029

B is for BRIAR. I can’t quite believe that the picture I rediscovered recently must be more than ten years old, or that my lovely dog is eleven years old now.

C is for CATHERINE MARTIN. Her novel ‘An Australian Girl’ is in a pile of lovely books I assembled on my bedside table, to help keep me on track for the TBR Dare.

D is for DOROTHY RICHARDSON. My Pilgrimage is over but I have a biography and a collection of short stories to read this year.

E is for THE EYE OF LOVE. This lovely book was my introduction to Margery Sharp, and I am so pleased that I decided to read it again

29372657F is for FRUIT TEA, which has suddenly become my hot drink of choice.

G is for GAUGHAN. I really want a copy of Norah Gaughan’s Knitted Cable Sourcebook. I like trying different things but I’m a cable knitter at heart.

H is for HAP. Now that the weather has turned colder I’ve finally been able to wear the House Martin Hap that I made last summer. It’s wonderfully warm and cosy.

I is for IN THE LEAD. I’ve established a 2-0 lead in the household Scrabble tournament that will run from new Year’s Day to my birthday.

J is for JONI MITCHELL. I love this song.

K is for KRISTIN VESTGARD. It was lovely to see her paintings ‘in real life’ for the first time, at the Cornwall Contemporary Gallery.

itemsfs_1544L is for THE LIGHTHOUSE GALLERY and another lovely Christmas exhibition  Catherine Hyde is a new favourite (and you may have seen her robin in my Christmas post) and Michael Praed is an old favourite, who used to teach in the same school as my mother. That’s his painting of my father’s home town on the right.

M is for MARGERY SHARP DAY. I’m delighted to see so many people lining up books to read for the celebration on the 25th.

N is for NORDERNEY. It’s my most recent addition to my Ravelry queue and will be a good test of my resolution (see the letter Y!)

O is for ORIEL MALET. I took my copy of ‘The Horses of the Sun’ off the shelf to read later this month, and it looks lovely.

game-of-kingsP is for PLANNING to finally start reading Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond books this year.

Q is for QUEUE. I have a stack of books I read last year but haven’t written about, and so I’m going to have them form an orderly queue and then write about them in turn. At least, that’s the plan …

R is for READING MY OWN BOOKS. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but this really is the year I’m going to focus on the books I have and be sparing with new acquisitions and library borrowings.

S is for SLOW PROGRESS. Scilly is taken longer to knit than I thought, partly because of all the slipped stitches and partly because I haven’t been giving it too much time. I love the fabric, I’m sure the finished sweater will be lovely, but I’m definitely ready to be knitting something else.

T is for TO WALK INVISIBLE. I loved it!

this-one

U is for UP IN THE ATTIC. It isn’t so much that there are masses of things, but when I put the Christmas decorations away I realised that there were a lot of things that hadn’t moved for yours, and that  it was time to have a good clear-out.

V is for VIRAGO AUTHORS. Monthly author reads are underway in the LibraryThing Virago Modern Classics Group. Vita Sackville-West this month, Rebecca West next month, and then we choose more authors. Do come along to vote, read and talk.

W is for WEATHERLAND by Alexandra Harris. Another book on the bedside table.

X is for I’M (E)XTREMELY PLEASED to have discovered magazine clips and to finally have all of my knitting magazines tidy but still accessible in their new lever arch files.

Y is for YARN DIET. I’m not going cold sheep, but I’m saying that I can only buy more wool if I’m going to start knitting within a week of it arriving.

Z is for ZOE OLDENBOURG. Another author in that pile of books on my bedside table. ‘The World is not Enough is on my Classics Club list and I’ve been meaning to read it for such a long time.

20 thoughts on “A New A to Z for the New Year”

  2. I do enjoy your a-z posts, Jane, and this one is no exception! I read W&P on holiday last summer but I’m so tempted to do another slow read of it over this year as it was so brilliant. Also, you’ve convinced me to sign up for LibraryThing in order to join the VMC group. Hopefully I’ll be able to join in some of the author readalongs during the year. Oh, and good luck on the yard diet – if you’re anything like me, you’ll be fine…until you’re next in the vicinity of a wool shop! 😉

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    1. Sadly both of the wool shops in town have closed, and the only places in reach sell mainly acrylic and novelty yarns that are easy to resist. Ravelry is the danger pointing to me to far too many interesting patterns and yarns, so I shall have to visit less.

      I hope you have a lovely time with the LibraryThing VMC group. You’ll see a few familiar names and meet many other wonderful bookish folk.

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  5. What a fantastic list! I had to go on a yarn diet a while back when I realized that I had one entire bedroom filled with boxes of yarn and that much of it I had fallen out of love with. Lovely Briar! And what wonderful reading aspirations!

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    1. I have a blanket box and a good bit of the airing cupboard. I want to knit but there just aren’t enough hours in the day for all the books I want to read and all the things I’d love to make and to wear.

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  6. Oh, that song always gets to me. And it’s lovely to see the Kristin Vergard paintings. I’ve seen her work in odd places (like Pinterest) and it reall y draws me in. I’ll be reading The Eye of Love with you for MS Day tho it’s very tempting to read Martha, Eric and George first just to see what happens! Happy New Year, Jane, and thanks again for all you bring to us.

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  7. A lovely list – and I am so happy to see Dorothy Dunnett on it! I haven’t decided what to read for Margery Sharp Day yet. I found a copy of The Stone of Chastity online, so that’s a definite possibility.

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  8. Simply lovely A-Z. Fruit Tea?? I must try that. My winter love is a Green Tea blend called Rose Tea and I drinking cups like its going to be banned tomorrow! I started Brittania Mews for Margery Sharp reading event and I am really enjoying it!! I am seriously tempted to join a A Year of War and Peace but with so much happening, I am not sure at all!

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  9. That’s a lovely picture of Briar. The Year of War and Peace sounds like an interesting idea – I took part in a similar year-long readalong of War and Peace a while ago and enjoyed it. And I’m pleased to see you’re still planning to read Lymond!

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  10. Great post! Thanks for the tip about “To Walk Invisible.” I’ve bookmarked the site and will watch it tomorrow. Good luck with your knitting and reading projects!

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    1. Turns out I wasn’t able to watch this online, but I just found out that PBS will be airing it in the U.S. on March 26. Hooray!

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  11. Always lovely to hear your A-Z thoughts. The yarn diet is a struggle, in fact any diet is a struggle. I must blog more about my knitting and crafts this year, it might give me the impetus to finish stuff!

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  13. Pingback: ‘All Passions Spent’ but New Obsessions Found. | Hard Book Habit

  14. Lovely list, Jane, and with so many tempting things on it. I am withstanding Margery Sharp day on the basis that I have so many new authors to explore and I’m trying hard not to buy any books for a while at least. And I’m assuming (hoping) there will be another Margery Sharp Day next year 🙂 But Librarything and the VMC group is so very tempting ….

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