Liddy is home ~ bearing gifts. I don't often wear bracelets but aren't the colours pretty?! Ear~rings I do wear. Long & dangly ear~rings. It's my one girly vanity. I wouldn't have chosen the colours but they looked really lovely on & I shall wear them today when we go out.
The boys know to~day is the day they find themselves abandoned for hours on end. Kirby began making a statement last night by sprawling in my chair.
Later they tried the old dominance trick. If they sit here they are both right beside me but higher than I am. Hm.
We have been getting winter mizzling rain & it has brought all the small birds out. Sorry the shot is so bad but it was taken through our rather grubby windows ~ for which I feel no guilt at all. If I clean them the doves & pigeons commit hari~kari & everything else brains itself & becomes a temptation for the cats. If I leave them grubby we get what happened yesterday: the willy~wagtails & flycatchers come in & feed off the cobwebs & play in the bird bath. The willy~wagtails are absolutely delightful in & of themselves, so cheeky & playful, but I get another thrill because they are ecologically sensitive & the first bird to disappear when an environment starts to go downhill. That we have a breeding pair says volumes about our garden & I am absolutely thrilled to bits!
Last week I indulged & bought Philippa Gregory's new book: The White Queen. I nearly didn't. The Plantagenet's & Tudors were absolutely frightful & it's right out of the period of history I really like & know a little something about. What I do know about this period appalls me. Not all the head chopping that went on, & there was certainly plenty of that, but the religious hypocrisy. I've never been able to get my head round all those whopping great churches, the churches iron grip on the monarchy yet the aristocracy running round totally immoral while pretending not to & tut~tutting like mad whenever anyone got found out. Yet everybody had very vivid impressions of Heaven & Hell. Too weird making. Actually there is nothing about this period of history that I like. The fashions are awful, the living arrangements draughty, life expectancy short & there was a huge family bru~ha~ha about who was actually going to rule England ~ & it went on for years & years ~ & years! About the only thing I've ever found to like is the music & I'm really incredibly ignorant about that.
Anyway I picked up The Other Boleyn Girl before it became a movie & was much talked about & really enjoyed Gregory's easy to read & informative style ~ as well as the fact she gave the history from the women's point of view, & a fairly unknown girl as well. Yes, we all know I like my history odd. So, on the strength of The Other Boleyn Girl I was fairly certain The White Queen would be highly readable ~ & so it is proving. Mind you, it is confirming what I always knew ~ those Plantagenets & Tudors were a nasty lot!!!
7 comments:
Love the jewelry, the sprawled cat, the king of the hill cats, especially pleased about the bird and agree wholly about those two families! How's that for the condensed version. : D
Oh and in answer about the farriers toches, I'm not sure if it talks back. I can't see lips moving, but I do hear a voice!
OK, that picture of Kirby has to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Noah was looking over my shoulder and he said, "What's that?!"
hehehe;-)
The jewelry is lovely!
The books you mentioned sound quite interesting... if only I had more time lol.
Oh, and I love willy wagtails too. Make sure the cats keep their mitts off them LOL
I'm a bit of a fan of dangly earrings - love the colours.
Cats- they always bring a smile. Mine have been chasing each other all evening.
Philippa Gregory's books - I haven't read any as I am never sure how accurate they are with history - when the author mixes fact with fiction I get very frustrated!! I think it is a fascinating time in history. Did you ever watch the History of the England on the ABC, Britain has had a very bloodthirsty history.
Count me in for dangly earrings! and I'm a sucker for a good Tudor story, just glad that I didn't live then.
Sandra: You shouldn't make me snort in my coffee this early in the morning. ☺
Diane: lol Noah made me laugh. [my coffee is not doing well!]
Amanda: Ah well, I have this child you see & I spend hours & hours, literally, each week, while she does her music thing so I get time to read.
Jo:PG has a PHD in 18th century Lit but says the Tudor period is like her hobby. I heard her explain how she chooses her facts from corroborating rumour when the history gets a little murky & it makes sense to me. I know she incorporates things like the accusations of witchcraft [The Boleyns were also suspected of this but common at the time] but I'm not a stickler for absolutely every fact being correct. I do think people should get the big ones right ~ & I've read plenty of writers who are sloppy in their research. I don't think Gregory is though sometimes she takes a bit of poetical lisence. As a writer you need to or everything bogs down & becomes unreadable. It's a fine line but I think Gregory does pretty well with it.
I caught bits of that ABC history. So often on at a bad time for me & quite condensed but I'm always a sucker for history.
Gerry: Oh, yes. So glad not to live then! Those women had to be so strong just to survive all the plotting & scheming of the men & each other. Awful.
I aim for snorting coffee. It is my drug of choice. : )
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