Reading, sort of

 

Well I'm not knitting. I even went to the craft store to buy yarn. Julian even went with me. The store came up short. I had the exact project in mind but the fisherman's wool wasn't there. Who doesn't stock fisherman's wool in June - especially when I feel like I'm wearing summer on my back like a hot, heavy, drippy cloak? 

I'm mostly just daydreaming about paint colors and where to put furniture in the new house. Stay tuned for some awesome before/after photos this fall.

We've been packing and when I get the chance of it I've been reading from Sylvia Jorrin's book, The Improbable Shepherd and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned. I wish that I had paid attention to the subtitle of Jorrin's book because it is "more" stories from the farm. The book Sylvia's Farm comes first and I would have liked to start there. But I wouldn't know any difference unless I hadn't seen that pesky "more" on the cover, so no harm done.

From what I've read so far, I like to follow her along as she reminisces and lays out her justifications for how and why she came upon this life she lives with her sheep, dogs, goats, cats, firewood. I'll say I got SO tickled when I read that she named a Horned Dorset ewe Margaret Fearnley-Whittingstall after reading the name and finding it fanciful in a Country magazine. I do not know exactly how, but I assume Margaret was somehow related to Jane and also Hugh, of River Cottage fame. Besides all that, I think Jorrin could have used a stronger editor, to melt the stream-of-consiousness fragments into more cohesive thoughts. But that's just my opinion. I can't help it. That is how we think. Fragments. Ideas. Fly Flannagan, what's in a name?

I don't know how far I'm going to get into The Beautiful and Damned before I give it up. It's "one of those stories," the one with the trust fund kid who can't apply himself with any ambition, likes to sit in his bathroom and look at his fancy dressing gown half the morning. Finds love, experiences loss, who knows how it all ends. If you read this book and liked it, do tell me so and why. I want to like it, but it's not compelling me so far.

What are you reading? Are you knitting or crafting? Show and tell here or with Ginny through Yarn Along.