Tuesday 23 January 2018

An old favourite

One of the activities on Needlecraft Haven (a crafting forum I host for members to chat about stitching, knitting, crochet, beading, in fact any craft really) is our Reading Challenge. Each December I ask for volunteers to nominate our reading books over the coming year. This year 4 members volunteered so over the year we'll each choice a book three times ....

.... for me that's good news as selecting one book would have been tricky for me, I'm so pleased to be able to choose three!

This year's theme is childhood favourites, any book you loved reading as a child. As these will be re-read books we are reviewing the books in the same month (usually we review a month later to allow everyone time to read).

January was my choice and one book I loved when younger was Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. I love the descriptiveness in his writing, you can picture the river bank, Mr Badger, Mole, Ratty and of course mischievous Toad. The characteristics of each animal is so apt for their role in the story, and although he causes quite a bit of trouble you can't help but chuckle at Toad's antics.

I have really enjoy reading this again, it brought back many memories of my childhood bedroom lying on my bed reading, there is certainly more to a book than just the story inside.


Over the last week I've had two lovely finishes, both gifts so I cannot share just yet but I can share the starting photo of one. The start of each year is busy for me as many of my friends and family members have early birthdays, and of course Easter will be early this year too, although I only stitch for exchanges at Easter.


It's an exciting week for us as not only is it Hubby's last full week at work, he retires next Tuesday, but his sister is over from America. That said he's on holiday Thursday as we're all going out for afternoon tea, so this will be a short working week - life will be very different, we are both very excited.

I hope you've all had a productive January with all your crafting.

8 comments:

  1. Have a wonderful time with your overseas visitors.
    Nice start (and finish on the stitched piece!)
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. What an exciting time for you and your family! Hope you enjoy your afternoon tea.
    I'm really enjoying our book choice this month.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice new start Clare.
    We often do weddings at The Greenbank Hotel in Falmouth, which is where Kenneth Grahame began writing TWitW

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great theme for the reading challenge.
    I didn't enjoy WitW as a child but liked it when I read it to my son more recently.
    My top 3 would be:
    Alice in Wonderland
    The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe
    Anything by E. Nesbit or Watership Down.
    It's so hard to just choose three.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's always a pleasure to re-read children's books that we know from our own childhood. And the best of them are still around . When our little grandson visits we sometimes read him a book that we know from when we were children. And he loves these books, too.
    Happy retirement to your husband!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Have a great time with your overseas visitors!
    Happy retirement to your husband!
    Barbara xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Clare, I have just signed up for the Needlecraft Haven (I saw it on Julie's blog) as I love stitching ornaments and reading is my passion. I, too, have overseas visitors this week - fun to visit with them but quite exhausting, too, I find.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I just found your blog through Our Blogger of the Week. I enjoyed your blog and will come back. Is there a way to follow you though?

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting Aimetu's Stitching - I love reading your comments, thank you for sharing your thoughts, they are very much appreciated, thank you x