books – Tiny Potager

On a Sunday evening, I like to clear the shelf next to my desk, in preparation for the week ahead. There will always be a pile of books that have accumulated beside me. These will include stories my daughter has brought over for me to read to her and those that I have quickly grabbed to find a quotation, or check an ingredient for a recipe. There might be a seasonal book or two where I have looked up a flower name or gardening wisdom.

I enjoy the moment when I scoop them up and shelve them again, the titles on the spines evoke a diary of the days just passed: A Week in Books.

The Way of the Clouds

Newly added to my shelf this week is “The Way of the White Clouds” by Lama Anagarika Govinda. The book follows his travels across Tibet – a journey that was never his intention, until the call to follow his spiritual teacher proved suddenly hard to resist:

“Sometimes a glance, a few casual words, fragments of a melody floating through the quiet air of a summer evening, a book that accidentally comes into our hands, a poem or a memory-laden fragrance, may bring about the impulse which changes and determines our whole life.”

No prior knowledge of Buddhism is presumed, and the terms are carefully explained. As I write this, I have just started the third chapter, as the writer sees the Tibetan plateau for the very first time:

…into a world of uncannily changing, fantastic forms, which appeared and dissolved with such suddenness “that one began to doubt their reality as well as one’s own.”

It reminds me of my first impressions of the wild north-west coast of Scotland, where the mountains seemed to appear and disappear as the rain and fog drifted by. I am looking very much forward to reading more.

Little Women

This month I re-read Little Women for the first time since I was ten years old. This time around, I fell in love with the beautiful descriptions of the seasons passing, the way that flowers seem to burst out of nearly every page. I found myself inspired to start upon a new writing, art and photography project, which I hope to share more news of very soon.

Dracula

Dracula was another enjoyable re-read for me this month. My little vegetable garden is a lovely sun trap in the early mornings where I like to sit and read, perched on the raised beds with a cup of tea. It made me smile when I realised I was sitting next to the garlic bed. No vampire was likely to venture near. I was a young teen when I first read this book and remember being so pleased to find in Mina Harker a brave, intelligent heroine.

Veg in One Bed

Every few weeks I like to check the “at a glance” section in this book for the month ahead. Veg in One Bed is aimed at maximising a small space, and since I only have three raised beds it is really helpful with the timings – which have to be spot on when you have limited room available. March through to October is a sort of plant-based game of musical chairs. The french beans that it advised me to plant last month, are now ready to go up on the canes that were placed over onions the month before.

Fairytale Play

When I bought this for my daughter’s Christmas Eve Book Giving gift, I knew it was a pop up design, but did not realise it would come with countless beautiful hand-drawn figures. They are reversible too, so a hungry wolf on one side, might be a cunning fox on the other. Mixed in with the classic fairytale staples are readers, dancers, scenery decorations and tiny creatures. Below is the cityscape…

… with alleyways to get lost in, a fairground to visit and castles to climb up to. Other pages include a treasure cave, a forest and an underwater scene. I could include this on any “Week in Books” because my daughter plays with it almost every day.

Are you enjoying a book at the moment? I’d love to read your comment below.

I wish you all a peaceful start to the week ahead.

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I enjoy the moment when I scoop them up and shelve them again, the titles on the spines evoke a diary of the days just passed: A Week in Books.

The Complete Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem

This week my daughter chose our Brambly Hedge treasury. After reading “A Summer Story” we took the book out into the garden to see which flowers we could spot for ourselves.

The Complete Brambly Hedge: A Summer Story

We live near to hedged fields, so our walks together often seem to leap out of the pages of the Brambly Hedge stories.

“The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2020″ by Lia Leendertz

I think of The Almanac as an “outdoors book” to be read in the open air. August’s chapter tells of the luck of finding a traditional Scottish charm:

A rare patch of white heather … historically sold at fairs and tucked into brides’ bouquets
“The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2020″ by Lia Leendertz

I happened to be reading by the pebble stream where our white Scottish heather plant is growing, so took a sprig to use as a bookmark.

“The Wood: The Life and Times of Cockshutt Wood” by John Lewis-Stempel

John Lewis-Stempel’s “The Wood” tells of August being:

[T]hat awkward old month at the end of summer, when the majority of plants are past their profuse youthful best
“The Wood: The Life and Times of Cockshutt Wood” by John Lewis-Stempel

It prompted me to gather in samples of those flowers that still remain in mid-August, creating a photographic reminder for winter, of the colours of summer to come.

“Apple: Recipes from the Orchard” by James Rich

A friend kindly dropping off a crate of their surplus apples resulted in this book being happily retrieved from the shelf.

I gave the children reusable stickers and they staked claim to the recipes in the book that they most wanted to try. Toffee apples won. We created our own maple-flavoured versions ( Homemade Maple Toffee Apples ) and then made toffee brittle shards from the leftover syrup to add to warm drinks: Autumn in a mug.

“England’s Heritage Food and Cooking” by Annette Yates

Traditional recipes teach us how to make the best of each season, as they hark back to a time when the majority of people had no choice but to cook with whatever grew in their gardens or was available locally. We have been baking Shrewsbury Cakes, a biscuit recipe from the 1600s. We will also be trying a Kentish Cherry Batter Pudding in the next week.

“The Hobbit: Three Dimensional Book” by JRR Tolkien

On Saturday we discovered a Mirkwood full of spiders under the Fuchsia in our garden. A moment of dramatic tension occurred when a large very real spider crawled into the pages unseen and then dropped out on a thread when we lifted the book up. My little daughter thought that this was an excellent addition to the storytelling, however, I wonder if she will expect this level of realism every time from now on.

In a cave by the little stream, we encountered a strange fisherman. I used a torch to make Bilbo’s little reflective blade glow its warning.

Our tale concluded with us sneaking away safely from a fire breathing Smaug, who had hidden in our pumpkin patch amongst courgette-flower flames.

It is now Sunday evening and time to gather up all of the books and replace them on the shelves, whilst wondering what the next week will bring.

Do you have a favourite book from your childhood that you still treasure?

Visit my Little Art Shop: www.tinypotager.shop

Commission Enquiries: tinypotager@hotmail.com

I’ve linked below to where you can buy the items mentioned in my post from Amazon. If you click on the picture and buy the item I will get a small commission to help support my art.