Books, Books, and More Books!

Well, I just blew through that Regency Romance challenge in a bit more than a week; read 6 books and enjoyed every minute! Didn't get much else done around the house and drank pots of tea! It's all good.

I have one of those big chairs, called a chair and a half. We call it the Queen's chair - the queen being me, of course. On one side is my Ott floor lamp and an antique contraption that holds my stitching. I would post a photo of it, but it is a real mess with fabric and threads piled high and spilling over the sides. It is quite an interesting piece which I stole purchased with a mess of old sewing items. I'll just have to wait until I sort it out and share it with you. On the other side of the chair is one of our bookshelves - well, my bookshelf. There is one shelf of ancient history and the rest are gardening, flower lore, herbs, field guides, etc. I love to reach over and grab a book to browse through, it is truly a pleasure. Here are a few favorites.

Probably my most favorite little garden book with the sweetest illustrations.

So interesting, I love this one too. It has so much history and wonderful illustrations and photos.

Plenty of Victorian ephemera in this one.

I love the Brother Cadfael mysteries and have a very large collection, just about all of them, so when this was published, I grabbed it. A beautiful book.

If a garden or plant was painted or used in poetry, novels, etc. it is likely here.

This is from 1936, a little collectable scrapbook issued by W. D. and H. O. Wills cigarettes, a branch of the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain and Ireland. I guess when you bought a pack of their cigarettes, it came with a little card with a botanical illustration. The cards were glued in where appropriate, the name of the plant and information about said plant below the little box where the card was to be placed. Here are a couple of photos of the inside. My copy has all the cards.

Diane Ackerman is a favorite writer, her prose is just beautiful. This book was one I just took my time with, I didn't want to finish it. It is such a delicious journey through a year in her garden. If you've never read it and love a garden, nature, the outdoors, I highly recommend it. I've probably read it several times.

One portion of a shelf with some old flower and garden books, as well as a couple of pieces of Fulgurite. Do you know what Fulgurite is? Just in case you don't, it is sand that has been struck by lightening. That traumatic event fuses the sand into these wonderfully interesting looking tubes, smooth as glass on the inside and rough on the outside.

So there we are, some books I love. I hope you enjoyed this mini tour of my bookshelf.

 From Sarah Midda's In and Out of the Garden.

Dreaming of gardens and flowers, tea and radishes with bread and butter,

Mrs. K.