Regency Romance Novels

One more thing finished…

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Button hole stitches over pencil drawn heart!
Button hole stitches over pencil drawn heart! I love its imperfection. It shows I did it free hand on my ordinary sewing machine.

I finished my ‘I love King John bag’ last week and today it had its first public outing. I don’t know about anyone else, but when I make something I have to look at it for awhile before I can use or wear it. I have this cute little purse I call an ‘Inside-out Purse’ because the silk pokadot lining is on the outside of the bag; I had to look at that for over a year before I could be seen with it. It has since travelled the Atlantic, but it is rather odd…does anyone else have this problem? I recently made a cute necklace, but I’m still looking at it. I thought I’d need to look at my King John bag for weeks, but I was going into town and it was perfect for the journey so I used it. I haven’t done anything else today, but I used my bag! I’d hoped to do some writing today, but I’ve been too tired. I had nine hours of sleep, but my pillow is rubbish and I woke feeling like I needed a neck brace. [Read more…] about One more thing finished…

Stanton on the Moor…

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Me next to the large Torr on Stanton on the Moor
Me next to the large Torr on Stanton on the Moor

On Thursday the sun was shining and once again, the Goblin didn’t have to go to work so we headed for Derbyshire and Stanton on the Moor to take photos. Say it outloud with a bad English accent (unless you are English in which care say it with a really bad Welsh accent), ‘Stanton on the Moor’. It sounds like one of those Gothic romance novels loosely based on Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Stanton on the Moor…it’s the top of a hill covered in heather except for the path, large clump of trees in the middle and the odd Torr. (tor or torr tör; noun a hill, a rocky height. Old English torr tor, from Latin turris tower, or perhaps from Celtic) Torrs are large standing rocks that were probably set up by prehistoric people who meant it to say something like, ‘We’re so strong and fit we could afford to risk our strongest young men all pulling muscles to lift this great big rock to a standing position…to let you know how strong and fit we are!’ Or maybe (because there are climbing holes in it and we can’t date the holes) maybe it was a way to see if unfriendly neighbors were coming to steal their sheep and women. [Read more…] about Stanton on the Moor…

A day of treasures…

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Cari touches the tree...
Cari touches the tree...

The Goblin was off work today so we decided to chase the sunshine. Last night the weather report suggested the most likely area to be sunny all day was southwest of London so I mentioned that the ancient yew tree at Runnymede (not far from Old Windsor) was down there and that I really wanted to see it. The word Runnymede should ring a bell…the name John should be coming to mind. Oh yes, him again! Apparently the signing of the original Magna Carta took place under an ancient yew tree that’s now well over two thousand years old. From a nearby flood plain next to the river Thames on a clear day you can see Windsor Castle in the distance, though in 1215 it would have been mainly a roundish looking tower surrounded by fortified walls. My Goblin informs me that Runnymede is AngloSaxon for Meadow of the Runes. This is a magical place…in more ways than one.

It wasn’t easy to find. On the “Welcome to Runnymede” pamphlet at the sight referred to as Runnymede there was no mention of the tree at all, infact the whole sight celebrated as the place where the Magna Carta was signed is on the wrong side of the river…almost opposite where the tree stands. The yew tree is on a piece of land called Ankerwycke, hence its name Ankerwycke Yew…it’s all rather confusing. [Read more…] about A day of treasures…

My “Pocket Purse” is born…

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A pocket purse
A pocket purse

Dancing the Maypole has been blocked for about a month now. I’ve been pretending everything was fine and I just hadn’t yet figured out what happened next, but of course that was all self-delusion. And early this week my other story, the one that still has no name, ground to a halt as well. I sat here and tried to forcibly move the story on…a process that must be similar to moving a cow from point A to B when the said cow wishes to remain at point A. Futile! So feeling frustrated I decided I’d take a few days away from the computer to have a think about where I was going wrong with my stories. Since I wasn’t writing I had no excuse not to sew. Some time last year I designed and started to make what I called a “Pocket Purse”. [Read more…] about My “Pocket Purse” is born…

A Midsummer Nightmare…

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This evening I went to see Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’ve had the tickets for over a month so I knew I was going (though the fact on the way there I had an anxiety attack and had to double check with my husband what day it was just to be sure I had the right date should have clued me in that trouble lay ahead). The Goblin dropped me and my friend Liz off at Tolethorpe, where they have an outdoor summer theatre and we ambled past the picnickers and sat down on this little wall. I took out my phone to take a picture of us (for the blog post I knew I’d want to do) and found my phone battery was dead. No phone. I turned to my friend and said (in complete seriousness) “I don’t know my phone number…do you know my phone number?” “No, she said, and I didn’t bring my phone either.” I had taken two calming pills right before we left, but they take at least half an hour to start working…have I mentioned I suffer from anxiety or that I regularly find myself in these sorts of situations? I do. I started to panic; I have no phone…I don’t know my own phone number and I’m several miles out of town…half a mile up a road with no lighting and no sidewalk/pavement (I’ve walked it in broad daylight-it’s dangerous) and my friend Liz is a pensioner with a cane and four broken ribs (healing). Amid the panic I somehow remembered that after I bought my wallet I’d put one of my husband’s business cards in it…because it has my address and all his phone numbers. I sighed with relief as I took out the card. I had my coin purse that for once had change in it…all I needed was a phone because the Goblin wasn’t going to come pick me up until I phoned him to tell him the play was over. [Read more…] about A Midsummer Nightmare…

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered…

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I’ve been ill all week with a low grade fever so I’ve been watching a lot of tv shows on youtube again. Miraculously I have written about three thousand words and hopefully I won’t have to delete them. But after accepting that I’d watched ALL the Star Trek episodes I looked up the early sixties show, Bewitched. I remember this show from when I was a child even though we rarely had a television set. If you’re interested in 50’s Americana, it’s fascinating. It was shot in the early sixties, but everything still looks fifties and the characters…well, they’re definiately from the fifties including the rampant misogyny and patronising attitudes towards women…but with a clever twist. Underneath the veneer of typical suburbia the writers are actually mocking the standards of the day. The misogynists and patronising males always end up looking stupid. I never noticed this until I sat here and watched episode after episode. (Social Studies 101)

The show is about a mortal man who marries a witch (who can twitch her nose and make things happen…or cast spells) and the tension is often caused by the fact they come from different worlds. [Read more…] about Bewitched, bothered and bewildered…