Stylish blogger awards

The very stylish Gemma at Bake do and Mend has passed a lovely award on to me (some time ago – it’s taken me until now to think of 7 interesting things to tell you)! Thank you Gemma!

As part of the award, I have to tell you 7 things about myself which you may not know. So, here goes!

1. I have a degree in Herbal Medicine. I spent 3 years studying the principles of human health – biology, physiology and anatomy and plenty of pharmacology and botany, with a bit of counselling and patient management thrown in. It was a fascinating course and I learnt a lot more about the body and what medicines do to it. It has, of course, been next to useless – I’ve not taken it up as a career (sadly ‘Herbalist’ is the only career option from that particular degree) and other than self-prescribing for colds and PMT, I’ve not used it since graduation.

2. I qualified as a Football (soccer) referee when I was 14. We were paid £15 for an hour’s work, at a time when I couldn’t get a job anywhere else. I jumped at the chance and, although I dislike sports of most sorts, refereed games for under 12 year olds for about a year. It’s the worst job I’ve ever had and I’d never recommend it to any young person. At 14 I was called a blind c*** by a player’s father. Having grown men scream obscenities at you is not the way to spend your Sundays.

3. I love Owls. This may not be strictly something you don’t know about yet, but I think it warrants saying again. Owls are great. If I’m ever rich enough to have the space, I’ll be setting up some enclosures in my garden to take rescued owls in. I have adopted a number of owls at various wildlife and rescue centres, and can’t pass up an opportunity to look in on anything owl related. Needless to say, The Owl and the Pussycat is my favourite poem.

4. I have always been something of a piercing fanatic. I have 15 holes in various parts of my body and although I rarely wear jewellery in most of them anymore, I have a real soft spot for everything piercing related. And no, I’m not posting pictures! Except for this one.

5. I am very interested in genealogy and everything family history related. I have spent many a happy hour researching my ancestors, and those of my husband’s family and love visiting the archives in Kew to look at old records.

Searching through details of people’s lives is so fascinating – the criminal records I’ve found particularly interesting. What crimes were committed, the punishments handed out and, if you’re lucky, blurry Victorian photographs of the inmates.

6. I love to read books. As someone who’s always itching to be doing something, I find sitting down with a book really decadent. I’ll read on the bus to pass the time or before bed to relax but I love to just sit down at a time when I could be doing something else and read. I’ve been known to read to 3-4 in the morning to finish a good book and can happily read a book in one setting if I like it enough. Fortunately, I’m a fast reader so with short paperbacks this isn’t such a stupid thing to do! I have far too many books – they take over several areas of my house and many are stored under beds in boxes and bags. I’ll happily read modern, trashy chick lit one day and then an academic study on something obscure the next.

7. I can touch my nose with my tongue, and I can roll my tongue (I’m really scraping the barrel now!). I’ve always been able to touch my nose, but until I got my tongue pierced, I couldn’t roll it. I think it must have had an effect on the muscle of my tongue some how, but I’m not sure if that’s really true!

I’d like to share the love and so I’m passing the award onto these newly discovered bloggettes who are all terribly stylish in their own ways.

http://lottieloves.com/

http://reveleigh.blogspot.com/

http://aparentementeanabel.blogspot.com/

http://handmadejane.blogspot.com/

http://rosiealia.blogspot.com/

Gifts galore

I thought I'd share some of my more interesting presents from Christmas with you. I had a number of other great things like a hair dryer and slippers that I won't bother to photograph and write about, but I figured that some of these might be of some interest!

First up is a bit of a wild card - the Rune Primer by Sweyn Plowright. I have had an interest early English society and culture for a long time. The period between the Romans leaving and the Normans arriving (somewhere between 500 and 1000 in broad terms), often called the Dark Ages, is fascinating as the beginning of England as I know it. If you're familiar with Chaucer's language as an early version of English, Anglo-Saxon writing in this period is just about recognisable as being English. It has an odd rhythm to it and a lot of the words are unfamiliar, but it's definitely English. Anyway. Runes were the alphabet of the Anglo-Saxons and were used to write normal messages, as well as having magical properties and being a tool for writing charms and curses and what have you. The idea of rune stones being used like tarot cards for divination is a new one (1970s really) and a lot of esoteric books out there spout absolute nonsense about runes when actually there was enough information left by the Anglo Saxons and Norse peoples that we don't need to invent anything.

This book gives an introduction to the runes based on this principle and uses the old poems from across the North of Europe to discuss what we really know for sure about the runes, as described 1000 years ago. It's an excellent book and is a very good starting point for a serious study of runes and Norse culture in general, without being too academic.

Next up are my DVDs; the complete Foyles War (woo! Good husband!), Rebecca and Mrs Miniver.
If you haven't seen Foyles War, I demand you go and do so now. Foyle is a detective in Hastings when the second world war kicks off. He's assisted by a driver from the MTC (Motorised Transport Corps - a female branch of the British Army) and spends the war years investigating murder, sabotage and suspected German spies in a calm and charismatic way. Higher quality all round than Midsomer Murders, Foyle is excellent fun. And the costumes are pretty excellent too!
Rebecca is the 1940 film of the Daphne De Maurier, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. I haven't watched this yet but I love the book for its sinister characters and wonderful depiction of 1930s upperclass society. I understand that the film is an excellent adaptation.
Finally Mrs Miniver. This film was made in England in 1942 and is quite obviously a propoganda film. Mrs Miniver is a normal middle class housewife with one son at University and two smaller children, and her Architect husband. Throughout the film, scenes of rosy domesticity (buying a hat she can't really afford - loved it!) are replaced with air raids, a German pilot in the kitchen and, eventually, a death. Through it all Mrs Miniver 'keeps calm and carries on', showing us all the ideal of a British housewife in war time. Despite the pretty obvious Ministry of Information hand in this film, it's very enjoyable, funny and touching in places and, in my opinion, just as valid as magazines etc. from the period for showing what many people would have aspired to. I think this is a must see for anyone interested in the 1940s.

This next isn't actually a present but it was bought with Christmas money, so it sort of counts. It's a new camera and a gorillapod! I'd come to realise that my phone had a better camera than my usual digital, which to be fair is about 8 or 9 years old. Technology has come a long way in that time! I think my favourite feature so far is the timer which gives you 10 seconds and then takes 3 photos in quick succession. Perfect for outfit shots! The tripod is so that I can take self portraits when out and about. Blogtastic!
My in-laws bought me a little owl to go with this big owl I bought with Birthday vouchers last year. He's a paperweight with a scented head! I do love owls and these two are so smart and grand, just as owls should be!

Finally, my brother-in-law and his girlfriend gave me some lovely handmade goodies. I think that these are my favourite gifts of all - handmade are so much more special.

I'm really chuffed with all of these.
This is a selection of preserves, one is a cider jelly, one's quince jelly and the other is a chocolate and brandy spread (described as nutella for grownups). I'm not sure if I like the fillings of the branding better. Awesome present!

Then there is a jar of grapefruit and lemon body lotion. It's as nice a cream as any I've bought from the shops and the smell is divine. I'm really impressed with this one too! I have to keep smelling myself now...

There were also handmade chocolates. They were so nice there aren't any left to photograph...