Category: Indoors

Spring With Agatha Christie

Some time ago, I had a thought about my favourite author: there is an Agatha Christie story for every season. I thought about Death on the Nile and Evil under the Sun for summer, Sittaford Mystery and Murder on the Orient Express, as well as the play Mousetrap, for winter. Autumn being, of course, as the proper time for mysteries, a no brainer. (Plus the gothic/supernatural/horror stories she wrote that are not as well known as her mysteries–she was a versatile writer, make no mistake about that.) Then there are the seasonal novels Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and Halloween Party. But I struggled to think of a story for spring; nothing immediately came to mind.

In recent years, Agatha’s estate have been releasing collections of short stories based on a theme. We’ve had Midwinter Murder and Midsummer Mysteries. And now they published a new one, and guess what! Meet Sinister Spring.

I bought it and did some still life photos of it, as usual.

I hope you’re having a good spring and that if it’s sinister, it’s only in fiction.

Rebecca 80th Anniversary Cover

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

It’s my most favourite book of all time.

I didn’t go to Manderley but I did buy this gorgeous edition.

I’m mostly a Kindle and audiobooks person, but I do like to have my faves in physical form, preferably in hardback. I grabbed this on my recent visit to Waterstones–although it’s not brand new as the book’s 80th anniversary was in 2018. I only had it in paperback previously, with a not very impressive cover. I’m so glad I got it, I could finally take a nice picture of it and post it here, in the seven and a half years I’ve been running this blog, it’s long overdue!

Daphne du Maurier fascinates me, and the character of Rebecca de Winter also fascinates me. A dead woman dominating the narrative like that must have been quite a personality. I approach Rebecca the same way I do Jane Eyre–how do we know that Maxim is telling the whole truth? In addition to the second Mrs de Winter being a biased narrator herself.

The second Mrs de Winter is a character I relate to more than any other fictional character. Or my younger self at least; I’m Maxim’s age now and hopefully more confident. But it’s amazing how Daphne depicted social anxiety so well, it’s pretty much textbook, without realising she did so.

Maxim de Winter makes me feel conflicted because I can’t decide whether I want to 1. throw things at him or 2. throw him against the wall.

So, that’s my thoughts on Rebecca. Anyone else a fan?

Blank Page

The beginning of a new year is like a blank page. What will you fill it with?

This is about one’s own life, obviously none of us can influence world events.

(This photograph is almost a year old! I did it at the same time as the paper men I posted last year. I haven’t been taking pictures lately.)

Pink-ish

This weekend’s Weekly Prompts Challenge is a colour challenge and the colour is pinkish. Colour challenges are the ones I most like to participate in, so I dug through my archives, as pink definitely features in my collections.

One of my dearest books in the whole world, of course. Pink was Anne’s favourite colour, but she felt she couldn’t wear it because of her red hair. (Also for some reason, looking at the teapot on the cover reminds me of Mrs Potts of Beauty and the Beast, voiced by the absolute legend that was Angela Lansbury, whom we recently lost…)

Anne was also a fan of pink roses.

The only real roses are the pink ones. They are the flowers of love and faith.

Anne of the Island

She says this as she ties the ribbon around Diana’s bouquet on Diana’s wedding day.

Lego Wheelbarrow

It was this one time it occurred to me–I wonder if a Lego wheelbarrow exists? So I ask my friend Google, as you do, and found out that it, indeed does. I like wheelbarrows and I like Lego, so you can imagine how pleased I was to discover this!

It comes with a shovel, hoe, two plants (the one in lower left corner that are out of focus) and a gardener, of course. I named him Herbert.

The place I got this gem from is One More Brick. Have a look, the stuff they sell is absolutely hilarious, in fact I made another purchase–but that’s for the next post!