Weekend catch-up

 Hello everyone,
I hope that you are all enjoying the weekend with the prospect of a lovely extra day off tomorrow for all of us in the UK- hoooray!
Right, I will start this post with a list of my five current obsessions. it really was tricky narrowing the list down to just five things, but here goes in no particular order:

Okay number one would be books and reading. I absolutely love reading and love books of all sorts. My local library, the library at the university where I work and the Amazon website are perhaps three of my most visited places. Fiction or non-fiction, new or classic- it doesn't matter I am interested in all sorts of books.
"Bluestockings" by Jane Robinson is definitely top of my to read next list. Has anyone else read it?

In at number two is fresh flowers. Beautiful, gorgeous, fragrant and utterly delightful- even more so if tied in a big bunch with a big floppy ribbon- need I say more?

Number three would have to be crochet. I have been crocheting on and off since I was a child, and one of my favourite possessions is a lovely, brightly coloured granny-square blanket that my late grandmother made for me when I was about 8. Just being wrapped up snuggly underneath its heavy warmth made me feel warm and secure. At the moment, as some of you will know, I am in the process of making my own granny-square blanket for the sofabed in my spare room and it is just so satisfying. I just love it!

Here is a photo of my blanket in progress- hmmm, someone seems to have found my pile of squares a rather comfortable napping place!

Old wares can be my fourth obsession. I  particularly love cups and saucers and old china, baskets and linens. (More about these later!)

Finally for something completely different and in at number five is running. I have been running for the past few years, mainly entering 10km and alf- marathon races. So far this year I have run three half-marathons, the latest being the New York marathon a couple of weekends ago, and I have another coming up in October.  I am not particularly fast and feel that this picture probably closely resembles what I am like as a runner and to be honest I'll say that the actually process of running these races is not particularly joyous but the feeling you get at the end is exhilarating and definitely makes it all worth while!

Now, I think as part of the blog award process I also need to nominate five of my favourite blogs. Again, this is a lovely task, but very difficult to choose just five so I think i will need a little more time to think about this.

When I last left you on Friday, I was off on an antiquing adventure around Kent and Sussex. Well, what a lovely day I had. My first stop was Nutley Antiques in the little village of Nutley not far from where I live in Tunbridge Wells.

What a treasure trove! This little shop is absolutely crammed with all sorts of wonderful bits and pieces ranging from old furniture to teapots, kitchenalia, garden wares and quilts and that is just the beginning!. Upon entering I was like a child in a sweet shop and just didn't know where to start looking- there was just so many things that I loved so imagine my excitement when I discovered that there was also a basement to look through too- wow! This is somewhere I will definitely be revisiting. Thanks for the recomendation, Sian!

I also paid a visit to the lovely Lewes- another gorgeous town and again loads of wonderful antique and bric-a-brac stores just waiting to be trawled through by the likes of me. One place that completely caught my attention was this place:-

Goodness, you could literally spend hours looking through this place. I made a couple of interesting purchases including this lovely teacup (pictured above as well) which I have someone in mind who I think will love it, so I am going to stash this away in my present-box.

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The other purchases I made were two old (1897) magazines quaintly entitled " Isobel's Home Cookery".

They are so interesting and provide such a wonderful insight into the world of women one hundred and ten years ago. I was particularly interested in the article about making jam, but there are all sorts of other recipes and stories on topics like budgeting to planning a week of simple summer suppers. I haven't quite finished reading them yet but will share more with you when  I come across something that I think you might like.

Now it is time for me to settle down with my crochet (I am getting close to finishing it now...) in front of the film "Becoming Jane", a lovely portrayal of Jane Austin's life, which is on BBC1 tonight. So until next time goodbye and enjoy the rest of the weekend!