Taking a Break

I am sitting here at my Hoosier in the kitchen on my red stool cutting up apples.  It has been a sunnyish day and a bit warmer.  It feels like an extra day of Autumn. 

The apples were picked from the apple trees we have out back weeks ago.  I stashed them in the basement recently just to get them out of the way, but decided I had better get to work on them before they rot.

I have been slicing off the good parts of the apples for a few hours now and needed to take a break, so here I am.  Cupcake is still snoozing and boys are playing upstairs.  Turkey broth is simmering on the stove to become soup for our dinner tonight.

Sweetheart is chopping wood to keep us warm.  An endless job it is.  Guess it is his version of laundry.

We are strolling along the days, thinking ahead to Christmas.  Except Pumpkin who is completely fixating on TOMORROW when he becomes six.  He has been waiting forever and is not quite sure he can wait so long. 

For some reason I am not as excited about my next birthday as he is.  (40)  I think it has something to do with not having done all I wanted and being who I wanted to be by then.  Guess it is good I have a few months to go.

Yesterday Sweetheart took the boys with him for a few hours.  It was rather quiet around here.  Cupcake slept a good part of the time.  I slept for a few minutes, but spent most of the time sipping tea and hot cocoa and reading Dickens.  I didn't want to waste the quiet by sleeping too much though I was tired.  Cupcake is teething teething teething and has a hard time sleeping through the night from it.  Looking at her gums, it appears as though all the rest of her teeth should be popping in this week.  I wince just to see it.

I finished David Copperfield last night before bed.  I started it at the beginning of the month and so feel quite accomplished to have finished it all so quickly.  ;)  I also read a few Mitford books at the same time.  As much as I enjoy Karon,Gaskell, Austen, and Alcott, I do believe that Dickens may be my favorite author. 

There is so much to each story.  Such a depth of characters and such a variety of them fill each story.  How he weaves so many different threads of storylines together to create such tales is truly amazing to me.  I even just love the names of them all!  They are so descriptive of each person.

Now, it is time to start on his Christmas Stories.  By the way, the DK Eyewitness Book version of A Christmas Carol is extraordinary.  There are so many details given on each page that make it all come to life.  I HIGHLY recommend it for adults and kids and it would make a great read aloud this Christmas season. Just a thought.

Well, the soup is almost ready and Cupcake just awakened so I am off for now!  Sorry for any typos.  No time to edit.  Not that I usually do anyway...

Little Dorritt!

I just noticed that Little Dorritt is on sale on Amazon!!  It's only $21.99 instead of the usuall $49.98.  Yes, I have become an Amazon Affiliate, but that is NOT why I am posting this.  I am posting it simply because it is such a good movie.  The French Bad Guy character is not for kids, but the movie is sooo well done.  And because I have a total Dickens Addiction.  I read the book after hearing others rave about the movie and I must say that I loved the book and the movie.  (Ok, North and South is on sale, too.)  
And if you WANT to, you are welcome to shop via the Affiliate linky widget thingy.  I won't mind.  Hope this hasn't offended anyone.  These are just two of my favorite movies.  :)

Another (Few) Years of Dickens...

I laughed when I saw this post the other day. That was from 2007. I took a break from reading through my Charles Dickens collection. A two year break it turned out to be. I did read some of his Christmas Stories last year, but dove back in full force this summer. I have completed Dombey and Son and Little Dorritt and am currently three fourths of the way through Bleak House. As they average 1200 pages, it takes a bit more time and thought to read than say, the Mitford series I reread last month. I do read and nurse the baby at the same time when it works out.

Dombey & Son has been my least favorite so far. Not that it isn't wonderfully written. It is just a sadder story to me. I adored Little Dorritt and begged Sweetheart to get the movie when I finished. We both loved it. Do watch it if you can!

All this Dickens led to watching an old BBC version of Bleak House that we've had for years but hadn't seen. Now we own the new version as well. *ahem* Both are good, but the newer version is filmed in a more up to date fashion and very well done as well as being easier to follow with better audio. It is an amazing story. I will be a bit sad to finish reading it.

I think next I will venture off to The Curiosity Shop for a visit. By then it will probably be time to finish up the Christmas Stories. As my set of books is quite old and worn I sewed, a book cover that I can put on each book as I read them. I hope this will help them to last longer.

Though at over 135 years old, I think they've paid their dues, don't you? Maybe I'll get a picture of the cover I made taken and posted soon. As computer time varies wildly these days, we'll just have to see. I am keeping quite busy these days and loving it all. Well, except the crying. And I am a wee bit tired today. Therefore, I am going to sign off for now wishing you all the best. Maybe I can get a few more pages read...

What are you reading???? Do tell!

Home Sweet Home

It has been a busy week here around the new place. I've unpacked some things we'll be needing while we are here and nesting a bit. I sewed up a new tea cozy out of scraps as I seemed to have all mine still packed in storage. My kitchen is in order which is always nice for me.

The kitchen has churned out breads, cinnamon rolls, apple pie, scones, as well as breakfasts, lunches and dinners. All this has made for a lot of dishes which are now washed by hand. I enjoy it overall and am amazed at how much better all my dishes and silverware look when not machine washed!

I am hoping Sweetheart will hang my clothesline up this weekend as well. We do have a dryer, but I would like to use the line as able. Our old neighborhood prohibited clothesline.

I did plant some flowers the third day here to brighten up the front. There are the most wonderful, enormous trees all over the front and back including two apple trees and a peach tree. The late snow means no peaches and the squirrels are working hard to make sure I don't get apples, but we'll see. All my canning stuff is packed up anyway.

I've been visiting our little farmers' market on Thursdays which is nice. The offerings should pick up soon. Still trying to work out regular grocery shopping. Organic food is not real popular in these parts. ;)

I was so spoiled last summer with all the garden goodies of fresh flowers and food.

We finally have internet service here at home which is so wonderful. Sweetheart is sitting next to me on his computer as I type. The boys have drifted off to sleep as well. They have been sharing a room since we sold the house. It has its good days and its bad days.

I finished reading Little Dorrit. I highly recommend it! I really do want to see the movie now. I am debating between Dombey & Son and The Mystery of Edwin Drood for my next reading. I started D&S, but it is so sad so far.

Alas, my Highly Domestic Book Posts are delayed as I had to return all my library books. It wasn't worth renewing them as the drive back to that library is lengthy and not all the books were available for renewal. I will see if I can find any of them at the library here when we go next week.

Well, I think that is all my news for now. It is so nice just to be able to sit and type. Hopefully, I will figure out how to do the pictures again on here and have some new pictures up soon. I'll even post a few of the house, Carey. :)

Thanks to everyone for sticking around through it all and all your sweet comments. They mean so much!

Choc-lit

"I find that it is the classics that are best with chocolate. I suspect this is because I have to digest and savor them slowly (they are not always the easiest reads), and need to read them in bite-size chunks and reward myself every so often for my valiant efforts. The works of Dickens are the ultimate choc-lit, as are most nineteenth-century doorstoppers."
-Jane Brocket (TGAOD)

I guess this explains the need for a bit of dark chocolate whilst reading Little Dorrit. With 750 pages still to go, I may need to lay in a bit more chocolate. Dickens must have been paid by the word. Doorstopper indeed.

***

It is a rare, cloudy summer day here in Denver. Goodness! I just peaked at the weather page and our high is to be only in the low 60's! There's a chance of rain, but I think we'll brave it and head to the zoo this morning.
I think most of the country is in a heat wave so we'll be sure to enjoy what we have! What is your weather and/or plans for the day?

My Year of Dickens

Like many of you, I was required to read at least one Charles Dickens novel for English class. We read Great Expectations one year. It was not very interesting to me at the time. I was completely grossed out by Miss Havisham and her home. I couldn't seem to get past my revulsion at her way of life to notice the rest of the story.

I know I also read A Christmas Carol somewhere along the way as well. I enjoyed that story more, but still wasn't too interested in Dickens as an author.

I think part of the problem was that we read the stories aloud as a class. So much is lost in a story to me that way. I would get caught up and distracted by how others read aloud, usually poorly, and certainly without expression. If I tried to ignore my classmates and read ahead on my own, I would be totally off track if I was called on to read, so that didn't work too well. All in all, I read what was required, but no more.

That recently changed. Sweetheart and I bought the DVD of Nicholas Nickleby awhile back. This was the 2002 version. We loved it. It is a wonderful movie that, while not including all 800+ pages of material, does a fine job as a feature film. Of course, I also like the 2005 Pride & Prejudice film which may make my opinion suspect to some of you. :) see my thoughts here.

It was probably a year or so after watching the movie several times that I decided I should read the book. I read it last fall and enjoyed it tremendously. It is quite long and contains an amazing amount of detail, but was an enjoyable read none the less. I highly recommend it!

Reading Nicholas Nickelby led my on to reread A Christmas Carol last December. I took a few months off of Dickens, but then reread Great Expectations. This time through I loved it! I am sure that it was due in part because I was reading it for my own pleasure and not as an assignment. I was amazed at how little I remember. Of course, high school was a long time ago for me...

I then jumped in and read Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities in just a few weeks. We had seen a recent movie version of Oliver Twist on sale at Target, but didn't purchase it. This motivated me to read the book to see if I'd want to get a movie version.

While I was reading Oliver Twist and ATOTC, I discovered a set of 1874 editions of all of Dickens' writings on ebay. I was so excited when we won the auction for such a low price. It's a lovely set, well-worn, but so neat to own. Besides, I think most books that are over 130 years would be pretty worn, don't you?

I was in for another surprise, though. Sweetheart mentioned he found a copy of the BBC version of Oliver Twist and ordered it. I was so pleased when it arrived, all 12 episodes! Imagine my surprise though when Sweetheart informed me that it came with a two box set of ALL the BBC movie productions of Dickens. We now have about 10 different movies to enjoy. Of course, it took about two weeks to get through watching Oliver Twist a bit t time every few evenings, so I think this is a set that will keep us busy for quite some time!

I absolutely adore Dickens now! His wit and attention to detail is masterful. How he kept track of so many characters and plot twists astounds me, especially when you note that most of his writings were done as serials in monthly installments. While he made a few editorially changes in some of his works as they were printed in novel forms, he was basically publishing his stories while he was still writing them.

The history contained in his writings is fascinating to me as well. I feel as though I have learned so much just from reading his novels that I never knew before. It is quite an education.

It is neat to know that his writing was more than just entertainment. He actually championed a lot of needed reforms at that time through his writings. His descriptions of conditions in both schools and poor houses led to much needed change. How wonderful that he could both entertain people and lead them to fight for reform!

I've just started the copy of The Pickwick Papers from my wonderful old set. I look forward to discovering what awaits between the covers of this story. I am planning to read through the entire set. It will take some time, but I'll keep you posted.

Apparently, I'm not the only fan of Dickens. Mrs. Wilt has some ideas and links on him as well on her new blog. I look forward to checking them out as well.


Why don't you join me in revisiting some of the old classics, and see if you too enjoy them more the second time around? Let me know what you're reading.

****Question: Usually movie titles are in quotes while book titles are listed in italics, what does one do for a book that's been made into a movie?