Book Glut(tony) and the Joys of Lolly Drinks
It's been a thoroughly awful week. A combination of things, too personal for me talk about, and too tedious to bore you with. I wake up to find I am grinding my teeth, and I have the urge to chew on a metal cable. My wrathful tendencies have emerged, and I have even been drinking coffee. Uh oh. I am resembling this individual more and more these days.
Under stress, I tend to resort to compulsive crafting and reading. More than usual I mean. Ahem. So I have made the Wee Girl some more clothes, (will maybe show and tell another time, can't be bovvered right now).
I usually always have books squirreled away in various bags, in order to provide vital reading fodder for when I make forays into the outside world. These forays usually involve public transport, so I do consider a book to be a vital organ when sitting on a tram or train.
So, whenever I grab a bag, which is often an arbitrary exercise, I end up reading whatever I have deposited within. I'm not sure that this is a particularly good way to read, as I often conflate novels when I have two or three on the go. So I frequently end up weaving characters and plots together in a very confused way. I think I may have read books that have never been written.
The past week has seen an unprecedented number of books, both bought and borrowed, enter chez docwitch. An antidote to gloom. 
I've loved these books for a while now, and decided that they're are ones I wish to own, not just borrow, as I keep coming back to them. So they were duly purchased. Very indulgent. The children's book, The Whole Green World is an absolute delight - lush, and sweet, and hopeful. The illustrations are truly gorgeous. Apples for Jam just makes me happy whenever I open it, and the recipes are fab. Like many others, I love Tessa Kiros's books. And Last Minute Patchwork Gifts is brilliant. It really is. Completely un-daunting and very inspiring. No wonder it's reached such an iconic status on the crafting circuit.
With the whanau* in tow, I dropped by the library last night, and we hauled out a shameless swag of books. The Wee Girl borrowed her entire body-weight in children's fiction. And she is now obsessed with Queen Cleopatra as a result of picking up a book on ancient Egypt. I've been trying to explain that neither Monica Belluci** nor Elizabeth Taylor (Lordy!) are actually Cleo herself. She is trying to imagine people not having cameras in the 'olden days', which is also when mummy was a little girl. Yeah. Ta.
It was a very warm day today (for September) and it's also Grand Final weekend.*** So until about 5pm this afternoon, the streets were quite deserted, and very quiet - like a scene from The Quiet Earth, here in Melbourne town.
As the weather is too warm for the beloved red,(only just!), the Bloke and I decided to buy a bottle of prosecco (yes - really) and some juice to mix with it. The plan was to find a sunny spot on the balcony to sip said tipple tres genteelly. Prosecco is such a sunny, lolly drink - and because it's dry, it marries well with juice, (I prefer unsweetened). Eric Asimov from The New York Times has said that "you cannot brood over a prosecco".**** Alright then! In that case...
I suggested we add a particularly delish organic apple and guava juice, or apple and kiwi fruit. The Bloke returned with mango juice, because he was convinced that I had said not apple and guava and not apple and kiwi. Initially I was a bit dubious, as I thought it may be too thick and sweet, but it's actually quite yummo.
We opened it a bit late to catch the sunshine though. The vision doesn't always align with reality does it? But I try. It did go down beautifully with the salmon, lightly roasted asparagus and potato salad (dressed with basil, yoghurt, olive oil and olives) that we had for dinner.
Another cheering activity has been my trawling etsy. I do love it. But that's another post.
* Maori word for extended family, but used loosely to refer to one's own immediate tribe.
**Belluci is in the French live-action version of Asterix and Cleopatra from 2002.
***Football. Australian rules. If you really wanted to know. Bleuh. Sorry - not a football person. At all. I therefore risk a lynching living in a town like this.
****NY Times, June 21st, 2006
