A Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY ~ Wednesday 11th January 2012

Outside my window...the trees are dancing as the breeze blows freshly through the neighbourhood. Its in a hurry and bringing waves of rain showers with it. As they say in Scotland "its blowin a hoolie!" An Australian summer day....yep...it's supposed to be looking at the calendar. Someone needs to tell the weather!

I am thinking...Well, I'm trying not to think too much in the run up to the end of my daughter's visit here. But I'm now planning when I will return to the UK for a holiday which is exciting.

I haven't been back for nearly two years which is unheard of for me. I usually skip to and fro every six months.

I am thankful...for the ability to write my blog. It has given me endless hours of pleasure, inspiration, fun, friends, photography and creative positive thinking. I don't take it lightly or for granted.

In the kitchen... Pumpkin Soup as part of tonight's dinner...well it is that kind of day after all.

I am wearing...A FLEECE and yes I'm here in Australia! AND IT'S SUPPOSEDLY SUMMER. No bare feet today I have my new bright red espadrilles on, plus jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. So a little wrapped up today.

I am creating...my recipes to enclose in a recipe book from Creative Memories. Santa brought it for my daughter (hence why it wasn't mentioned in the post ~ secrets ;D ) but she can now keep all the old family favourite recipes in one place.
I am going...to dash out for some milk. My milk delivery man is away on holiday and I just can't seem to get enough milk!

I am reading...A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. It was my mystery book club present. I've only just started to read it so can't really comment too much. I do like the writing so far. It has been the number 1 New York Times bestselling novel, so should be good.

The curtain rises in 1907 during a Wisconsin winter "cold enough to sear the skin from your bones." Ralph Truitt, the wealthiest man in town, stands frozen in place on a train platform, but inside he's burning with the unsated desire of 20 solitary years.

Ralph is waiting for his mail-order bride, a woman he requisitioned through a classified ad: "Country businessman seeks reliable wife. Compelled by practical not romantic reasons. . . . Discreet." That may sound as horny as Sunday school, but Ralph isn't entirely what he seems, standing there on the platform with "his eyes turned downward, engraved with a permanent air of condescension and grief." Inside, the 58-year-old widower is startled by the intensity of his desires, consumed with thoughts of sex and murder and madness in homes all around town. "Sometimes his loneliness was like a fire beneath his skin," Goolrick writes. "He had thought of taking his razor and slicing his own flesh, peeling back the skin that would not stop burning."

When Catherine Land finally arrives, looking prim and dour, she isn't what she appears to be, either. She threw her extravagant party dresses out the train window a few miles from town, and she has hidden jewels in the hem of her black wool dress. She's not even the woman in the photo she sent Ralph during their summer of tentative correspondence. And she's carrying a bottle of arsenic and "a long and complicated scheme."

Poor Ralph has some awfully bad luck with women: the matrimonial equivalent of sailing to Europe on the Titanic and flying home on the Hindenburg. "This begins in a lie," he tells Catherine sternly as he picks up her bags. "I want you to know that I know that. . . . Whatever else, you're a liar."

All Ralph wants -- or pretends he wants -- is "a simple, honest woman. A quiet life. A life in which everything could be saved and nobody went insane." That's so hard to attain when your new bride hopes to poison you straightaway. But damned if he doesn't almost die in a spectacular riding accident while bringing her home from the station. Poor Catherine finds she's got to nurse Ralph back to health before she can start killing him.

Don't worry: I'm not giving anything away. Neither of these two steely people are playing straight with the other, and Goolrick isn't playing straight with us, either. The floor collapses in almost every chapter, and we suddenly crash through assumptions we'd thought were solid. Goolrick keeps probing at the way people force themselves not to know something -- not to believe the truth -- in order to fulfill their deepest longings.

I haven't really been spending time reading lately but I've got a few titles up my sleeve that I'm keen to try....watch this space ;D
I am hoping...that my daughter passes the exams which she's had to revise for, even though she's travelled half way across the world for a holiday with us (the exam is in a few weeks time) plus my son remains as happy as he is at the moment in his job!

I am looking forward to...a little mini holiday...not sure of details yet but they'll be a travel blog if I do go.

Around the house...The wind is blowing and something somewhere is banging, making Muffin a very nervous pooch. She's headed under the bed a few times during the morning...poor thing. Life can be very frightening when you have a little brain!

I am pondering...40 degrees to fleece?

How is it that we can have 40 degree clecius days one week and within days wearing a fleece!??!!?

A favorite quote for today..."We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out" ~ Winston Churchill

One of my favorite things...are flowers of every kind, shape, colour and type. I find they can uplift my spirit at any time, whether they're in my garden, a vase, neighbour's garden or florist.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Everything and anything we can fit in...its going to be a tight squeeze :D

A peek into my day...When I nipped to buy some milk, I couldn't resist buying these double headed sunflowers from my local florist, especially with the sun being so shy today.
I've never seen them before but aren't they cheerful :D

And that's it for this week . . . my day book, I hope you enjoyed. Don't forget to pop over to the The simple womans daybook and check out the other day book entries...

Have fun : D