Friday 16th August

 I need to learn a bit more about wild flowers. Many of these are not known to me

This clock comes from the book 'Woodston, the biography of a farm' by John Lewis-Stempel. It's a beautiful (in my view) and lyrical account of English history seen through the lens of a man who is passionate about real farming, working with nature instead of in spite of it. He tries out stone age, bronze age, iron age tools and techniques on his own land, and gives his own take on archaeologists, re-wilders and tree-planting schemes and explanations based on his own, generations-deep in farming practices and knowledge. 

It's thought-provoking. I've reached the eighteenth century in his version on history... I  shall be sorry to reach the end of the book.

Rory Stewart's 'The Marches' is on the 'pending' list. Tove Jansson's 'the Summer Book' is one I have read before, about a 6-year-old girl spending the Summer on a tiny island with her family and grandmother. I'm thinking of suggesting it to the book club, alongside the Poems on the Underground '. We usually offer a choice for the group to pick one.

The Jill Mansell is light rom-com reading.