Her Fearful Symmetry

Last night we met at Darcy's house for our book group and the book chosen to read and for discussion this month was 'Her Fearful Symmetry' by Audrey Niffenegger. As it is nearly Christmas there were quiet a few nice chocolate treats and drinking wine before we got down to discussing the book.

One of the attractions of the book was that the story is centred around Highgate Cemetery in London as one or two people had been there and said that it was a definite 'must do' when visiting London. Jenny brought a book about the cemetery with wonderful photographs which we all had a look at and thought that some of the photos were very reminiscent of Dr Who!

Without spoiling the story it revolves around two sets of twins, one of which inherit their aunt's house close to Highgate cemetery in which they must live for a year, but in which their mother and father cannot step foot in.

Opinion was quite divided about the book some of us really enjoyed it but others found it difficult to enter into the book's divergence from reality.

Personally I really enjoyed the book (more than Audrey Niffenegger's first book 'The Time Traveller's Wife') and felt that it was well written and found the juxtaposing theme of confinement and freedom explored in the book really interesting.

This is a good book to read around Christmas time with it's Gothic, ghostly story and setting.

Two winners........

Apologies for not posting straight away this weekend about the card giveaway but I have been in bed with a horrible cold. Anyway - I decided that since I was starting to feel quite festive (even though the only Christmas decoration I have had the strength to put out at the moment is my little Murano glass Christmas tree!), I would pick out two random winners of the cards. So the first name out was Darcy and the second one out was Kristina. So if you could please send me your address as soon as possible to: jacquidodds(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk I will get them out in the post before the last Christmas posting dates.

Venetian Blue giveaway!

To celebrate my two year anniversary of blogging and also opening my Folksy shop I am having a giveaway of some of my cards. They are all individually hand screen printed by me in the studio and are blank inside for your own message. The cards come in a cellophane wrapper and are supplied with a best quality envelope, to see the full range please click here.

I am giving away a pack of three cards - either:

'Florentine Lilies' - pink/magenta

'Reflecting Winter & Spring' - on grey card

'Snowdrops' - aqua green

Or - one of each

To enter please leave a comment on this blog post by Friday 10th December and let me know which pack of three cards is your favourite and I will randomly pick the winner from the comments left.

Leaf patterns and La Casita

While out for a walk last week I took the above photo of autumn leaves on the ground as I thought I might use the patterns for inspiration.
Also I bought this needlecase from Alessandra of La Casita blog:

The very cute needlecase is lined in Liberty bicycles fabric which was designed by Grayson Perry:

Happy Birthday Mum!

It has recently been my Mum's birthday and above is the flower bouquet which I sent her and included some of my favourite flowers - freesias. Another of her presents was this lovely purse, which Mum was delighted with,I bought the purse from Melissa Wastney of Tiny Happy:

I thought I would take this opportunity to show you some paintings which my Mum made a while ago that continue the theme of this blog post which seems to revolve around flowers:

Giveaway!

This is a giveaway on my Art Blog of my latest print which is shown above. This is to celebrate two years of blogging. If you would like to be included in the draw for the giveway please follow the link here.

I will be posting another giveaway soon on this blog to celebrate its blog anniversary too.

Florence by train

One of the great things about travelling around Tuscany by train is the unexpected views of all the lovely towns and villages dotted around the countryside. Unfortunately I don't know the name of the hillside town above, if anyone does please let me know.
We walked from the main train station, Santa Maria Novella into the city of Florence. Luckily I remembered my way to the centre after last visiting Florence four years ago. There were many people in the city so we had to weave our way through them and then we caught a glimpse of the Duomo in the sunshine:

A view of the magnificent facade of the cathedral:

The exterior marble on the cathedral was not added until the 19th century, although it does not look much different to the campanile designed and built by Giotto much earlier in the 14th century:

The impressive fortified Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall of Florence:

The Ponte Vecchio:

The back of the Uffizi art gallery which was once the administrative offices for the Medici family:

The magnificent 'Gates of Paradise' doors of the Baptistery designed by Lorenzo Ghiberti and made in his workshop. These doors are actually reproductions and the originals are being kept and restored in the Museo dell'Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore (the Museum of the Works of the Cathedral) which is also worth a visit too:

You cannot help but gaze in wonder at the cathedral dome designed and built by Brunelleschi, who incidentally lost out to Ghiberti in a competition to design and build the doors of the Baptistery. The dome of the Duomo is one of the famous landmarks in Florence and it was Brunelleschi's genius that enabled the dome to be made when no one else at that time had any idea how to build it. You can climb up its 463 steps for a magnificent view of Florence, however luckily we did not have time to do this as I am not sure that I could have done this without feeling dizzy :

Over on my art blog I have a giveway of one of my prints, please click here for more details.