Wonderful weekends, birds and butterflies

The Wonderful Weekend Book by Elspeth Thompson is a treasure trove.  It is all about reclaiming your weekends and reminds you of all the wonderful things that you could be doing.  I liked the way she goes through the seasons, reminding you of the simple pleasures like making marmalade or picking elderflowers to make champagne.  A lot of things she talks about cost nothing: watching the stars, writing proper letters, having picnics.

Also on this shelf are books to help you enjoy the great outdoors.  Lovely as it is to see flowers, birds and butterflies, it is also satisfying to know what you are looking at.  The “easy way” guides are small enough to put in your pocket so you can take them with you on your walk.  The Reader’s Digest books are better but they are too big and heavy to carry around.

Art and Mountains

These are mainly art books but with a few extras thrown in.  I love the colour and detail of the Pre-Raphaelites.  You can see some good examples at the Ashmolean in Oxford as well as at the Tate in London. 

I took the Constable book on holiday once and travelled around finding the places he painted.  The weather was beautiful and the scenery was lovely.  It was a great idea for a themed holiday.

Gombrich’s book Art and Illusion is well worth reading.  It is full of fascinating insights about the history of art and really makes you think about the meaning of artistic representation. 

The National Gallery companion guide is a useful book to take with you on a trip to London.  You can view the paintings and read about them as you walk round the gallery.  I hardly ever go to London but always make a point of visiting the NG if I do.  It’s amazing to think that all that art belongs to all of us.  It is just there waiting for us to go and see it whenever we want to.

Sharing the same shelf as the art books are three books about the Lake District.  My favourite of these is Mountains in the Mind.  It is a blend of poetry, reminiscence, art and walks.  Just the thing to read by the fire on a winter evening.