I like using Etsy for jewellery purchases nowadays, as I know that the item has been crafted with love and enthusiasm!  This ring comes from Israel, has two opal stones set in it.  Isn’t it beautiful!  It’s sterling silver, and you can view the seller’s shop here.  There are some really beautiful rings in this shop.

This is the first of two secretly geeky rings, and if you follow me on Twitter you might have already seen it.  On the outside, it is just hammered sterling silver.  Inside, though, it has etched writing which reads “Winter is coming”.  HOUSE OF STARK FTW!  Yes, it’s true, I am a Stark girl.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you haven’t yet introduced the awesomeness that is Game of Thrones into your life, and you need to get on that (the TV series is better than the books, in my opinion).  I bought the ring from this UK seller, and she makes loads of awesome geeky jewellery.

This ring is from the same seller as the GoT ring, and is a custom order.  On the outside, it has hand-etched stars (it’s sterling silver).  On the inside, it has writing which reads “No power in the ‘verse can stop me”.  Firefly!  Woo!

Have you bought any new jewellery recently?

Week 17

I’ve forgotten on this week to record my hair disaster, and then my hair cut, so I need to add that later!

Week 18

 Seven Psychopaths is a great film!

I love how the serrated edges hold water like glitter.

This is an allium, but it’s not opened yet. Below is a head I found from one of last year’s allium’s, all dried out!  I love them.

Potato plant. It’s loving the rain.

Baby broad bean plants.

You’ll have to take my word for it that these are very baby leeks.

Ummm, these are tomato plants.  Apparently I suck at growing them from seed.  Luckily, I have friends who are better at this than me so I have some real tomato plants now.

Baby squash plants.

Having said that, sometimes sewing machines are necessary for projects, and I recently got mine out again to make some bunting for the garden. This came about for two reasons. My neighbour had a new fence put in along our shared boundary last year, and we don’t want to paint it. As such, it needs something interesting on it. Also, someone on the street next to mine has put neon-coloured knitted bunting in their front garden and it’s so colourful and summery!

Bunting is very simple to make (there are a lot of patterns on the web), and I have a lot of scrap fabric to play with. I did buy some organic cotton ribbon, which was £15 for 15m. Everything else I’m using I already own.

When it’s finished I’ll photograph it hanging in the garden!

I wanted to do a review of a couple of notebooks I’ve received (as gifts, not for reviews), but as one is a Paperblanks notebook it seemed a bit daft to do a full review – we all know that their paper is wonderful! So, I thought that I would do a side by side comparison instead, between two very similar notebooks – a Paperblanks notebook and a TeNeues notebook. The question we’re really asking is, which is better as a luxury hardback notebook?

Both designs have a “historical” feel to them – TeNeues do a range with old books on the front and Paperblanks do their range of old binding covers. The first major point of difference here is that Paperblank notebooks carry their design all the way around the cover (front, back and spine), where as the TeNeues design is only on the front of the notebook. The back is plain and the spine – *shock horror* – has writing on it. This really annoys me, does it annoy you too?! Why would I want a notebook which says “Antique books” on the side (the name of the design)? I don’t get it! Paperblanks get double points for not only not ruining their cover, but also because they don’t put any branding on the outside of the notebook. There is nothing to ruin the aesthetics.

Both brands do notebooks with magnetic flap closures, which I quite like for notebooks I’m not intending to add things to. They tend not to work if you stuff your notebooks full of ephemera. The Paperblank magnetic flaps are wider, but the magnets in the TeNeues notebook are stronger, so there’s not much between them here.

Inside, both notebooks have a ribbon and an envelope at the back. The inside cover paper is quite waxy in the TeNeues notebook, whereas the Paperblanks inside covers have a more porous feel to them. If you write on the inside covers of your notebook this is something to bear in mind, as water-based inks will bead in the TeNeues.

With regards to paper performance, there are some key differences between the notebooks. Paperblanks, as previously mentioned, use excellent paper in their notebooks. There’s very little show-through with most inks (except of course the Sharpie), no bleeding and no feathering. It’s a paper that is perfect for fountain pens. If you were judging on sight and touch alone, you would think TeNeues would be similar, but it’s a poorer performer when handling fountain pens. There is show-through, and some feathering – even with an extra fine nib. There are also tiny spots of bleeding.

Personally, I don’t really feel there’s any competition between the two – Paperblanks are the much better option. Really, I can only see myself buying TeNeues if I fell in love with a cover design. But then I might be annoyed with myself afterwards for compromising on quality!

The tone of the book was very negative, I felt. He hammers home the message that essentially we’re all going to die because of peak oil, factory farming, globalisation, climate change, etc. Whilst all these threats are real, and do need dealing with, I don’t generally feel that society is inherently doomed. People will adjust. People already adjust. Allotments in the UK have never been more popular, the slow food movement is hitting the mainstream and people are starting to care about where their food comes from.

I’m a geologist by education and a conservationist by trade, and I’m happy to read books on all these impending disasters. I just think they should be written more positively, and by people who know what they’re talking about. At the end of the day, the author of Trauma Farm is just one writer and small farmer giving his opinions, and I don’t necessarily agree with them. I guess I’m in the minority though because he won some Canadian book awards for his book!

Anyway, I have plenty of other books to read, and life is too short for negativity and bad books!

Do you abandon books if you’re not enjoying them?

I don’t have anything written for you today either, so here is a photo of a cat in a bag.  I’ll be back properly tomorrow!

A short history of tractors in Ukrainian – Marina Lewycka

I kept waiting for this book to have a big, explosive (shocking?) ending, but it didn’t and it felt to me like a bit of a let down. The story builds up throughout the chapters, then it just feels like it fizzes away.

I read this book because I attended a talk by Marina Lewycka, and I thought I’d best read one of her books. I did like the historical bits on the Ukraine, but the actual story itself didn’t engage me that much.

The case for working with your hands – Matthew Crawford

I’ve been wanting to read this book for ages, but I did find it hard-going and a bit boring in places.  The ideas behind the book are sound, but I reckon it could’ve been a bit shorter and written using less long words!  The book itself is about why manual work is better for us than desk jobs, and why the divorce between “blue class” and “white class” workers is a bad one for society.  Like I say, I agree with the ideas – people are too detatched from physical labour – but it could do with a re-write!

Swiss watching – Diccon Bewes

This book is an excellent look at Switzerland. I learnt so much! It does have some casual racism in there (Diccon is British so there is many a joke at Germany’s expense), but if you can overlook British arrogance (ignorance?) then the book is excellent. Switzerland is such a great country!

A trip to the beach – Melinda Blanchard

I gobbled this book up really quickly – I loved it! The book is an autobiography of two Americans who moved to Anguilla (rhymes with vanilla), a tiny island in the Caribbean. It is an enchanting read. I now desperately want to move to the Caribbean. However, two practical points to consider (there are many more!):

1. I wouldn’t be able to grow my own veg
2. I don’t think I will like hurricanes.

But hey, a girl can dream!

What did you read during April?

I don’t often do tea reviews on here. Although I like to think I have sophisticated tea tastes (!), tea is tea and I’m quite happy with a breakfast tea most days. Although I buy Assam leaves most of the time, if you gave me something different the chances are I probably would just think your tea is a bit odd without realising why. Having said that, I did want to have a go at reviewing this tea as it’s quite an interesting one. I have been reading up on tea tasting in anticipation of this review, so that hopefully what I tell you has some meaning!

This tea is produced by the Tregothnan estate, and is special because it’s grown in the UK (it’s the only tea estate in the UK). I bought an Assam blend, and I haven’t been disappointed.

First things first. The tea takes longer to brew than a normal tea. I don’t know why this is (maybe because the leaves are grown in a colder climate?), but you need to be aware of this. Several times now I’ve taken the leaves out too early and had very weak tea!

The tea itself is a hard, full tea (I wasn’t joking when I said I’ve been learning about tea tasting!). These are official terms and are used to describe teas that have a full flavour with lots of body. Basically, it makes a decent strong cup of tea!

The tea is also very astringent, which means that it has that dry sensation on your tongue that good teas are known for. I had read somewhere that this is due to the level of tannin in the tea, with astringent teas having more tannin, but I can’t find a source for that now so don’t quote me! I do know for sure however that you shouldn’t squeeze tea leaves (or tea bags) because you release lots of extra tannin into your tea, which can make it bitter. Another fun fact about tannin is that teabags often go stale faster than tea leaves because there is a larger surface area exposed to the air, and that too can cause more tannin to be released in your tea. Yet another reason to switch to tea leaves!

In non-official tea tasting terms, this tea makes a great builder’s tea, and I’d recommend it to anyone who likes a proper cup of tea! You can buy it in both teabags and tea leaves (I’ve bought both, and they taste pretty much the same to me!). They are more expensive than supermarket teas, but then they’re grown in the UK (and also presumably not picked by slaves!). The estate do other teas as well, but I’ve not tried these. They’d probably make nice, novels gifts for friends (I don’t have any friends that like tea as much as me though).

Have you tried any new teas recently?

Note: I suppose I should note that I live in a hard water area, which does affect brews (it makes them better!).