Friday 10 January 2014



Fragrant Ladies and Weight Loss
I don't do New Years resolutions. I realised many years ago that rash decisions made on a day you're hung over holds no water. According to people who know these things, the number one resolution is to lose weight.

I'm having none of that. I've never bought in to the myth that if, I lose half my body weight my life will be perfect, that my problems will disappear and those nagging doubts about my place on this earth will be quelled. In Cornish parlance I am a ' fine great maid'. To those unaware of our county's euphemistic  terms, I'm a bit on the plump side, not fat but well covered. When I was born I was, 10 pounds 8 ounces, now that's a big baby for any generation, my dad said on his first sight of me " it wasn't that you were fat, my love, you just looked about 6 months old - or that you'd eaten all the other babies in the ward". I don't worry about my soft covering, I'm very healthy, rarely get Ill and if I say so myself, I 'scrub up' ok. In short I'll probably never be particularly over weight as I do too much lugging of 60 metre rolls of fabric around and I'll never be thin as I eat too much. When on the rare occasion I do cut down my caloric intake,  I keep it simple, homemade veg soup for lunch and smaller portions. The obsession with the minutiae of one’s diet seems to be its downfall. That constant demon on the shoulder whispering into their ear "you know there's chocolate in the cupboard and that butter won't eat itself". The elephant in the room, if you'll excuse the expression, is that food is often the reward for abstinence. The secret is not to tell anyone you're dieting. Do it quietly, without bells and whistles and definitely don't let your subconscious know as it's liable to scupper it.


My first day back at work was made more palatable by popping in to David Lays Auction House for their general sale. To be honest a lot of things at general sales will not send the world alight ­– unless you buy it, don’t like it and have a lovely bonfire – but often there can be little gems hidden only by ones imagination. A box of books struck me as rather gorgeous. These romantic fiction book covers are a delight. Spanning the fifties and sixties, these hard backed books depicting fragrant ladies, incomplete without their strong jawed paramours are a delicious anachronism, frozen in time . They will look fantastic as a feature wall, placed outwards on a bookshelf or arranged in strategic piles on side and coffee tables. They have a real charm and are now becoming collectable but still easily picked up individually at boot sales and charity shops. They are certainly images at odds with our current social mores but show the quality of great illustration perfectly In tune with its time.

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