Friday, April 28, 2017

Five on Friday

I was looking at some of the the books on our bookshelves wondering which books, if any, I could bear to part with.  Obviously some books are taken off the shelves  more often than others  so I got diverted into thinking about  which books were used most often.

Of course, it happens to be reference books and cookery books which are most often used so I've decided to share Five of the ones that are taken off the shelves most frequently.

They aren't a very inspiring selection of books, their covers, quite plain, old fashioned and possibly quite boring to look at but inside them is a wealth of information.   


1.  The Cranks Recipe Book -  I wish I'd had this book when I first stopped eating meat in the early 1970s but I didn't and struggled half-heartedly to give up meat entirely throughout that decade.  I remember eating at both Cranks and Oodles restaurants in London during the 70s and being inspired by their food, as I was by Sarah Brown's Terrace Project in Scarborough, but it was in the early eighties when Paul had been made redundant that we decided to manage without meat as we couldn't afford to buy it very often so it seemed a good idea not to buy it at all.  Our first Vegetarian recipe books were those by Rose Elliott and Sarah Brown and then we bought the Cranks book.  You can see how well thumbed it is, the pages are loose, yellowed and spattered with remnants of cooking but it is a well used and well loved book. Over the last few years we have gradually re-introduced some types of fish back into our diet,  Paul eats it more than I do and shares it with the cat.  I think the recipes we use most from this book are the nut roast recipe, Crecy plate pie which is an onion and carrot pie, Homity pie and Devon Apple cake.


2.  We love the bird visitors to our garden and feed them all year round.  We also love spotting and photographing different birds on our walks and also on holidays by the sea.  We have several books about birds but this one is the book that is most often pulled off the shelves for a quick identification of anything unusual that appears in the garden.  It is dated 1974, so again a fairly old, well used and well loved book.


3.  I have several of these King's England books by Arthur Mee picked up over the years in second hand book shops. On the book shelves are copies relating to the Midlands counties of Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Nottinghamshire as well as the Derbyshire one above.  It is the Derbyshire one I use the most and often consult it when I'm looking for background information on perhaps a village, church or stately home in the county usually when I am writing a blog post.  Of course, nowadays, I use the Internet quite a bit too to find things out, but it is interesting to see what these books of the 1930s say about some of the places we visit and about some of the buildings that no longer exist.


4. Another useful book which is often consulted when we've spotted an unusual butterfly or moth in the garden.  We used to have quite a few more of these creatures visit the garden when we first came here but we don't see so many now.  I remember years ago when we were both studying for degrees with the Open University.  I was studying the Arts and Paul was doing Sciences.  One of his projects included a study of moths and he was issued with a moth trap as part of the course materials.  Whilst he was trapping and recording moths I was studying 'England in the 17th Century.'  My favourite book from that time was Christopher Hill's 'The World Turned upside Down' - feels a bit like that at the moment.


5.  Another fairly old book which seems to have been on our bookshelves for ages.  We've used it often to identify plants we've spotted whilst out walking and in the garden.  For the last two years we've been inundated with Wood Avens in the garden and we were able to identify it from this book.  We've cleared much of it from the flower beds as it was growing in with the hardy geraniums and with the buttercups which also threaten to overwhelm the beds sometimes.  Self Heal or Woundwort was another plant we identified, this grows in the grass and some of the flower beds too, as do dog violets and forget-me-not, all self seeding, every year.

Joining in this week with Tricky and Carly at the FAST blog.  Click on the link below to find others who are participating in Five on Friday this week.

http://www.fastblog.es/search/label/Fast%20Five

Today is our 38th wedding anniversary so we are going out for the day.  I'll catch up with you all later today or over the weekend.

52 comments:

  1. A well thumbed book is priceless. Apart from containing information and stories, they also evoke memories. Happy Anniversary, I hope you have a lovely day out. x

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    1. Thank you, yes books do evoke memories of where you bought them perhaps or where you read them and how you were feeling at the time:)

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  2. An interesting collection this week. I love some of my old books. I also have that Derbyshire Book but, shamefully, I can't recall right now if I've read it or it's on the 'to read' shelves!

    Happy Anniversary, hope you have a lovely day out.

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    1. Thanks, Louise. I don't think I've read the Derbyshire book cover to cover just dipped into various parts of it to find things out:)

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  3. I love books! It was so interesting to see some of your well-loved books :) I hope you can stop by:

    http://collettaskitchensink.blogspot.com/2017/04/tea-time-wedding-and-great-wolf-42817.html

    Colletta

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    1. Books are wonderful aren't they? Thank you for popping by:)

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  4. What a lovely collection of books! I have to admit I find it really difficult to part with books. Some of them are like old friends. I revisit them every so often and find comfort in their pages.

    Thanks for sharing your Five on Friday!

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    1. I tend to hold on to older books given or passed on to me and those I have had for ages but a few newer ones I am able to let go once I've read them and I usually take them to our nearest National Trust property for the second hand book shop:)

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  5. Me too have always a book of birds & butterflies at hand. It's great to learn what they are!

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    1. There is always something new to learn or spot and identify isn't there?:)

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  6. Good collection, we have the wildflower book too and carry it with us on walks in England. Though we have reference books we use the internet for nearly all research.

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    1. I do use the internet more and more but sometimes it is easier just to grab a book from the shelves and of course as we don't have internet phones it is good to have a book in the car, especially a bird one:)

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  7. Loved seeing all your books. I'm pretty sure I have a very similar bird book in my possession except it is a reference to the birds of North America. Looks like I'm going to have to be on the search to find a moth and butterfly reference book as well as one for wildflowers, never even thought of it before reading this. Thanks for the inspiration!

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    1. Thanks, Jean you never know what you are going to see and want to identify either at home in the garden or out on a walk:)

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  8. I'm often leafing through an old bird reference book when I spot a new visitor to the garden. Old books smell so lovely. Happy Anniversary.

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    1. Thanks, Fiona, I love finding out about new birds, we always seem to get the same ones to the garden though, except in a severe winter when unusual birds do pass by for food:)

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  9. Although I use the internet a lot I wouldn't want to be without the reference books that I've collected over the years or inherited from my parents. I have a box full of leaflets and books with information about places visited in different regions of the UK and they're always useful when returning to them. I hope that you had a lovely time today celebrating your wedding anniversary and look forward to hearing more about where you went in due course.

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    1. I keep guide books and leaflets too of places we have been and places we would like to visit. We did have a lovely day out in Shrewsbury, thank you:)

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  10. Happy Wedding Anniversary - I hope you have a lovely day :)

    So interesting to see your books - I often find it is the natural history books I have had the longest that I use the most and the same is true with cookery books :) Although these days the internet is a great resource as well. Interesting to read of your husband's mothing activities with the OU science course - a great topic :)

    Enjoy your weekend.

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    1. Thanks we had a lovely day out in Shrewsbury. We had fun doing those courses. I remember Paul breeding caterpillars on plants in a container too - those brown fuzzy ones. They went on the train up to Stirling Uni for his summer school where they were left to turn into moths, I think! Such a long time ago, it's hard to remember:)

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    2. So pleased you had a good day out. I did an OU Science degree about 10 years ago and just loved every single minute of it - started planning to do Environmental Science but ended up after the "foundation" course mainly doing earth science with just a few environmental courses. We didn't do any experiments with moths sadly but there were all sorts of other interesting ones. Would love to take an arts degree but sadly the cost has gone up astronomically :( Still have all my course books and tma's and eca's - would recommend their courses to anyone - huge fun :)

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    3. The cost of OU courses has gone up an awful lot. We did our degrees 1980 to 86, and our graduation ceremony was at Derby. A few years ago I did a couple of creative writing courses with them but since then the costs have risen and I couldn't afford it now. I think P did some earth sciences courses, his summer schools were at Malham Tarn, Nottingham, Stirling and Bath. I just did two summer schools for foundation courses at Keele and Bath. We both did Social Sciences for the second foundation course that you had to do then, I don't think you have to do that now:)

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    4. It is a shame the way the courses have increased so much in price - too much now just to do it for the fun of it all :( My son had nearly finished a degree in English and Creative Writing a few years back. He had a break of a few years due to work pressure and when he tried to return found he had missed an email saying he had to register to continue degree at old prices and consequently would have to pay new increased prices. He was that annoyed he never bothered finishing it. Such a shame because OU really does provide a valuable route to getting a degree. I didn't go to summer schools (mainly because was still doing school runs etc and the cost) so had to go for an Open Science degree rather than Earthscience. I think these days they have done away with most if not all of their summer schools? re: your latest reply to my comment on bluebells - yes, it is very difficult to get the camera to cope with that shade of blue! and agree white can be hard too especially in sunlight. Some times I adjust white balance setting to sunny when taking white flowers in the sun but it doesn't always work! I thought your bluebell pics had turned out really well :)

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  11. Congratulations on your wedding anniversary, hope you had a wonderful day out. A great collection of books, we always have a bird book handy too.

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    1. Thanks, I'm sure you will see some wonderful and different birds in your new home:)

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  12. I can't bear to part with books. It would be an interesting study to find my most used five. Folklore, history, travel guides probably. Or I could end up with five very similar to yours! Good choices.

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    1. It is wonderful to be able to just pick a book of the shelves that you know will help you find something out, I do use the internet but I do love looking in books:)

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  13. One of the (many) reasons I like coming here is to look at your reading list. We share many of the same authors and I'm reading the new Maisie Dobbs right now, which I see you've already finished. I moved to kindle a couple of years ago and last year, during my Marie Kondo phase, I donated a ton of books, a whole bookcase of paperbacks. I don't really miss any single book but I miss their presence.
    Amalia
    xo

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    1. Yes, it's good to have books around the house here and there as well as on shelves.I love the Maisie Dobbs series and really enjoyed the latest book. I find I can give away books that I've just bought cheaply from The Works or a supermarket, the books I've had for ages I can't seem to let go:)

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  14. Belated wedding anniversary congratulations! I hope you got to do something nice to celebrate. I do like your well-used books. I have many on the shelves that I have not looked in for years but think it is sacrilege to part with any! I think I shall have a look on my bookshelves and see which ones I use most often. Have a lovely weekend Rosie. x

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    1. Thanks, Simone we had a day in Shrewsbury (don't like to leave Max for too long nowadays} lunch out and a walk around the shops and etc. It's always interesting to see which books you use the most:)

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  15. Happy anniversary you're one year ahead of us! I love well thumbed books too. I have a Rose Elliot cook book too which I use quite often. Have a lovely weekend. B x

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    1. We use the Rose Elliot Christmas book a lot as our chestnut roast dinner comes from that. Hope yo have a great weekend:)

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  16. Happy Wedding Anniversary and you had a nice day, love the books, I like books I have so many, I might not read them all but still love to have them...
    Amanda xx

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    1. Thanks, Amanda. Like you I have books on my shelves that I've never read but I couldn't part with them for various reasons:)

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  17. It's so hard to part with books...or even know which ones we can live without. Loved seeing some of the books you own! They looked wonderful....I am an avid collector myself!

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    1. I always think that as soon as you let something go you find a use for it. It is hard to part with books, just a few cheap paperbacks that I know I won't want to read again get sent to the charity shops:)

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  18. Loved to hear about your books, very interesting. Happy Anniversary, Cathy x

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    1. Thanks, Cathy and thanks for visiting:)

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  19. Five great books that have stood the test of time. 😊

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    1. They have indeed and will probably go on for much longer I hope:)

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  20. After 48 yeas of marriage, I became a very lazy cook and my cook books are forgotten in the library ! The birds in our garden all immigrated to the neighbours because of our 4 cats !

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    1. I don't cook as much as I used to as my husband likes to cook now we are retired we share the work, I do washing and ironing, he makes the evening meal and makes our bread too:)

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  21. The internet is great for looking things up but there is nothing quite like a good solid reference book. The smell and feel of the pages all add to the experience, especially when they have been family favourites for many years.

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    1. I still have some books that belonged to my mum and dad and two that belonged to my grandad, I couldn't part with those but I never use them or look at them, it seems a shame:)

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  22. Happy Anniversary, Rosie! I have not gotten back into the swing of Five on Friday, but I enjoyed reading about your five favorite reference books, and I have similar but not the same books in my collection. [I have food splashes on my favorite cookbooks, too :) ] I keep trying to cull out books that I have not consulted in ages, ...but I might need or want to consult them soon!

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    1. Thanks, Gracie. I think all our favourite cookery books have the remains of our attempts at the recipes on them, it's a sort of badge of honour. I know as soon as I pass a book on I will desperately want to consult it:)

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  23. I love some of my old books too, especially an old recipe book that I have, lots of memories!

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    1. Recipe books can bring back memories of certain times in your life can't they? I expect that yours are well loved too:)

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  24. Congratulations on your wedding anniversary Rosie! Great post. Interestingly, I have the same book as you (Peterson-Mountfort-Hollom Field Guide) but the 4th edition, published in 1983! This is the book I use to translate the birds' names into german and french for my European readers! As you will be aware, Ge = Germany (not D). Hopefully with BREXIT we will stick with (D)! Anyhow, other than that, I will stick to my wildlife blog and avoid politics!!

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    1. Thanks! I'm trying hard to avoid politics at the moment too, it's bad for my blood pressure:) I wonder how many more editions there are of the bird book? It seems a popular one doesn't it:)

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  25. What a great Five on Friday post,I love wildlife books and often go out armed with one to learn about the local flora and fauna with the kids. Thank you so much for participating, I apologise for being so late getting round to everyone's blogs, we had so much going on that I just didn't get a chance, I hope you understand. All the Best - Tricky

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