February Fun

Here I am, still basking in this California sunshine! It's absolutely glorious, I don't think I've ever worn T-shirts and shorts in February before :) Feeling warm sunshine dancing on your skin has to be one of the best things in life! Even with all this warmth, I've been cooking up some wholesome veggie soup almost every day. Broccoli, pea, corn, red pepper...ahh, such lovely soupy flavours. And what a great and easy way to get your servings of vegetables!

I finished reading Elizabeth Gaskell's 'Wives and Daughters' and am looking forward to watching the miniseries as I am completely in love with this story and all of its vibrant characters. This was the kind of book that I simply couldn't put down - I was completely and utterly absorbed. Victorian novels detailing the lives of young women living in small towns fascinate me to no end. It all started with Jane Austen...and there's no going back, thank goodness :)

I was in a lovely little beach town called Del Mar about a week (or two? time is going by very quickly!) ago and wisely I popped into their library, which is so cozy and full of light and has such a happy atmosphere, but getting back on topic, I picked up a couple of used books for fifty cents and am now enjoying one of them - it's called 'Paris to the Moon' and it's by a very talented and insightful (and hilarious) journalist named Adam Gopnik. If I had been visiting a bookstore, I would never have picked this up, but the For Sale options at the library were quite limited so I went for non-Victorian lit this time :) This book is basically a series of delightful, intelligent, sincere essays on the subject of living in Paris. Gopnik is very witty but also quite sentimental and capable of being very much swept away by love and hope and wonder and feelings. Exactly the kind of journalistic style I enjoy, ponder over, and laugh along with.

Still, I find that I simply can't get absorbed in non-fiction the way I can while reading a great novel. There is no world to get transported to really, and I must confess I cannot wait to jump into another Elizabeth Gaskell or George Eliot as soon as possible.

Here's to a wonderful February beginning!