Our Visit to Portmeirion - part 1.

If one post from me today just isn't filling your Porcelain Agaric appetite then pop over to By The Lock where the lovely Chloe has posted my vegan Peanut Butter Sundae Hair Mask recipe. Her blog is an ecclectic mix of crafting, cooking and wonderfulness in which you will find plenty to make your eyes happy.

Back to our camping adventures, it turned out that our campsite was right opposite the estuary to Portmeirion. This amazingly, strange place was designed and built by Clough Williams-Ellis in 1925-1975. He bought the site in 1925 for around £5000 and based it on a typical Italian city. I loved visiting here so close to finishing Elijah's Mermaid because some of that was based in Italy so it really immersed me in the feeling of it all.

 

This place is just so strange to walk around, its all so contrary in a way, very beautiful and quirky though. If you are in North Wales it is definitely worth a look around, you can easily while away most of a day there immersed in all the candy colours and fresco-esque buildings. We even caught up with my aunty and uncle there and spent a lovely few hours wondering around and drinking tea. I took a lot of photos here so I will be sharing more of these when I need a camping fix in the week. 

Hope you have had a fantastic bank holiday Monday <3 

Much Love

xkx   

Books, Glorious Books...

I have been in a bookish mood lately and lots of different genres have been entertaining me. NOS4R2 I haven't quite finished yet, I am only a couple of hours from the finish line though and it has been the first story for a good while that has nagged at me to want to know how it ends. Joe Hill's writing is visceral and fearless, I picked up his first novel a good few years ago called Heart Shaped Box and I loved how much it scared me alongside the heavy rock music influence. His second novel, Horns, I didn't even finish I found it took too long to get to any point, so when I saw NOS4R2 I decided to give it a chance. I am so glad I did, this book has a villain that makes my blood run cold and one of the most kick ass heroines. This story is so awesome, the concepts in it are really clever and it has been keeping me on the edge of my seat. I would even be brave enough to say that Joe Hill is our generations Stephen King.  

I accidentally stumbled on Elijah's Mermaid whilst I was browsing through Amazon. I adored Essie Fox's first book The Somnambulist. So when I saw her second book had been released I trekked into town to buy it so I could take it on our last camping trip. Both Essie Fox's books are based in the Victorian era in London and Hereford (which isn't far from where I grew up). Elijah's Mermaid really highlights the emancipation of women and how awful some of the conditions women had to endure. This book is fantastic and the twists and turns were really satisfying. If you like a Victorian story full of intrigue and well crafted characters then you will love this book. 

I have a love affair with Scandinavian crime fiction, I just love it in all of its dark, exciting drama. I have read or listened to three of the Harry Hole thrillers. I have very mixed feelings on them and Harry Hole. I have found Harry a very difficult protagonist to get along with, but I am starting to realise that is part of what brings me back to keep reading these books. I really enjoyed this book, even though I was a little underwhelmed about the big reveal at the end. But I don't think it detracted from the book because the rest of the story was seeped in great detective work. I love this book because I also learnt quite a lot about what happened in Norway in WW2. I think Jo Nesbo's fifth book The Snowman had a lot more twists, turns and reveals which kept me excited and eager to finish the book, but The Redbreast enhanced Harry's character for me, as more time was spent on him. 

The next few books on the top of my reading list are Half the Sky that I am reading for The Feminist Book Club, Anno Dracula and The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson, that I discovered through a video on Ted talks.

Hope you have had a great weekend <3

Much Love.

xkx