Visible Monday - shirtwaisters.

The heavens opened this morning and the wind blew, no skinny top and shorts for me today. It feels rather autumnal, cool enough to do a bit of layering, with a white tee under my indigo chambray shirtwaister from Toast. I bought it in their sale a few years ago for £35 reduced from £135, the sort of price reduction that makes me very happy! It is extremely comfortable to wear, a roomy size 12, button-through with side pockets. I could also wear it as a duster coat should I choose. In the afternoon the rain stopped so I climbed up the garden ladder to cut back some branches that were whipping about in the wind. The dress has an easy work-wear vibe that seems quite at home up a ladder in a gale!

Sharing with Patti at Not Dead Yet Style.

This month I'm reading.......

The mobile library stops outside our gate every other week and it's pot luck as to what books will be on offer. We can order books, which I now do for our reading group choices as they are rarely books that I want to keep and re-read.

Sally Rooney's 'Normal People' has received a great deal of praise. Well, I liked it well enough, but actually it made me feel very much of a different generation, critical of the behaviour of the central characters. Here is the blurb on the back cover and the opening page.

A book that I've just finished reading and absolutely loved is 'Olive Kitteridge'. The structure is interesting, each chapter being a stand alone story. Sometimes the central characters have all the action, other times they have just a fleeting walk-on role so that you see them from different points of view. This book I could really identify with (although I was surprised to read the age of thirty-nine described as middle aged and the seventies as OLD!) What a piece of work Olive is! I'm delighted to learn that a continuation of this book is just about to be published.

What makes you choose a particular book? I am very susceptible to an attractive cover. My friend has recently completed a book cover commission and has written about the process on her blog janethaighherwork.com Live a little. Do take a look. It was quite a business. I illustrated book covers when I was working, but never as complicated as this!

Here she is in my daughter's kitchen working on a heart.