Manicure set, Elizabeth of York

Speaking of treasured possessions, here's my manicure set, a present from Handsome Partner well over 60 years ago and still in use. Quality. One little tool is missing, probably somewhere in the bathroom closet where I keep the set. 

The buffer, padded kid, is very good for nail health because it massages the nails and the underlying circulation.  

I think of him every time I use the set, remembering the care he took of his own nails. He was so grateful, after he lost the use of his hands and feet, that I did his nail care for him. 

I'd catch him admiring his manicured nails, when he thought he was alone.  A small task for me to do,  but vital for his spirits. He wasn't a vain man, but he respected self care.

I've been reading several books in tandem and here's a rundown:

The Housekeeper and the Professor is brilliant, touching, the poetry of math and human connection in unlikely places, very worth reading. I listened to it, exactly the right Japanese voice narrating .

Dinner Ladies was light and sweet and a good contrast to my other reading. A cosy mystery, it's about an old lesbian couple of dinner ladies who find themselves investigating a murder.  It's also funny.

Huge contrast to the grim reality of the 1619 Project, about the importation of African people into slavery starting then and the continuing struggle to establish their rights. 

It's hard reading which I feel obliged to do, as a white immigrant, though from a family here in the 1850s, who had no idea of the privilege she stepped into, even when things were tough. Because never have any of my trials been caused nor made harder, by my skin color. 

I'm in an online book group discussing this with mainly black readers, and I listen more than I talk, unless called on, or unless I have some different insight because of my different background. I'm definitely getting an education in this group, who are exquisitely polite to me, inclusive, walking the walk.

Then there's Elizabeth of York, who was at the confluence of the Plantagenets and the Tudors, and very confusing it is. 

Practically every woman seems to be named Elizabeth or Anne or Mary, the men's limited first names equally confusing. Also everyone has a title and a completely different family name. And they're all intermarried. And the women get new titles when they marry. There's a complicated chart at the beginning of the book explaining these relationships, and I got lost there, too.

It's like a Russian novel set in 15th century England. And Scotland. And France. And Burgundy. And small children being betrothed to unite kingdoms and territories. And powerful people suddenly being murdered because they said the wrong thing. 

I'm persevering because I like Alison Weir's scholarship and writing style.  I don't think I have a true historian's outlook on this period.

The oat crackers, toasted to crisp them back  up, they went a bit soft overnight, went well with the soup. And the weather is bright and cool, lovely for walking. 

And in the course of following Marion's World, I found a great construction idea for a fabric book. One thing led to another and that wall hanging I stitched a while back, and haven't been too satisfied with, is about to be cut up for a new life.

I'm probably going to use the sashiko stitched stiffened pieces for the book cover and use the appliqued sections as some of the pages. 

I think more embroidery will happen. I do like to have a bit of stitching around, among other projects. I may not use the same construction, devised originally by Ann Wood, but that's the springboard.

So all's well, all manner of things, even.

Happy Passover to blogistas who observe.