Darlene came to visit on the weekend of the 8th. Another movie weekend for us. We went to see Superman Returns and Pirates of the Caribbean. We've been waiting for the Pirate movie to come out with great anticipation and we were not disappointed. It was a rollicking ride from start to finish. I need to see it again just to catch all the stuff that was going on. Superman Returns was quite good too and I loved Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. I'm not a big Superman fan (Spiderman being my favourite super hero, followed closely by X-men) but this movie told a good story, had great effects and was a nice homage to the Christopher Reeves movies. In the Pirate movie Johnny Depp was marvelous as usual as Cap'n Jack Sparrow, and Bill Nighy as Davy Jones (of locker fame) was terrific under all the tentacles and claws.

Darlene brought her camera again. She took pictures of my current cross stitch obsession, the previous one that I did for Josiah, and also pictures of our garden and of my library. The garden ones especially turned out beautifully and I can't wait to show them off.

My newest cross stitch project is from an issue of Cross Country Stitching (June 1995) and is based on an antique coverlet design. Since this picture was taken I have finished the medallion on the right, which is the same as the one on the left, and I'm working upwards towards the next section of the picture and the third of the three colours used for this project.

Ran into a problem with this project. It appears that in the list of the colours used for this project given in the magazine the second colour was listed wrong. In the picture the magazine shows of the finished project the second colour is a steely looking blue. Sort of DMC #932-ish. But the colour in the chart is listed as DMC #501 - blue green. Defiantly not the same colour as the picture. I didn't like the look of #501 next to the dark blue of #939 so I used the lighter #502 instead. Which may mean that the next colour #3721 may not look right when I get that far. I'll have to cross that bridge when I get there.

I'm re-reading a favourite fantasy series of mine, which I haven't read in many years now. Melanie Rawn's Sunrunner series, beginning with Dragon Prince which I finished this week. This book was published in 1988 and is one of three in this series. Then there are three more in the next series. Melanie Rawn has a wonderful sense of humour, and she creates vivid pictures of both people and places with her words. And she has created a wonderful world which is complex and colourful and rich. Nice big, thick books and stories that keep you on the edge of your seat, so to speak. It's so nice to renew acquaintances with the characters and the story.

I just bought Jacqueline Carey's latest book Kushiel's Scion last night. Ohh...
can't wait to read this one.