Bringing Some Sunlight

 

 

I was looking back at some old photos from last year and this one made me happy. I took this last May and it was a day when the sun was shining after a lot of days of rain. I remember how it made me feel at that time when I saw the sunlight hit the daffodils. It's a grey day today, so looking back at these brings back the sunshine :-)

 

Have a good day wherever you are!

My Thoughts on The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Recently I wrote a post telling about what I've been reading. You can find it here. And I promised to come back with my thoughts on this classic book. Well, here's a review repost from my other blog Labyrinthus XXI, about this great book by Mr. Wilde.

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Today it's my turn to bring you the next instalment of our monthly book review. My pick for this month is a book that I've been wanting to read for a long time, but have never gotten around to reading. I bought a copy quite a while back, sometime last year and put it into my pile of books that I was planning on reading once I finished the degree that I was working on. Well, once I finally finished with my degree, I realized that my pile of books had grown quite a bit. So one day I just closed my eyes and picked one from the pile and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde was the lucky one.

I enjoyed the book from the very beginning and it seems that the story doesn't take long to get going which is always a plus for me. We meet Dorian Gray quite early on after the initial conversation about him between Lord Henry Wotton and the artist Basil Hallward.

I don't want to give away any spoilers for those of you who haven't read it, so I have to be careful here. First of all, it's definitely an excellent book and is a cautionary tale that makes me think that we must be careful what we wish for. Dorian Gray is a handsome young man and desires to stay as young and handsome as he is in the portrait that Basil paints. He wants the portrait to take on the signs of aging instead of him. He gets his wish. The portrait takes on all the harshness of life whilst Dorian does all manner of things and remains unspoiled on the outside.

The book goes on to explore this interesting plot and it really makes you think about what beauty really is. I won't go any further so that I won't spoil the book for those who haven't read it. I really enjoyed this classic novel by Oscar Wilde. It lived up to my expectations and that doesn't happen all the time with books that you've heard so much about. I will give it 4 and a half stars out of 5!

What I'm Reading



Now that I'm back to my regular blogging, I thought that I'd share what I'm reading right now. As you can see it's The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. This classic has been on my list of books to read for a while, but I haven't gotten around to reading it until now. I bought it a good while ago when I was still working on my degree and it joined a pile of books that I intended on reading once I was finished with my university work. It's been a few months, but now I'm finally ready to dive into reading for enjoyment again after reading so much for school. It was enjoyable to read for school, but it came with the pressure of having to write a long paper about each book. So it's nice now to just read something with no after bit to worry about. Yay! :-) 



 

 

I'll let you know how I liked it. And if you like, please share what you've been reading.

 

Side note: Even though I'm enjoying the book, I think that the next book I read will be something beautifully trashy just for the fun of it ;-)  It's nice to flex my pleasurable reading muscles after so long.

 

 

Until next time...

Six Years Plus One Day

I wanted to share this wonderful flag that my friend Val made for me to celebrate the sixth anniversary of my blog. Isn't it lovely?

As some of you may know, Val and I collaborate on the blog Labyrinthus XXI.

Thank you so much Val!

Celebrating six years yesterday was a wonderful milestone for me and now I look forward to continuing this journey. I hope that you'll all come along with me! :-)

Happy Sixth Anniversary

Today is the sixth anniversary of the day that I started this blog. It seems like a thousand years ago and it also seems like just yesterday. What is it about time that makes it stretch and twist in such a way that it can seem so short and long at the same time?

Six years...wow! I know that it's not ten or fifteen or some other double digit number like that, but I'm proud of sticking with my blogging, so six years is good enough for me :-) 

A lot has changed in my life since that first day six years ago and yet some things remain the same. When I started this blog I was in a phase of struggle as I tried to find my place in a new country. It was a thrilling prospect to get the chance to live in a different country than that of my birth, and yet it was a bit scary to change my life so significantly. As I mentioned in my very first post, I was experiencing all of the big life changes at the same time and the thing that capped it off was losing my mom right before I planned to come to England. My life was in disarray, but slowly I found my footing again.

Over the past six years that I've been writing this blog I've gone to various concerts, seen many places and things, and I've continued my education. One of the very finest moments that I've experienced over these six years happened to me rather recently. Back in September of 2013, I graduated and received my Bachelor of Arts degree after leaving university study some years ago. I knew that it was time to go back and finish what I started. I felt it in my soul and even though it was very challenging, I knew this time that I wouldn't leave until I finished. Here's a link to my post about my graduation weekend in case you missed it :-)

As I've been thinking about writing this post, so many things have crossed my mind. I've been going back and reading old posts here and it's been so enjoyable to revisit moments in my life as if it were a scrapbook. In a way, that's what it feels like when I go back. Looking back has been therapeutic for my blogging. I saw how candid my posts were back then and I could feel the joy and the sorrow in my words. I was able to go back and see the world again through my eyes at that time, through my words and the photos that I shared. I hadn't realized how much of me I had etched into this blog.

So as I go forward past this six year milestone, I want to return to the spirit of the writing that I used to do. I want to get back to sharing more about my experiences and I want to share more of my photos, from the place that I stand at this time in my life. I haven't been blogging in this way for a while and I want to get back to it. Now is the time! :-) I still am in love with taking pictures so I have a lot to share. Some are just simple photos and some feature some of the beautiful places that I've seen.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, things have changed in some ways over these six years and some things remain the same. In the end, I'm still Dori  :-)  This blog has brought such joy to my life and I appreciate all of the support over the years!

THANK YOU

 

I hope that you'll come back and join me as I go onward towards my seventh year and beyond. We have a lot of catching up to do!  ;-)

HAPPY 6TH ANNIVERSARY
TO
FROM A YELLOW HOUSE IN ENGLAND