Blooming Zemblanity. We held a very select group discussion at Bookworms Book Club yesterday. Just 4 people to discuss The Forest by Edward Rutherfurd,  a historical novel charting the people and landscape of the New Forest in Hampshire over many centuries. We all enjoyed the book so much we are going to talk again when we are a bigger number. So no spoilers in the blog. 

As usual the conversation, cake and tea flowed freely.  Two words took centre stage.

Edward Rutherfurd uses  zemblanity, serendipity and ‘sliding door’ moments to move the narrative in unexpected directions and to give readers huge opportunities to ponder the ‘ what if’s’ of his characters lives’

Zemblanity certainly wins for the most exciting word of the session but Estover proved to be the most locally interesting. Estover is a suburb in the north of Plymouth. None of us had realised it was anything more than a location name. But Estover is an ancient word that gives an individual the right to take just enough from another person’s land to sustain but not profit.

Sometimes low attendance at a Book Club feels a little disappointing but yesterday proved that four people can easily fill two hours with book chatter and come away with loads to think about.

The elephant in the room at Bookclub was not our missing members but the return of heavy rain after four days of sunshine. Here we are in the middle of May slipping off dripping raincoats to talk about books when we should be throwing the windows open to cool things down. Rain is a somewhat tenuous link for this blog.

The four days of sunshine made my yard pop with bright greens and pinky/purple flowers.

For no particular reason, I chose to use them as the illustrations for this blog about a book club. The only common theme is the elephant in the room. Rain. After 4 days of sunshine and hard labour in the yard it was so good to see these happy blooms and greens. After one day of rain the slugs and snails, with no need for raincoats, will be out chomping on my precious blooms. Zemblanity in action!