Story telling Sunday

I am a big fan of Sian's blog in general - and of her monthly Story Telling Sunday but have usually thought of a story just a leetle too late. (Brain is always fried on a Sunday afternoon. Its part of the job you know)
So today - as I am feeling a bit discombobulated as my sons have headed back to Uni - I have decided to console myself with some fun activities. I am going to watch some Creative Jumpstart 2013 videos and try some techniques. (I don't think it is too late to sign up and it is awesome). And I am going to tell a story. A story about something small/insignificant but precious. I've had to borrow a photo of my thing as the camera is also on its way to the Uni so that some lovely photos can be taken tomorrow by the Chauffeur on his way home.

Are you sitting comfortably? then we'll begin.
The tale of Cross Stitch.

My copy looks like this. Well this version does. It is my second copy as the pages started to fall out of my first. But when I was introduced to the book - it was a hardback from the library.
Sometime around February 1994 I was signed off work with low blood pressure for two weeks. I was  6 months pregnant with my second child. It was decided that it would be easier to ship me and little H. (Then a very lively 18 months) to my parents for a bit of R and R. I visited the library before hand and spotted this book. A friend had told me about a book called "Cross Stitch" that was really intriguing, all about a family and how their lives were interwoven. So I checked this out without reading any more about it.

It took a few pages to realise it was obviously not the same book.
It only took a few more to hook me in completely.
Rather than resting I was burning the midnight oil - I couldn't wait to turn the page (and there were a lot of them - 864). When I finished I sighed a deep sigh.

If you like history, romance and time travel, then this might be the book for you too!

The rest of the pregnancy was fine and my Milky bar Kid was born mid May (yup, as a toddler he used to look just like the kid in the advert and being a caring mother I used to force him to say "the milky bars are on me").
As our 2 kids were under 2 we thought now was the time to visit Phil's sister in Canada as the boys would go free on the plane. We spent some time in West Edmonton Mall where I discovered there was a sequel to Cross Stitch. In fact there was already a third book. Be still my beating heart!
I carried my three treasures back from Canada waiting for the right time to read them. Starting with Cross Stitch again. Or more truthfully Outlander as it has a different name in the US/Canada.

There are seven books in the series now. When a new one comes out I often go back to the beginning to fall in time and space into this magical yet also historically real world, all over again. Which is why the paperbacks needed replacing. I'm back with Cross Stitch as a title again.

For Christmas I was given a companion book with 4 novellas in it. And it drew me back again. So I am currently about 240 pages in to book 1. Probably about the 8th time of reading. Fortunately because the books are so long, although I remember the arc of the story many of the details are forgotten. My husband thinks I am daft to keep rereading the same book and maybe I am. But the world of Cross Stitch - and its escapism - is very precious to me!