Happy Outlander Day!

Ye may have gathered by now that when I set my mind to liking something, I become a bit obsessive.  I won't and frankly can't deny that.  There's Ikea, crochet, sewing, scrapbooking, soap making, Michael Fassbender, et cetera.

Today, it's Outlander.  I have already posted about my nascent Outlander fandom here.  Now I am almost done with the first book in Diana Gabaldón's series.  And the television series on Starz is making me even more of a fan because it is the embodiment of the fabulous love story between Jamie and Claire (and all the complications therein). 

What is so darn great about a show set in 1743 Scotland anyway?  Let me just show you in photographs.  

 Need I say more?  I mean really!  J.A.M.M.F., baby!  Oh, yes, and there is lovely Sassenach Claire.  She's OK too.  ;)

Seriously, Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe make the show beautiful for sure, but the supporting cast is wonderful as well.  My previous blog post shows many of the recurring characters. Tonight, it looks like Black Jack Randall will play a major role in his own sadistic way.

You love to hate a villain and Tobias Menzies plays this one quite well.  By the way, has it occurred to you that the use of the word "sadist" would not have existed during this time period because the Marquis de Sade was only born in 1740?  I'm sure I'm not the only one with this thought.  I mean certainly the Marquis was not a sadist at age 3!

But let's think about bonnier things (is bonnier a word?).  And the bonniest (is bonniest a word?) thing I can leave you with is this:

Happy Outlander Day!  

Awakening my inner Celt with Outlander!

So I must have had my head in the sand for the last several years.  The only Outlander I had ever heard of was the Mitsubishi we used to own.

Then I saw an article on Facebook about a new Starz TV series called Outlander.  The ad depicted a beautiful dark-haired woman walking away with a dazzlingly handsome Scot.  But she was also reaching for a man whose face I couldn't see.  As if there were any doubt not to follow Mr. Kilt!

Upon further study, I found out all about the TV series and I realized I actually have access to Starz through my cable company.  So I sat down to watch the show and I was hooked!  I didn't realize the show was based on a series of books until I had already watched the third episode.  Enter me buying the first book for my Kindle app:

A well written, easy to read tome written by Diana Gabaldon.  After I started the book, I started speaking highly of the whole endeavor to my Scottish-American husband and he decided he wanted to watch the show.  So I went back and watched all episodes with him, including the fourth one, which just aired last weekend and featured the author herself, as well as Ronald Moore, the executive producer, in cameo appearances. How cool is that?

The main characters in the series are Colum:

Dougal:

Frank:

Mrs. Fitz:

Laoghaire:

Geillis:

Murtagh:

but most of all, there's Claire:

and of course, our sweet Jamie.

One huge, unexpected plus on the show for us yarn crafters is the fact that the women have been donning gorgeous knitted wool cowls and fingerless gloves.  That makes me really want to learn how to knit well.  I can try to imitate them through the art of crochet, but crochet did not exist in 18th century Scotland.  Maybe I will learn how to make one of these lovely items soon.

I haven't been sleeping enough this week because of the book!  I am so excited to see how they bring this story to life because they have done a bonny job so far!

If you have not seen the show, subscribe to Starz and watch it immediately.

If you have not purchased the book(s), do so as swiftly as you can!

Ye will not regret it!

Et juste un dernier mot:

Je suis prête pour toi, Jamie!  ;)