Amy made orange-cranberry scones for breakfast. They were delicious. Soon after, I had to take Seth to his class at the college in Bedford.
Not far from the campus is a high pond in the woods. I pulled my car over and climbed the embankment to see it. There are lots of small, hidden ponds like this all over New England.
Lately, I've been spending my Wednesday and Friday mornings at this library, browsing the fiction stacks the way I did when I was a little girl on the bookmobile with my mother. It has been quite some time since I looked for books this way. For too long now I have relied on online sample pages and other people's taste (reviews). I had forgotten how much fun it is to find a book through seeing and touching. There is something magical in taking a book off the shelf--this one, not that one--and flipping through its pages. Sometimes there are surprises tucked inside, evidence of other readers. I have found an old postcard, a leaf, notes of all kinds, bookmarks, a photograph. Today, I took down Annie Dillard's,
The Living and found a stack of twenty-two 3"x5" index cards tucked inside. They appeared to be someone's ongoing vocabulary project. I put
The Living back on the shelf. (That book is meant for another day.) Instead, I took home
Keeping the World Away, by Margaret Forster and
Criminals, by Margot Livesey.
I picked up Seth and we went home for lunch. Afterwards, all of us went to our own special pond for a walk. I brought field glasses and looked for spring warblers. I saw two kinds:
myrtles and
yellows. I wish we could have stayed longer, but it was time to pick-up Zach from work and do the shopping for supper.
After several days of rain, the weekend is supposed to be sunny and fine--a great opportunity to play in the garden. But first, tomorrow morning I am meeting with a doctoral candidate who is conducting a study on homeschooling and parenting--she's going to interview me.
An interview - how interesting that sounds!
ReplyDeleteI have a calendar which has a yellow warbler photo for this month - such cute birds! I haven't seen a live one.
Lisa, in your job at the library, I bet you come across some interesting things left behind in books.
DeleteI'm sure you could see a yellow warbler if you want to--they are very common and tend to stick around longer than a lot of other warblers. They have a distinctive call that sounds like, "sweet, sweet, a little more sweet."
The way you spend your time sounds so peaceful. I remember book mobiles, we use to have one that came every other week on Tuesday afternoons, the high light of the week.
ReplyDeleteHow exciting to be interviewed, have fun and enjoy being in your garden.
I have very fond memories of the bookmobile that used to come to my childhood neighborhood. "Peaceful" is a nice way to describe my life (boring also fits!). I am so looking forward to sunny skies this weekend. : )
DeleteLike you, I have read books on my Kindle for too long now. I went back to books. I wanted the feel of the pages in my hand :) This weekend promises a bit of rain and a bit of sun. But it is all good :) Congratulations on your interview ... enjoy... mari
ReplyDeleteActually, I don't read e-books at all. However, I got into a bad habit of requesting all of my library books online and then picking them up at the circulation desk. I selected books based on what people thought on the internet and robbed myself of the pleasure of spending time browsing the shelves and finding my own treasures, according to my own taste.
DeleteHave a lovely weekend, Mari. ♥
What a beautiful library! If it is possible to read your interview somewhere, I would love to. :-)
ReplyDeletewe had that rain (UGH) and now it's beautiful. When I was 13 yo I would relish the time at the library when I would pick a letter and scan that section reading flaps, looking at cover art and picking at selective random my next read. There is nothing like the feel of a book, and the smell, and then whole experience. However....I do enjoy reading on my ipad and knitting at the same time. But if I'm just reading I am reading a real book :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a very pretty library! I have to agree with you - there is something about browsing the library shelves yourself and finding a new treasure to get acquainted with. I love the your picture of the pond - it looks so peaceful.
ReplyDeleteThe scone looks yummy, and the pond is just beautiful. I could sit on the bank and just look, for hours.:-)
ReplyDeleteIt is fun to "find a book" on my own at the library. Ours is small, but has lots of old books, which is good too, and if I'm looking for something in particular, they do inter-library loans with the "big" libraries in the "big" cities. :-) That was great especially when homeschooling my children.