I know a lot of bloggers don’t post on a holiday or simply post specifically about that holiday. I, on the other hand, like to read blogs every day of the year and just because it’s a holiday doesn’t mean that every moment of my day is taken up with that holiday. When the pickings are slim, I feel let down. It’s like that ‘nobody’s around’ feeling in a neighborhood. Sort of unnerving.
So, what the heck, I’ll post as if it were any other day. Sort of.
We went to our neighboring town of Rosendale yesterday to have brunch at my favorite vegetarian restaurant – or almost vegetarian – the Rosendale Café. (Don has played there several times.) Oh, what a scrumptious brunch! Great music in the background; it sounded like Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt and it was perfect for a leisurely Sunday brunch. Then we stopped by our friend’s shop, the same shop where we found our chair last week. I came home with these pieces of bakelite flatware.
Yes, another thing I collect: Bakelite. I actually haven’t purchased any bakelite in a long time, but these three pieces were intriguing. Love the serving fork on the right and the grapefruit knife in the middle. Any ideas what the piece on the left is? A whip? A potato masher? If you have any ideas, share them here!
Then we went to visit Jesse at Postmark Books, my new favorite bookshop. And this time, I actually bought some books.
Jesse pointed out the Scandinavian mystery on the left. It looks very interesting. And I’ve been wanting to buy Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me for a long time. I’ve heard nothing but raves about it, with one blogger going so far as to say if you were only going to read one book this year, this should be it.
I took more photos of the shop and I’ll most likely post them on Just Let Me Finish This Page tomorrow. Oh, and Jesse does ship, for those of you who asked.
It’s rained all night long and it’s easing up now. More rain and storms tonight. I’m happy that the plants are getting some much needed moisture.
Here’s a picture of the two gadabouts:
(Taken at the Rosendale Café.)
I’m getting grayer by the minute. So is Don.
Of course, we remember today all those who lost their lives in combat, in war, and under friendly fire. All of them gone too soon.
My fervent wish: No More War.
Happy Monday.
And my fervent wish is the same.
Grey is the new blonde!
Ha! I hope so, Shanna!
Ah, no more war is the best wish on this day. What a fun day. I went to church and then rested and then Mom and I went out to eat. It was a restful day. Today is some shopping for things Mom needs for her new place. She is already happier then in the other apt. She keeps saying, even with the mountain of boxes it feels like home. Wishing you and Don a great day.
hugs,
Linda
Oh I forgot to mention I love your Bakelite finds!! I have a few pieces here and there of it also. Again, we find a collection we share. :)
xo
So happy to hear your mom feels at home in the new place, Linda. Enjoy your day!
I’m here! Reading yours and Mere’s blogs this morning, then off and running to the grocery store to pick up a few items for tonight’s dinner. Otherwise, nothing much going on today. I enjoyed reading snippets of your day out. Sounds like a perfect day to me…breakfast out and books!
Exactly! What could be better?
Deep heart-yearning wishes for peace from me, as well. We are going platinum blonde, Claudia. : ) I’m having some fun with it; surprised my 20-something sons and put a little turquoise streak in it, which is pretty out there for this introvert. A quiet day here, too; just one son is home (still sleeping) and nothing major is planned. It is still quiet here on the edge of the woods, but the sun is shining after days of soft grey and is calling to me. It will be a day of puttering with a little gardening, catching up with my boy, a country walk, simple food…..Perfect.
Sounds like the perfect day, Dori! Love the turquoise streak – good for you!
What a wonderful re-discovery Rosendale has been for you. You’ve mentioned vegetarianism before…do you eat fish or seafood or cheese or eggs? I’m an ovo-lacto pescatarian. Don’t you just love those specific labels? Our day and days will become busier in a couple of hours, when the cats arrive! Still getting ready for them, washing out the kitty bedding and getting the napping baskets ready. We’ve had the water bowl (empty), mat and towel laid on the floor for a few days to get used to hem again. The three are fed separately, so the kitchen corners will be occupied again!
Very exciting day for you all!
I am a longtime vegetarian – no meat, fish, seafood or chicken. But I do eat dairy.
Peace on earth. Let there be………..
Glad you got some rain. We can water every day, and things do stay alive….but when it rains, the flowers, bushes, grass ~ all seem to then actually come alive.
We are meeting some friends for lunch, and doing some brats on the grill for supper. Haven’t grilled yet this season, it seems like a lovely day to do so. Also made the first batch of sun-tea!!
On top of that, the high school Music Association delivered our first “flag in the yard” of the summer. We get one today, on Flag Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day. We wake up and the flag is flying in the yard by 6AM and they pick them up around 7PM or so. Such a fun money-making project!!
Hope you have a great day! Can’t wait to read those reviews of your 2 new books!!
A Flag in the Yard is such a great idea, Chris! Have a wonderful day!
It really is a wonderful fund-raiser. Sometimes the kids peddle such junk…. I prefer just making a $$ contribution instead. However, this is a $40 donation and we get 4 flags throughout the summer. I know there were initial costs of the purchase of the large flags, and the PVC piping they used, but I believe there was a lot donated when it was found out what it was all to be used for. It is fun to go out for a drive and see all who have donated to this fund raiser each year. My hubs is a retired music teacher in the district, and we enjoy watching the kids who are so respectful as they put the flags up and take them down. Some valuable teaching moments along the way!!
What a super idea! So much better than all the unwanted candles and wrapping paper and popcorn and on and on and on…
More schools should do the same thing! It’s such a great idea.
I love that pic of the two of you…it looks like it says..it doesn’t get much better than this! Peace on earth indeed…and…taking much better care of our veterans once they are home! Slow day here…we had more rain last night. My weeds are growing…so I think a little picking is in order! Hope you two enjoy your day! ;)
I’m afraid to go look at my weeds, Donna! Have a great day!
That is an excellent wish! Hear, hear! :D
Thanks, Brae!
Well, I’m stumped. ? I spent 6 years working part-time in the bridal registry of Rochester’s premier department store, Sibley’s [now sadly gone, sold to the Macy’s chain]. And I thought I’d seen every quirky little piece of flatware and household equipment there was, but I can’t imagine what that is. My guess is maybe some kind of pierced server? Shaped the way it is to clean a bowl efficiently. Who knows??? I hope someone out there DOES know, I’m kind of curious about it now. Have a peaceful day. ??
Every store the I once loved; J.L.Hudson, Jordan Marsh, Marshall Fields – all are now Macy’s. Talk about boring! I won’t go in them anymore.
It sure could be a server.
Thanks for posting today. I know what you mean regarding the ‘nobody’s around’ feeling. It’s that kind of day in the neighborhood today.
I always look forward to reading your post!
It seems empty out here in blogland! It’s very quiet in our neighborhood, except for the drone of motorcycles. They love this long flat stretch of road.
No idea what that piece is, although I once owned one with a wooden handle. My very favorite little Bakelite-handled spatula bit the dust on Saturday. I dropped it and it hit in such a way that the handle broke in two. I’ve had it forever, paid .25 for it at a tag sale.
Oh darn! That’s too bad!
I love Bakelite-handled anything.
The play sounds fabulous! I’ve been out of town for a few days and missed the drawing for the book. I’ll have to look for a copy, as it sounds like a great summer read. The little spatula thingy — is it an older version of a fish spatula? It’s hard to tell how curved it is in the picture.
I don’t know! It’s a mystery, Karen.
I also have a few pieces with Bakelite handles…The only thing I can guess is that yours was used for lifting eggs out of boiling water…if that is not right I think it could be used for that purpose…That cafe sounds very nice…another pleasant day in Rosendale…No More War…it’s been a long, long time of wishing for that…I don’t think it will ever happen as long as people have so much greed inside them…I believe greed is the root of all evil….
Greed and hate. Never a good combination.
I don’t think it’s for lifting eggs out because they’d roll right off.
No more war; wouldn’t that be wonderful!
It would be heaven, Jan.
Cute picture of you both, a happy couple! So nice to see ! It was a quiet day here but a good one. Take care.
Thanks Doris! You, too!
Been spending a few minutes (or more) online. I’m really sick of reading about Johnny Depp. And I can’t read about that dead gorilla at the zoo anymore. I feel real fury toward the parent of the child; my husband and I have been having a pretty heated discussion over the subject.
But I looked over at the flag flying outside my window and it reminded me to focus on the day and what it means; remembering my dad, my uncle and all the other men and women who should indeed be remembered.
You are getting SO much rain. Wow. Haven’t had a hint of that for awhile now in SoCalif; we’re muggy today and the humidity gets to me although the temps aren’t TOO high yet. We’re BBQ-ing veggie kabobs coming up shortly (well, mine are veggie; husband will add chicken to his [but at least he’s getting in some vegetables]).
Thank you for blogging almost every single day. I always look forward to your posts and hearing what you have to say. I know nothing about Bakelite.
The photo of you and Don is nice and natural. Yep, my hair is going from its variations of gray to white; streaks of white. My husband doesn’t want me to dye it although I often am sorely, sorely tempted but, gosh, I still can’t even decide what color I’d do, and I so do NOT like seeing other women my age with the roots; it’s a lot of maintenance I think. In addition, with everything going on in our toxic world, to put chemicals on my head/brain and anything systemic through the scalp, now seems like insanity to me, especially after having had a bout with cancer. I just think we need to rethink these things in the name of vanity, although my hair often makes me feel old when maybe I don’t want to feel old. At least my husband and I match now…we both have the same hair color!
I’ve never been into the maintenance needed to color my hair. Or the expense!
Don’t get me going on the murder of the gorilla. I am beyond incensed.
Claudia, I know it’s weird I went several pages back to leave another reply, but I’d remembered you’d posting about low activity on blogs. I’ve really noticed this over the past few months. A lot of blogs I’d regularly read have sort of shut the door. The blog owners have been posting fewer and fewer comments or just abruptly stopping, which is sort of jarring after you’ve been reading somebody a long time. I can’t believe they at least don’t post some brief comment about them quitting the blog. I have two blogs I followed where the blog owner simply vanished into thin air after posting frequently and consistently, for years. It creates so much wonderment; readers are left hanging. What happened? Did they get in an accident? Did they fall victim to illness? Did they suffer a horrible family tragedy? Have you noticed this with any of your blog list? I realize they might just get worn out and that it takes some good amount of work to post every day, especially with photos…which makes what you do all the more amazing, the difference though being is that I absolutely KNOW if you shut down your blog, you’d warn your community of readers first (and not just ‘flee’ cold turkey).
Of course I would tell everyone if I ever made that decision. Yes, I have run into this same situation with blogs that I read. Either, the posts slow and trickle down into nothing or there is an abrupt stop. And you’re right, you worry about the writer. Did something terrible happen? I’ve seen blogs where the last post was, say, a year ago, and you can read comments from readers that repeatedly ask if everything is okay. Unless something tragic has happened and no one knows how to sign in, I think the author owes an explanation to the readers.
The number of visits to this blog are definitely down, but I think it has to do with Spring and Summer and people being busy outdoors after being stuck inside most of the winter. It ebbs and flows and, in the end, I’ve learned to not worry about it. It is what it is. Many bloggers have been saying that the number of comments on their blogs are also down. Too much competition – real life, Instagram, Snap Chat, and other social media.
Thanks for your insight about it. Yes, I’ve seen on a blog where one reader after another has sincerely inquired of a blog owner if they’re ‘all right’; is everything okay. I agree with you; I think the blog owner/author, after gathering a large amount of readers, should give at least a one-liner, saying “I’m done” rather than just evaporate; have a graceful exit, for Pete’s sake. You can still have a clean break…and be polite.
I hadn’t stopped to think of a competition angle; I’m somewhat behind the times in what capture’s people’s attention these days like Snap Chat, these ‘apps’ I constantly hear about, and other social media. (We’re so info-heavy in general; you could read all day on the web.) Indeed, blogs have been around for awhile now. But I also don’t know how a ‘meaty’ and informative blog like yours can in any way be compared to something so ‘instant’ and brief like some of these other things. Have people’s attention become THIS distracted, that they take life in only sound bites, so to speak? Again, thanks for your observations as a blog owner yourself.
I don’t think there is anything in this short attention span world that can compete with a blog post that has some heft to it. Certainly not Instagram or Facebook. But I see a lot of bloggers turning to Instagram because it’s faster and they don’t have the time to blog. In those cases, I have to feel that their hearts were never really into blogging, or they wouldn’t even think of trying to replace blogging with Instagram. I think those bloggers are the kind that blogged once a week or even less.
I don’t mean to drag this subject to the ground but I only JUST read the most interesting (archived) article (has to do with attention spans) about the great mini series’ offered to us on TV in the 80s (Huff Post). I had loved to sink my teeth into those series’ – Rich Man, Poor Man; Reilly, Ace of Spies; Brideshead Revisited; The Jewel In The Crown; Roots; The Thorn Birds. (I think I saw that a newer version of Roots is currently being shown on TV but I’ve missed learning about it.)
The article author (his name escapes me now) said, “The golden era of the TV miniseries lasted from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s. They couldn’t go on much longer. They required attention spans (you remember those). Even ‘Downton Abbey’ which is kind of like a miniseries, moves faster than the winner of the Ascot Derby. You’re constantly being yanked from one plot line to another. Blink and you’ve missed a death, birth, murder, marriage, poisoning, bankruptcy, bombing, jilting at the altar, you name it. A lot goes on in that castle in an hour. In contrast, a miniseries took its time. Stories unfolded slowly. There was real character development. Most miniseries were adapted from sprawling novels. They were huge in scope. Multigenerational. Thanks to advances in makeup, you saw actors realistically age in their parts, from young to middle age to old. The miniseries required serious viewer commitment. Many were aired during subsequent nights. If you missed an episode of any miniseries, you were out of luck. There was no streaming, On Demand or waiting to catch it on DVD. If you had a conflicting event on your calendar, you canceled it. The miniseries took precedence.”
So true! A mini series was a TV event but I guess a pace too slow for we today who need things to be so immediate. Maybe that’s what some of us love about a good old paper book and a brick & mortar bookshop, Claudia…things that force us to slow down and focus our brain, no?
Ah, one more thing and then I’ll shut up on this thread (truly!).
Just learned about something else. I guess the subject was debuted in The New York Times in March; I’m probably very late to the table. Anyway, I had recorded the CBS Sunday Morning show yesterday; watched it a few hours ago. They featured author James Patterson. All I’m sure to propel his new idea of ‘a reading revolution’ which he calls Book Shots. There’s a whole web page on it and they’re about to be published very soon and throughout the summer,
(By the way, he has donated a half million books to students; I guess I didn’t realize he also wrote young-adult fiction. He says he wants to get kids reading! As an author, he says he is not a great stylist. So, his success is in keeping it simple. [He pens his books with a pencil; he doesn’t use a computer.] When he started his writing career, his first novel was turned down by 31 publishers but finally published by Little, Brown with whom I guess he now has a longstanding relationship. They are, in fact, the publisher for this new concept of Book Shots and will release two to four Book Shots a month.)
What is a Book Shot exactly? Short novels, each under $5 and under 150 pages, to be read in one sitting…with the idea that (my words: with people’s short attention spans) it will get people to read who ordinarily might not be reading at all. The author says it’s a fast-paced read, like reading a movie. He said that many people won’t go for the book which is going to take too long to read; their lives are busy. It seems the aim is to transform the book business. “It gives people some alternative ways to read.” (From The Times) “It could also open up new avenues for selling books, something that publishers have struggled with as big bookstore chains have closed down stores. At first, Book Shots will appear in the usual venues for commercial fiction – B & Noble, Amazon, big-box stores and independent bookstores – and will be available in digital and audio versions. But eventually, Patterson and his publisher want to colonize retail chains which don’t normally sell books, like drugstores, grocery stores and other outlets. They envision having Book Shots next to mags in grocery store checkout lanes or dangling from clip strips. In some ways, Patterson’s effort is a throwback to the dime novels and pulp fiction mags that were popular in the late 19th and early 20th century, when commercial fiction was widely available in drugstores.” Mr. Patterson’s Book Shots will be “thrillers, science fiction, mysteries and romances. All of the books will be written or partially written by Patterson except the romances, which will be labeled, ‘James Patterson Presents’.”
Claudia…what think you? Will it fly?
From Wiki: In November 2015, Patterson received the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation, which cited him as a “passionate campaigner to make books and reading a national priority. A generous supporter of universities, teachers colleges, independent bookstores, school libraries, and college students, Patterson has donated millions of dollars in grants and scholarships with the purpose of encouraging Americans of all ages to read more books.”
And I’ve never read HIM. He’s just never been on my radar. And I guess he’s sold more e-books than anybody, too. I’m impressed with his philanthropy!
I don’t really read his books, though he’s had many, many best sellers. Such a neat man and what he’s doing to champion reading and books is incredible.
I don’t know if it will fly, but I’m already familiar with it. Patterson is a man to be admired. He really is doing everything he can to encourage reading and is putting his considerable power and heft into it. I think it’s great! He’s been concerned for a long time about short attention spans, people who don’t seem to have the time to read. I really applaud his efforts.
My mom had an entire cutlery set with yellow bakelite handles that she received as a wedding gift. We used that set throughout the 1950s-1960s. When I went off to college, I took parts of the set, so did my brothers and now we only have a few pieces left. Who knew it would be collectable?
I did!