I’m loving this wide angle lens.

We got out of the house yesterday and paid a visit to our friends at Milne Antiques. I felt like I’d been sprung from prison. As we drove there…the sun came out! It was still very humid, but I can’t tell you what a difference that sunshine made in our outlook.

Don was looking for a vintage suitcase, as he wants to use one to display his photos when he starts the street photography thing ‘officially.’ He messaged Rebekah late last week to ask her if she had any and she responded that she just so happened to be visiting the house of John Burroughs, the famous naturalist, the following Monday and she knew some vintage suitcases were part of the lot. (I had no idea that John Burroughs lived and worked in this area, but he did.) His granddaughter was clearing some of the belongings in his house, which is part of a family compound. More on the suitcases tomorrow.

As happens every time I visit Milne, we ended up bringing home more than the one item we were looking for. I bought a child’s chair in turquoise that I’ll share with you tomorrow – I haven’t taken a photo yet. My real find, which I zoomed in on and fell in love with immediately, was this:

Are you kidding me? I had to have it. I love graphics, I love books, I love libraries.

Rebekah told me it came from a former library in New Hampshire. It was first a house, than it was purchased by the town and turned into a library, now it’s been purchased by someone who is converting it back to a home. (I hope the town still has a library.)

As you know, I love quirky things that I am not going to see anywhere else – nothing mass produced or made to look old. I am confident that I won’t see this treasure anywhere else, but more importantly, it speaks to my love of books and reading. And, like the sign on our stair landing that says “Use Other Stairs” where there are no other stairs here to use, there’s a little joke involved. Whoever took the book hasn’t followed directions and the book hasn’t been put back.

I wouldn’t put one there anyway because I love the graphics too much.

I’m crazy about it. I can’t stop staring at it.

As I sit here in my chair, I keep looking at it and smiling.

The sun is out this morning, so we took the opportunity to sit and sip our second cup of coffee in the Secret Garden. The cicadas were loud and I could hear the bullfrog, as well.

Sort of perfect.

More tomorrow on our other finds and also pictures of the shop.

Happy Friday.