books — Page 148

A Co-op, Some Sweet Corn, and Some Minis

August 28, 2016 at 9:53 am by Claudia

Two Sleepy People. That’s the name of a wonderful old standard by Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser. That’s also the name of Don and Claudia at the moment. Both of us are more than a bit sleep deprived and it continues into today. Yesterday, I was determined to do something, despite exhaustion, so we got in the car and drove to a neighboring town that has a Food Co-op that I had just learned about via Instagram. We’ve lived here nearly 11 years and for some reason it wasn’t on my radar.

8-28 food coop

Isn’t this the neatest little store you ever did see? It’s packed with fresh vegetables and healthy food. I stopped counting at 8 different kinds of potatoes. We were gobsmacked by the variety there.

I think we’ll probably join the co-op because we miss belonging to a co-op. We used to belong to one when we were living in San Diego. We’re certainly going to be shopping there on a regular basis.

What’s not to love? We drive through a countryside full of charming and funky homes, farms, winding roads, with mountains in the distance and we end up here.

On the way back home, we stopped for fresh sweet corn at our local farm stand. It’s truly the best corn I’ve ever had and I’ve lived a lot of places! We came home, had a yummy dinner and watched…you guessed it…another episode of Inspector Morse.

Try to contain your excitement.

In the mail yesterday: the newest Squint Box.

8-28 squintbox

The theme this month is A Mini Affair.

A Victoria’s Secret bag, a piece of Chocolate Opera Cake made by miniaturist Pei Li, a mini package, and an Italian Pasta Plate.

Wait! Do I see something in that Victoria’s Secret bag?

8-28 miniunderwearinhand

Goodness me! Some frilly little unmentionables!

This monthly Squint Box shipment is always a delight.

T-minus 2 days and counting until I can purchase Louise Penny’s newest, A Great Reckoning. Yes, I know I can pre-order, but that’s not as fun! With a new book by one of my very favorite authors, I like to take part in my New Book Ritual: a drive to the bookstore, then a quick search for it on display, where I pick my very own copy, pay for it, and escort it back to the cottage.

Happy Sunday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

The Garden, Weed Chomping & Emoticons

July 30, 2016 at 9:30 am by Claudia

7-30 phloxandyarrow

A Saturday morning with some rainy days ahead means more mowing and weed chomping today. I’ve decided I’m going to use ‘Weed Chomping’ instead of constantly wondering whether it’s ‘whacking’ or ‘wacking.’ Henceforth: Weed Chomper, Weed Chomping.

Anyway, the weed chomper’s battery ran out of charge rather quickly yesterday, so I’ll finish the job today. We mowed the front yard yesterday in the midst of seemingly lower temps but actually very high humidity, which left us dripping. Dripping, I tell you.

7-30 butterflyinflowers

The garden is so pretty at the moment. The phlox is blooming, the bee balm is hanging in there, the rudbeckia is gorgeous, the coneflowers are in every garden bed, with a few that have self-seeded in interesting spots here and there.

7-30 butterflybush

In the bed on the side of the house, the butterfly bush is starting to bloom, along with the liatris, daylilies and coneflowers. All in all, a very pretty time that I hope will stay just as it is through my best friend’s visit on Wednesday.

By the way, I refuse to use BFF or any of that sort of thing. If I can’t use the entire word, I’m in trouble. And I’m an official Eschewer of Emoticons. Yes, I have weakened as to the use of hashtags, but other than that? Words are important. Hopefully I can find a way to write here in this space and on Instagram that describes the way I feel at any given time, without resorting to a smiley face. I don’t mind others using emoticons at all. I just can’t do it. But you can use them here to your heart’s content!

Ask any of my longtime friends: I was on record as a Detester of Smiley Faces in the seventies. Oh, yes. I couldn’t stand them; indeed, so much so that my friends loved to send me anything with a smiley face on it just to see my reaction.

My beloved McCoy Pottery made a piece with a smiley face.

I don’t want it.

Claudia: Eschewer of Emoticons, Detester of Smiley Faces. Uses a Weed Chomper.

I have a neat giveaway coming up next week. Stay tuned.

Speaking of giveaways, the winner of a copy of The Branson Beauty is ChrisK in Wisconsin! (I choose the winners of these giveaways through Random (dot) org, which generates a number, you guessed it, randomly. Chris, congratulations! Send me you address and I’ll forward to TLC Book Tours.

Happy Saturday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

A Lovely Day, Indeed

July 5, 2016 at 9:44 am by Claudia

It was a perfectly lovely day yesterday, made even more lovely by your wonderful comments. Thank you, dear friends!

We ate lunch at our favorite restaurant, stopped off to visit a few shop owners that we know, had a lovely dinner (Don gave me – that sneak – a little miniature rose plant and a pine scented candle) and we watched The Music Man on TCM. My father and I used to watch that movie together whenever we saw it listed in our TV Guide. He had a major crush on Shirley Jones. So, we toasted my dad as the movie started. I hope he was watching with us.

I didn’t give Don anything because, and I confessed this to Don, after Father’s Day and his birthday, I was fresh out of ideas! I couldn’t come up with one – not even an appropriate card. He didn’t care, thank goodness.

Caught on camera the other day – a lovely goldfinch.

7-5 goldfinch1

7-5 goldfinch2

7-5 goldfinch3

I love seeing that flash of bright yellow. We have a lot of finches that hang about the property and they are at the birdbath fairly frequently.

We stopped in at Postmark Books yesterday.

7-5 flowerarrangementpostmarkbooks

This is one of Maggie’s flower arrangements. It’s simply gorgeous – she’s so talented!

7-5 books

I took this picture because I want to remind myself to read some more John Irving. I read so many of his books years ago but I haven’t been keeping up and Jesse (the owner) told me Avenue of Mysteries is really interesting. I also want to read Mycroft Holmes by multi-talented Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

7-5 booksbag

Hurrah – Postmark Books now has a lovely bag with their logo on it.

I wasn’t going to buy anything – we are having to be really frugal at the moment – but I couldn’t resist this book (and Don was loving it as well):

7-5 elementsofstyle

My beloved Elements of Style by Strunk & White – this version illustrated by Maira Kalman. The illustrations are whimsical and charming and they are based on sentences in the text.

7-5 elementsofstyleillustration

Lovely.

This reminds me that a re-read of Elements of Style is in order. It is the wisest source of sound, basic advice for the writer and I think I’ve probably acquired a few bad habits that need to be corrected.

Our period of birthday and anniversary and Father’s Day celebrations has drawn to a close. It’s been lots of fun, but now we’re back to our daily routine. By the way, Meredith thanks you for all your Happy Birthday messages. She tried to write to everyone, but some of you are No Reply commenters so she couldn’t respond. She was very touched by all the good cheer sent her way.

We’ll close with Sunday evening’s sunset:

7-5 sunset

Happy Tuesday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

A Co-op, Some Sweet Corn, and Some Minis

The Garden, Weed Chomping & Emoticons

A Lovely Day, Indeed

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Archives