books — Page 168

Nostalgia & The Clean Up

April 7, 2015 at 9:28 am by Claudia

What fun it was to read all your comments yesterday! Nancy Drew clearly sparks a lot of memories for all of us. Thinking about it led me to remember that I borrowed my Nancy Drew books from the library and from friends. I think I might have owned one or two, but I’m not even sure about that. We didn’t have much money and receiving a new book was a rare treat. As Vicki said, those were the days where we routinely went to the library or, in my case, bookmobile, and checked out lots of books. There was really no other option for me and it wasn’t at all a sacrifice. I had a few new books in my possession, but nearly everything I read as a child came to me via the library: the Little House Books, Nancy Drew, Beverly Cleary books (Fifteen was a favorite) – all the favorites of my childhood and pre-teen years.

If you didn’t get a chance to read the comments, you might enjoy going back to yesterday’s post. It sparked a conversation about books, Walt Disney and the Mickey Mouse Club, and more. I was happily steeped in nostalgia.

Ahem. I worked outside yesterday.

It’s been months since I could say that (I’m not counting shoveling snow) and it felt so good. My body will need to adjust to raking and bending over repeatedly, but it will. It was sunny and in the sixties and I started the massive clean up that is necessary every spring. Picking up fallen branches. Cleaning out garden beds.

4-7 big garden bed

I leave autumn’s fallen leaves on my garden beds for the winter. The leaves provide protection for the plants and serve as mulch. I don’t cut back plants because I want the birds to have shelter and seeds over the course of the winter. So once spring finally arrives, I rake all the old leaves out of the beds, and start to cut back the plants. I worked on the planter outside the kitchen door and two of the garden beds. As you can see, things are still rather stark around here, but I see buds on the lilac bush, baby sedums, and my day lilies are coming up:

4-7 babydaylily

The rhythm of the garden’s renewal is the same every year. Everything happens in a certain order and that brings a sort of comfort. Ah yes, there are the day lilies! There are the sedum! There are the beginnings of the catmint!

I have yet to really look at the rose bushes. The winter of 2013-14 caused some damage to them. The winter of 2014-15 was worse, so I’m preparing myself for what I might see. But as to the rest of my plants, having a perennial garden ensures that most of the plants are long established and less likely to be damaged. Fingers crossed.

I made sure I was finished by 2:30 so that I could plop myself in front of the television to watch the Red Sox in their opening game. They won. Huzzah!

By the way, I badly wanted Wisconsin to win the NCAA tournament last night. I was raised in Michigan with two Big Ten universities and so it follows that I cheered for the Big Ten university in this game. It was so close! I know some of you are Duke fans and I’m happy for you. But Duke has won this particular tournament a lot. I would have liked to see the underdog triumph.

Ah well.

New post up on Just Let Me Finish This Page.

Happy Tuesday.

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Collecting, Collecting

April 6, 2015 at 9:58 am by Claudia

4-6 egg cups in a row

All of the various shelves that house my egg cup collections are full up, which has necessitated a new display here in the den. I’m always on the lookout for little ‘what-not’ hanging shelves, but until I find some this will do.

4-6 egg cups in a row 2

The four newest egg cups: On the left, a chick – a gift from Linda, the sailor – a gift from Scout and Don, the little boy – a gift to myself, and the rooster – a gift from Susie.

They make me smile.

Scoutie thanks you for all your Easter greetings. Saturday found me looking for those darn bunny ears in my sewing/craft/whatever closet. That ended up being a good thing because the closet was the kind of mess you see in old cartoons – you know, where you pull out one thing and everything else falls out of the closet. Don wasn’t home, so I took the opportunity to yank everything out of there. Three trash bags later, I had restored some semblance of order. I still have to go through all my fabric (yikes) but I hesitate because, even though I haven’t used much of it in years, I just might need it one day…

Here is Miss Scout at her most pensive – from my Instagram feed:

If you’re interested, you can subscribe to my Instagram feed by clicking here. I really love Instagram, but it does not replace a blog post. I saw a post from a favorite blogger the other day that said she could be mostly be found on Instagram nowadays instead of her blog. I was so disappointed. I understand time constraints and families and all that kind of thing – but an Instagram post is not a blog post. Nor should it be. When I flip through my IG feed, the whole idea is for it to flow rather quickly. If I find a post that’s too wordy, I keep moving. Blogs are for depth and words and stories. IG is for a quick peek into the lives of those we follow.

Today, after a couple of cold, windy and very rainy days, we have sunny skies and the temperature is supposed to hit 60 degrees. Huzzah! Boston plays baseball today. We watched the opening game between the Cubs and the Cardinals last night. We’re ready for baseball!

You all know I love collections, right? I love collecting things that I love. And, try as I might, I keep on collecting: McCoy Pottery, egg cups, bakelite, books, Roseville Pottery, miniature pottery, china, bride and groom cake toppers, fabric – I’m sure there’s more, but let’s stop there. Most everything I collect is on the smallish side, simply because we live in a tiny cottage.

I’m starting another collection.

I grew up, as I’m sure most of you did, reading Nancy Drew books. They were my first introduction to mysteries, which, all these many years later, remain my favorite kind of book to read. A while back, I found this book in a used bookstore:

4-6 nancy drew

There are all sorts of editions of Nancy Drew Mystery Stories out there. I grew up reading the ones with the yellow covers. But this one really drew me in. I fell in love with the illustration by Russell H. Tandy. He only did 25 of them, from 1930 – 1949.

These are the editions I’m going to collect. I love the vintage look to these covers, the period clothing, and Tandy’s particular style. I’ve done a lot of research, something I love to do, as you know. I see them on eBay and Etsy, so I know they’re out there. This will be fun! And won’t they look lovely on the bookshelves?

The winner of a copy of The Dead Key is Sylvia. Sylvia, I’ve sent you an email. Please send me your mailing address and I’ll forward it on to TLC Book Tours. Congrats!

Happy Monday.

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Potpourri: A Story, A Book & An Egg Cup

March 31, 2015 at 9:21 am by Claudia

A little story for you:

The only clock we have in our bedroom is the digital clock on the cable box. Don usually puts a framed photo of us on our wedding day in front of the clock so he can’t see it at night. On Sunday night, we went to bed knowing that one of us had to get up in the middle of the night to let Scout out. When this happens, we figure whoever wakes up to go to the bathroom around 3 or 4 in the morning will also go downstairs and let her out. It’s something neither of us look forward to.

So. We go to sleep. I wake up to go to the bathroom, but I haven’t been sleeping all that long and I know it’s too early to let her out. So I go back to sleep. I wake up again after what I know is a solid chunk – several hours – of sleep. I have to go to the bathroom. So I get up, walk across the room, move the photograph to see what time it is. It says 12:15. I know my brain is fuzzy, but it seems like I slept a lot longer than an hour. And I’ve already visited the facilities once before. I can’t figure it out. So I go to the bathroom and I head back to bed. But I’m so perplexed that I can’t get to sleep for a while. I cuddle up to Don and finally go back to sleep.

I wake up, knowing I’ve slept about an hour or so more.

But it’s light out. What the ???? How can that be? I went back to sleep at around 1 am, slept for a little more, and now it’s light out? And that means I didn’t get to Scout in time. I jump out of bed, get dressed, run over to the clock.

It still says 12:15.

No wonder I was confused. I run downstairs, where Ms. Scout is sleeping peacefully and the clock shows me it’s after 7 am. No accidents, thank goodness.

And then I look out the door and there’s snow on the ground. I feel as if I’m in the Twilight Zone.

When Don gets up, a bit later, he yells downstairs and asks me what time it is. I say 9 am. It turns out he went through the same thing during the night. Got up, checked the clock, decided it was too early to let Scout out, went back to bed. When he finally woke up in the morning, he went to check the clock and it said 12:15 and he thought he’d slept until noon. And then he saw snow.

I have to tell you we were both feeling as if we were living in an alternate reality for several hours. It took a bit of time to shake it all off.

Later in the day, I unplugged the cable box, let it reboot, and it corrected itself.

3-31 Persuasion

I cheated. My plan is to purchase one a month. Technically, this should have arrived in April. Ah well. I love this simple feather motif.

3-31 Austens

And there it is on the shelf, along with its fellow Austens.

The egg cup I ordered from Etsy arrived yesterday. I had to wash it and spray a little Febreeze on it, as it clearly came from a smoker’s house. I used to smoke. I smoked for about 5 years. I can’t believe that I smelled like smoke during those years. It completely grosses me out now. Don, too. I quit in 1985. Don quit in 1986. Thank goodness. We met in 1994, so we were well rid of the habit by that point.

3-31 littleboyeggcup1

Here he is. He’s a little Japanese boy. Like my little cowboy egg cup, he’s sitting with his legs stretched out. These were made in Japan in the 1930’s. Apparently, there are others in this particular design, though I’ve only seen the cowboy and this little guy.

3-31 littleboyeggcup2

I’ve always wanted to add this one to my collection, so I’m happy he’s finally here. Marked: Japan.

Isn’t he adorable?

Happy Tuesday.

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Nostalgia & The Clean Up

Collecting, Collecting

Potpourri: A Story, A Book & An Egg Cup

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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