Unbought Delicacies: The library

Thursday, 9 October 2008

The library

I love the library, and think it really is a national treasure; British libraries are probably second to none. I use a variety of local ones, plus the mobile library which stops in the village once a fortnight. a good aspect of the service is that the books etc you have on loan can be returned to any library in the County, so you can fit it in with where you're going. Now I'm going to Wimborne on a Friday morning, I'm using that one. It's lovely to have a new-to-you library to browse through - I can always find something!
I read very little fiction; I like travel books, knitting, quilting, local history, practical books, gardening, philosophy, spiritual,recipe books, environmental issues, politics, Scottish interest books, poetry......
The pile above was won from the mobile library yesterday. Here's what I got, to give a flavour of the type of books I like:

New Europe - Michael Palin

Lost Land, Forgotten Stories, a woman's journey to the heart of Labrador - Alexandra Pratt

Fishing in Utopia, Sweden and the future that disappeared - Andrew Brown

Illustr. step by step book of quilting - Stanley and Watson

gordon Ramsay's Secrets

Terrine - Stephane Reynaud

How to feed your friends with Relish - Joanna Weinberg

Pupcakes - Stephanie Mehann

Looking forward to getting stuck into that lot! :)

1 comment:

aromatic said...: I adore books myself, both fiction and fact. I have many interests so my taste in books is varied. I live out in the sticks and cannot drive. Public transport is very limited so visits to town are few and far between. Due to my OH's hours of work shopping is done at the weekend or on the odd occasion delivered. So do not have opportunities to use the library. I purchase most of my books but tend to purchase second hand depending on the condition of them. I am such a collector of books that I like to have a book and own it... so although a library is most certainly a national treasure.. I dislike having to take them back!!
I could almost open my own library!!!

Jane xxx; 9 October 2008 at 23:04

I have found such joy

I have found such joy in simple things;
A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,
A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,
The shelter of a roof above my head,
And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,
Where yellow sunlight glimmers through the door.
I have found such joy in things that fill
My quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,
A potted plant upon my window sill,
A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;
A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,
And books I long have loved beside me there.
Oh, I have found such joys I wish I might
Tell every woman who goes seeking far
For some elusive, feverish delight,
That very close to home the great joys are:
The elemental things- old as the race,
Yet never, through the ages, commonplace.

~ Grace Noll Crowell

Ideas for handmade gifts

Small knitteds - gloves, scarves, hot water bottle covers, hats, tea cosies, phone covers, little toys,,cushion covers, bags. Some of these can be felted/fulled for extra interest.
Edibles - chutneys and jams, pickles, nice teas in a vintage/retro tin, sweeties, toffees, mustard, home made wine and liqueurs, home dried fruits, ketchups.
For the home - trimmed tea towels, handknitted dishcloths, quilted wallhangings, small samplers, restored picture frames, pot pourri, lavender bags, covered coathangers, little scented bags for hanging on handles, framed photos of family,etc you've taken yourself, pincushion,needle book, scissor keeper, book of promises (eg babysitting, 1 hour's housework, the ironing, etc)
Bathtime - homemade soap, bath oils, bath salts, knitted washcloths, herbal bags for the bath, hand sewn toilet bags, trimmed hand towels, homemade lotions and potions packed in pretty jars and bottles.
For the garden - home saved seed in handmade decorated packets; homemade handcream, exfoliating soap, wheat bag for those digger's aches and pains!

Handmade books, personalised printed notepaper and envelopes.
Hamper of bits and bobs from the above lists, packed in a pretty lined basket.

I'll add some more as and when I think of them; These can be used all year round and easily tailored to the recipient - everyone loves a homemade gift. :)

Inspiring thoughts.............

I saw a man, an old Cilician, who occupied an acre or two of land that no one wanted.
A patch not worth the ploughing, unrewarding for flocks, unfit for vineyards;
he, however, by planting here and there among the scrub cabbages or white lilies and verbena and flimsy poppies, fancied himself a king in wealth, and coming home late in the evening, loaded his board with unbought delicacies.
Virgil

I had no theories to prove. I merely wanted to try living by my own hands, independently as far as possible from a system of division of labour in which the participant loses most of the pleasure of making and growing things for himself. I wanted to bring in my own fuel and smell its sweet smell as it burned in the hearth I had made. I wanted to grow my own food, or forage after it. In short I wanted to do as much as I could for myself, because I had already realised from partial experience the inexpressible joy of doing so.

Harlan Hubbard, Shantyboat: A River Way of Life

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Thursday, 9 October 2008

The library

1 comment: