Unbought Delicacies: A book-filled week

Friday, 28 August 2009

A book-filled week

- again! This first picture shows the kitchen table five minutes after returning from the mobile library. Yes, I can see you all turning your heads sideways LOL. The mobile library is a fortnightly treasure house for me. I don't drive, through my own choice, and time with family is take up with other things at weekends, plus OH has changed job and hours etc, so a visit to the terrestrial library is getting a bit rare these days. No matter - the library van is wonderful - I can request books online for free, and suggest book purchases, hire DVDs, buy stamps etc. A regular jar of jam and or chutney plus a Christmas present for the two staff help things along, and they often put aside books they think I might like. Can't be beaten, in my view.

These other two pictures show the charity shop haul I got this morning, all for £5. I knew I cleared my shelves last week for a reason! The princely sum of 80p for the Sarah Raven book with the astonishingly gorgeous cover was the icing on the cake. So, with this pile, I get to feed my armchair travelling ( see post below), gardening, foraging and biographical habits all for that relatively small sum. I also managed to find a bobbin of shirring elastic for 10p, so that was useful too.

Happy reading to you all too - hope you get as much pleasure from your books as I do from mine. :)

4 comments:

Unknown said...: You can't beat curling up with a book can you. Brilliant bargains; 28 August 2009 at 19:20
Kath said...: Ah we love going to the library, although we don't have a fantastic one in town at least I can get books sent over from other libraries.

I've not been round our charity shops for quite a while now, have to restrain myself or I come home with so many books I don't know what to do with them!; 29 August 2009 at 10:32
La Ferme de Sourrou said...: I'm going through a book reading phase too - isn't it great having the choice and hoping that the stuff from some of them will help you grow.; 29 August 2009 at 12:07
Anonymous said...: I've gone through everything I had to read. I made myself step away from the computer and get back to reading something with front and back covers! Must see if our local library, tiny as it is, has got anything interesting.

Ali; 29 August 2009 at 18:05

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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Friday, 28 August 2009

A book-filled week

4 comments: