The End

Today is the last of the Summer Reading programs I've been presenting at libraries this past month. I will be sad to see the end, but I've enjoyed some really good times telling stories and singing with audiences at libraries both large and small.

Putting feathers on poor buzzard, who moulted so many he was bald. It's the story of how Buzzard got his bald red head.
We used lots of little bird toys, and it was a good way to teach parents and children alike the various birds.
Many of them knew the robin, parrot, hummingbird and cardinal, but not the Eastern Towhee,Black-capped Chickadee, Killdeer, Goldfinch or Belted Kingfisher.

This week I've been to three libraries so far, with one to go. Each of the places I've been is unique--from the Louis Bennett Library in Weston, housed in an elegant Victorian-era home to the sleek, modern and bright Buckhannon-Upshur library to the Shady Spring library, tucked along the highway in a very rural area. What they had in common was great staff, happy audiences, and a warm welcome for me. Can you tell I love what I do?

A few photos from Weston:

View from the meeting room of the Louis Bennett Library in Weston

Explaining the mbira, or thumb piano, before tell the story of How Anansi Stole Wisdom

Weston's firehouse dog

Empty house in Weston behind the library. Don't you love it? Those windows! If it wasn't on such a steep hill,
I'd be asking about it!

When we got home I had ebay packing to do, some of it on the challenging side, and Larry had beans to pick. The green beans will be my chore when I get home from today's performance, getting them snapped and into the canner. Now that the bulk of the summer programs are done, the garden can come on--I'm ready! I've been worried that everything would come in when I was in the midst of travel, but we lost only some of the peas. Whew. Gardens can't be put on a schedule; they have a timetable all their own, even though we do try to plan our plantings to avoid the busy storytelling weeks.

We have had lots of rain lately, a blessing really as it was so dry the last couple weeks of June and beginning of July. It's been humid right along with the rain, not so great but after all, it is July!

Next storytelling will be for the Inland Waterways Festival in Marietta, Ohio, the first weekend of July. This fun, free, educational festival is one of my favorites as it offers so much variety, and so much information about the Ohio River. Demonstrations, history presentations, boat rides, music, storytellers, hands-on activities, a big tank holding live fish species found in the river, and so much more--and all for free. What's not to love?

For a few days, though, I will be concentrating on home things, I think, unless something else happens along to draw me away. Cleaning needs to be done, especially dusting, and I still have to finish sorting all the things we brought back from the flea market. The beat goes on.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.