60 this morning but 94% humidity makes the air heavy and uncomfortable. Some big storms yesterday afternoon broke the heat, and then we had overnight
I am reading because the work I need to do is in the kitchen this wet morning, and Larry is working on the table in there. I will be making pickles and painting rather china cabinet when he is done.
This little bookshelf was my mother's. I wonder where she got it? Did one of my brothers make it in shop class? Or Did my father make it when he was a boy? I don't suppose I will ever know; my memory of it is in my mother's kitchen, holding her cookbooks--a stained,, well-used Betty Crocker, a ragged old book with no cover,and others I cannot recall.
When she passed, it came home with me. For a while it held my cookbooks--no Betty Crocker back then (although I have one now), but Meta Givens, Joy of Cooking, several canning cookbooks, and a wood-covered New England Recipes that was a wedding gift in in 1968. Later it held storytelling book.
Now it holds a collection i call my browsing books, ones I pick up and read bits and pieces from when I have a little time. Today I read this bit from The Illuminated Book of Days:
Imagine stopping your housework to deal with a dragon! Today it is the cell phone that stops us, surely a modern-day dragon in its own way.
And this, from One Hundred and One Famous Poems. I don't think I have ever read this before, although we are probably all familiar with those opening lines.
The books on this shelf change from time to time, and it is always a quiet pleasure to find some new pleasure in what I find in their pages.
Now I must get to work. Larry has finished repairs to our new old kitchen table and I need to get it all situated. I am still not sure if it will stay.
I liked my old table very much, but this one is bigger and could seat 6 people if need be. It was a very tight squeeze with my other table.
Here is my old table, with the leaves pulled in. It will be Sarah's table if we keep the new one.
This new table is the same colors, with the porcelain top I find such a useful thing, but I am just not sure yet if this bigger table will work for me. We shall see.
That's a nice small bookshelf. Good luck with your table dilemna, will it be table 1 or table 2. :)
ReplyDeleteI think Table#2 is a keeper. It's fitting in nicely so far.
DeleteGreat to have thoughtful things to look at every once in a while. Love the little bookshelf...covet a bit! On kitchen table size, only time will tell. You'll know when you know.
ReplyDeleteYes. It is needful, I think, just for peace of mind to have good things to read. The little shelf just reminds me of my mother, such a sweet person she was.
DeleteBooks are such a wonderful thing with which to spend an idle moment or a long time reading. I like the legs on that new table.
ReplyDeleteYes, books have always been a big part of my life. It has not been easy to part with them, but it was time. And I still have many, many good books on my shelves to read!
DeleteThe shelf is a nice heirloom with a current function.
ReplyDeleteA small thing, but it has meaning to me, AC.
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