That TV Interview

41 this morning, raining after a night of heavy rain. Warmed to 55 and dried up, then rain again as I write at 7pm.

What a wild weather day. Wind, rain, wind, rain, a burst of sun and warming up, then rain again. Whew. But I did finally get out in the gardens and threw my flower bulbs in the ground. Every year I do the same thing in the fall: buy marked-down bulbs thinking, oh sure, I'll get these planted right away. And then life gets in the way and sometime midwinter I'm out there planting. Fortunately, spring bulbs are very forgiving of fools like me, and faithfully come up, maybe a bit late, but they will come along. And I thank them with good feedings of compost and bonemeal.

The interview I did a month ago is finally on YouTube. Like everyone else, I hate hate hate seeing and hearing myself on TV but grit my teeth and get through it when I have to. 

The "well-baby" check up at the doctor yesterday went very well. All is good, and I may even be able to quit the one tiny blood pressure pill I take, as I have noticed that after I take it in the morning, my blood pressure is quite low for me--like 100/50--and I feel very tired for a bit. So we are going to see how I do without it. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow is another doctor visit, another semi-annual checkup with the ladies doctor, and then next week an orthopedic doc to see about my knee, a second opinion and hopefully some new ideas besides take the thing out and put in another one. If that's what has to happen, okay, but I want to get someone else's opinion first. After that, lunch with two friends, which will be a real treat as one lady I have only met on Facebook, and I introduced her to the other lady. The two of them are great friends now and do a lot of hiking and kayaking together. I love that.

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

The Kingdom of Home

I bought this beautiful book from one of my pickers last summer. The cover captivated me, and I know I leafed through it quickly before putting on one of my bookshelves. There was no time then to actually read it or even look at it closely, but this morning I pulled it from the shelf and sat down with it.

Oh. My.

What a beauty this book is! My copy was published in 1882 but the condition is incredible. The pages are of heavy, low-sheen paper, and are filled with poems about home, and the most beautiful Victorian illustrations.

There are 249 pages in all, and included are poems by some poets we all might recognize: Elizabeth Barrett Brown, Robert Burns, William Wordsworth, Sir Walter Scott, John Greenleaf Whittier, Samuel Coleridge, Robert Herrick, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and many others.

There are poets whose names are not familiar to me, too: Helen Hunt Jackson, Samuel Sumner, May Riley Smith, etc. While most of the poems are rhyming and written in standard forms, there are some more experimental pieces too. The creators of the engravings in the book are identified for the most part, although some seem to be anonymous pieces.

It is hard to believe this lovely book survived in such good condition; the gold on the cover shines like new, and the binding is surprisingly tight.

I spent a happy hour or two just browsing, reading pieces here and there and marveling at the engravings. A pleasurable way to spend a rainy, foggy morning.

There is only one copy available on Amazon, and although the condition doesn't sound quite as good as mine, still for $15 I think it is a fine buy for anyone looking for something to remind them of the pleasures of home. And those illustrations are worth every penny.

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