I gathered up my laundry (bedding, thrift store clothing I just bought, and what little I had in the laundry basket) and headed to the laundromat by 9. I read while my laundry was in process. I'm reading Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton. More about that later...if I remember. After the laundry was finished I went for a two mile walk. Longer than I had intended, but you know how it goes. You feel good; then you realize you have to walk all the way back! But, no serious side-effects. I've been so sedentary lately that I wanted to be careful about overdoing. After the walk I went home, had a snack, and then planted some annuals in pots for my deck. That's all the gardening I intend to do this summer. They will beautify my outside spot, and who knows how long I'll be here. The flowerbeds didn't do well last year, so I'll just enjoy my petunias, marigolds and violas! I also worked on some ATCs. So, it was an eventful day for me.
 |
| The petunias are called Blueberry Muffin! |
My step-daughter sent me a little cash gift for Mother's Day, so I decided to do some thrift shopping. I found a pretty rust colored throw with maple leaves on the border, a cute couch pillow, a baby quilt and car seat cover, (We in the north need one of those and Micah is expecting her fifth in December!) and several cute summer tops. And, a couple of vintage puzzles that will be fun to play with. I'll see if I can upload some photos. Come on uploader!
Nope. Sorry. My internet connection makes me want to pull out my hair sometimes, grrr. I can't figure out why I can get from one website to another, but the uploader doesn't want to work. Hopefully, this problem will go away eventually and I'll try to post some pics of thrift items and book sale booty.
One book I really love is a giant coffee table book called "India". It's packed full of gorgeous pictures and information about India. (Ten pounds of book for 50 cents! Can't beat that!) There was also a Boy Scout Handbook from the '70's that's so much fun to peruse. I got a copy of Mere Christianity, though I already have a copy in The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics. I like to have a stand-alone copy and I can give it away when I finish it.
The May Sarton book was also from the sale. I had heard about it from a homesteading person on YouTube. May Sarton wrote this book, Journal of a Solitude, in the early '70's when she was about the same age I am now. She was an author/poet who lived in Connecticut. Her lifestyle sounds very much like Gladys Taber's, except that she suffered from depression in the extreme. I'm only about 55 pages into it, but I'm admiring her ability to try and find ways to deal with her depression rather than giving into it. I've struggled with this problem most of my life, though maybe not to the degree she did, so it's interesting to look at her life and read about her thoughts and feelings. And she's very good at putting them into words. I'm still unsure of how deep her walk with God was, though she mentions Him now and then. She mentions listening to Vaughan Williams' Mass and says, "There are days when only religious music will do. Under the light of eternity things, the daily trivia, the daily frustrations, fall away. It is all a matter of getting to the center of the beam." I look forward to reading more. (After reading more I find she has some very "open-minded" ideas about "relationships", so my admiration has been tarnished a bit. But I'll probably read further unless things get worse.)
Some other titles I picked up are:
*Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
*Two picture books about France-Provence and Tuscany
*The Pickwick Papers-Dickens (Anyone read it? Is it worthwhile?)
*Chinese Lessons by John Pomfret (five classmates and the story of the new China)
*100 Bible Stories-nice little one page Bible stories with glorious colored illustrations
*Motiba's Tatoos-Mira Kamdar (a history of an American-born girl's family from India)
*Bible Dictionary
*Eerdman's Family Encyclopedia of the Bible
*A Jan Karon novel
*The Journals of Lewis and Clark
*Treasure Island
*A Shortened History of England-Trevellyan
*A few children's books
A picture sure would be worth a thousand words right about now!
I'll let you rest your eyes now. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're enjoying the great outdoors. We're supposed to get record rains on Thursday and Friday. I guess we don't want things to get too dry, right? That's never a good idea.
Shalom to all!
What an amazing haul of books!!!
ReplyDeleteToo bad you can't upload pictures though.
Nice to hear you're feeling better and have even potted some pretty plants for your deck.
Remember how I complained about the endless days of rain in winter? Right about now we could use some because our sandy soil is so very dry.
Sweet pots! I'm glad to hear you're out and about and walking. For me, walking has always been a type of therapy -- physical, mental, spiritual, plus for love of nature.
ReplyDeleteWell, thank you for persevering to at least write such a newsy report about your full day. This post is a good example of why I sometimes wonder if reading my favorite blogs is *not* a good idea -- because I get more ideas of fun activities to add to my packed schedule and books I want to read, though my shelves are already packed with books I want to read. :-/
ReplyDeleteAfter my husband died I could not muster the energy to go thrift-store shopping, but after three years I have been thinking of taking time for that -- and now your list of books is urging me on, to a particular store where I know the man who sorts their books into a most organized system... Hmmm - is that good or bad?? ;-)
That muffin petunia is so beautiful! I was just admiring some petunias at the nursery today and wondering if I should branch out and plant some -- that is one flower I've never planted! -- but I bought another lobelia instead!
God bless you, Lisa!
Sounds like you have a wonderful new supply of reading material! Some of those sound fascinating, and I'd love to peruse that India book and imagine traveling :) I know what you mean about reading further ... as long as it doesn't get any worse! Sometimes we just don't know about these authors until we get into the middle. Sorry about your uploading issues :( Internet misbehavior is the worst. But the photo of the flowers is very lovely!
ReplyDelete