Morning Frost

Frost causes lethal damage to crops, fruits and plants. You know how aggravating it is-scraping it off a car window. Florida friends were getting all their orchids and plants inside recently as there was frost. In fact their situation was more intense than frost with unexpected below freezing temps. I think it was ICE!

It’s interesting how frost forms and the crystals are beautiful, too. I learned there are four types and if you want to learn all about frost click on this article from the National Geographic.

This early morning I noticed how the frost looked on different objects.

Frosted Glass
Frost on a dead plant
Frost on a hinged plastic lid.
Frost on the grass Sunday morning
Learning how summer turns to autumn with the assistance of a mysterious man (Spoiler: hinting he might be Jack Frost)

I used to read a book written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg to the kids titled….

Supporting Your Independent Bookstore and a Friend

October 11th, fellow blogger and friend, Audrey Kletscher Helbling, posted the news that her poem, “Funeral During a Pandemic” had been published in an award winning book- This Was 2020—Minnesotans Write About Pandemics and Social Justice in a Historic Year.


The collection was compiled by Paul Lai, a Ramsey County Librarian in Minnesota. If you click the link at “posted the news” above so you can see a photo of the beginning of her poignant poem.

There are 54 pieces of prose and poetry in the volume.  I called the reference librarian at their library and was able to get the

ISBN# 9781087967622

I discovered the book could be ordered from your independent bookstore. So I did!

Here is a nearby independent bookstore, White Whale Bookstore (“a home for book lovers”) in Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh PA, just a few miles from my home.  Today I went to pick up the book. I’m looking forward to reading it.

Hope you have an independent bookstore near you.

 

 

 

A Book for Throwback Thursday

I found this little book on my shelf.

Inside is the name of a dear family friend and the year is 1936.the place name inscribed is Inveraray, which is home to the Duke of Argyll

Here’s the little book I found on my shelf

I look up a couple of surnames. My great grandmother on my paternal side was Rosa Kerr.

So what to do with this little book?

I put it back on the shelf.

Fellow Blogger’s Book is Here

I’ve followed Didi van Frits for years now. We even had the good fortune to be in Berlin visiting family at the same time and we got to meet in person. That’s was in June 2019. I dedicated a blog post to him in 2013

Berlin June 2019

He has just published his book and I ordered the English version and it has arrived from Germany.

Here’s the link for the details.

About

Here’s Didi van Frits Book

I’m 75 years old now. I’ve made a lot of music in my life since I was 12 when I started playing the banjo in a Dixieland orchestra. I studied theology, sociology, psychology, and finally philosophy. Of course, philosophy had the most lasting impact on me. But also painting, photography, caricatures (I love Sempe), and the weekly political debate or the science of history with its often frightening details. Where did I feel most comfortable? With the music.”
Videos at http://www.facebook.com/didi.vanfrits

You can hear my recording of him playing. Just a snippet of his playing guitar at his hotel courtyard when we met.

With his lovely wife Barbara in Berlin June 2019

https://youtube.com/shorts/3YjfQcxaWvs?feature=share

Ground Control Has Been Released

Karen Hough’s first novel  Ground Control has been released and my copy arrived in the mail today!

I am looking forward to diving in and devouring it tonight.

Remember the post where Canadian author Karen Hough was introduced? Her Aunt Joanne is my good friend whom you’ve met on the blog before.

Canadian Author Karen Hough residing in London

Here are links for Book Club discussion guide and the link to purchase a copy. too.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56594348-ground-control

Here is the link to subscribe to her mailing list (book club discussion guide): https://www.subscribepage.com/karenhoughwrites

Podcast. https://samplechapterpodcast.com/ka-hough-ground-control?fbclid=IwAR1Ou1zi4j9cot9lJTLyWeJQfEMcvVGK2_tEiR6zkR5M4grLi76Q7rDGr_s

Diane Kerr Poet, Author of PERIGEE

I received a copy of PERIGEE in the mail today.  A gift from the poet Diane Kerr.

I had the honor of capturing her author photo which now graces the back cover of her just published poetry book.

Thank you Diane and congratulations on winning the Brittingham Prize in Poetry and having your book published at the University of Wisconsin Press.  

To read reviews and/or purchase a copy click here 

Release from the  University of Wisconsin Press Click link for more information

“Diane Kerr mentors poets through the Madwomen in the Attic Creative Writing Program at Carlow University and is the author of the collection, Butterfly. Her work has appeared in the Alaska Quarterly Review, Mississippi Review, and Pearl, among others. She holds an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Kerr’s forthcoming Perigee follows a speaker’s emotional reckoning with a traumatic secret she felt pressured to keep during her girlhood. In varied lyric narratives, these poems reinforce that shock and suffering have no statute of limitations.”

________________________________________________________________________________

Perigee.

  1. the point in the orbit of the moon or a satellite at which it is nearest to the earth. 

If You Have a Cat, Crafting With Cat Hair

Did you know there was such a thing? I saw this book for sale at Target.

Crafting With Cat Hair. By Kaori Tsutaya, I’ve been to an art installation with dryer lint sculpture. Not Cat Hair. Yet.

Clearly not for anyone with a cat allergy.

I didn’t open it up to look inside but maybe next time. The price tag just under the book says Dog Shampoo ?

I thought to myself, who would love and use this book?

Here’s what google books says “Got fur balls?Are your favorite sweaters covered with cat hair? Do you love to make quirky and one-of-a-kind crafting projects? If so, then it’s time to throw away your lint roller and curl up with your kitty!Crafting with Cat Hair shows readers how to transform stray clumps of fur into soft and adorable handicrafts. … “

Google Books

Achoo!
Crafting With Cat Hair

A Tea Wallet

One birthday, my friend Donna mailed me a teabag in a little fabric envelope. Here’s how I learned about another Tea Wallet.

Last week at the NY Public Library, my sister found a murder mystery with knitting on the cover and thought of me. (Yarned and Dangerous by Sadie Hartwell) see cover image below

In the back of the book she said there was a knitting pattern for a Tea Wallet.  I found another Tea Wallet pattern for one by Diane Trap on Ravelry. I knit one for my friend Vincie because I knew she carries her own tea bags in her purse. In a little plastic baggie. Not any more!

I made a modification on the front flap and made it a triangle shape, decreasing at each side.

The quilted knitting motion bag serving as a pretty backdrop for the photo shoot was stitched by my Woolswap partner, Catherine, in New Zealand.

Knit with scraps of organic cotton yarn –Made in America Yarns, the Wildflowers Collection . from Philadelphia

(Modified the front envelope flap- shortened it by half and made a triangle by knitting 2 together on edges while in one row BO 3 then next row CO 3 to create a button hole.)

These were photographed vertically on my phone and I attempted to adjust them on the computer before publishing. And of course they look perfectly aligned and oriented to me but I can’t tell if I’ve gotten them correct for some viewers.  Trying

The Gift of a Well Chosen Book

The gift of a well chosen book.

When I went to breakfast with my friend R a couple of weeks ago, she presented me with this book. She’s found it in a Wisconsin bookshop, months ago and saved it for my birthday.

Tonight I photographed it with a candlestick and the pair of socks, almost complete- I’m decreasing the toes. You see this poetry book is printed by Candlestick Press! It’s one of their “Instead of a Card” pamphlet series.

There’s even a poem by Emily Dickinson.

You are invited to read the Ten Poems about Knitting poems by a lovely introduction written by Di Slaney (poet and Co-owner of Candlestick Press in Nottingham UK)

https://humag.co/features/di-slaney

Dear R,

Thank you for the perfect poetry book for me and the bookmark’s thoughtful inscription.

I sit and knit. And knit. And knit. And read poems about Knitting.

R

Elementary Spelling Book

A reproduction of The Elementary Spelling Book by Noah Webster. My grandmother gave it to my father on his 62nd birthday. I found it today while dusting a bookcase.

I’d just been talking with my DIL about spelling earlier in the day.

My guess is this book is like one my father had as a student or used as a teacher.

My father taught all grades in a one room schoolhouse in Illinois.

*And of course we know a boy can toast a piece of bread, too.