Hey! Where Do You Think You're Going, November!

Lawsie! It's half over and TheQueen has been so silent. Well. I should confess - I have been committing blog-ultery over on Sparkpeople dot com because this close to the Food Frenzie of the holiday season, about the only thing I've been concentrating on is managing my weight. This is a perennial Queenly issue anyway and 2014 has been a particularly difficult year for keeping things in check.

In a deeper confession, I'm not sure I really have anything to say here today, but I don't want to come back later and see that there are zero posts for November.

What? TheQueen has nothing to say? Well - of course she always has something to say - but too much of it is likely to be whining and kvetching and complaining. Autumn of 2014 hasn't been any easier than Summer, Spring or Winter was. No. That's not true. We have automatic heat in the house now so WOW ... that has made a huge difference. If you recall, a large part of the reason last winter was so effingly difficult was that we couldn't get this house warm. Our sole source of heat was the old wood stove and the firewood, while seasoned, was always wet because it was always raining or sleeting or just plain cloudy and the temps stayed down down down. Wet wood is bad enough but when your prince is the type who forgets to keep the fire going while you are at work, wet wood is evil incarnate.

This year we have festooned the walls with these  and life is so different. A chilly day - and we have had quite a few of them already - just means when I get home the house is toasty warm. Coming down to the den to type in the wee dark hours of the morning used to mean putting on my winter coat and wrapping up in a blanket and taking frequent breaks to hold hot cups of coffee. Now things are different. Things are better. I am feeling disgustingly spoiled.

And for the curious - so far - and granted - we're still in the easy part of the cold weather season - the electric bill has gone up about $10. I will wait till the end of the cold before I make my final review of this system but so far - much more than so good.

So what else can I tell you about TheQueen?  There are a scant 46 days left of this year (to which I won't be all that sorry to bid goodbye - and now I'm feeling guilty for complaining about the gift of life and all) and much of that is already booked with holiday stuff.  My loyal fans know that I love me some holiday season but  I swannie, I can't believe it's already time to start Making Plans. I did have the good grace to cast on a Christmas sock and so there is real knitting going on (turning the heal on sock #1 today). And at least I thought about what sort of Christmas Card I'd like to make. Sister just sent out the call for photos for the Family Christmas Calendar. She started making them as gifts to the parents - but we all love them and I'm glad she's continuing the tradition now that we are orphans. My beloved LD and our precious daughter in law PD will be here for Thanksgiving, along with 7 other guests. And I am hope hope hoping we can finally get back to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens for a caroling light show. I have explained to ThePrinceConsort that there are to be no heart attacks this Christmas.


I have also pulled out my tattered copies of the Betsy-Tacy books because nobody can do autumn like Maud Hart Lovelace. Her high school books are my favorites although I am also a sucker for Betsy and Tacy go Downtown - which is about middle-schoolers. Autobiographical, with the perfect patina of fiction smoothing over memories and plot twists, these books had as big an impact on forming me as "The Laura Books". (Laura Ingalls Wilder) Perhaps even a greater impact, now that I am old and now that I already got to do my own Little House in the Big Woods thing and it's pretty much a fulfilled fantasy instead of a longing. I read these kiddy books in secret because ThePrince will prod me about why I am reading them again if he sees me and TheQueen disdains explaining herself. Also - this particular trip down memory lane is something I like to do alone and he is all about the togetherness.

One of these days I will honor these books with a blogpost about why they are so important - to me and, I wish, to today's techno-plugged kids. I could go on and on about why I think they are preferable to most of the  soft-core violence and suffering stuff being written for middle readers these days, but for this fall I will just enjoy them.

So. What else? I haven't done much art lately and was feeling decidedly colorless and art-less. Also, I have been fighting with some excess poundage (hence the above-mentioned blog-ultery) for most of 2014. In an effort to give attention to both issues I have created a glitter chart for myself - small enough to fit in my Daytimer. It has a clutch of action-steps I can take to earn points and when I earn 100 points I can add $100 to the camera fund ... that pitiful sum which I have raided all summer long when Other Expenses cropped up. I would very much like to get a new camera and I think I'll need about $300 for it. There is an additional reward of a pair of boots when I reach my goal.

And so. That is the state of mid-November at TheCastle. One will hope that the future will hold more and perhaps even better quality writing from TheQueen. But there you have it - one can always hope. There is always tomorrow. And Tara.

heART Healthy

Sometimes you need to feed your soul more than your body - or perhaps I should say - in addition to your body. I've been working very hard all winter - which used to be the quiet time at the library - the time when we did inventory, wrote up plans for the summer crush, maybe even goofed off a little. That hasn't been the case in a long time (because I've been here an even longer time). In addition to schmoozing with the state politicians, dealing with the budget, making it through the audit and holding the quarterly board meeting there are just plain lots more people using the library and this past week we had a book&author event.

Whew.

Ordinarily I would have taken off the day after the B&A but that was Wednesday and Wednesday means story hour - AND I'd remembered, at last, to bring the crayon scented perfume for the kids.





You surely remember the crayon perfume I got for my birthday? They even have a perfume for zombies now!

Check out this website.  


But back to MEMEMEMEME  20

I knew I needed a recuperative day and had scheduled one. I invited a girlfriend to bring her pens and paints and come visit for a day of art and talk. Rita is quiet and shy - nothing like big mouth me, but we really appreciate each other. And we both long to be better artists. She is the gf who drew every day in August and exchanged her sketches with me via email.

Of course - we also had to catch up on library gossip. She is a retired librarian so she's been a little out of the loop and there have been a lot of changes in the area libraries - with people coming and going. All of my colleagues are retiring and I will be the last of them. I am so jealous. When I go ... which won't be till 2018 - I think I will be the longest serving library director in Virginia - maybe not in all time, but at that time. Yeah. 40 years! Sheesh!

But we won't talk about that. It's off in the future. What we will talk about is yesterday - which was a blissfully sweet day for recharging my mojo. AND of course I made good eating healthy choices and we got in a walk through the forest ... where I suddenly realized why I'm so fixated on drawing and writing about pixies and fairies - I mean can't you just see a sylvan sprite ducking down this path?







So here is a Spring Fairy drawing to cheer you on this weekend.

December 12 in 12

 Whew! I haven't written in forEver and I want to post this twelfth in my 12 in 12 good habits before it's 2013. In part this has been because I'm absolutely not feelng the Christmas Love. It's been all I could do to fake it till I make it - but I shall continue to make that effort. Usually I'm cock-a-whoop with Christmas Joy. I am sure the 2012 supply is around here somewhere .... I just have to find it. 

So here it is - the last good habit I want to weave into my life. It may sound like an odd one for a librarian - but it is important for me to reveal the Great Librarian Secret: 

We do not read books all day 

 Yup. That's right. We don't sit around reading all day.

What do we do? 

• We introduce little ones to their first act as citizens - to benefit from the common good, to care for the borrowed books, and to return them so they can be shared with someone else. 
• We help 9 year old boys find something they can do a book report on that isn't full of princesses and dresses. 
• We listen to teenagers as if they were adults. And then we answer them as if they were adults. 
• We help your mother log on to the Internet to see the pictures you emailed her. 
• We mop up the bathroom after somebody evil has made a mess. 
• We fix the lights outside. 
• We explain to county/city/state/federal sources why they need to fund the library 
• We entertain the Rotary/Lions/Chamber of Commerce/Masons/Women's Club with stories about life among the stacks - before we ask them for money too. 
• Oh yes. And then there is the paperwork. 

So - what we tend to read all day are book reviews. We only get to read books at home .... like you. And for a couple of reasons, I don't seem to read all the books I intended to read. This is especially true for reading teen and tween fiction - where I believe some of the most innovative writing is happening today. Don't get me wrong - I love a good mystery and now and again I can find a historical writer who is not into Vampires or time travel. Ken Follett comes to mind first but there are other great historical writers out there who can put a convincing amount of modern mores into the world of Castles and Kings. But I don't like a lot of the adult fiction that's coming out right now: Mean bitchy women and weak men ... Ugh. 

Alas, I've resorted to reading mostly non-fiction or familiar old friends - novelists I can depend upon - Austen, Bronte, Lovelace and Wilder - and while this is certainly alright - my choice - even a good thing -- the danger in avoiding contemporary fiction is that one looses touch with the values and beliefs of society. It is only through fiction that we pass on what is important to us to the next generation. And so, my 12th in 12 will be:

7. Read some fiction every day. 

I am thinking seriously of limiting my reading to YA and junior fiction. The teacher in me wants to find out what type of fiction - besides vampires, of course - is reaching young folk these days. I actually started last month - because just knowing this was coming reminded me that it was also going to be fun. I finally read The Giver (Lois Lowery) and the first of the Percy Jackson novels (Rick Riordan) and I'm rather rubbing my hands at what I am going to pick up next. 

And how am I doing with my other habits? How was November? 

 Clean the kitchen every night. Not perfect but good enough to make me take notice how pleasant it is to walk into a kitchen that is clean and tidy. I would give myself an A-

 Food Tracking eh - there have been some days when I just didn't bother - but then there was Thanksgiving when I Pre-tracked! I give myself a solid B 

 Exercising Yep. here I have done well - and even done very well so it gets a solid A 

   Drink 6-8 cups of water every day Can't figure out why I haven't been drinking water - but I can feel it. Not a failure but I need to do better. I give myself a D+ 

   The Charles Schwab list at work I realized I was letting this slip and ... uh. no. not a good thing. Not enough work gets done when I forget. I earn a C 

  Read my 5-year plan every morning week Eh. Not. What was I thinking? This earns a C-

   Compliment someone on my staff every day This month has been all about planning for someone's retirement so I was aware of what everybody does and how valuable they all are - and said so. I get a B 

 Draw 20 minutes a day. I did some art most days till I finished the 40 watercolor Christmas cards I'm sending out - and then I stopped because ... there are other things to do that demand artistic effort - I get an A 

 Select a big life goal - a big personal thing - and take one step towards it ... every day. Got to admit this - I have drifted a bit in November. It's the beginning of the Holiday Season so I won't be too hard on me, but I will only give myself a C 

 Ditto at work - Same issue - same grade C 

 Pray. I realized last month that I needed to do lots more of this ... and I did - the healthy, kind, grateful, honest sort of prayer. I'm proud of this. I get an A

Next year I will work on keeping these habits fresh and alive and perhaps, just perhaps, limit my resolutions to only a few key things. 

And now ... where is that Christmas Mojo - did I leave it at Tara? 

A Secret Sartorial Snooping Shopping Saturday

Of course - now that I am blogging about it, it isn't so secret but I do think I am ready to go poke around some big stores in the city to look at spring clothes.

No. I don't need more clothes. I have mountains of good things to wear - even some newish things. It's just that in spring and fall - I like to look. I want to see what's out there. What's new. Right now I am heartily sick of wool and corduroy and sober shades and tights. My toes want to peep out in coral polish from beneath floral espradrilles. My shoulders want to be lightly covered with cap sleeves. My legs want to be clad in bright colored jeans. And I need a better rain coat. I have one - and it's a bright sunny yellow. But it looks terrible on me. I need something better.

I like to shop with girlfriends too, but then it's all about being with peeps, not about really looking - and selfishly thinking about me me me me me. Scouting missions need to be done alone. Besides - the yarn store in F'burg has sock yarn on sale today. I could pick up some guy colored sock yarn for Christmas gifts.

The garden that was

Or I may stay home and play in the garden. LD has been here this winter and earlier this week he grubbed out all those walnut and sassafras trees and the sumac and blackberries that had choked out everything but the hardiest flowers.  I want to dig up a small vegetable bed this year and slowly increase the beds till I have something like I used to have... only smaller.

There is a tempting stack of New Books and Magazines on the hall table too - I could just stay in bed all day and read. Well. No. I don't believe I could do that because it's too sunny and bright outside - even if it is a bit chilly. Early training still has me believing that if it is not raining outside then I should be Out In The Fresh Air.

Whatever I choose to do - I'm sure it will feel delicious and I'm wishing you a delicious Saturday as well. Ta.

Serendipity with books

September was my birthday month and this year I put in serious requests. I had recently perused Meg Swansen's School House Press website and come under the spell of a number of books I knew I wanted to own - and happily I had beloved friends and family who were willing to get them for me. My September runneth over in good books and I am thoroughly pleased with all of them. So who would have thought that it was the book I bought sight unseen, for the library, even, and on a mere hunch, that would turn out to be my favorite book?

Kristina McGowan's Modern Top Down Knitting has bowled me over. I always feel that if a book has three good patterns in it - three  patterns I want to knit - it's a good buy. If it's under $30 it's a great buy. This book hit both targets, coming in at $27.50 and having 3 hats, 3 dresses, 2 skirts and and a sweater that I would make and wear! The library owns the book now but I am afraid a second copy will have to come live at my house soon and once I'm finished with the big UFO's in my stash I am going to hunt down some yarn to make red Soho Smocked Dress. Yum!

I'm not a big top down knitter. Probably because I learned in the more traditional bottom up mode, top down is just ever so slightly out of my ring of habits. I know you can do it, I'd just need a reason to. Also, I almost exclusively wear set-in sleeves and to do that in top-down kitting you have to knit back and forth on the shoulder area. That's fine if there is no colorwork in the knitting, but there you have it - I am also a sucker for colorwork. But in a solid color, the flat knitting at the top is not a bar to my knitting pleasure. And these designs are all set-in sleeve styles - pure temptation to someone like me. They're elegant, classic shapes that would be attractive on almost any body type AND for almost any age group. The skirts are slim without being tight. The dresses are all a-line shapes with added touches that make them interesting but not tedious to knit. There are some cute accessories: some long fingerless gloves and a belt and slippers, that don't tempt but the hats are wonderful. Two, with fuller crowns, look like they would leave your hair in tact and the Subway Hat is flat out darling and looks like it would knit up in a flash.

I really like how the Abrams website displays this book and how they let you see the projects inside, so if you're curious, go have a look here. But if you want to know what the Bird Family thinks about it...

Happy Hump Day.