Right on the heels of my four-day retreat comes another respite. This one planned by Mother Nature. Ice, snow, more ice and then more snow. Perhaps three to four inches, but enough to keep me indoors by the fire as a safeguard against frigid temperatures.
So since Friday, I have been relishing another day or two of solitude and quiet - a bonus retreat, as it were.
I am still reading the wonderful At Home by Bill Bryson. This book is an entire education in itself. I have learned about architecture, gardening, inventions, and explorations. I don't know how he does it, but he has included everything from mousetraps, bricks, follies and ha-has, to the plague and the conspicuous consumption of America's robber barons and England's aristocracy.
Am in the middle of Cross Creek by Majorie Kinnan Rawlings. One chapter, "Our Daily Bread", is all about the central Florida flora and fauna that she and her neighbors enjoyed eating. We are talking alligators, turtles and turtle eggs, rattlesnakes, and a fruit called the Scuppernong grape. All this, of course, along with cornpone, white bacon, pokeweed, and collard greens. Definitely an acquired taste!
I will stick with tea and pumpkin bread.
A bonus, day. Yippee!
ReplyDeleteTom and I "read" "At Home" in the car a few years ago. I'd gotten it on audio, thinking, correctly, that we might both enjoy it - and we did.
I enjoyed your "BOOKS" to-do, list, Belle. Actually, I have been weeding out books, among other things, lately, but, you remind me to also look at my TBR list. Thank you. Stay warm and safe, dear Belle.
I have never 'read' a book on tape or CD. I have a tendency to be lulled to sleep so listening while driving is not a good plan for me. I have a friend, though, who listens to a book every moment she is in the car or doing chores around the house. She is a professional multi-tasker!
DeleteI am starting a new TBR list for 2014. Clean slate (although I won't get rid of the one from the past however many years I have been collecting titles.)
Winter is the perfect time to weed and sort and toss and donate. Then when Spring Cleaning comes along (does anyone do that anymore?), much work has already been done.
Hope you are cozy on the Cutoff, Penny!
Lucky you! It's still 85 degrees and humid here.
ReplyDeleteI loved Cross Creek (and I agree--I'll stick with tea and pumpkin bread, too), but I've yet to read At Home. It sounds interesting. Bryson has a wonderful way with words. He's one of my favorite writers.
'At Home' is a complete education, Kathy. It is long - 450 pages of text plus a bibliography - but is so entertaining I don't want it to end. I have about 150 more pages to go.
DeleteI am enjoying 'Cross Creek' but it is definitely not Politically Correct. A different time.