His and Hers: Books and Bulbs
Hello!
How are you my friend? We are all well at Tahilla Farm. It’s a bit brisk this morning but we are feeling the promise of Spring with warmer days coming our way. Combine this with the hope for brighter and healthier days for us all, makes me want to run through our fields, minding my steps over ice and frost heaves. While I am far from tossing my face mask to the wind, I do feel hopeful. Mr. H and I are moving our way up the vaccine list, able to register at the end of the month. Where are you on the vaccine trail? Most of our older family and friends have already received one injection if not two. It caps off a difficult and gut-wrenching year, can we believe it has been that long? I know it’s not over yet but our March outlook is feeling so much better than this time last year.
Feeling bookish…
Our snowy winter put Mr. H and I in bookish moods, reading up a storm. I started to think about how we choose the books we read. Have you ever been given a book, hand to hand, heart to heart, as someone passes it along with these words.. “I loved this book, you will love it too!”. You have no doubt you will enjoy it, you always do when this friend recommends a book. Days later, you turn a page, another page and perhaps the next 50 pages and then you stop and say “hmmm, just not feeling it”. Not today, but perhaps you will another day.
I have this theory about reading, the books I select have to suit the headspace I am in at the moment. I have three mindful reading spaces:
Magic Carpet Ride
There are times when I just want a book to whisk me away to some place exciting. I don’t want to think too hard but I want to be entertained, I want the words to take me on a magic carpet ride and return me to a safe harbor, one that I know well. No need to rock my world and turn it upside down, just get me back to where I started.
The Weight of Words
Then there are the books to feed my reading soul. I want those words to wrap around me, pull me into a comfy chair and let me stay awhile. When that happens, it’s me and the book and no one else. I am open to possibilities, I am ready to travel, I want to connect and feel the weight of the words…wherever they happen to take me. As I turn the last page of that book, I want it to leave me wishing it wasn’t so, as I shout “Nooooo, please don’t go”. I will think and ponder and perhaps shed a literary tear and when that happens I wrap the words within me and start anew.
Outside the Book
The other reading space for me is one where I can distance myself from other worlds and just stick to the one I am in. I want to learn, to expand, to think outside the book and feel energized. These books feed my self-help curiosity and when the mood strikes, it is the only place I can exist. Once the author taps into my questioning soul and provides answers, I will be ready for the next book, for either a magic carpet ride or holding the weight of words.
And that my friends is how I look at reading.
A happy feeling book list…
It brings to mind a request my friend Diana asked me a few weeks back. Her mother was feeling blue and she wanted to send along a few “happy” books, ones that leave you feeling hopeful. I dropped what I was doing and ran off to consider all the contenders on my bookshelf. In case you haven’t guessed it by now, I love thinking and talking about books!
I want to share my list and ask if you have any to add. Each time I glance to my book stacks, I think of another. But, really, it depends on the reader and where they are at that moment in their lives. How they are feeling and what they are wrestling with. What makes one person happy, could leave another flat. So, I wonder, what would you put on your “happy feeling” book list? Here’s mine:
The books that immediately came to mind:
Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte
The Enchanted April - Elizabeth Von Arnim
The Keeper of Lost Things- Ruth Hogan
Meet Me at the Museum- Anne Youngson
I Capture the Castle- Dodie Smith
The Little Paris Bookshop- Nina George
Without Reservations and Educating Alice- Alice Steinbach
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
A Man Called Ove- Fredrik Backman
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society- Mary Ann Schaffer
Women in Sunlight- Frances Mayes
Being avid readers, I know many of you will have great suggestions. I selected books that set my daydreaming soul alight. I could sit down with any of the books for a spell and be perfectly content. Any books that come to mind for you?
Mr. H’s reading…
I always write about the books I am reading and since I live with another voracious reader, I thought I would mention what Mr. H is reading these days. I have to say he is a dutiful reader. Whenever he is gifted a book, he will put it right to the top of his book pile. A book is the one gift we know he will always gladly welcome.
He just finished The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, all 1000 pages of it. Now, I have to say, that is a bit excessive for me. I am good for 300-500 pages per book, tops. I asked him to list the last ten books he read and indicate his top five* from the list. Here we go….with links to read up on each.
*Breaker Morant by Peter FitzSimons
*The Spy by James Fenimore Cooper
*Collected Short Stories, Vol. 4 by W. Someset Maughan
*The Rustlers of Peco County by Zane Grey
*Babylon’s Ark by Lawrence Anthony
The Last Kings of Shanghai by Jonathan Kaufman
Silk Road by Colin Falconer
The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Mysterious Rider by Zane Grey
The Other Woman by Daniel Silva
The Sicilian Method by Andrea Camilleri
The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Coyle
Side Note: We both enjoy books written by the late South African author, Lawrence Anthony. The Elephant Whisperer is an all time favorite. We tune into the Audible version every long road trip. A military history buff, I think Mr. H has read every book that Australian author, Peter FitzSimons, has written. We are both long time fans of the Italian TV series ‘Inspector Montalbano’ based on the detective novels written by Andrea Camilleri. You can find the show on MHz Choice, our go to streaming service these days. We enjoy international mysteries, especially Danish, Norwegian and Swedish dramas. I might be afraid of my own shadow after a few of them but that’s ok, I have Mr. H by my side. ;)
Snowdrops
The mystery bulbs…
Speaking of mysteries, did I ever tell you the one about the 1000 bulbs Mr. H planted last autumn, unbeknownst to me? How you might ask, did he manage to plant 1000 Spring bulbs (daffodils, crocus, snowdrops) around the property without me noticing? All I can think is that I must have been deep into reading a book. I normally have to watch every move he makes around the garden. He is a mischievous fellow.
Today we walked around the property, happy to see snow disappearing. No sooner had I walked out the door when he said “Can you see them? Be careful! Watch where you are walking!” To be honest, I couldn’t see a thing, until he had me stoop down within an inch of a one little green sprout in a mass of matted weathered autumn leaves. He continued “See, can you see them?” Me… “um, no, where exactly?”. He pointed to the ground “There, there and there” he said. On super close inspection, I did see them and then I spotted the gorgeous little snow drops above coming up through the snow…and said “I see them!” He beamed as brightly as the sun. How sweet is that?
Side Note: Let me tell you friends, between you and me, these little sprouts are not where you might think; within a garden bed, along a border, all the usual Spring bulb spots. No, they are in unexpected places, in the center of a path, all the places we normally walk. Mr. H says “I planted them so we can see them wherever we go.” Don’t get me wrong, a Spring fling gift of 1000 bulbs is very thoughtful and I love the initiative. I look forward to where and what each day will bring. I just might need binoculars, focused to the path ahead, to save the little beauties from my footsteps. 😂
As you can see from the photo below, Tani, is just as excited about the promise of Spring as we are. Lucky for me, a big branch from our Bradford Pear tree fell in a winter storm in February. I snipped a bunch of branches of all shapes and sizes and tucked them into a collection of old milk bottles and voila…a little flowering Spring Fling in the book nook. It has been the tree that keeps on giving.
