Books.

I love books.  I have always loved books.  I do not do Kindle.  I like the feel of a book, the smell of a book, and of course what is inside.

In our last home we had a library, a whole room that just contained books.  Part of that room is pictured above.

When we moved it was downsizing in a big way.  Now the same book shelves are in our sitting room.

Whilst idly scanning the shelves I realised what a load of books we had that we would never read again.  Past hobbies and interests, possibly someone else could benefit?
When you have a whole room dedicated to books - fine.  But now?

So far I have removed three large carrier bags full of books.  With not one single tear shed.
As you can see from the books remaining there were so many that storing them on the shelves had to be quite imaginative. (Stacking .) Or just plain daft. (Well, not very attractively displayed.)

So these are the first lot to be definitely going.

Some of the ancient ones I have googled.  I am waiting for the DP to double check, but there may be some which can be turned into money!  Yay.

It has been a real walk down memory lane.  And some I could not part with.

The classics remain.  My complete collection of Dickens novels, which I can still read and read again. Shakespeare, Austen,..... Our collection of crime novels, Mr Rankin, Agatha, Ngaio Marsh, et al.  
A huge collection of Bird Books..... belonging to the DP.  Anyone want to know about extinct ducks, we have a book.

But as I no longer have a conservatory, gone are the Conservatory Plant books, we no longer have a fish pond, so ....we are too old to be self sufficient. done that, bought the t shirt, any of my blogging friends need Mr Seymours advice, we have the books, so out goes the veg growing books too.  And sorry Anthea Turner but I will never ever be the Perfect Housewife.

Nor do I wish to be shabby chic, or do microwave crafting, or do my house a la Terence Conran.  Or Laura Ashley.

Isnt it amazing what we hang on to!!! 

Guess which ones I will never, ever part with?

Not because I read them any more.  Well I read them to the next lot of small people who I hope will love books, the smell of them, the feel of them.

In fact when I have some empty shelves........... I might just buy some more.

Playing shops.

Didn't we all do this as children?  Cardboard boxes piled up, food tins borrowed from the kitchen.  

When my children were small I saved all the cardboard boxes, rice, oxo cubes, cereals, etc.  

Nowadays there seems to be little imagination and one coughs up for an expensive facsimile.  With plastic fruit and vegetables, what on earth is wrong with the real stuff?

But oh, a book shop.  Heaven!

Yesterday I did my weekly stint on the front desk in the Lighthouse Museum.  Taking the money from the tourists, yes, we still get them, and how thrilled they are to find us open.

Sitting on the floor were 13 boxes stacked up.  So in between being the welcoming face and sorting out times for tours to go up the lighthouse, which has to be done with a guide, I assisted the merchandising manager in opening the boxes......

And then we arranged them on the shelves.  13 boxes of books.  I was drooling. (sorry).  

There are more than books in the shop.  And more to come before Christmas.  Christmas?  I thought it had already come!

As the pile of books I put 'on one side' grew larger and larger, I got my Christmas presents sorted.

Bank Holiday yeuk, big moon and books.

The big moon.

 So here is the big moon phenomenen. 


Last night I told the DP to go and take spooky pictures of said moon at St. Combs Cemetery.  I had read that all you needed was a North East horizon as the sun set.  Well, thats where we are, on the North East.  So he checked the exact time of the sun setting and off he went.  Intending to take award winning spooky pics of huge moon.

 St Combs cemetery.


Unfortunately this did not quite work out the way I had planned.  The sun was set, but where was the bloody moon?


Some hours later he took the photograph of the moon which was most definitely South, South East of us.  (Yet again everything is described as from  bloody London.)


However come this morning he did get this spooky picture of a local farm with mist rising from the pond, and possibly a heron also rising.

And met Brer Fox.

And a swallow.

Earlier today I was reading others blogs and Making it Vintage triggered many memories of childhood books.  Not just my own but those read to our daughters.

So I went and had a a look at my bottom shelf.  The bottom shelf is the place I have put these books as they are easier to be selected from by a small child.,  


Ah, the memories.  Before I could stop myself I had picked one up and was away....  
So what book memories do you have?