The Library

[Frybabe]

Bellamarie, thanks for the update on your condition. I have had other medical office visits over the years where they told me I should get with my physician for blood pressure meds. Neither my GP nor my Cardiologist have thought that necessary. My sister, on the other hand, had been on blood pressure medicine(s) for years. She is absolutely paranoid about her BP; she admits to checking it as often as four or five times a day, when her GP has told her not to check it more than once a day.

BTW, in case you and Barb have not checked out the Library Bookshelf over on Seniors and Friends, Marilyne has posted a poem she has kept for a long time. I think I can safely say that it is from the perspective of mothers and wives regarding men and war.

[BarbStAubrey]

Bellamarie sounds like you are moving along taking care of yourself - have you found that eating certain foods elevates your Blood Pressure? I have a monitor and find that what I eat has a baring and to quickly lower my Blood Pressure I find for me drinking Pomegranate juice does it -

Summer recess starts tomorrow however, the change in traffic was noticeable staring Monday where many a family decided this last week was not that important and so they took off as of last weekend for the coast before the summer crowds - notice the family across from me is gone and the family next to them the children have been home yesterday and today helping their Dad get their mobile home ready - looks like they will be taking off for a more extended trip very soon.

This was the week I remember as a Kid taking out as many books from the library that were permitted - did the same with my children and so there were lots of memories reading sitting under the crawl space under the back stairs or our neighbor had a large porch with a crawl space that kept the sun away and for some reason it was cooler under there then sitting in the shade of a tree.

My children enjoyed the coolness of the side screened in porch - I had a cot out there with a mattress made up like a sofa - a couple of porch rockers... All those years living in Kentucky we did not have Air Conditioning - the first Air Conditioning, and it was still a new concept available mostly and only in new construction was when we moved here - the older two were in Middle School and Paul was in 2nd grade. Our Summers were not as lazy with AC making living spaces cooler but also the pool was just down the street and being with their friends at the pool was important - In Kentucky we spent, I say we because I ended up being a counselor because someone did not show and then continued every summer thereafter bringing Paul with me, we were at Girl Scout camp deep in the Appalachian mountains for 4 weeks while Peter our oldest attended Boy Scout camp. I don't hear anything about Boy or Girl Scouting any longer - many changes however, Libraries still have summer reading programs.

Still reading Machiavelli and found a sale on Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power fascinating - Not only is it showing Mary Queen of Scots in a positive light which is different then the usual told by men over the centuries with no application for the safety she and her fellow 4 young friends felt in France and how the Renascence, in all its glory affected her daily life. Further, when we read of this historical time we do not appreciate the value of Textiles - before banks, established in the seventeenth century, Textiles were used as an exchange, collateral, wealth as dollars and investments are used today.

Also, the prologue touches on how Scotland's history was not part of the curriculum in Scotland as late as the 1950s and 60s and how revolutionary it was for a substitute teacher in the author's experience to expose the class to Scotland's history by having them make a cloth depiction that stretched from one side of the classroom wall to the other featuring the main characters that were assigned for research to the students. The sub knew how to get under the wire by making it a lesson in art rather than being accursed of teaching lessons in Scotland's history...

Had no idea either of the close ties between Scotland and France for centuries - and to see from this perspective Mary's conflict and actually Scotland's conflict and battles with Henry VIII is eye opening that I did not see it from Mary's viewpoint when we were into Wolf Hall and The Mirror...  In fact all I've ever read about Mary was her beheading ordered by Elizabeth and how she was a threat because of her wanting to re-establish Catholicism and the British ties to the Pope.

I knew how windows made life richer for Elizabeth and evidently also for Mary since the light allowed wonderful embroidery however, Embroidery is a drop in the bucket to all the various textiles that were as important if not more so then guns and swords and other implements of war - even Henry invest more in Textiles than in the tools of war - fascinating.

[ginny]

thank you  Bellamarie, didn't mean to be so late in responding.

You  will have great insight from the POV of your husband. I do hope the two of you can see the 4 programs on PBS, called Mr. Bates and the Post Office, and report back. I really would like to hear his thoughts on it.

Barbara, happy memories of reading. How lucky those of us were whose parents stressed reading and made opportunity for us to be in libraries and read!  I find I am reading more than ever for some strange reason and Frybabe will appreciate this: believe it or not, having finished the last Bryson book on the UK, I have (gasp!) started Relic again!! Shows you I have no taste at all but its SO well written, and along with a  Robert Hughes recommended by a student, (Rome: a Cultural, Visual, and Personal History,) (absolutely excellent love letter to Rome) I am happily reading constantly again, just like in my childhood.

[ginny]

I didn't mean to shut the place down.

Have redacted some of the above post as they like to say in politics, so we can get back on track.

Speaking of tracks, do any of you play  Wordle? I always have people asking me if I did, and so I tried and am totally hooked, although I hate scrabble. It's a real brain work out. All you do is write Wordle  in the search area  and play (free) the one on the NY Times. It's free, there are hints,  what's not to like? hahahaa

https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html

One of our former students here used to do the Cross Word Puzzle for the NY Times, Manny Nosowsky. He was in the film extras  in the movie about the life of the crosswords there. Cruciverbalists, they call them. I could never do ANY of his!! Boy did he love Latin.

I've got a new craze in gardening and that's growing from seed. I had a cute little Mini Greenhouse left over from my grandson (now 18, graduated from HS, all honors, all scholarships, very very fine young man) on top of that,  but here's this little project for children, untouched, how hard could it BE? 

Et voila  I have ONE plant growing in that tiny windowsill  greenhouse (It's about 4 inches long) with a cute little roof,  from those 16 year old  (at least) old seeds, it's either a radish or a cucumber.  And that has set me off again on gardening books.

Have any of you set any reading projects for the summer? Like finally reading A Tale of Two Cities? OR? Maye this is the summer to read that ONE book you always wanted to read? I find myself wondering about Babbitt...the sequel, (usually unknown to the world) both books by Sinclair Lewis. I wonder how that small town leader would fare in  a 2025 rereading.  Maybe this is the year to actually conquer that book one is slightly ashamed to say one never read that everybody on earth has at least read once. Do you have one? The last time I did that it was The Great Gatsby.

In short, what are YOU reading?

[Frybabe]

Looks to me like another excuse to put off doing some cleaning, Ginny. Your are ahead of me on the little greenhouse garden. Not a greenhouse, but I bought a small hydroponics set-up, but have yet to put it together. I am waiting for some help to take a rocking chair out to the car so I can move a big shelf unit out to the living-room area. I am planning on getting new bedroom furniture, so I am sifting through stuff to get rid of and getting other things shifted. Some of this I need help moving.

I've just started  listening to Adrian Goldsworthy's Anthony and Cleopatra. I am mostly in between reading right now. I am waiting on a hold for another Adrian book, this time it is Adrian Tchaikovsky's The Doors of Eden. This morning I read a few more paragraphs of Clifford D. Simak's Mastodonia while waiting to get my annual bloodwork done. I've pulled up The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac by Eugene Field, but haven't started it yet. He was a poet and writer who lived in the second half of the nineteenth century. I may not have run across his name anywhere, but I do remember one of his most famous poems, "Wynken, Blynken and Nod".

[PatH]

Ginny, I am totally hooked on Wordle. The puzzle is changed at midnight, and when I wake up in the morning, I usually start off with Wordle to get going.  I'm still curled up under the covers, with my CPAP machine keeping me from suffocating, and away I go. I work at it for 10-15 minutes, and sometimes that's enough and sometimes it isn't, but I can often tell how fuzzy-minded a morning is going to be by how fuzzy-minded the game is. Sometimes that's when I talk here too. (not today, it's almost 7 pm, and I'm about to heat up supper)

Have fun. The mini crossword is another quick fun one.

[PatH]

Frybabe, Eugene Field was a big figure in my childhood,but now I can't remember what he wrote. I bet if I look him up I'll remember most of his poems

[BarbStAubrey]

So much rain has me dragging - the humidity is so high it has been one allergy infection after the other - not in the best of moods to read or even watch TV.

Can only remember the start -

With big tin trumpet and little red drum,
Marching like soldiers, the children come!
Its this way and that way they circle and file
My - But that music of theirs is fine...

The illustration had children marching, one with a paper tricorn hat, one with a baton, a couple with bugle and drum and a Scottie dog running along side

[Frybabe]

Well, I remember a little of "Wynken, Blynken and Nod". This is longer than I remember it. Did my old poem book print a truncated version of it, I wonder? Here it is in its entirety, posted on The Poetry Foundation website.

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
By Eugene Field
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
    Sailed off in a wooden shoe--
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
    Into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"
    The old moon asked of the three.
"We have come to fish for the herring fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we!"
                  Said Wynken,
                  Blynken,
                  And Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song,
    As they rocked in the wooden shoe,
And the wind that sped them all night long
    Ruffled the waves of dew.
The little stars were the herring fish
    That lived in that beautiful sea--
"Now cast your nets wherever you wish--
    Never afeard are we!"
    So cried the stars to the fishermen three:
                  Wynken,
                  Blynken,
                  And Nod.

All night long their nets they threw
   To the stars in the twinkling foam---
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
   Bringing the fishermen home;
'T was all so pretty a sail it seemed
   As if it could not be,
And some folks thought 't was a dream they 'd dreamed
   Of sailing that beautiful sea---
   But I shall name you the fishermen three:
                     Wynken,
                     Blynken,
                     And Nod.

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
   And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
   Is a wee one's trundle-bed.
So shut your eyes while mother sings
   Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
   As you rock in the misty sea,
   Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:
                     Wynken,
                     Blynken,
                     And Nod.

[BarbStAubrey]

Thanks frybabe - Really quite beautiful isn't it - such magic to weave for a little one - remember my mother reading it to me a couple of times - the trigger was down from the skies came the wooden shoe - I remember tangling in my brain with that thought and asked my mother how it was possible.  Remember she deflected the question by suggesting I imagine the silver and golden nets.

[Frybabe]

Of even more interest to me is something I discovered this morning, The YouTube "channel" Celtic Source.  https://www.youtube.com/@CelticSource  I watched the "The Oldest Welsh Fairytale" which I don't think I ever came across before; St. Gregory, yes, the fairytale, no. Anyway, I have it all bookmarked now. He has one on the Taliesin, so I am hoping it helps to understand the tale better when I read it. The Mabinogian which we read here several years back is featured in several of his posts.

Last night I finished Mastodonia. It actually got a little more interesting towards the end. I have been picking at this book for some time, of and on. My next library read should be dropping within the next seven days. Meanwhile, I have continued to listen to Anthony and Cleopatra. So far, nothing new (expected) and slightly boring because of it. I am in Chapter Five now, and it has only just gotten to Cleopatra's birth, etc. Most of the earlier stuff was an overview of the earlier kingdoms, Alexander, and the rise of the Pharaohs.

[PatH]

Frybabe, that discussion of The Mabinogianwas both interesting and frustrating to me.  I had three different books, collected by three different people, and each one had differences: Different stories, partly overlapping, different characters, partly overlapping, different events or different versions of the same events.

At that time my children were reading a series meant for children, written by Lloyd Alexander, based on the Mabinogian. He called it the Prydain Chronicles, Prydain being his name for the mythical place, and the opening book is The Tale of Three I gather that Taliesin was a bard, and that conflicting tales are attributed to him.  He's a character here, and has a confusing, but necessarily helpful, role in this story.  And, after the attempted overrunning of the countryside by the weird bad guys is dealt with, there is the opportunity to board ships going to some mythic country across the sea, with no chance of return, and who chooses "go or stay" and why polishes up everything.

it's a good job, and I think I enjoyed it as much as my teenagers did.

I keep running across things and thinking "Joan would love that.  I'll text her or call her tonight."  Then I realize "No I won't."

[PatH]

Frybabe, that discussion of The Mabinogianwas both interesting and frustrating to me.  I had three different books, collected by three different people, and each one had differences: Different stories, partly overlapping, different characters, partly overlapping, different events or different versions of the same events.

At that time my children were reading a series meant for children, written by Lloyd Alexander, based on the Mabinogian. He called it the Prydain Chronicles, Prydain being his name for the mythical place, and the opening book is The Tale of Three I gather that Taliesin was a bard, and that conflicting tales are attributed to him.  He's a character here, and has a confusing, but necessarily helpful, role in this story.  And, after the attempted overrunning of the countryside by the weird bad guys is dealt with, there is the opportunity to board ships going to some mythic country across the sea, with no chance of return, and who chooses "go or stay" and why polishes up everything.

it's a good job, and I think I enjoyed it as much as my teenagers did.

I keep running across things and thinking "Joan would love that.  I'll text her or call her tonight."  Then I realize "No I won't."

[PatH]

Oops.  Posted twice.  Better than losing a post.

[Frybabe]

That feeling about talking to Joan will stick around for a while, I think. I still talk to George, albeit briefly.

I will be interested to see which version or if the professor tackle more than one version of The Mabinogian when I get around to watching it. Other than finding out that my Taliesin book is not on my Paperwhite, so it must be on one of the Fires.

I am up a bit late tonight. I had been reading in bed, just put my book down and ready to sleep when all these flashing red lights appeared in my windows. Got dressed, went outside, saw a rescue truck, two engines and a bunch of smaller vehicles all lined up in the parking lots, front and back. They were occupying themselves about half way up my building. No one came around knocking on doors, but not wanting to take any chances, I crated the cats up for a fast get-away if need be. They were here for about 40 minutes and then they all packed up and left. Well, good practice. Not unsurprisingly, Shan was on alert and hard to tackle and stuff in his crate. Oscar was an easy catch once I located him.

As far as my reading goes tonight. I was taking a look at a volume of Georg Ebers work, but decided not to start it. So, I reopened The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac. Now I see that Chapter Three is titled "The Luxury of Reading in Bed". 
 

[PatH]

Correction: the first volume in Alexander's series is The Book of Three.
At first, the young protagonist can't understand the words in the book, but as he has more experiences, learns more magic and other things, and accomplishes more, he finds he can read the book after all.

[bellamarie]

Thank you all for the encouragement and suggestions for my health condition.  The lower dose of the Blood Pressure medication seems to be doing pretty well.  I do not take my BP daily, I took it the one time as instructed to and since she said it sounds good, I haven't taken it since.  I really have been doing good, just so busy with the grandkid's ending of the school year schedules.  Phew, it takes a lot to keep up with them and the 3 yr. old great grandson.  I can't wait for the hazy, lazy days of summer to begin.  All my perennial flowers are blooming daily, and I am just needing to keep up with the weeds.  I have finally gotten my front and back yard exactly how I have wanted them so now it's sit back and enjoy the years of hard work. 

Ginny, I have a few friends who have just begun playing Wordle and they really enjoy it.  I have played Words With Friends for years but not tried Wordle yet.  So, you are attempting to grow from seeds.  I bought some Morning Glory packets of seeds from the Dollar store a few years back and planted them and they grew beautifully.  Good Luck with yours.  I did a vegetable garden the past two years the first year it was in the ground and last year my granddaughter's fiancé' built me a raised garden for Mother's Day so I tried my herbs and some vegetables in it.  Very disappointing to say the least, so if I decide to plant anything this year, I think I will go back to the ground. 

PatH., I can totally relate to the thought of calling your sister to tell her about something.  It will be two years in October I lost my younger sister, and I still find myself wanting to call her to share something with her.  The two of you being twins I can only imagine it being even more of a stronger bond.  I like to play Words with Friends some nights before falling to sleep all cuddled up in my favorite blanket, although it only happens when I sleep in the spare bedroom since my hubby and dog toss and turn if I try reading or doing my word games in our bedroom. 

Frybabe, I do remember the poem but don't remember it being that long either.  Thank you for sharing it.  You must let us know how the hydroponics works out with growing your plants.  "The Luxury of Reading in Bed" oh my, I think I need to go back to reading at nighttime before falling off to sleep.  I used to always have a book or two on my nightstand to read not sure when I stopped reading in bed. I hope your blood work all turned out good.  Wow, that had to be a bit scary seeing those lights and firemen outside your window, thank goodness everything was okay.  Fast thinking to gather the cats.

Barb, good to know about the Pomegranate juice for bringing down blood pressure.  Any time you talk about your days as a child and raising your children with so many books to read it astounds me since I grew up with none in my home and no access to a library.  I made sure when I had children and grandchildren, I had shelves of books for me to read to them and them to learn to read.  When I did my in-home daycare, I always had story time. I still have shelves of children books and think I will save them for more great grandchildren.  We take our 3 yr. old great grandson to his small-town library when we babysit him on Fridays.  For the baby shower each person who came brought a book, so he has a nice collection in his bedroom he and his mom read each night together before bedtime. 

Okay, Ginny, you have asked, and I am going to take it more as a challenge... I am going to decide which book I have always wanted to tackle and begin reading it this summer!  I will let you know once I have chosen it. 

[Frybabe]

Ginny, for that matter anyone, have you read any of Douglas Boin's works? If so, what did you think? I was thinking of ordering Clodia of Rome, but checked out his bonifieds first. He is a professor at St. Louis University. I read the comments of students who took his classes and at least one review on Amazon. The Amazon reviewer says Boin is using viewing Alaric and Rome through perspective of the current political correctness trend. I checked out student class  reviews on the Rate My Professors website. Reviews are only up through 2023 and they are not encouraging. This is what he was up to in 2024. https://www.slu.edu/news/2024/january/imperial-cult-temple-ruins.php  Here is the Archeology News news article. https://archaeologymag.com/2024/01/imperial-cult-temple-in-spello-italy/

[ginny]

 Huh. No, Frybabe, I have never heard of him and don't know anything about him, so that's all very interesting. He's apparently not a classicist but an historian. I read his student reviews, and again you can't go by those, somebody may have a sore attitude due to a bad grade, but this one sort of stood out: If you read the reviews under his books you will find he values telling a story over getting things right, and that is exactly right. Douglas Boin belongs in an English department somewhere.


Nothing wrong with telling a good story, beats a bad dull one.

However I'm not in the camp of those who think the "Romans were just like us." 


So no, I don't know a thing about him. There is a difference in Historical Fiction as we just learned the hard way and History.   Why not give him a try and let us know what  you think?

Bellamarie, YES!! iI can't believe my eyes about the seedlings. The first day I thought I was having hallucinations. The third day they were  up to the ceiling of the little greenhouse. A small forest of Zinnias and some snapdragons and what appears a tomato. I don't know what to do? I thought they were weeds, to be honest, from the soil itself, I didn't use anything fancy. But two of them are wearing seed hats where they broke through the soil and are wearing the shell ? of the seeds.

I am reading and reading about growing seeds (this IS, after all, a child's project), they are inside the house in an East facing window and taking off. It says they must have 3 "real leaves" before you prick
them out to transplant but it says nothing about growing them through the roof of the tiny greenhouse.

On the missing books I need a list personally of the greatest books (to see which I may have missed) to see what I can do to finally read one. I will see if I can find one.

[ginny]

Pat! THAT was an exciting evening! Did you ever find out what the issue was? I bet it was pretty hard to get back to sleep after that!

[ginny]

OK Here's a  list of the 100 best books everybody should read before they die?

It's from Reader's Digest,. let's see how their taste runs: (This is subtitled The Best 100 Books of All Time).

https://www.rd.com/list/books-read-before-die/

[ginny]

Now THAT is some list. Where are the old "Classics?" I canNOT believe that Mary Karr's  The Liars Club is one of something you should read before you die!!! I hated that book with a passion and it's the only book after reading  I threw literally in the trash.

Proud of being a liar, smug on it, proud of misleading people? UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!

We need a new list!

[BarbStAubrey]

Good grief my take is the list is full of books that were popular in their day and are now in list form to sell a lot of products that are advertised on their website - not a Russian on the list much less some decent French authors and some on the list, like you Ginny you just had to shake your head in astonishment - not a challenging read on the list - best I could think it was a list of books you should read that can mean a list of books for keeping up with the cultural change not a list of 'Best' or prize winning authors [books].

Then we wonder why young people do not see history repeating itself or have a clue what life was all about before about the mid nineteenth century of even as late as the early twentieth. As Latin disappeared as a required high school class it appears any knowledge of Rome, the Greeks or even Shakespeare is disappearing - ah so it is either our expectation of a list is passé or there is a great cultural change that the media keeps referring to and it is real.

Ah ha, there are a few others who have lists and this is I think a better list that does include many of the books on the Reader's Digest list however, included are books that take a bit of effort that you can sink your teeth into. https://thegreatestbooks.org/ - oh my there are more than 200 - have not downloaded the entire list... well that says something - putting a list of 100 together is no easy fete.

[Frybabe]

What an odd list. I never heard of some of the authors/books and some I have had absolutely no interest in reading like Valley of the Dolls and as you say, Ginny, The Liar's Club. There are a few that are on my TBR list that somehow I have yet to get around to reading, like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. How could I have not read that yet? Two books I started but very quickly put down, East of Eden and Catcher in the Rye. The second one only lasted 10 pages before I put it down in disgust. A few authors I have read, but not the books on the list.

Will, do Ginny. There is one of Boin's books listed in my online library, the one about Alaric. This new one about Clodia is on my pre-order list.

Current reading: I am about to put aside on Goldsworthy's Anthony and Cleopatra. It isn't holding my interest. Or, I may just skip to the conflicts between him and Augustus and the ensuing battles. Otherwise, my next listen choice will be Boin's Alaric the Goth: An Outsider's History of the Fall of Rome. Day reading is Eugene Field's the previously mentioned The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac by Eugene Field, and for my evening read I picked out a volume of Keith Laumer's science fiction stories. Meanwhile, I am waiting on Adrian Tchaikovsky's The Doors of Eden to become available in my online library.

Today we have an air quality alert thanks to smoke from Canada's wildfires.