Reading list #4 2021

I had a streak going on my kindle of reading 484 days in a row.  I broke that streak when I was helping 2 of my brothers clean out our dad's house.  Then it was time spent sorting through stuff and reading through all the paper bits that Mom, and Grandma saved.  Some evenings I was too worn out to read a book.  My weekly streak is still going but not my daily streak.   Hubby was also off on a hunting adventure so I could spread my piles of save and toss all over the house.  I have reorganized most of it now have have found shelves to store things and maybe someday when everyone feels safe traveling again I will get together with my cousins and we can got through this stuff again and laugh.

I didn't realize how much time I spend reading in the evening while hubby is changing channels.  The latest reading list:

1. True Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie her first Miss Marple mystery first published in 1930. I’m going to read more of her books
2. Letters of Freedom by Jean Grainger a rewrite of this book exploring Carmel Sheehan’s character. Then I reread the second book The Future’s Not Ours To See the first 12 or 13 chapters were at the end of her rewritten book so I started there. I really didn’t see that much was added to the story. Maybe if I had read them more recently I would have noticed the additions but I didn’t.
3. The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah depression era story drought and dust storms west Texas packing up and moving to California. Very good
4. A Legacy of Murder by Connie Berry book 2 American antique dealer goes to England to visit her daughter and gets mixed up in a murder mystery.
5. Murder in Nice by Susan Kiernan-Lewis murder mystery with lots of twists in Nice France.
6. Accept My Word by Linda  Hubalek western romance takes place in 1890 in western Kansas, short feel good story
7. Lyme by Mary Beth Pfeiffer about spreading  tick born infections and our changing climate
8. The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin fiction blizzard in Dakota Territory and Nebraska in 1888.  for book club
9. A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear Maisie Dobbs mystery book 11.
10. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne DuMaurier great story and writing. Every word was important. 
11. Spindle City by Jotham Burrello about the textile industry in New England in early 1900’s. Not a great read. 
12. The Long Haul by Finn Murphy for book club, non fiction about long distanct truckers specifically movers.  This was particularly interesting to me because I have been moved four times by professional movers.  Only one mover had some negative hiccups.
13. Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear Maisie Dobbs mystery book 12
14. All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot this has been my book to read to keep my kindle reading streak going because each chapter is more like a short story.
15. Blame it on Scotland by Patience Griffin romance, quilters, woolen mill sounded like a perfect story a young woman is on an errand to return a quilt to her mother's cousin in Scotland,  I was looking forward to some family history but it was mostly about the hot and cold romance with the guy in the kilt. disappointing.

Another treasure

Another family treasure, this was in my brother's pile then he passed it to me.  The question is who made it and when.  My mother and grandmother frequently pinned notes on things so someone in the future would know something about the items.  No such note on this.  It could have been knit by my mother but I don't remember her working on it and it is too similar to another blanket she knit of the same pattern.  My Grandma Elsie could have knit it but she was a very loose knitter and this is tight.  It also has a fringe and crocheted edge. Grandma Elsie never crocheted that I can remember or added fringes.  I can't remember Grandma Selma ever knitting, she quilted, she made things with pinecones and she did ceramics at different times but no knitting.  However her sister Lillian was a knitter and a rug hooker not the shaggy kind but dense little loop kind of rug hooking. My best guess is that Lillian made it 30 or 40 years ago.  Its a nice size to throw over my legs when I'm reading.   And I'll write a note and pin it to the blanket.             --Ann--

on the needles

 

New sweater on the needles  this is the hand dyed yarn I bought in Montana this past summer.  I knit the same pattern (link to sweater and pattern post) last fall and love the way it fits so I'm knitting it again. Looking foreward to sweater weather  --Ann--

Checkerboard

I finished this months ago but was waiting for fall to post it. The last of the 3 inch squares from wedding quilt I made for son and daughter-in-law in 2019.  All the blocks but one or two are miss matched.  I can see two little girls playing checkers or some made up game on this quilt someday.  Just a simple arc from corner to corner in all the little squares. And now all the strips and squares have been used!! However there might still be some yardage left in the stash.  --Ann--

Changing of quilts

 

I like to hang onto every last minute of summer even though I do love autumn.  Over the weekend I brought the ladder in and changed the quilts on the walls to the fall colors.  One of the quilts I took down was mostly hand quilted (click) I am always amazed at how much lighter and hand quilted quilt is compared to one I machine quilted.  Can a double line of thread, top and bottom, really wiegh that much?  Little things I wonder about  --Ann--

What's important here

 I was going through loose photos and cards too.  This candid shot caught my attention.  The television is in the center of the photo turned off,  everyone is amused by something..... not the tv.  No one looks at the camera.  It was attached to their Christmas card.  --Ann--

another scrap book

 The scrap book was a gift to my grandpa, Dec. 1908.  Its all post cards he received  from family and friends  They are fun to look at no syndicated cartoon characters back then.  --Ann--

Everyday amusements

I have found a half dozen or so scrap books some my mother made as a child and some her mother made mostly of newspaper clippings but also brain teasers and puzzles the very same puzzles you find on social media. There are pages of bird illustrations with an article, she colored the birds with crayons or colored pencils.  The Easter picture she used water color.  I guess scrapbooking is what they did in the evening when they were listening to the radio and there were very few children's books available and who could afford them during the depression years.  Then I flip through the book and see the outline of her little foot and hand with the date and Mickey Mouse, she and Mickey were born the same year.  How do I toss something like that?!?

I remember when my mother was cleaning out grandma's house  and Mom saying many many times "this should have been thrown away years ago."  Did she do it??  No! I get too.  Or not.  Then I have to find a space for it.  Reminiscing --Ann--

P.S. I still have the scrapbook I made with my Grandma back in the early 60's and I will never throw it away.

Vintage knitting

Knitting from the 1970's.  My mother was a knitter and knit this pillow, was a sweater first for my youngest brother.  I think the yarn was more acrylic than wool.  She also knit the lower sweater either for my dad or oldest brother it was very heavy and almost too warm to wear in the house.

  

It cost a little over $25.00 for the yarn and pattern.  What a deal!  Still sorting through the stuff and its all really good stuff.  I now have all her aluminum knitting needles too.  --Ann--

Derailed

My brother send me a text last weekend and derailed my whole week.  Our dad passed away 8 years ago so we cleaned out the house to a point because my son moved into it.  Son has since moved out and long discussion as to what to do with the house..........long story short we have a renter so we needed to clear out the rest of the stuff.  Hauling stuff to the pile for the dump, hauling stuff to my car then into my house because its all really good stuff. Then clean the house son owes me a cleaning deposit or at least a big bouquet of flowers for my upcoming birthday really I should get two bouquets. Then sort through the stuff at home and start another pile for the dump.  One of the treasures was this little quilt made by my Grandma, her embroidery and quilting stitches are so tiny and even.  It has a wool batting so it is thick.

 Then I have been going through the family history photo books and scrap books.  The things they did before computers and social media but that is for another day.

 

Darling daughter was home for the weekend and helped look through things a little bit she will have more interest when she is 50. We did take a little diversion to go downtown shopping and out to eat.  Then she downloaded the Broadway musical Come from Away loosely based on the book The Day the World came to Town about Gander, Newfoundland and 9/11.  It was very good. --Ann--

Knitting on the road

 A little mid week road trip to close up the camper for the year and knitting on the road.  A good 3 hours of knitting on the way up and as many hours on the way home.  What progress!! Then as I was knitting a round at home I thought I should try it on. The neck is a bit snug. It’s really snug too snug for wool, I might like to wear a shirt or t neck underneath.  So I ripped it took less than an hour.  And now I can start over, make some notes, go up in needle size or use the same needles and go up a pattern size or find a different pattern.  I’ll knit something else while I think about it.  

Some days are like that.  

--Ann--