CountryMouse's Refuge

St. Swithin's Day. This has not much to do with religion but a LOT to do with weather! (Edited: this is the quote from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden)

"St. Swithin’s Day if it do rain
For forty days it will remain.
St. Swithin's Day an it be fair
For forty days t'will rain nae mair."

I think it's going to be dry dry dry here today. And getting hotter. :-/

I spent a couple hours finishing trying to reconstruct my booklist--books I have read. I kept it faithfully for years and years, then just...stopped sometime in 2003.

I eventually started keeping fairly accurate records in my CM's Diary. But all I can find for 2004 is two books: The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (read aloud to me by the Cat'r) and The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (actually a reread for me).

I see I started a bad habit in 2005: starting books but then letting them languish. I've read parts of books, dipped into informational books (but I can't say I've actually read them in their entirety), and I also have two or three books still hanging around waiting to be finished. It's like knitting and crocheting--too many UFO's (unfinished objects). I used to make myself finish a book no matter HOW deadly dull it was or how much I didn't like it. I even had to have a bear with me (Stutz Beary-Bear) to hug and squeeze and help me out while I was finishing Silence of the Lambs (I can't believe I read that! Ack!) in earlier years. But I *did* finish it. I don't know if that was simply an endurance test or what. I can't believe I read H.P. Lovecraft in *much* earlier years. Eep!

So now I seem to be down to about 20 or so books a year. :-/ I am not reading as much as I used to, which was more around 50 books a year...although it could be really variable.

But at least I am keeping a written list once again of books read. I stopped using an old old notebook (with yellowing paper) and moved over to a beautiful Clairefontaine cloth-bound notebook.

Next task: get back to adding all these books to my shelf at Shelfari. I left off at the beginning of 1995. Lots more to do!

Bunnicula was hunting high and low to find the other fountain pens he knew he had *some*where. He found them!

He found a yellow Sheaffer school pen I'd given him; a black Parker Vector he'd bought downtown in January 2004 (he got me a dark blue one); a blue-and-silver ("Earth Blue") Itoya Galaxy fountain pen (I had to research this to see what kind it was!); AND an extra Lamy dark blue (sky) Safari with medium nib which he already has one of! So he gave the extra to me! Yay!

This afternoon I will start the cleaning/flushing out.

What I have been twittering about today:

• 07:10 Up early. No Keith last night, maybe not for the entire week. ::sob:: #
• 07:54 Today is St. Swithin's Day. countrymouse.insanejournal.com/726717.html #
• 10:12 @zik Hope you're feeling better Real Soon Now! #
• 15:22 @Karoli I missed Obama's speech! Hope it ends up on his site and/or YouTube! #
• 15:44 @indigonightbird Animal Crossing for the Wii! Thanks for posting! This is the REAL reason I bought a Wii last summer!! #
• 20:03 @indigonightbird Wahoo! Thank you for sending the link! Please keep me updated! I so love this game! You CAN go home again and again! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter