As the current year winds down, I find myself craving a bit of "ordinary", the non-festive pursuits such as picking up the newspaper from my front steps and enjoying it with a cup of hazelnut coffee.
All is snow-covered outdoors, but that means I have a greater appreciation for the African violet which has decided to bloom after a long reluctance to do so. It must like its new home under the countertop lighting.
It's about time to return books to the library and find a new stack of reading material. The collection in the photograph seems a rather incongruous one, but I've been thinking about whether I'd go to see
Saving Mr. Banks (have you?) hence the
Mary Poppins book. I saw the
Mary Poppins movie as a child and distinctly recall leaping over the basement furniture in a girlfriend's house while she played
Chim Chimney on the record player.
As for the Louise Penny mysteries, I think I have a bit of a crush on Inspector Gamache.
One little treat to look forward to is this book, a present I gave myself, one that will carry me off to the English countryside.
A bit of reading, a bit of blogging, a bit of walking in the crisp winter air on this sunny day . . .
Ordinary pleasures.
Thank you for stopping by today.
Reminder: For those interested, ☀Sunlit Sunday will resume on January 5, 2014 and run for 3 months. All are welcome to participate.
It has been a lovely, quiet day, just perfect for curling up with my current knitting project. The back of this sweater is plain knitting, the front is an all-over cable design and I'm about 75% finished this section.
There was just one problem with the notion of sitting peacefully and carrying on knitting, purling, and fiddling with the cable needle.
A distraction.
In the form of a novel.
As of a couple of days ago, after weeks of being on the library waiting list, the volume I had been waiting for became mine.
If you enjoy a good mystery and have yet to read Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series, this is the first book. The protagonist is intelligent, observant, patient, compassionate, imperfect, and insightful: "Crime was deeply human, Gamache knew. The cause and the effect. And the only way he knew to catch a criminal was to connect with the human beings involved." (pg. 87)
I had already read A Beautiful Mystery, Penny's second-last book, and was completely captivated by her writing style, plot development, and the well drawn characters. Clearly, I had to go back to the first novel and start making my way through all of them. I didn't knit a stitch today. I was in Québec, in the village of Three Pines. Immersed.
Absorbed.
Staying there until I knew, along with the villagers, who had committed murder.
I can always knit tomorrow. In a few days, I'll head to the library for Dead Cold. This sweater could take awhile.
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