Merry Christmas

We're settling into the winter season in Metamora now. There will only be a few shops open on the weekends for several weeks now. And if we have a snow storm like the one we had last year, there may be no one open for weeks.

Since we live just up the road, Words & Images will be open from 12-5 most Saturdays and Sundays.

Christmas Walk is Here!

Another holiday season is underway in Metamora. We had a relatively nice weekend, Sunday was somewhat dreary and misting rain but temperate.

Currently I'm reading the the Konemann edition of Henry James The Aspern Papers and Other Stories. I'm a fan of the Konemann books, they are "pocket" sized and very well made. At home I'm reading a biography of Antoine de Saint Exupery (just had to go check the spelling on the shop's copy of Wind, Sand and Stars.)

Lately we've had quite a bit of interest in our Little Black Sambo books. We've sold several copies of the new reprint from Applewood books. It's a duplicate of the small format Platt & Munk, which used the same page layout and illustrations as the Lippincott edition. The cover is very glossy, and the illustrations are not quite as clear. Quite a few people seem to offer the Applewoods on Ebay at a premium price while they can be ordered directly from Applewood for around $7. We have some storybooks including the Sambo story with very nice illlustrations by Eualie, Johnny Gruelle and Fern Peat Bisel.

Helped my sister clean out her former husband's apartment after his death last month. She donated most of his books to the Friends of the Lexington public library, a large quantity of some very nice art books and a nice collection of work on music-especially blues and 70's Rock and Roll. There should be some very good values at their next book sale.

Another month rolls around

September is heading out, and the weather had turned to classic fall. Crisp sunny days, cool nights. My brother is coming up from Florida next week and was afraid the heat was staying too long and he wouldn't have any fall color to photograph. We can hope that the leaves start turning now.

Right now I'm reading the Library of America's collection of Edith Wharton stories. I really enjoy the heft and feel of their editions. I also picked up a couple of biographical works on Wharton last time I was at Half Price Books. Maybe I can get to them when the snow flies.

Art shows are still taking up a lot of time, and painting is cutting into reading time. Too bad I have to work for a living as well!

Next weekend is our annual madness here in Metamora--Canal Days. We can keep our fingers crossed that we have weather then like we're having today.

Humane Society Disaster Relief

We'd like to take this opportunity to remind people that family pets have been affected by hurricane Katrina as well. Go to https://secure.hsus.org/01/disaster_relief_fund_2005?source=drfhb4 to donate funds.

Tour de France

The end of the Armstrong Era of the Tour de France. I read in one story that Luke's comment right after this moment on the podium was "Daddy, can we go play now?" Here's hoping that Luke and the twins have many happy years of playing with daddy.

Shop Dog for the weekend

Gryff, the Lil Corgi pup, is shop dog for the weekend while sonandheir visits a friend in Milwaukee. Gryff reports that hanging out with the old folks is pretty boring. And having to deal with all those other dogs at the old homestead is stressful. But he's taking it all in stride. He hears that he should be checking into the Sneaky Pie Brown stories.

Walt Whitman

In the history communique online I found information about a Walt Whitman archive site that is exhaustive.

http://www.whitmanarchive.org

Since Leaves of Grass was first published in July 1855 this year is a significant anniversary and, according to the communique story, has witnessed a resurgence of interest in Whitman.

Great Book Site

I just found a great site for looking up titles and authors. http://www.online-literature.com/

Reading Time

For some reason there seems to be less time to sit and read this year. I don't know if it's the increased pace of the art activity or what to attribute it to. Whatever it is, I'm just not getting much reading done this summer.

In the shop right now I'm working on The Ironing Board by Christopher Morley, a compilation of some of his magazine work. He's an author that I've always enjoyed reading, but definately not a household name. His Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop are probably the only two titles that even get mentioned any more. And then just as novelty items about the book trade.

On the art front. I have work up at Eagle Creek Reservoir for a weekend show. Brother Jim just sent in another box of photos that we need to get prepared for his entries in the Indiana Wildlife Artist show, and I have Open Space (benefiting the RedHawk conservancy) coming up. In August we're setting up at the Art in the Park event in Irvington. In the end of September I'm looking forward to the Postcard show in Rising Sun since they are returning to the paint out format this year.

A Breathing Space

Both 1838 Days and the Hillforest Gala have come and gone, so things are a bit quieter right now. I celebrated by reading a Maeve Binchy this week: Quentins. Not one of her strongest efforts in my opinion. My shop reading right now is One Day at Kitty Hawk, a recounting of the Wright brothers' aeronautical experiments. Not everyone realizes there is an Indiana connection with the Wrights since their father served a church in east central Indiana at one time, they are primarily regarded as Ohio boys.

Lanternguy is reading a Louis L'amour...again.

Thanks to Brian at Monarch Books in North Carolina we were able to order a complete group of the Bazil Broketail books for Sonandheir. His were lost in his fire last year and he was disappointed to find that they were out of print.

Where does the time go?

I finally finished off Alexander Hamilton--Burr shot him and the book ended. Followed by pages of notes and index.

Meanwhile I'm up to about five issues of The New Yorker unread. I signed up for two free courses on BNU, Business Etiquette and the reading group for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I'm not making much progress there either.

Lanternguy is reading Betty Zane by Zane Grey. The founding family of Zanesville, OH presented by the family novelist. We actually have a fair number of people that continue to read Grey's works. Lanternguy owns over fifty of the editions published by Walter Black, and recently we've found there are a couple more out there that we're missing.

Time is also occupied by making clothing for the fast upcoming Celebrate 1838 event that is being inaugarated in Metamora this year, paintings for the Brush with History event that will be benefiting the Hillforest mansion in Aurora, IN.

A 5K to Benefit Kenton County Library

Just ran across information about a 5K in June to Benefit the Kenton County Kentucky Library. Go to http://www.kenton.lib.ky.us/race/index.html for more info.

A Riot of Daffodils along the wall 

Spring is here

The daffodils are blooming their heads off this year.

I just finished Nights in London by Thomas Burke. He strikes me as being one of those rather precious young brits. It was first published in 1915 and the "popular edition" I read was done by Henry Holt Co in 1918 so it's from that timeframe just prior to The Great War. Essays on his rambles through the neighborhoods of London. Without knowing his biography I would guess he was a newspaper writer of the era.

Cousin Amy was here this week and listened to Graham Greene's The Quiet American on tape during her trip down. She highly recommends it, I was surprised to find that we have none of his work in the shop.

I'm still working on catching up with the New Yorker backlog. Almost through Mar 21st.

A week gone by

Started on the Evangeline Walton welsh stories. Now that I've seen them I'm not sure why they were published separately, they're none too long. All four together might make a hefty tome, and fit right in with such things as The Once and Future King and the single volume versions of the Lord of the Rings.

Otherwise I've been trying to catch up on my New Yorkers. About four weeks behind right now. The advantage to that is that when I finish one and start the next I understand the letters to the editor much better than if it had been a week since I read the magazine.

Lanternguy is still studying his American Clocks and Clockmakers. The Seth Thomas Ogee clock is back from the repairman and seems to have sufficient internal evidence to support a circa 1850 date. Previous repair dates of 1909 and 1940 were noted inside the case.

Son and heir has started a blog for his new puppy at Xanga.com/Gryff. Such a cutie!

Eudora Welty

Quick read last night, The Optimist's Daughter. Welty shares that evocative texture of writing with Faulkner and Wolfe, but seems more concise and spare in her treatment. I have a volume of her collected stories on the to-be-read pile.

Finished the Wheels of Commerce, now the decision is whether to start volume three or polish off some lighter reading. Three may actually be the most approachable since it is the survey of world history--which reminds me of such favorites as H.G. Wells Outline of History and the works of Hendrik van Loon.

Son and heir bought a corgi last week and is considering names. In research on Welsh names I discovered that there is a four volume set by Evangeline Walton based on The Mabinogen Cycle.

Thackery wrap up

Finished the Hoggarty Diamond. A cautionary tale, warning against the evils of depending on speculation and the expectations of inheritance to make your fortune. Angelic love interest and sickly infant who dies promptly.

I've also discovered that Stewart Edward White, whom I've always thought of as a writer of western and outdoor themes, has a vein of books dealing with spiritualism. Just thought that was interesting.

Picked up a group of Misty of Chincoteague books from Wilson Book Research. Brings back fond memories of all the Marguerite Henry books I read. I never did get my son interested in those. As a matter of fact the other evening we were looking for his Lloyd Alexander books and ran across a set of the Mary O'Hara Flicka books and his only comment was that they were depressing. We never did find the Chronicles of Prydain we were looking for, I wonder where I've filed them?

Thackery

Finished Barry Lyndon and since The Great Hoggarty Diamond was in the same volume I've moved on to it. When you haven't read them for a while it's easy to forget how much fun the stories the victorian novelists like Dickens and Thackery were.

Still working on the Braudel as well, but haven't spent too much time there this week. Just getting through the New Yorker is a challenge most weeks, and I think I have about three issues backed up there. I also picked up some Booth Tarkington titles on Ebay lately that I wanted to read before I put them into inventory.

Lanternguy is looking through a history of American clockmakers that I picked up in a box of books at a local auction. He took an ogee shelf clock to a local repairman who told him it was a Gilbert Thomas clock, but we can't seem to find that name listed anywhere. He's not given as one of the Seth Thomas sons, and there is another Gilbert clock company.

Moving On

Finished P.J. and I think that about all that can be said is that he grew up, got a job, gained weight, fathered children and morphed into a republican.

There was a copy of Betty McDonald's The Egg and I in a box of books I was working through this past weekend. It's supposed to be a humorous look at egg ranching in Washington State, but scenarios of wifey washing dishes while hubby sits backs and smokes after both have spent the entire day building/plowing/whatever-farm-work make me wonder why she stayed.

I need to get back to the Alexander Hamilton bio I was working on, but I'm not sure where I left it. Somewhere in the office I think. Slogging through explanations of the development of the American financial systems is not quite what I expected, I thought he was supposed to have had an interesting personal life. You don't get shot at dawn at Weehawken by Burr for messing with the currency systems. Do you?

P.J. and the old Car & Driver

Yesterday I overlooked the fact that I'm about halfway through Age and Guile beat Youth, Innocence and a Bad Haircut by P.J. O'Rourke.

I became a fan of P.J.'s years ago when he wrote for Car & Driver under the editorship of David E. Davis. At that time there was a group of fine writers contributing regularly, many of whom moved to Automobile with Davis. The next time I noticed P.J. he had made the switch to Republican conservative, but still wrote with wit and style. So, even though I don't agree with his politics, I enjoy reading his work. I'm hoping somewhere in this book I'll find out what turned him to the dark side.

Starting Out

Right now I'm working through Braudel's Wheels of Commerce, interesting but dry.

For recreational reading I have the Library of America edition of Edith Wharton's Short Stories.

I'm thinking of looking around to see if I have a copy of Thackery's Barry Lyndon somewhere. It was featured last week on the Page a Day calendar and sounded as if it might be a fun read.

The Lantern Guy is reading another one of his Louis L'Amour books, again.