In the news today, Strawberry Fields, the spot that sparked John Lennon’s imagination and led to their great song will be opening to the public soon. You will be able to walk the gardens and grounds and there is a visitor center with interactive exhibits that highlight Lennon’s early life.
According to the story, about 60,000 visitors gather at the gates to Strawberry Fields every year.
What spot inspired by song would YOU like to visit?
I get an email every day from Dictionary.com with a “Word of the Day”. Then on Mondays there is a quiz of the last seven days worth of words. And occasionally there are other emails about word-related things. Last week there was an email with a link to “Words All Book Lovers Should be Using”. You know I can’t resist that.
Here are the words.
How many of them do you know? How many of them describe YOU? Any other words you think all book lover should be using?
Overheard outside my library last Monday (the electronic book return was full/closed):
“Oh no – it’s a library emergency. My book is overdue.”
I was able to reassure her that a Monday holiday is the same as a Sunday… as long as you your book is physically inside the library before it opens for business next, even using the old-fashioned non-electronic book drop (which I was able to show her), you don’t get docked. She told me that she had kept it as long as possible so she could finish it before it was due. I completely get it.
What was the last book you rushed to finish?
Last week when I was in Madison, my friend and I spent a couple of hours yakking in her bedroom. At one point she had to take a phone call so I was left to let my mind wander. That was when I noticed that all her books are sorted first by fiction/non-fiction and then alphabetically by author and THEN alphabetically by title.
Except for putting titles by the same author together (mostly), my books are not categorized at all. My fiction and non-fiction are wantonly cavorting together and nothing is alphabetized at all. I feel so inadequate.
Do you have your books organized? Tell me how?
I read with a great deal of amusement about the redheaded two year old who drove his electric John Deere tractor to the Chisago County Fair. He made the national news and it was a relief to see something fun in the media for a change.
He is certainly an enterprising youngster, and I am glad his adventure was a safe one. I only hope this isn’t something that people bring up for the rest of his life.
I hope there are other, more edifying things that will define him. It would be terrible to be branded as a wild man at age two.
Tell about your experiences at the fair.
The cats and I noticed something alarming in the garden this morning-a large flock of Chipping Sparrows fluttering around the pea fences. (Well, I was alarmed. The cats were merely curious.)
I usually see birds flocking around the time school starts in mid to late August. It is only mid to late July, and I certainly hope that this isn’t a portent for an early winter. Our garden is a couple of weeks behind as it is, and we will need as many frost-free days as we can get for a good harvest.
How good are you at predicting things?
On Tuesday afternoon I stopped at the library and it started to rain a bit right then. As I was leaving, I was behind a young mom and her daughter, who was maybe 7 or 8. As they reached the end of the covered portico, the mom said “It’s sprinkling a little. There must be a rainbow somewhere.”
Most people would say “run quick to the car” or “let’s get home before it really starts”, perfectly acceptable. But I was struck by this mother’s wonderful way of looking at life. It there is rain, there must be a rainbow.
What adage would you like to live by?
