Two weeks left in the school quarter. We are getting down to the nitty gritty. Time to start building my final website. I decided to call it “Brrr” with a subhead of “How to Survive Winter in MN.” As I imagine it right now it will have a white and blue-gray and silver-gray color scheme. I’m looking for fonts that evoke snow or cold in some way to use at least for the headings. There will be snowflakes and snow scenes and lots of advice for newcomers to the cold. And I hope I can manage to create a sort of primer on how to assume the proper MN attitude toward the winter and the cold (builds character!). We’ll see how it goes.

Over the long weekend I managed to find the time to get some reading in. I began reading the next Slaves of Golconda book, The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton. I don’t usually read the introduction of a book until after I have read the book, but since I knew nothing about author or book I decided to read the intro by David Lodge. I have not read any of Lodge’s books but I am now determined to read him based on how considerate he is in the Slaves introduction. He gives a nice bio of Hamilton and a contextual background for the book and then–gasp!–he says he is going to give stuff away about the plot so if the reader doesn’t want to know stop there and come back later. I wanted to hug the man! My Bookman thinks I am a little loopy for being so excited about Lodge’s introductory kindness. But what it says to me is the man is a reader as well as a writer. He knows and understands from experience how frustrating it is to find out the ending before one has even read the beginning. If he shows such consideration in an introduction, what must his fiction be like? I think I have one of his books around here in a pile somewhere…

I also began reading The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift. I was going to wait until school was done but I needed something soothing and restful and thought this would to the trick. And has it ever. I am not far into it but is it ever a lovely book. After spending so much time outdoors in the garden this weekend Swift resonates even more. Oh, and she is/was a rare books librarian too! How cool is that? As much as I love gardening, I am not sure I would have the stamina to pursue the creation of a garden on a couple acres of land and spend all day working in it almost everyday. I’d be willing to try though especially if I could retire to my barn that was converted to a library with a fireplace and cozy reading nooks at the end of the day. Hey, if I am going to dream, I might as well dream big!