Adventures · Wordless Wednesdays

Wordless Wednesday- Year in Review

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Here’s some collages representing all the joy that I’ve found this year!

Time spent with good friends and family fun!

Delicious food, including first taste of sushi and a personal breakfast pie!

Being creative! I have done more than embroidery, but these were the most fun things to make.

Adventures, trips, and the beauty of nature!

It’s nice to be working somewhere that I enjoy going into work and for people that respect my boundaries and recognize my outside the box thinking skills as positive. Also somewhere where my plants are happy. 🙂

And last, but not least! Piggy! We couldn’t forget our ridiculous, loving, and goofy Piggy! Even if she’s sometimes a little gremlin.

Adventures · Floating Bookshop

Nora Hazelhart’s Floating Bookshop

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Here’s a short excerpt from my journaling experiment, the floating bookshop solo RPG! To set the scene, it is the first day of activity in the bookshop. Nora is prepping the boat to be able to travel down the river. The villagers are both nosy and excited to see the book boat getting ready again.

The way the game works is that you draw cards and roll a dice to give you the prompt for the events of the day, the weather, and the number and type of customers you rolled. This will also not be edited. I’m working on the “writing is best” theory, so aren’t really concerning myself with editing right now other than basics.

Optional Prompts to follow for the day- Cleaning and reorganizing the book shop.

Card prompts- Thunderstorms in morning, then clear and breezy. Dice prompt- Nora meets a fisher folx. (Not written here)

Nora’s letter to her friend:

“Mayor Banks and I made our way to the bank of the river where the bookshop rested in its slip. I had the first glimmers of doubt upon seeing it as a somewhat impulsive purchase I made. It didn’t help that it was currently thundering loudly with crackles of lightning brightening the river around us. Not exactly the auspicious day I was looking for to start a new venture. I was tired of aimlessly wandering through and it seemed like this might be the perfect chance to wander with purpose, meeting new people and experiencing new places. 

The roof was a splintery, faded mess of patchy paint and dry wood. The sides of the boat looked intact, but definitely needed a new paint job and perhaps a deeper inspection by a carpenter or boat maker, just to make sure of its river worthiness. The window facing the dock was patched with what looked like oil cloth on the outside. Even the sign looked poorly kept. I could tell it was charmingly carved, but some of the letters and the sign itself had succumbed to the weather so now it hung at a lazy angle and stated “ook op” in faded wood letters. The whole boat looked a little hodgepodge and while I didn’t normally mind that look, it was a bit more daunting up close.“

A description of the inside of the book shop (unnamed at this point in my story, but don’t worry, I have a lovely name planned.)

Struggling with the cabin door, which seemed to be swollen shut against the humidity along the river, I didn’t answer directly, just gave a vague nod in her direction. Then straining, I pulled at the door and much to my surprise, it finally gave way, almost knocking me back into the mayor. A pouf of dust came out, making me cough and I cautiously peeked my head in for the first look at my new home. 

The first thing I saw in the dim inside was books. Directly across from the door, I could see the edges of a bookshelf. A long curved desk sat to my left by the entrance with what appeared to be a half open door behind it.

Stepping inside, I coughed a little from the dust we’d kicked up and stumbled over to what looked like a window to open it. Mayor Banks did the same to a window on the other side. Looking up, I could see that the roof had a skylight in it, but it looked to be in bad repair. I would have to get at that from the outside. At least with the windows open, there was some additional light and it would hopefully clear the musty air. 

Mayor Banks was looking around at the walls and pointed out a few lanterns. “They’re probably mage lights as you wouldn’t want open flame amongst the books on a windy day!” she said, “I can have Master Rose from the Monastery to come refresh them if needed, but let’s just check them for now.” As she turned the switch a weak light came out and she moved around the boat looking for more as I did the same. Soon, there was enough light between the windows and the mage lanterns to see to not run into things. 

Mayor Banks leaves shortly after this- she’s late to her own council meeting! Nora continues to explore the book shop and living quarters on the boat.

Standing in the center of the shop, I looked around more closely to get my bearings. It was slightly strange feeling the rocking of the boat, but not unpleasant. I anticipated it would be lovely to be rocked to sleep this way. 

I had decided to leave the bookshop how it had been set up for now, mainly because I knew I would need additional hands to move everything. For now, there was a small kit area next to the checkout desk with two smaller bookshelves beside it. A work table graced the back corner across from it. The three main bookshelves were lined up parallel to each other and the check out desk with the fifth bookshelf flat against the wall in the opposite corner. A cozy reading nook with two couches, a lovely square rug, and a fake plant were in the corner right next to the door. Overall, it was a layout that invited others to browse and maybe read a little. -End of Day-

I’ll fill in some more detail later, but it’s quite a charming place! I hope you’ve enjoyed your little glimpse into Nora’s life.

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Recognize

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“If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.”-Margaret Mead

“I tend to think you’re fearless when you recognize why you should be scared of things, but do them anyway.”-Christian Bale

“It is always sad to write about prejudice, but sometimes when we see it being played out in the lives of fictional characters, we can recognize it in our own lives.”-Katherine Paterson

“It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.”-Lucille Ball

“In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.”-Audre Lorde

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Time

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“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“I’d like to grow very old as slowly as possible.”-Charles Lamb

“The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order the continuous thread of revelation.”-Eudora Welty

“Time was something that largely happened to other people; he viewed it in the same way that people on the shore viewed the sea. It was big and it was out there, and sometimes it was an invigorating thing to dip a toe into, but you couldn’t live in it all the time. Besides, it always made his skin wrinkle.”
― Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

“One doesn’t recognize the really important moments in one’s life until it’s too late.”-Agatha Christie

Book Dragon

Simple Sunday- Libraries

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*Dedicated to K2 and my favorite childhood librarian who let me check out all the books.

“When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.”-Isaac Asimov

“A library implies an act of faith.”-Victor Hugo


“Cutting libraries during a recession is like cutting hospitals during a plague.”-Eleanor Crumblehulme 

“The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.”-Albert Einstein 

“Children have to have access to books, and a lot of children can’t go to a store and buy a book. We need not only our public libraries to be funded properly and staffed properly, but our school libraries. Many children can’t get to a public library, and the only library they have is a school library.”- Katherine Paterson


“Bad libraries build collections, good libraries build services, great libraries build communities.”-R. David Lankes 

“I’m of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.”-Barbara Kingsolver

Adventures · Wordless Wednesdays

Art In The Elements Pt. 1- Dracula

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This was the winning one (not surprising!) from the exhibition and it needs it’s own post because there were so many cool details. You walked through the path with all the red roses and stuff on the left and the other things on the right, starting with the small candle piece. I took so many pictures that you’re getting them all in pieces because there were too many amazing artworks to fit in one post!

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Explore!

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“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”- T.S. Eliot

“I like writers who can show me worlds I know nothing about, but my favorites are those who create characters or worlds which feel realistic and familiar to me, or who can make me feel inspired.”-Malala Yousafzai

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”-C. S. Lewis

“Kids should be allowed to break stuff more often. That’s a consequence of exploration. Exploration is what you do when you don’t know what you’re doing.”-Neil deGrasse Tyson

“The drills we do, where you’re telling kids to memorize things, don’t actually work. What works is engaging them and letting them do things and discover things.”-Mae Jemison

“Successful creative adults seem to combine the wide-ranging exploration and openness we see in children with the focus and discipline we see in adults.”-Alison Gopnik

Book Dragon · Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Read Banned Books

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“All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.” ― George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession

“The burning of a book is a sad, sad sight, for even though a book is nothing but ink and paper, it feels as if the ideas contained in the book are disappearing as the pages turn to ashes and the cover and binding–which is the term for the stitching and glue that holds the pages together–blacken and curl as the flames do their wicked work. When someone is burning a book, they are showing utter contempt for all of the thinking that produced its ideas, all of the labor that went into its words and sentences, and all of the trouble that befell the author…” ― Lemony Snicket, The Penultimate Peril

“Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won’t have as much censorship because we won’t have as much fear.” ― Judy Blume

. “What I tell kids is, Don’t get mad, get even. Don’t spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead, run, don’t walk, to the nearest nonschool library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned. Read whatever they’re trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that’s exactly what you need to know.” ―Stephen King

“A dangerous book will always be in danger from those it threatens with the demand that they question their assumptions. They’d rather hang on to the assumptions and ban the book.” ―Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination

“You know what they say: When people start burning books they’ll soon burn human beings.”
— Cornelia Funke

“Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of ‘The Giver’: the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all.”
— Lois Lowry

Uncategorized

Simple Sunday- Hope

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“Hope will never be silent.”-Harvey Milk

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules.”-Greta Thunburg

“Strange as it may seem, I still hope for the best, even though the best, like an interesting piece of mail, so rarely arrives, and even when it does it can be lost so easily.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Beatrice Letters

“So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow.”-Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”
― Barack Obama

“You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for his own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.”-Marie Curie