Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Appreciation

“Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.” ~ John Lennon

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” ~ Edith Wharton

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” ~ Melody Beattie

“Commonplaces never become tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious and appreciative.” ~ Norman Rockwell

“The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one’s appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship.” ~ Amelia Earhart

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Words

“I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine.”
― Emily Dickinson

“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.”
― John Greenleaf Whittier

“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly – they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Words are like eggs dropped from great heights; you can no more call them back than ignore the mess they leave when they fall.”
― Jodi Picoult, Salem Falls

“I’ve developed a great reputation for wisdom by ordering more books than I ever had time to read, and reading more books, by far, than I learned anything useful from, except, of course, that some very tedious gentlemen have written books.”
― Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Summer Reading

“Come with me,’ Mom says.
To the library.
Books and summertime
go together.”
― Lisa Schroeder, I Heart You, You Haunt Me

“One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”
― Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle

“The library in summer is the most wonderful thing because there you get books on any subject and read them each for only as long as they hold your interest, abandoning any that don’t, halfway or a quarter of the way through if you like, and store up all that knowledge in the happy corners of your mind for your own self and not to show off how much you know or spit it back at your teacher on a test paper.”
― Polly Horvath, My One Hundred Adventures

“The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The reader became the book; and summer night,

Was like the conscious being of the book.
The house was quiet and the world was calm.”
― Wallace Stevens

“But usually, I watched Linda read. I couldn’t believe she’d read so much in summer! Sometimes she laughed, reading her book, and one time she even cried. I didn’t know how anyone could make such a big deal about books.”― Alex Flinn, Beastly

Book Dragon · Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Fantasy

“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.”-Dr. Seuss

“One of the best things about folklore and fairy tales is that the best fantasy is what you find right around the corner, in this world. That’s where the old stuff came from.”-Terri Windling

“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”-Albert Einstein

“Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.”-Terry Pratchett

“The best fantasy does not offer an answer to our lives, it is an offering that acknowledges enough of the truth to resonate and add to the understanding about the human condition.”-Isobelle Carmody

Life Posts · Wordless Wednesdays

(Pathetic) Piggy Ponders…

This post is dedicated to the memory of my dear friend HW. We all miss you. Don’t worry, I’ll give Piggy a biscuit in your honor.

If she has enough blankets? (Obviously not.)

If she needs another nap? (Never enough naps.)

If she actually is a good girl? (Mostly yes.)

If the neighbors will continue walking without a Piggy permit? (Sorry, yes.)

If we’re going to share our dinner? (Sadly, no.)

If it’s cuddle time yet? (Probably yes.)

If anyone, anywhere truly loves her? (Obviously YES! Though she thinks no.)

Adventures · Book Dragon · Floating Bookshop

Nora Hazelhart’s Floating Bookshop- Character and Setting

*A solo RPG Adventure based on Ella Lim’s Fox Curio’s Floating Bookshop.

Character Description (Very Wind in the Willows-esque:)

Nora is a Capybara who has traveled around the world and is far from home, ready for a slower paced life. Nora is a stout capybara who has world weary eyes and has some gray fur about her muzzle. Despite that, she is strong from a life of adventure and doesn’t like to stay in one place for too long. She has independent means to do as she wishes, as she doesn’t need very much to keep her content. She loves reading and meeting new people. She’s fiercely protective of young ones and other vulnerable folx and uses being underestimated to her advantage when needed. 

Nora was born  on the 12 day of Brink (approximately autumn) Moon. She is creative and capable. She’s particular about her comforts and how others treat her and happiest when going on adventures or creating new things. She enjoys tinkering and since she has been on her own, knows a lot of random knowledge about a lot of things. She always wears overalls- for the pockets, most are slightly shabby and patched with creative patches. She has many cardigans and sweaters, some of which she has made and others that were gifts. She always has a book close by and has a small pair of glasses that perch on her nose. On very hot days, she wears a visor hat that looks like an old time accountant would wear. 

Nora has been staying in Thistledown, which is the town at the top of the river over the Brisk (Winter) moon. While there, she has discovered an abandoned riverboat/bookshop. She’s able to buy it after the previous owner had passed away.

Bookshop Description:

Excerpts from Nora’s Journal titled

A Dubious Beginning

The roof was a splintery mess- a 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. 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.

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 poof 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 light inside was books. Directly across from the door, I could see the edges of a bookshelf. Picking up my mage light lantern (open flames and houseboats don’t generally do well in the same spaces, after all.) A long curved desk sat to my left by the entrance with what appeared to be a half open door behind it.

Adventures · Life Posts · Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Love and Weirdness

“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whos weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness- and call it love- true love.” ― Robert Fulghum, True Love

It’s slightly ridiculous to think that 12 years and a day ago, the Husband and I decided that we matched each other’s weirdness and decided to call it love. Since then we’ve gone through happy times, sad times, ridiculously goofy times, and above all, together times! Happy Anniversary and many more adventures to come to us!