May Garden Pics

Working on the Instagram photo challenge hosted by Sweet Domesticity, I caught this shot of my thyme one evening:

#thyme in the sloping bed out back - such a dainty texture #garden365

A photo posted by edud5 (@edud5) on Apr 28, 2015 at 5:02pm PDT

I once read that to get the best shots of your garden, you should try getting out first thing in the morning, or last thing before the sun sets - this one was taken at just the right time.

Book sale haul

One of my favorite events of the year is the Brantford Symphony Orchestra book sale, which happens every April. Book donations are collected and sorted for weeks before the sale, and it is fair to say there are thousands of items. This year's venue was the closed Brantford campus of Mohawk College, but it has also been hosted at closed factories and schools.

Books are priced between 50 cents and roughly 5 dollars, though there are plenty of 25 cent finds and the rare book that costs more.

This year I arrived within half an hour of opening. I was so excited I could hardly stand to park the car; I wanted to run inside, to stop people from getting to my wonderful book deals. In addition to very keen readers, opening day is also marked by dealers pushing around shopping carts filled with books, with boxes of more books piled on top.

This year I walked away with 16 books, 5 patterns and a tape of awesome hits from the early 90s for $28.50. That is about 10 dollars more than I usually spend, but this year I started looking at the 3 and 4 dollar books (which I usually set aside because of their "high price" and then regret this foolishness when I get back home).

Please don't judge me for the Twilight books - as an MLIS holder I consider it a kind of research to read the YA smash hits.

Though I am very excited about my patterns, my favorite score at the book fair was a beautifully laid out Audubon bird book. I have been looking for an affordable source of Audubon prints for our living room, and this book almost appears to be made for it - one picture per page,  high quality paper. If I can bring myself to cut it up.

The spring thing

I took a break from blogging during our kitchen reno, as we lived out of our car until my cousins in Toronto warmly welcomed us. Now that we're back it is obvious spring has overcome this small town.

Looking forward to writing more as daylight extends.