marshmallows & library books, but not together

~ working yesterday afternoon ~

We hiked through the woods yesterday with the dogs, collecting river driftwood and generally loving the signs of spring ~ skunk cabbage and the occasional red-tailed hawk. Donovan rolled in something nasty at sunset and got his first spring bath when we got home. 

The other night as we watched the full moon rise, we gathered around a creekside fire to poke sticks through marshmallows with the little cousins and try to get that perfect golden-brown. I remembered an instance involving toasted marshmallows last summer when camping with Tim. Now, I grew up toasting marshmallows but apparently Tim did not, which I did not know till that moment, for as his marshmallow dropped off his stick into the coals, he watched with sudden trepidation as it swelled to huge proportions. He suddenly shielded his face while yelling It's like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man!! and lunged back away from the fire, expecting the mallow to explode into flaming, piping-hot bits...as it did in Ghostbusters. When things like that happen I usually just sit back and laugh till I cry. So I did.

In these warmer delightfully springy days, I've been reading a lot of nature-themed books ~ the type where the author is writing about their own experiences, so it's full of stories. I would recommend Of Time and An Island and On Watching Birds, both of which I stumbled across at a thrift shop. When I find a good book that way, I know it was meant to be. I also found a great children's book, The Saturdays, in which I discovered these sentences: "All over the house suitcases gaped open hungrily and two ancient trunks were being slowly fed, bit by bit: delicious morsels such as Oliver's overalls, Mona's party dress, assorted bathing suits, six pairs of sneakers, Beethoven's Sonatas, the Milk of Magnesia, the iodine, three rolls of adhesive tape, litters of socks and scores of other things. The trunks had been in the family for years and years and were encrusted with labels from far places."

That makes me want to take a long voyage, bake something delicious, write a list of favorite things, and read a story while sitting in a window seat on a rainy day, all at once. The book also has 3 sequels which I just requested at my library. In the process I saw Patron has outstanding fines block on my online library account. I only owe $0.30 yet somehow it makes me feel like a criminal. :)

Have you read any good books lately?

*