It's May and the sun is shining!
I popped into the village to see Miss Read. It was also a good opportunity to take a couple of snaps to accompany the booklet. Ta-da! Here she is.
She has failing eyesight now, but she still attends an art class and is a prolific painter. This wonderful triptych is hers, painted a few years ago. It shows the village/hamlet just across the field. On the left you can see Manor Farm, where she lived, the dovecot and church roof in the middle, cottages to the right.
My walk home, in glorious sunshine and much warmer temperatures than of late, was a sheer delight. The air was scented by all the blossom trees along School Lane.
Please let this be the start of Spring.
I'll be heading back that way in a couple of hours, the mobile library will be making its monthly visit to the village this afternoon - thirty minutes to return my books, choose another batch and then chat to the librarians and anyone else who may turn up.
I still get the same pleasure from visiting a library, mobile or otherwise, as I did when I was very young. Of course, back in the 1950's it would not have been acceptable to stop and have a conversation and laughter would not have been allowed.
"Sssshhh!"
Libraries were hushed and special places.
I confess that I like them like that. Conversation simply distracts me from the job in hand, that of selecting enough books to keep me happily reading for a month.
Do I really need yet more books? No, but that isn't the point.
Library services are constantly being eroded, they need our support.
This is where it parks. I have my fingers crossed that it will be the big van today.
What a perfect May 1st post!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteA picture of your Miss Read...
Her art work...
A simply beautiful spring day...
Awaiting the traveling library van...
Oh she is a delightful lady! Please do say a warm Hello to her, from me, the next time you see her. Perhaps she would find it nice, that one of your readers, is 81. :-) And across the pond, too.
Happy, happy May!
Happy May, Luna.
DeleteI'll be sure to pass on your regards, she will be delighted. I hadn't seen that painting before, it is really lovely. She is great fun to spend time with.
A lovely triptych of artwork by Miss Read. Its such a shame so many libraries are gone especially the mobile service that services so many outlying villages. We used to love visiting the mobile library when I was a child there was no ssshing in there.
ReplyDeleteMitzi
Hello Mitzi, The library from my early days was a branch library in a town, very hushed, lots of wooden shelves, filled with masses of books, the room filled with silence. I adored it and desperately wanted to grow up so that I could stamp books out!
DeleteWhat a lovely and talented woman! Some of my only memories of childhood revolve around our weekly visit to the tiny local library. I still get a thrill when I walk into a library or bookstore. So much to read - so much to learn! I think I would love a mobile library.
ReplyDeleteLibraries, bookstores - bliss! I am a hopeless case, both of my parents were bookworms and two of my three adult children are the same. Because Miss Read is a little infirm, they even take library books to her home so that she can make her selections in comfort!
DeleteWish we still had our Library van but it was cut by the tight fisted SODC, hope they find it hard when they are in the same boat
ReplyDeleteIt is such a backwards step, isn't it. It is an incredible resource, such a shame that so few people take advantage of it. My arms are 3 inches longer than they were this morning, I must learn to choose lighter books!
DeleteHow wonderful you are preserving 'Miss Read's' memories for the future. I love libraries and remember well the dark wood panelled rooms at our local small town library, we also had a mobile library visit the village too. The excitement of looking for books to read and the pride when I was old enough to take books from the main library not just the childrens section. I quite liked the quiet too. Visits to my local library now involve communicating with a machine it is very rare to speak to a library assistant yet the library is full of life, on my last visit a toddler group and their mums were singing 'Hot Cross Buns' whilst at the other end of the library was the constant tap tap of computer keyboards, so different and yet still serving the community well:)
ReplyDeleteHello Rosie, The more people who use libraries, the better! Get them in young and get them into the habit. Their memories will be of a light and colourful place, noise, singing and laughter, which is lovely. I hope they remember it with as much fondness as we recall the dark panelling, hush and the thrill of all those books - and no computers.
DeletePlease... Be aware... SPAM comments are back... Had to put Comment Mod. on, because of it.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear that. Thank you for the warning.
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