Welcome to Litsy!

A contemplative memoir in the style of a nature journal, organized by month, lavishly illustrated with watercolour art. Vivian Swift pays careful attention to her surroundings: the weather, seasonal changes, random objects found on her daily walks, her cats, & the minor events that are considered newsworthy in her village‘s paper. Whether melancholy or celebratory, Swift‘s vignettes, art & literary quotes are charming & poetic.

My 2nd fiancé believed in long engagements—but after a year and a half I had to insist, “It‘s time to set a date.” “OK,” he said, as if agreeing. “Here‘s a list of things you have to change about yourself before I marry you.”
(Note: painting is of the place in Scotland where the author says she goes when her love life falls apart.)

Some days “staying put” might feel the same as Going Nowhere. Make a cup of tea and wait for that feeling to pass.

Big story in the Village newspaper: a white squirrel was spotted on 3rd Ave. And there‘s going to be a lecture on the history of paperweights for the off-season meeting of the Garden Club.

My new kitten kept climbing onto the stove. No amount of shoo-ing kept her away from the flame, so I scooped her up and put her in the pocket of my apron. She settled down like a baby kangaroo.
It was while I was pouring hot marmalade into jars that I thought: of all the things that the Earth‘s 6 billion people are doing tonight, I am probably the only person making orange marmalade with a kitten in her pocket.

If you wake up early enough you can join the squirrels for breakfast in the woods, you with your vanilla tea, them with their Rose of Sharon flower petal crêpes.

June was a good month with six 5-star reads.
Total books: 26

Audio: 5
eBook: 15
Print: 6

Purchased: 5
Library: 8
Review: 13

Asia 2019: 4
Camp ToB: 2
Joint Readalong: 1
TakePrideinReading: 6
TBR Explode: 3

Links to reviews: http://readingenvy.blogspot.com/2019/06/books-read-june-2019-134-159.html

One of the books from my #tbrexplode project for June - I loved this year-long meditation on staying put, through memories and watercolor, drawings and observation.

Some early morning #bookmail for myself! It came with several presents, though, so I don't feel quite as badly as I probably should. 😉