Dolly's Dreamings

Kindled by a Kindle

 
What things trigger memories? The simplest of things obviously.

The prompt today was about triggering and recording those memories by using simple things around you.

As I sit and look at my desk I see my Kindle on there, and that brings up all sorts of memories and thoughts.

 
I resisted a Kindle for a long, long time, simply because books are so special to me. I don’t think, even now, that there is anything more magical than a brand new book. It has a very particular smell and, when you open that cover for the first time and flick to those crisp new pages, you enter a new world. It is like you are the very first person in the world to see that secret world contained within.

As a child I was a real bookworm. I was an only child and spoilt rotten with affection, but my parents were very careful not to spoil me with material things … in part because they couldn’t afford to. However, the one thing I always had plenty of was reading material. I had a lot of new books on a regular basis and was also taken to the library, which was a three mile round trip walk, on a weekly basis. I would lose myself for hours in books and, once put to bed, would wait until they had come back to check I was asleep and then use my torch to read more.

Once I was a teenager I discovered the joy of second hand book shops; a joy I would never grow out of. If new books have a very particular smell, old books have one too, just a different smell. The old musty smell is something equally magical and I love browsing old books. There used to be a great second hand bookshop in Westbourne where I spent much of my early money earned as a waitress when I was a young teenager. I also used to love a very special second hand bookshop in Boscombe. It was in an old church and had so many little hidden rooms, narrow passageways, tiny spaces, every inch of which was crammed with books. It was there that I also developed my love of really old, really little books and for a few pence I bought many with inscriptions in going back to the 1830’s; little prayer books, little illustrated pocket books.

I also spent many happy hours – and still do given half the chance – in a shop called Keith Jones. It is our local Christian bookstore and is another one which is a rabbit warren of different small rooms.

I find it very hard to get rid of books – I really do – and so it becomes a bit of a problem and they tend to take over and have to be culled every so often. I still had many of my books from my childhood, and all in really good condition. I managed to legitimise keeping those when I became a teacher. Most of them are in my classroom and the children love borrowing them. Some have bitten the dust, where they have been used so much, but many still remain and the girls love the whole concept of borrowing books I had when I was a little girl the same age as them. And the classics don’t date and, much to my surprise, neither does Enid Blyton. Having re read one recently I can’t think why today’s children still enjoy books like The Famous Five and Malory Towers as I think they are terribly dated, but they do.

During my university days I collected a huge number of books for my studies and whilst I sold some, I did keep a great many, justifying that by saying if I was teaching A level students I needed to keep the books. I haven’t taught A level pupils for 20 years, yet the books still remain. When we recently did the library I boxed them up, keeping some in the loft, throwing some out (ooh that hurt but they really were dated) and giving some to our Senior School library.

My paperback novels seem to breed when I am not looking. I do read an incredible amount and most books only last a couple of days, but I am a sucker for any ‘buy three for £5’, ‘BOGOF’ offers and have a whole pile of new books still yet to read. I keep those that are meaningful to me – and occasionally re read them, like my collections of Duncton Wood, my Jean Auel books and so on. I am getting better at passing on my paperbacks to charity shops and to friends. My best friend will only borrow a book from me if I tell her I don’t want it back, ever. She says she can’t stand the stress of borrowing them, because my books always look brand new even when I have read them. The spine bears hardly a mark and the pages are pristine. I guess it means they command more money at the charity shops.

I also get to read a lot of children’s books as either myself or our deputy head reads every book for older readers before it goes into the library, just in case.

We have a dedicated library at home and it is a room we have just refurbished. I did get rid of a lot of books when we sorted the room out, but we still have hundreds. There are two whole shelves (and they are big shelves) of travel books, dozens of cat books, loads of autobiographies, about 50 quiz books and more ‘coffee table’ books than I care to count. But I love them all.

So to the Kindle that started it all off. I was sure I wouldn’t like a Kindle. I mean an electronic device could never feel the same as a real touchy feely book could it.

Well no, of course it couldn’t. It’s different, but I love it in its own way. I love that it is small enough to go in my handbag everywhere I go so I am reading even more. I love that I can carry hundreds of books around with me at any point in time. I love that it is light to hold and easier to read in bed. I love the laziness of a teeny thumb click compared to the ‘enormous effort’ of turning a page LOL. I won't ever give up my real books, but I wouldn't want to give my Kindle up either ... there is a place for both.

And I did have a bizarre experience the other day when I was reading A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It was written in 1978/9 and one particular paragraph was talking about The Guide itself. Arthur Dent had never seen anything like it – an electronic guide. He found it fascinating that  small hand held book with a few buttons on it could bring up on its screen any of the entries and that if it had been a real book it would have taken several buildings to hold all of the information held in that one small device. When I read that in 1979 it was Science Fiction at its best. It was a very surreal moment to re-read it last week on almost exactly the device that Douglas Adams had described so creatively in the 1970’s. One of life’s really bizarre moments.

All of this, pouring out, from one glance at the Kindle on my desk.

I have been scrapping today, although I can only share one of the pages I have made.

 

It is another page for my California album and was my effort for the weekly challenge on UKS.

It is the General Sherman tree in Sequoia National Park in California. It is the largest living thing in the world and the photo simply doesn’t capture it at all.

The picture lifts up and this is underneath.

 

Today I am thankful for

• Books – all sorts, all genres, all ages

I will be back with my week in my life pictures after dinner.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Gosh - not sure where to start today as I have so much I want to say and share LOL. So ... are you sitting comfortably as today's explore prompt was kind of about sitting. So that is where I am going to start.

 

Shimelle challenged us to think about where we sat and what it meant, so that is just what I have done and, as I am also starting a week in the life project today I have remembered to take lots of pictures of my day so far.

So let's look at seats first. I am going to start with the seat I am NOT using at the moment, but one where I seem to spend most of my waking hours during term time. This is my office seat at school. I actually have a beuatiful office. It is large (you can only see a small part of it here) and it has a small balcony and french doors. As it is on the first floor it is like being up in the trees and I have views of gorgeous woodland. Not that I actually get to look at the views you understand! Anyway, this is my work seat ... sat behind the desk.

 

I guess I always feel different sitting there than I do anywhere else as I am in ‘work mode’. I stop being Scrapdolly and am ‘Mrs Headteacher’, calm, in control, busy and focussed. Well most of the time anyway.

My office is filled with things I have made or that the children have bought me over the years. It is also filled with files and paperwork and filing cabinets but they are all behind doors and in cabinets and so the effect is of an interesting place to be. I make sure there is a lot to look at as it is room the children come into and they love to look at things and fiddle with them. They know it is a room where they are allowed to touch things, allowed to chatter and giggle and that is important. Inevitably, however, and there is no way round this, it is also the room where I have to see naughty children and explain what they have done wrong and help them see how they can make sure it doesn’t happen again. It is also where children come when they are upset about something and want to sit and have a chat and often a cry and some reassurance. Sadly this means an essential in the room is a box of tissues … and not just for children either!

However, it is not a seat I am using at the moment.

When I look round our home there are many places I sit, but I guess one of the most sat in seats is this one.

 

It is my scrap room and study. I do sit here to work occasionally, but largely it is where I am creative and in the holidays I spend a lot of time here. It has wonderful views across the garden and the heath beyond. It is always clean and tidy – I am rigorous about clearing away after every single project – and it has lots of things I love all around. It is a room I feel very happy in. On the opposite side of the room Nigel has his desk and editing suite so most of the time we are in the room together, which I love. I would hate for us to have separate studies. We debated it as we do have 2 studies but we use the other as a library

This is another place I sit – my seat in the lounge – well my morning seat. It is very funny – we have two sofas in the lounge and we sit in different ones morning and evening. I always sit in this seat for breakfast and in the other when we finally sit down in the evening. No idea why we switch or when that switch started … it just did.

 

You will notice on the seat next to me a cat blanket. I stress this isn’t because I worry about the cats leaving hairs on the seat or scratching the leather. I long since gave up worries of that nature. Seats hoover and the leather is scratched to pieces as we bought the suite three months before we bought the CFH and they scratched it – all accidentally – when they were babies. They have never scratched anything deliberately, but kittens are not good at retracting their claws and are very good at rushing round madly at 100 miles an hour with their claws out. Anyway it is not there for any reason other than the cats don’t like to sit on cold leather. Spoilt – surely not!

I thought I would share my bed too – not dressed up for the photo, just as it looks every day. I think we hit being really old last year when we bought a new king size bed that adjusts so you can have the head raised, the feet raised, both raised. I love it. So I often sit up in bed reading.

 

Other places I sit include my beloved sun lounger in the garden. You can tell I am a sun worshiper by the permanent tan. I love to sit in the sun and read. I am NOT a beach person – hate it – but love sitting in the garden. It is very peaceful, no road noise, just birds and planes.  The photo was me in the garden just an hour or so ago – yes with Starbucks …. Of course.

 

The seat I also sit a lot in is the car – so a quick photo of Nij and I in the car this morning.

 

 Finally the seat where I eat every meal except breakfast. I have porridge for breakfast and it is eaten in the lounge when I am not at work and int he bedroom when I am. (I am blessed to be married to man who has brought me breakfast in bed every working day of my married life xxx)

We have a perfectly good dining room but I am afraid we eat all of our meals in the kitchen unless we have company. For years - 17 in fact - I didn't like our kitchen. It was dark cherry wood and I had always wanted a white kitchen. Three years ago we changed it for light units and I love it. It is always sunny and one of my favourite places in the house.

 

 So - I sit comfortably and I hope you did too!

Before I go on to share my photos from what was a great day out today I had better share some scrapping.

I made a second page for my Explore prompt for the weekend, a page based ont he week's thoughts about perfection. It is another page to go into My Freedom album and so is another double page and I apologise as the digital join putting the two paper pages together isn't great, but you get the general idea.

 

 

 So, onto a week in my life ... and here is part of Monday.

My day has been great today as the sun shone and we headed out for a great walk in the sunshine. We had breakfast at about 8.30 (and now you know where I sat for that) and then headed off to Sandbanks.

I really do count myself blessed to live where we do. We have world famous beaches here and whilst we are not beach people it is nice to see them. people come here for holidays and yet we get to enjoy it all of the time. I love my home town of Poole.

Anyway, we headed off to the ferry to go over to Studland.  You can drive round (we drove back) but it is fun to use the ferry from time to time. It is an old chain ferry and is something I love going on.

 

The picture of me ont he ferry has the Haven Hotel in the background and .... interesting fact ... it is where Nigel proposed to me.

 

 

 

Once the other side, on Studland, we parked int he National Trust carpark by the Bankes Arms and walked down to Old Harry Rocks.

 

 

 

This is the view over to Knowle Beach and Shell Bay 

 

 

 

And here is Old Harry

 

 

 

 

 Sat ready to have my picnic.

 

 

 Our view whilst eating lunch

 

and the wonderful fruit salad that was part of the lunch

 

 

   

Just pictures of us taken by random people

 

an artist at work

 

Journey back to Poole via Corfe

 

Our local Town Crier who is such a nice man. He is coming up to 50 years service to the town of Poole. we had quite a chat to him.

 

I bought two new swimming costumes ready for my trip to Champneys soon, but the real reason we went to Poole was of course, these

 

 

Boo sunning herself in the garden

 

and her beloved Daddy doing the same.

 

So all in all a great day so far. I popped to the vets a little while ago to get more painkillers for Fiki who is suffering with his back and leg again and it was gorgeous to drive there and back with the roof down and Bat Out Of Hell blaring out. I am not sure what I am going to do with the Week in my life pictures, but if nothing else I will have a record of the day on my blog.

Today I am thankful for

A lovely sunny day out

 and just have to add the photo our neighbours have just e mailed - 2 herons sat in one of our pine trees this morning. Awesome!