The Magic of Winter Reading

December 3, 2024December 3, 2024 / Apple Hill Cottage / 3 Comments

My kids are readers (no surprise, they were raised by a librarian) and they both married readers. So over Thanksgiving weekend we talked about books quite a bit. We talked about great books we had read over the last year; we caught up on books we had recommended to each other; we talked about authors we all (or some of us) had read; we discussed the plusses and minuses of Goodreads and Storygraph, Libby and Hoopla; we talked about what books were being made into movies, and why e-books just aren’t as magical as holding an actual book in your hands; and through it all we had our phones out to note anything that sounded good that we might have missed. Our different tastes made us a motley discussion group–from sci-fi/fantasy, to modern best sellers, to historical fiction to nonfiction to an occasional Children’s or Young Adult novel…we run the gamut of genres. And we were all enthralled as we watched The Dark Winds, a television series made from those evocative Tony Hillerman novels of the Navaho or Dine people. Some of us are thinking of reading or re-reading a few of them.

Both kids discussed their failures at participation in an adult summer reading program–and they both agreed that they wanted to read what they wanted to read. They didn’t want to be told to read a horror book or scary mystery (that was my daughter) or a light beach romance (that was my son). I’m right with them, but I might make exceptions for a beach romance (Emilie Henry, anyone?)

It’s not summer any longer though, and if your December calendar hasn’t already filled up, count yourself among the favored few. But beach reads and summer reading aside, winter is THE best time for reading. Sitting by a cozy fire with a mug of something warm to drink and an exciting book? It might even be better than summer reading, because nature is definitely not calling me to go outside and take a walk. I’m making my New Year’s Resolutions early this year—I’m going to read more deeply, more widely. On my list is:

the National Book Award winner James by Percival Everett (except I might have to reread The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I loved Tom Sawyer, but I’m thinking I didn’t finish Huck Finn–it was so long ago, I can’t remember.)
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger. Two of Krueger’s books, Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land have made my 5 star list.
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout. Just this summer I read her pandemic novel, Lucy by the Sea and I was reminded how much I enjoy her writing.
During December I’m going to be reading Niall Williams’ new book Time of the Child because I also read his book This Is Happiness this summer. It was a slow, lyrically written character study of an Irish village being electrified in the sixties. If you want to step into the time before social media and modern frenzied life, Niall Williams is your man.
We Shall Not All Sleep by Tony Woodlief. His book from several years ago, Somewhere More Holy blew me away with his phrasing, his words, his thoughts, his humility and I’m looking forward to reading his new one.
It’s also going to be a Tolkien winter: The Hobbit + The Lord of the Rings + The Silmarillion (which I haven’t read and was highly recommended to me by my son-in-law). What could be better than the rereading of the ultimate fight against the Dark Lord, when we have our own evil cabal seizing power in this very country? It’s also a good time to stick your head in the sands of Middle Earth.
Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. I read it when it came out in the nineties, but I’m told she predicted the Make America Great Again saying, so how can I not reread it, just for that alone…
And I’m also going to be rereading Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren because dark, winter, nights fit my mood this year, and I need to be reminded that light, spring, and morning will return…

And if any of you out there sometimes like great children’s books, I highly recommend The Eyes of the Impossible by Dave Eggers (it won the Newbery Award this past year) and The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz. And right now I’m reading two excellent widely divergent books–The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl (essays on the natural world in your backyard) and Eugene Peterson’s imaginative book on Revelation, Reversed Thunder.

My list is endless…

Read widely. Read deeply. The winter is long…

Season of Winter

January 11, 2022January 11, 2022 / Apple Hill Cottage / 7 Comments

The day says goodbye with a painted sky

The colors more glorious than has been the day

God affirms his presence, confirms his essence,

And beauty breaks through.

Yet God does not promise roses in winter,

Each season holds elements hard and cold.

But He asks us to find the intricate design

In beauty breaking through.

Perhaps the season is painful and harsh,

Perhaps the gray days have us weary,

But we can choose hope–for all seems new

When beauty breaks through.

Troubles behind the Green Door

January 30, 2017 / Apple Hill Cottage / 9 Comments

The trouble with winter … is not snow.

The trouble with winter in the country… is not snowy unplowed roads.

The trouble with winter in the county in an old house… is not frosty, drafty, arctic air.

The trouble with winter in the country in an old house that’s not quite finished…

is mice.

The other trouble is that we were lulled into thinking we had successfully insulated, caulked, and boarded up all holes when we redid the kitchen, the living room, the dining room, the bedroom, and the mudroom.

The other trouble is, we aren’t finished; so there are other parts of the cottage that are not successfully insulated, caulked and boarded up so the worthless little critters can still get in. (Mice can get in a hole that is the size of a pencil eraser!)

Trouble lurks behind this green door.

green door to the basement

(This green door illustrates the most famous post on Apple Hill Cottage’s blog. About 50 (!) people per day read this post about making a shiny brass door handle look like oil rubbed bronze. It amazes me that there is so much interest in getting rid of shiny brass.) But back to the troubles at hand: behind this green door with the lovely oil-rubbed bronze handle is the basement of the cottage.

We have a split level basement. Behind the green door go down five steps and turn to the left and there’s a door to the outside. There’s also a closet where King Henry the Cat has his litter box. The laundry is down there too as well as built-in shelves, which are filled to the max with the sundries of living in an unfinished house: screws, nails, paints, paintbrushes, stains, tarps, caulking tubes, electric supplies…. Turn to the right and go down six more steps and there’s the rest of the basement — the furnace, the hot water heater, the toilet, sink, and shower (!) and beyond that Mr. H.C.’s workshop. In addition to all that stuff, Mr. H.C. keeps a lot of his business inventory down there. It’s a basement’s basement, and there are quite a lot of holes to the outside that have not been insulated, caulked, or boarded up. And frankly, it is WAY down on the list of things to redo around here.

We tried to close the green door last night before we went to bed. About three o’clock King Henry woke us Mr. H.C. because he needed to get down there to his litter box fast. So there really isn’t the option of closing the green door. There is, however, the option of locking the cat down there with the mice…

(Spoiler alert: If you are a mouse lover, read no further…)

As far as we know, our lovable but worthless cat has caught one mouse. It was dead in his mouth when he brought it to us, but lately I’ve been living in fear that he will jump on the bed at night with a live mouse in his mouth. Mr. H.C. also found a trap with nothing but one mouse leg in it, so the cat could have eaten the mouse out of the trap too. We aren’t sure about that; we haven’t seen any 3-legged mice around lately, but if it gives the cat a taste for mice, I’m all for it.

Mr. H.C. reminds me that Henry caught a mouse this summer too. Yes, he did; but that doesn’t count because he caught it outside. I’m fine with well-behaved mice who stay outside where they belong.

It’s terrible to have mice in one’s kitchen. Suddenly nothing is certain and I can’t be sure if a mouse did or didn’t scurry over a pan. In the warming drawer of my OVEN I found mouse droppings! Ugh. Now I have to wash every pan before I use it. I’ve lived with mice before. It’s not a surprise. I just thought I was done with them when we finished our beautiful kitchen.

The last straw was a few days ago when I opened the oven door and found a stash of cat food in the corner of the oven. CAN I SHOUT HERE?

Yes, we are feeding the cat expensive Rachael Ray Zero Grain Chicken and Potato cat food, and the mice are stealing the expensive Rachael Ray Zero Grain Chicken and Potato cat food, and hoarding it in the corner of the oven. Isn’t there something wrong with this picture?

And just so you know, last week when we were in Home Depot the mouse traps were SOLD OUT! So we must not be the only ones with this problem…

And just so you know, I am blessed that Mr. H.C. takes care of all the mouse trap issues…

And just so you know, the oven is now sparkling clean, the green door is now closed at night, and the mouse troubles are staying downstairs. For Now….

cat napping on blanket