Neighborhood Sharing

 

 

https://littlefreelibrary.org/about/

In my neighborhood and many others in Seattle you can find "Little Free Libraries". These often look like tiny houses and usually have two tiers of books inside. Some may be dedicated to children's books, but most have titles for all ages.

The concept is that you take a book and leave a book. There is one on my street and there may be one on yours. You can look up locations at the Little Free Library site linked here.

The Little Free Library site also has plans for creating your own Little Free Library, and a link to register your location.

In addition to occasionally dropping off a book, I recently created bookmarks to add to the Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood. Making the bookmarks gave me a new creative outlet where I can apply all my card making techniques and supplies, and the bookmarks are perfect accompaniments to books.

This first batch is made from DSP--double-sided paper. Each bookmark is vinyl covered for durability, and the decorations on the end of the ribbons are little trinkets I've found while out on walks.

There is a tab on the bookmark that slides over a page to help keep it in place:

My next batch of bookmarks were made from metallic paper and included new tassels that I bought. Each one also has a stamp on the back: a hedgehog, rain, field of flowers, coffee mugs, and a sentiment "Sparkle with all your heart". I love having a new way to share my paper hobby with others.

In addition to Little Free Libraries, our neighborhood also has Little Pantries where people can leave food for those in need. On a walk this week we found a Little Pantry refrigerator stocked with juices, salads, and fruit!

Little Free Libraries feed hungry minds, and Little Pantries feed  hungry bodies. Both are wonderful ways to share with our neighbors.

 

Photo by cyrus gomez on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

Whatcha Reading? ~ by Grace Augustine

As a child, I was more of a color book and paper doll girl than a book reader. In fact, as a child, I don't remember reading, nor being read to. Then I hit junior high. 

Afraid of my own shadow, the thought of giving an oral book report made my stomach churn. To this day, I cannot remember the books I read to do the reports because I was so nervous.

During high school study halls, I began reading Grace Livingston Hill books, while my best friend always had an Anne Mather novel in her hands. 

I became obsessed with the written word (I was still pretty gun shy about doing anything that required me being in front of the class) and took every grammar and composition class offered. I also took Modern Literature and Mythology.

Gone With the Wind did nothing for me, but Thor Heyerdahl's adventures on the Kon Tiki, well, that was the best. And anything by Chaucer or Shakespeare swelled my heart. 

My study hall reading had graduated to the tamest of the Harlequin romances but continued reading all of Grace Livingston Hill books. I'd read Janet Dailey's entire Americana series by 1980. And somehow in a move, the books by both authors were lost, which broke my heart. 

Today, I still gravitate to a beautiful romance over any other genre. Part of why I write romance is because of Janet Dailey and Debbie Macomber, to me, the true queens of all matters of the heart.

What's on my shelves? Well, let me show you. I have a copy of each of my books as well as many favorite authors, one is my co-administrator, Joanne Jaytanie. You will see names like Debbie Macomber, Kim Law, Karen Hawkins, and Kathleen McGowan among those on my shelves.

So, I ask you, what are you reading? What is on your shelf? Who is your favorite author?  And, if you haven't already done so, take a moment to let that author know, even if it means finding an address through an agent and writing a note. Authors love hearing from their fans. I do, too!

Medieval Monastic Female Scribes by Lexa Fisher

Christine de Pisan, 1407 (Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain)

When we think of medieval monastic scribes it's likely that a tonsured male figure comes to mind. But women were also scribes! There are written records of this, such as necrologies that identify these women, and archaeological evidence that also points to these female artists.

The latest evidence to surface is the discovery of lapis lazuli in the teeth of a female monastic who lived at the monastery at Dalheim between 997 and 1162.

Why is this discovery of lapis lazuli in a nun's teeth so remarkable? This pigment was quite rare and therefore only the best artists were allowed access. Its use by female scribes indicates that they were just as highly skilled as their male counterparts.

 Silk repaired manuscript

In many ways, female and male scribes did the same work of copying manuscripts by hand onto parchment or velum sheets, most often using black ink made from oak galls. Nuns and monks also used rare pigments and gold leaf in manuscripts. But it is only in nunneries where we find silk threads used to repair manuscripts.

Alison on the right.

I became interested in female scribes during my Latin studies in college. One summer I was fortunate to have been admitted to a summer program on codicology (the study of old books) and paleography (the study of old handwriting) at Oxford University. There, I met Alison Beach, a fellow student who is now a professor of history at University of Saint Andrews. Alison has a blog on medieval female scribes at http://scriptrix.org/

While at Oxford we were allowed access to the Bodleian library. Access first required a swearing in (in Latin) by a robed librarian and signing of a pledge to treat the books with utmost care. Each item we wanted to view had to be brought from a storage area--no wandering the stacks here! All codices had to be handled while wearing white cotton gloves, and the pages were held open by beads resembling rosaries. It was a religious experience for our class of twelve, all who happened to be women.

Image from Wikipedia

During a weekend trip to London we visited the British library and were treated to a viewing of manuscripts written entirely on purple-dye vellum -- a Codex Purpureus. Purple dye came from snails found in the Mediterranean and was highly valuable. To have an entire book written on purple-dyed vellum was truly a rare treasure, and even rarer to have examples of these books today.

With the plethora of books so readily available to us today, it's easy to forget how precious these volumes were throughout history, and how much labor was required to produce them.