New Books and Balls Falls

Our redecorating project is almost complete.  A few minor details...well, my husband would refute the word 'minor' when describing the job before him of repairing the molding where the French doors were mounted.  We spent a whole afternoon driving all over to find some nice hooks to hold back the drapery panels and came home with nothing.  But I ask you, would it be a proper project without moving the earth in search of one thing that seems inconsequential but remains elusive?  I digress.

A few books have been added to the shelves and so to liven things up while I finish the last bit of Margaret Kennedy's charming story Together and Apart, I will share.

The purple Taschen was the only item on my Christmas list last year, so rather skimpy as lists go.  A whole morning in your pajamas while drinking mimosas and flipping through a book featuring the commercial delights of a vibrant city is my idea of bliss.  I had my eye on the bottom book for this Christmas but my husband bought it on Friday.  I love the book, he thinks it looks great on the new ottoman...Mars...Venus, say no more.  Full of iconic images from the 1800s to present day this page-turner is everything from history lesson to guide book to sociological study.  Many a decadent hour will be spent devouring its pages!

Stella Gibbon's The Rich House is in the running for my next read.  While browsing the synopsis and reviews for some of her other novels, Bassett also had irresistible cosy appeal.  The fear that a book could suddenly vanish from stockpiles at shops or warehouses brings out the hoarder in me and so, it must be owned.  As for Our Spoons Came From Woolworths, it was one of the books being talked about when I first started blogging year ago but could never find on a bookshelf.  Thank goodness for reissues.

My local Chapters bookshop had tables and tables of books for $1 - $2 recently.  Initially that sounds like good news but the bad news is that the chain has closed two stores in Toronto so stock is being redistributed.  Helen Dunmore's The Greatcoat is appropriate for October with its lean towards a haunting story, as for Tremain...well, Trespass sounds like a book my husband, the anti-cosy reader, would like so it will go on a shelf for when the mood strikes.

The titles say it all.

And switching gears, yesterday was Thanksgiving which is my favourite long weekend of the year.  And no Thanksgiving would be complete without a trip to Balls Falls to bask in the crisp air while delicious aromas of food and woodsmoke waft everywhere.   

Although, there is one sight that never fails to horrify me.  The image of youth sitting around a cauldron of boiling oil so that visitors can enjoy hot apple fritters carries a Dickensian overtone, don't you think?  Having said that...yes, we bought the apple fritters.  Pot...kettle...yes, pun intended.

 A more pleasing image is the autumnal wreath on the village's church door.  I take the same photo every year...just because.