if you have the time.....

In the New York Times on Saturday, Verlyn Klinkenborg, who has a semi-regular column called "this rural life' wrote about E.B. White. Specifically, a short piece called 'memorandum', which is basically a long list of things he needs to do around the house, but instead of doing them he just continues making the list. I think we all know how that feels, especially on a damp, chilly Sunday when you just can't seem to get started, and all the things that need to be done just swirl around in your head. Anyway, I searched for that piece on the internet, read part of it (you had to pay for the rest) and decided that ruminations about life on a farm from the man that wrote Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web is definitely something I'd like. Verlyn Klinkenborg also has a collection of his columns from the NYT published. The collection proceeds in a seasonal order, starting in late winter. I love books like that. Just short pieces about one human's observations on a particular day on the piece of ground that he occupies. My favorite of all time is Edwin Way Teale. Two of his books I think I have probably read at least 10 times: A Walk through the Year and A Naturalist Buys an Old Farm. I think they may be out of print now, but I found "Walk" at a second hand shop and "Naturalist" I check out of my local library at least twice every winter. There's something so inspiring about reading a naturalist's despription of the arrival of spring on his farm when you are curled up in chair, watching snow fall outside in the middle of January. A Walk through the year is written as daily observations, so it is fun to read what he was observing in Connecticut in the 1950s with what is happening in your yard today. At least I think it's fun. But I guess most people think I'm weird.