Pieces of Me: Librarian

Babar's little girl is having quite a time in the Children's Room, giddy-up Duckie!

Being a librarian is like being a matchmaker. I get excited each time I get a new question for what to read next or how to find something. The best part is when I make a good match, and hey, it's not like a marriage---if I make a bad match, you can choose to toss the book on the floor.
As your librarian, I check a lot of books in and out. I answer the phone and call you when you have a book that has arrived. I find the books you want and request them from other libraries. Then I unpack the bags when they come each morning, and it's kind of like the thrill of getting presents, except it's fun twice because first I get to open all the packages and then I get to tell you the happy news that the book you wanted is here in my hand!

the lovely rug that our Youth Advisory Board chose for their alcove

I will always tell you the phone number to the Camden Public Library (236-3440---see, I know it by heart by now) and will happily mark it down as a reference question, for our statistics. I work on weeding the collection, making room for the new, saving the noteworthy, making hard choices about what should stay and what should go; it feels really good when progress has been made, and the shelves look so much better. Sometimes I help you on the computer...setting up an email account for the first time, printing e-tickets, showing you how to request books from the comfort of your own home, looking up archives on NPR for the first time. I get my library exercise when I walk around and put books away. I get my brain exercise when you have a challenging question or when I am dreaming up new ways to display books.
We have a little stamp to denote Rockport Readers Recommend (the RR) and you can recommend online also! And another stamp for a BookLovers' Cafe recommendation, the little red tea cup. Thanks for the stamps, Jane!
I am always learning new things from my colleagues; one who patiently teaches me (and re-teaches me) the completely anti-intuitive Hold Pick-Up feature; another who taught me to not be fearful of contact paper when covering books. I have a very talented and creative and visionary Director, whom I love to collaborate with.

I like it that I know your names (mostly) when you come in. I like getting to know your reading tastes. I appreciate that we all read different things for different reasons at different times, because I certainly do.
Sometimes I get to be your Librarian-Baker when it's a BookLovers' Cafe day. I get up at 6 a.m. and make muffins and scones (lemon blueberry and dried cherry/ginger, recently) for us to share as we discuss the books that we have recently (or long ago or for always) loved. The threads of our conversations always inspire me, sometimes on parenting, or loss, or WWII, or ancestors.
Sometimes I get to be your Librarian-Artist when it is an Artist Trading Card Make-and-Swap day.

And just because you should see that we also have some very beautiful volumes (and not just ones about leeches, with horrifying pictures of rotten toenails on them), I give you a few shots of my vote for the Most Beautiful Book Cover of All Time, The Poetical Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and I apologize for not having the publication year (publisher is Hurst, New York):
At our small library, I am a generalist and get to do so many things that I am never bored. I learn every day and I like that.

Bikes and Books

Feet on the pedals, no training wheels.

Yes, we have a new biker in the house. Remember my boy just turned 6 and was given a brand-new bike for his birthday by two of his Bumpas? Well, on Friday he started riding the Jet 16 with no training wheels. Just like that.

So here is a movie of one of Sylvan's first rides (try to ignore the cluttered yard in the background):

Bigger boy, bigger feet. Two bikes, two boys.


It was BookLovers' Cafe yesterday at Rockport Public Library. It's a program that I started at the library as a place for folks to come and be able to talk about the books they have been enjoying. Because so often, when you read a good book you want to tell the world about it! So I bake muffins and scones, we have tea and coffee, and we talk about whatever book is wonderful. While folks talk, I take notes and write them up; people talk about everything from Great Works of Literature to light mysteries to nonfiction and even audiobooks. And nobody passes any judgment on your choices either! The notes are posted on the web at the earlier link.

Yesterday I talked about Once Upon a Tart, my new favorite cookbook: full of great writing and tips and sidebars, written by two guys who have a cafe by the same name in SoHo. The treats in the picture above come from that book: Lemon Poppyseed Muffins and Honey Cornmeal Scones. And I brought in my copy of Collect Raindrops by Nikki McClure, which you first read about in this post. Because I just can't help myself from spreading the Good News about her work.

Wool Socks Are Still Useful in June, in Maine

...Oh, the Lovely-ness of a rainy garden in summer!
These are some of Joanie's Japanese Irises, that I pretty much wish I could eat with a spoon. Don't you just picture them on Kimono fabric?

Knitting News: Completion...and Beginning!
I finally finished my socks! If you can remember way back to February when I first showed you them in progress (and later in an update), with birthday yarn by Noro! Hooray! It's been chilly and damp here this week, perfect for wearing these lovelies around.

I used the Two-at-a-Time method on one very long circular needle...which means that the socks are both done (only 5 months later) and I don't have to face the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome! And to be fair, I was also a little busy with other things this spring, so not consumed by a passion to finish.

But the passion to finish did get to me when I found my next project, funny how that works. I happened to be passing by a yarn store that is going out of business and I went in, foolishly thinking that I could leave the store with maybe one small ball of cotton yarn for a face cloth. But I happened upon five balls of Rowan Kid Silk Haze (70% kid mohair, 30% silk) in a lovely raspberry...
...at 50% off! And I had recently admired a very sweet little feminine summery sweater on a friend who directed me to this pattern in Interweave Knits (Winter 2004), which I even already own! (Oh, the serendipity of it all!)
Now you can see, from the edging I am working on below, that it is a much airier look than the photo:
It looks so nice in person! My friend made hers lacey like this and in a beautiful orange...And as for buttons: I'm thinking just one very delicate button at the top.

And my boys are leaving tomorrow for a few days...Me, I will be here enjoying a house that gets to stay clean, knitting a lot, working at the library on Saturday (hosting BookLovers' Cafe at 10:00-11:30 with my homemade muffins and scones, tea and coffee for all participants), and going to a bonfire for St. Johnstide on Sunday!