Saturday, June 21, 2008

Farm wife life


I love a tidy kitchen.


It is a beautiful thing to behold...for the few fragile seconds that it occurs in a week at my house.

Clear benches, sideboards unadorned by readers, school notes, newspapers or discarded paperwork, sinks that are dish free-these are the things that i dream about....well -behind beautiful quilts, hatching chickens and Harrison Ford as either Indy or Han.( I don't discriminate!)
Back on track here now, don't panic-; I love a tidy kitchen, especially the floor. farm floors are notoriously gritty, even when people generally remove their shoes. Dirt just seems to float in on clothes-well, that's how it feels.
But yesterday my kitchen floor was gleaming, even the kitchen table was clear...
Want to see today?
This is my kitchen.
A lamb who was found abandoned in the paddock.
A box full of out of season hatching chickens that need to be away from the cold.
That's the frizzle silky cross. These are her first babies. i can't wait to see how they turn out.
And there are also two of these little darlings out of view in the picture. Land crabs that I was conned into as long as they could live in a PLASTIC container! I love these, so do the kids, but why is my warm kitchen floor always the best place for everything?
On a different note, i have made some fabulous second hand book purchases this week. I love buying my books second hand, the extra history adds to the reading (especially inscriptions)...and it is great for the environment.
My paperback copy of my favourite Catherine Gaskin novel is held apart by tape, so when i found it in hard back for 50 cents I was ecstatic. I loved this in my mid teens, named my Budgie after the falcon!
Then I found the only Danielle Steele that i have ever really taken to, The Promise. I find the weight of tragedy that Danielle generally dumps upon many of her characters to drag me down. I had this and lent it to someone and it never came back, so buying it back for 50 cents was no big stretch.
The Time Traveller's wife is a recent favourite that I borrowed from the library. I paid a little more than 50 cents at a second hand book shop just to own it. It is definitely a book that cries out to be read more than once.
And 3 works of jane Austen for 50 cents in hardback...that was not staying there!
Do you buy books that you have loved and even owned in your past, i wonder what favourite you might have bought to complete your ideal library.
Have a great day, Tracey

15 comments:

  1. I can remember the same whn i was a kid - there were always a few strays in the kitchen or laundry!
    Sometimes they even got warmed up in the oven (door open of course).

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  2. I am ALWAYS re-buying books that I have loaned out and not got back. I say I will never share them again but I always do. I go through books at a very fast rate so buy a lot second-hand as a matter of necessity. I often stick a couple in my supermarket shop too - I like to have stock ready to read. Like a security blanket - lol !

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  3. I think those cuties are a good enough reason for a less than perfect kitchen.
    Yes I love books to, will need to chech out the time travellers wife, have heard nothing but good reports on that one.
    Jodie

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  4. I have a friend who, without fail, never ever reads a novel more than once - I can't imagine being like that - I read books again and again either because my appallingly poor memory can't remember it from the previous time or because I just want to revisit an old friend - books - the world would be a much poorer place without them!

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  5. I want some...........chicks that is........

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  6. Your kitchen is quite zoo-like! I love Jane Austen. I must have read Pride and Prejudice a dozen times. It's hard to find good second hand books around here so I pretty much stick to the library.

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  7. The kitchen is the heart of the home. All things are nurtured there...mind body and spirit. Poor little lost lamb, maybe you could read out loud to your temporary residents. Such good books you have there. Sigh. My kitchen is the gathering place too.

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  8. Your new chickens are adorable!

    I usually don't read a book more than once. I'd love to find "I am David" by Anne Holm -it's a beautiful book, I first read it as an assigned text in high school, and then taught it 4 times and read it another few times just because, I've lost my copy.

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  9. Hi Tracey,
    Your kitchen looks like a nice safe haven for all the babies on your farm. I love re reading some of my old favorite books. I just bought Hawaii at a garage sale for 25¢. I'll have plenty of time to read while I'm recuperating.
    xo

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  10. Ohh it's so nice to know it's not only my floor that's gritty - although I don't have the chook, chickens, lamb and sand crabs...vbg. Love the photos - especially the chook looking at her chickens - so cute.

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  11. I think I have bought books for my "library" that I've already read and loaned out that never came back, but I sure couldn't tell you which ones! I tend to read series books and I just hate when I'm missing one! Well, I just love books so the problem usually isn't that there's something missing; more often than not, the problem is that there's no room for more!

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  12. Oh - I'm waiting . . . patiently . . . for my turn to check out The Time Traveler's Wife from the library *s*

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  13. That chook is gorgeous!!! Did you breed that one??? Can't wait to see what the chicks turn out like either..

    Jodie :)

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  14. I gather the crabs refuse to co-operate when it comes to modelling quilts?

    Cute chickies.

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  15. I despair over my kitchen floor, too. I tell people that I track the seasons by what is being tracked in: ice, mud, hay, mud, and snow. And, of course, "other" stuff.

    My house will never make the cover of Good Housekeeping.

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