2020 Reading Challenge

 I love perusing library shelves. Yes, with ebullient memories of library days during childhood,  still one of my simple pleasures is meandering through the library book stacks, reading the various titles while pulling certain books off the shelves as possibilities to take home and read. Books are friendly to me.

 Since every year is moving by at an extraordinary rate of speed, and since I am only getting older, I thought I would take the time and effort this year to create a purposeful Reading List, after all my "want to read" book stacks are only getting larger. I  fancy calling it my 2020 Reading Challenge, join along if you would like.

 The book blog, Books And Chocolate, recently posted a 2020 Back to Basics Reading Challenge which piqued my interest in adopting a similar reading list, mostly classics (books written at least 50 years ago). I have chosen to follow the basic mainstay of her list, adding
several other novel types as well.

1. 19th Century Classic
2.  20th Century Classic
3. Classic written by a man author
4. Classic in Translation
5.  Genre Classic (fantasy, mystery, science fiction, western. etc.)
6.  Classic with a person's name in the title
7. Classic with a place in the title
8. Classic with nature in the title
9. Classic about family
10. An abandoned title (one you had begun in the past and had not finished)
11.A  Classic adaption(movie or TV series)
12. A Childhood Classic
13. A perennial ( a re-read)
14. A religious classic/book
15. A Grace Livingston Hill book
16. A biography or an autobiography

Scribbled on yellow legal pads are the actual book titles I am planning to read or have already begun. I will post them soon. I would love any recommendations!

bolognese sauce

Some mornings I will get up and know it is destined to be a sauce or soup making day.

The weather is usually cloudy, rainy or even drizzly such as was today.

I bring the fresh vegetables to the cutting board, sharpen my best chopping knife and begin a session of serious chopping. Today it was to make a delicious and simple bolognese sauce.

Years ago I was browsing through the Willams-Sonoma store and this sauce recipe was one of their free handouts. I usually make it several times a year and since it makes a rather large portion of sauce, I have discovered it freezes extremely well. My most favorite way to serve this sauce is over spaghetti squash topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

I realize that with Pinterest and Google, the sharing of recipes is almost obsolete, but I photo shop the recipe ...just in case....that is all I'm saying.

And you get the added bonus of exercising your neck too!

going to nearby places

I walked in the cold overcast afternoon.

Maybe it is because I have enjoyed reading so many books set in English villages where the town's hub is a square with several up and down lanes branching off from the main street, a street that accommodates quaint shops for the needs of any village- abiding person. I love the thought of living in such a place. I recall a woman friend telling me how she lived in a small town in Connecticut  with her husband well over forty years ago; they owned only one car and she was able to walk to the grocer, pharmacy, florist, or any place she needed to outside venturing into the larger city. And I also have vague memories of my Grandmother walking to a street of shops near her house in the old part of the town of which I grew up that maintained such a street of shops within walking distance of the residents going back to the 1940's.

As for this afternoon, my mind's ruminations were due to not getting into my car and driving the few miles to the host's house where our monthly bridge meeting was being held. Instead I  bundled up in my aubergine woolen coat  and with my Stegmanns wool clogs , I briskly made the twelve minute journey. And speaking of  Stegmann's clogs, I bought this pair of clogs in 1992, and they are still in excellent shape. I slip my socked feet into them and my feet remain toasty warm, plus the comfort they provide is almost like wearing slippers.

After another twelve minute walk home, I hurriedly began supper preparations.  For tonight I was preparing my own version of Swedish meatballs to be served over tagliatelle noodles, so for that I needed to gather a few springs of fresh parsley from my leaf-strewn garden.  A crisp green salad  served on the side should be just right.