Sunday Snippet: The Velveteen Rabbit & Memories Edition

Right off, happy Easter and happy Passover to all who celebrate. Yesterday, when Mary and I went for our daily walk, we headed north toward the pool and clubhouse of our neighborhood. We have a great pool and really nice clubhouse–it’s where we do yoga every Wednesday evening and where we spend summer afternoons after I’m done writing and working. It’s truly one of the best blessings of living in “The Nest.”

Anyway, to add to our step count, we walked, as we always do, around the parking lot to the tennis/basketball courts and then back out to the street. On the way, we stopped for a moment at the little library box there by the clubhouse. We often find something fun to read, I pop my books into the library every so often, and frequently I find things that I think might interest Husband. Yesterday, I discovered a copy of Margery Williams’s  The Velveteen Rabbit.

A 1994 edition of Williams’s 1922 classic tale, the book is absolutely pristine, as though no one had ever even opened it before. The pages are crisp and perfect and the illustrations, by an artist named Monique Felix, are quite lovely. The book said “Take me home,” in the way that a little library book often does for me, although this desire was particularly intense. It doesn’t always mean that I’ll keep it forever, sometimes I take a book from the box and give it to Husband to read, he does, then we return it. Or it’s something that I read and return. I’ll probably return this title when I’ve had a chance to savor it, to bask in the memories of my Aunt Alice reading it to me and my sisters and brother and memories of me reading it to Son. But maybe not.

I don’t know what happened to the copy that was part of a little collection of books that lived in the window seat at my grandparents’ big apartment where I spent a considerable part of my childhood. I have no idea where the copy of Son’s is–he may have it because I brought some of his childhood books to him when Grandboy was born–the ones that didn’t get donated to the church nursery library or given away as Son got too old for them.

There’s a chance that taking a children’s book from the little library box when I don’t have any children in my life anymore was a bad thing to do, but I’m hoping there is forgiveness for the choice because that book called to me. My first thought was that I’d read it to Grandboy, oh, how he loves to read! Until I remembered that Grandboy is thirteen and way into to video games and music and art, riding his bike and hanging out with his buds, and acting… Ah, I thought, acting! Maybe he’d have fun reading it with me–we could do all the voices just like my mom used to do when she read to us. He’s coming for supper with Son and DIL today. I think I might ask him. And to tell you the truth, he such a kindhearted sweet kid, he’ll do it with me, just because I’m his Nanny and he loves me.

So, spring is here at The Nest, with long walks and blooming tulips and greening trees and grass and bunnies… all kinds of bunnies, including the velveteen kind.

Gratitude for This Week: Floors scrubbed and rugs washed; We removed the canopy from the bed to allow the spring breeze to touch us at night; lunch with my Lovelies; Books, always books; rewatching Grantchester with Husband.

Stay well, speak out when you have the chance–it’s the only way we can save our democracy; always choose kindness, and most of all, mes amis, stay grateful!

Speaking of books: Make It Real is on sale for 99 cents for just one more week. (Man, I love this cover!) If you haven’t been to River’s Edge yet, this a good opportunity to discover my little Indiana !town on the Ohio River. Enjoy!

They were only faking it….

A landscape designer for his family’s construction firm, Joe Walker, is nearing completion on one of the most important projects of his career—gardens for spec homes that if they wow, Walker Construction will survive. When a freak accident sidelines him with a broken leg, the firm hires a competitor. Her ideas are radically different, but his stalker ex arrives to play nurse, and Joe needs more than gardening help.

After six-years working in English manor gardens, horticulturist Kara Sudbury returns to River’s Edge to help in her grandparents’ struggling garden center. She’s thrilled when Jackson Walker hires her to execute his injured cousin’s designs. Ignoring Joe is difficult because he’s as sexy now as he was in high school and even more stubborn. But when Joe asks Kara to play the role of girlfriend, they strike a deal that will help Joe handle his tenacious ex and put Sudbury’s Nursery back in the black. Kara’s up for the subterfuge…for a price, but then the pretense feels real, and Kara is reminded that every rose has its thorns.