Category: Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot: Bookish Places

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot25 Comments

One of my favorite things to do on trips is to visit places I’ve read about in books.  Somehow, having a fictional event set in a real place makes that place so much more interesting!  Maybe it’s because I read about so many fantasy or sci fi places I’m obviously never going to go 🙂 so it’s especially fun when I can go somewhere real.

Everywhere I turned on my trip to New York, I seemed to be seeing something I knew from a book or a movie or just the cultural consciousness.  Naturally I took pictures of everything!  But I’ll just share a couple today.  🙂

First, the fountain in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It’s lovely in its own right, and all the more interesting because Claudia and Jamie took a bath in it while they were hiding out at the Met, in From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg.

Next on the museum tour, the Natural History Museum.  It’s featured in The Night at the Museum, but personally I was more interested in it as Caroline’s museum.

In The One Hundredth Thing About Caroline by Lois Lowry, Caroline is an eleven-year-old girl and aspiring paleontologist who goes to the Natural History Museum every week.  She knows all the exhibits and everyone who works there.  It’s clearly a second home for her, and I felt that a bit vicariously, even though it was my first trip.  And anyway, who doesn’t love seeing dinosaurs?

I’ll save some other places for another week…  In the meantime, check out more Saturday Snapshots on At Home with Books!

Saturday Snapshot: Late-blooming Orchid

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot21 Comments

I’ve been waiting a year and a half for my orchid to bloom–and it finally did!  It had lovely flowers when I first got it, and I was told that it would probably bloom again in a year.  Well, it didn’t…and I waited…and didn’t quite have the heart to toss it out…and finally this spring it burst out with buds.  I’ve been watching it like a hawk for three weeks as bud after bud opened, waiting for the perfect moment to take a picture and share with all of you!

I count twelve blooms, plus one more bud I think will open, and two tiny ones that might.  I guess it was worth the wait!

Visit At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots.

Saturday Snapshot: Book Loot

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot30 Comments

Last weekend I went to my library’s Warehouse Sale, so I thought–why not show off the treasure?

That’s 17 books, for a total price of…$19.50.

I LOVE the Library Warehouse Sale.  It’s literally a warehouse full of books.  The library opens it up every two months or so, and I usually try to make it over to spend a couple of hours wandering the shelves.  The selection is good and the prices are amazing, between 50 cents and two dollars.  I shop used book stores a lot, so I have a pretty good idea how much all of this would have cost somewhere else…I’d say a fairly conservative estimate puts the value around a hundred dollars, for the same copies elsewhere.

Definitely a good deal, and plenty of hidden treasure in among all those shelves!  At the top I have five new-to-me original Star Trek books; I’ve been hunting, not very successfully, for good ones to try, so these were excellent finds.  Under those, AVI and Vivian Vande Velde with two books I know are excellent (and in like-new condition), and Aria of the Sea somehow lured me in even though I almost never buy unread books (barring a series like Star Trek, or a reliable author like Burroughs).

I have the complete Grimms, but no Andersen, so that lovely old copy was a great find.  I’ve been hunting (not very successfully!) for a copy of Huckleberry Finn ever since my copy fell apart–I swear I saw them everywhere until I actually needed to buy a copy.  This one smells amazing, all old book musty, and when I saw there was a matching copy of Tom Sawyer I couldn’t resist them both.

I poked through the picture books for treasures and decided to expand my James Stevenson collection, resulting in the five you see up there.  He wrote and illustrated the Grandpa and Uncle Wainey series, and is wonderfully clever.  I appreciate good stories regardless of target age group.

And the behemoth at the bottom, How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.  I already had the abridged version and know he’s excellent, so I thought I’d just go for the complete one.

So there you have it–book loot!  I can always rely on the Library Warehouse Sale to overfill my bookshelves, and let me check off a few more favorite books I’ve been meaning to buy.  Anyone else have favorite places they go to look for bookish treasure?

And check out At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!

Saturday Snapshot: Birthday Presents

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations, Saturday Snapshot25 Comments

With my birthday yesterday, I thought a picture of some very cool presents would be appropriate for Saturday Snapshot!

I didn’t realise until I took this photo what very British-themed gifts I got this year–I guess my family knows my interests!  I’m planning a trip to London this fall, so the London guidebook, map and journal are quite appropriate.  That’s a “Disappearing TARDIS” mug from Doctor Who (more on that in a moment), and a Wizard of Oz CD.  You’re about to tell me that L. Frank Baum was American…and he was, but it’s Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Wizard of Oz, performed in London, with Michael Crawford in the title role.

The TARDIS is the Doctor’s time (and space) machine (it’s bigger on the inside), which appears and disappears.  In this case, when you add hot water.

The TARDIS disappears on one side...and appears on the other!

I had fun snapping those pictures.  🙂  And what could be more British than drinking tea in a Doctor Who mug?

Visit At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!

Saturday Snapshot: A Cathedral Tour

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot22 Comments

Happy Easter!  I was hunting for photos with a religious theme for Saturday Snapshot this week, and finally hit on sharing cathedrals.  I have visited a LOT of churches on various trips.  Whether you’re religious or not, they tend to be such centers for culture and history, especially the older ones.  Here is a smattering, mostly England because I didn’t have a digital camera on some of the other trips!

First, St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, where the bird woman sells her birdseed and “the saints and apostles look down,” according to Mary Poppins.

Next up in London, Westminster Abbey, where you can’t walk without stepping on the grave of someone you recognize.

Salisbury Cathedral in (you guessed it) Salisbury, England.  If it appears to be tilted, it wasn’t the camera.  It really is a little bit off-vertical.

Bath Abbey in, of course, Bath.  This is from the back–I just love those arches.

Church of St. John the Divine in New York.  It was completely impossible to get it all within the camera lens–it’s enormous.  And I couldn’t photograph the best part, because inside someone was playing the most beautiful organ music.

I have not actually been to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, but my parents took this picture, and I’m hoping to go myself this fall.  I want to see Quasimodo’s bell towers!

What are the most beautiful churches you’ve seen?