Sunday, April 15, 2018

Fickle, fickle April



I would have stormed the nurseries of the county for mandevillas to no purpose, yesterday. They would have sailed away overnight. Such a storm. No lightening, but hard, hard rain and wind. I can hear it raining still, pounding on everything under it.


Others slept last night, I’m sure. I wonder if I did. I dreamed. I never dream, or I never remember. I don’t know which.

I was moving far away, and packing a bag. I carried it to the car. I came back in the house and found the bag at the front door again, accompanied by a great Samoyed, smiling and beating his tail on the floor.

It’s been forty years since I owned a dog, a standard Collie, easily as big as a Samoyed, with as much hair Every night I brushed out a grocery bag of hair. He was a smiling dog, too.


It did quit raining, almost, for a few minutes, and I went out to see the garden. Laura’s “dry creek” is very wet. Everything looked shiny wet. The rain gauge noted perhaps a quarter inch. I think it’s sadly mistaken.


I just finished reading Gilead. A quiet book that held my attention closely. I thought I would slide quietly out of it, but then a left field poser in the last forty or fifty pages. It is resolved as another sad family situation.  Not resolved, but placed in hope of future decent denouement.

The main character of the book often mentions a book his young wife is reading, and other characters have read. Gilead is set in the fifties, and the book, The Trail of the Lonesome Pines, sounds like one to be found in your mother’s trove of childhood books.

For fun, I tried out the title on Amazon, and found it in print. It’s found its way to my hand, and is a mystery waiting. There is no publishing information on the title page. The print is tiny, tiny. Eleven point, or more. Some of the pages have slightly tipsy margins, as if the original, 1908 book were sent through a copier to prepare the master.

On the back of the last page, a tiny clue. A small notation at the foot of the page:

Made in the USA
San Bernardino, CA
11 April 2018

11 April, 2018 sounds about the date I ordered the book. I’ll start it this afternoon, to accompany the rain.

27 comments:

  1. we had a hard rain with lightning and low rumbles of thunder Friday night along with a trembling and panting dog that kept me awake. interesting...books made on order.

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  2. Rainy days are the perfect time to start new books. But yikes! I'd have to read that one with a magnifying glass.

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  3. The book notation makes me smile. Enjoy the read.

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  4. There seems to be a market.I see several singular/small lot printers. I have read some of my childhood favorites on line. I remember turning up a Xerox copy of one on the internet, maybe twenty years ago. I suppose nostalgia has put a lot of them out there, to be reprinted.

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  5. I went to college in San Bernardino; I'd have to have a magnifying glass to read those pages; we are between two fronts, lots of rain and lots of wind; we are hoping no trees crack and fall down. Tonight is supposed to get down to 35 so must cover my veges again; hope this is the last cold night.

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  6. I sometimes do the same, read the books the characters read in novels. I find old copies on Amazon and have had them delivered from second hand bookstores in the US and UK. Love it!

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  7. You are so lucky to have a gardener in the family. I love the "dry" riverbed look. We have had a dreadful wet winter and spring here in the UK though some good weather has been promised for next week.

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  8. It is a strange April... 38 F (feels 28) this morning. Will probably be in the 80's tomorrow...?? I'm anxious to start my hanging and container plants, but not sure with this weather. I love Mandevillas! And I'm glad to hear that others have 'strange' dreams.

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  9. At least the rain will have washed Laura's rocks clean! I don't like buying summer plants too soon because of the need to take them in at night. They're not in the stores yet even if I did want to get some. Way too early here :)

    Odd dreams leave one feeling strange for awhile the next day, don't they?

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  10. Terrible weather here as well. That book sounds interesting.

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  11. Happy reading. And please, feel free to send us your rain. Wind we have. Rain is absent. And has been for way toooooo long.

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  12. We are still getting heavy rain here in the UK although better weather is promised mid week. Can;t come soon enough

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  13. The weather is due to change here by wed..70 degrees!

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  14. The film poster for The Trail of the Lonsome Pinee with Mary Miles Minter definitely appeals, though I hope the book's heroine has a bit more gumption .
    You'll have to give us all your opinion ...

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  15. One of my favorite things to do on a rainy day is curl up with an afghan, a good book, and a cup of tomato soup. I can read and watch the rain while staying nice and warm.

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  16. A rainy afternoon reading sounds good to me but I do hate small print.
    Merle...........

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  17. I'm reading the book after Gilead--Lila. Very hard to get many pages read at a sitting. Sad story. I don't do well with sad stories.

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  18. Hari OM
    April showers...PAH! Samo-samo here. Sigh. Seems your old book got re-copyrighted and became P.O.D. (print on demand); the title rings bells - I'll go in search... YAM xx

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    Replies
    1. It was a Henry Fonda/Fred MacMurray film in the 30's.

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    2. ...oh yes!... found it on the Cloud supermart. Yxx

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  19. It was my grandmother who had The Trail of the Lonesome Pine and I read it at her house...The author was born in Kentucky during the civil war and died during WWI. I read several of his books when I was young and found the world he created rather odd and a tiny bit unbelievable.

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  20. I have sometimes bought books mentioned in other books, sometimes been pleasantly surprised, sometimes sorry I wasted my money.

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  21. Fickle is an apt description. Unkind would be another, at least here this weekend.

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  22. Dear Joanne, I wish we'd have some of your rain. We are in drought here in Missouri. I, too, read "Gilead." Robinson is such a fine writer and she always leaves me examining relationships and the arc of my own life.

    As to that book mentioned. I believe I read it when I was young. Or maybe it was "The Girl of the Limberlost." I need to look that up! Peace.

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  23. Good thing that the rain did not enter your house.

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