Intentions for a Week-End

~ rabbitpatchdiary.com

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January is more like itself today.  There is a cold wind blowing,  pruning the winter trees and warning the daffodils all in one breath.  I saw a little sparrow puffed up twice his size, trying to make sense of this Januarys’ behavior, when I got home.  He was perched on a post in the picket fence and I wondered how he stuck to the place in the fierce wind.  Nature never ceases to amaze me.

 I did not tarry to the back door of the old house on the rabbit patch.  Christopher Robin did not even try to escape this time.  Moon Shine, who used to be wild, has never attempted to brave the elements, since his civilization.  When the door is open, he runs  in a state of panic, to his “spot” as if he needs to claim it all over again.  

I have not been at the rabbit patch, on a week-end, in a good while.  There is plenty of yard work, if the cold wind stops blowing.  Branches  are strewn there and yonder .  It will take a fair amount of time to gather them, for another fire in the garden, some still, cold evening.  There is a large cabinet in the laundry room, that can stand a thorough cleaning, if the wind  “stays on like a week-end guest”-so I have a variety of tasks to choose from.  

I also have a new book to read.  It is  “Chasing Jubal” by Lylas’ paternal grandfather, Bill Thompson.  I was almost late for work this morning, because of it.   I was on page forty, and had lost all desire to make money .  There is something so completely satisfying about holding a good book in your hand-and turning a page with great curiosity.  January is as good a time  as I know of to get lost in a book.   A winter day with a cold wind blowing, seems to give you permission to read for hours if you are so inclined-and I often am.

Once, my mom and I were at a yard sale, when she spied an entire box of books  written by an author she said her mama loved.  I grew up with my maternal grandmother but she died suddenly one night when I was just ten years old- and so I bought the box without a moments’ hesitation and commenced to reading them.  They were well written historical novels by Victoria Holt.  Somehow I felt like I was visiting with my grandmother as I read them.  We went to tea plantations in India, castles in Ireland and royal gardens in England, that summer.  I imagine those books were  about the only way, Grandma ever got off the farm .  I still have them.  They are safely stored behind glass- paned doors in an antique  cabinet, in the rabbit patch library.

I plan to cook “Sunday Dinner”, this week-end.  It has been a while since I have done so at the rabbit patch.  It is the kind of weather to cook  foods slowly and deliberately, after all.   I have a roast that will work nicely and if all goes well, I may bake a pie.  Pie is especially good, when mama and daddy are here -otherwise, it is just pie.

I sure hope I can finish Chasing Jubal, before the Sunday dinner.   A good book has, in the past, turned   my great expectations in to pipe dreams, on occasion.  A good book has caused me to burn a pan of  biscuits.  Once I scorched a pot of beans to the point, I had to throw the pot out, all because of a good book. . . and so,  I declare here and now, not to have that book anywhere near me or the rabbit patch kitchen, this coming Sunday- especially,  when I attempt  to make the meringue for the pie.

 

21 thoughts on “Intentions for a Week-End”

  1. I can relate to being entirely immersed in a good book, living amongst its pages and becoming part of every scene. As you already know, I fall in love with characters and mourn their loss when the book ends. I have been known to ‘slow down’ my reading of the last chapters to delay the parting of my new friends. I hope to write such a book someday. At any rate, I shall spend the remainder of the winter editing my novel.
    Maybe I’ll make a pot roast the Sunday for the family too, just like my great-grandmother did when I spent my summers at home in the south. Enjoy your weekend 🙂

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  4. My grandmother loved this author too, and the historical novels she wrote as Jean Plaidy. I agree that a good book can make you forget everything else, even the pressing task of pitching up for work!

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      1. I look forward to it. I really like when other bloggers recommend books. I unblocked a drain today. I think you got the better deal!

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  6. My mother read like you do… She would go to the library and come home with as many books as allowed and that was her way of relaxing… that and gardening. She was a busy lady… I read a lot as a child but through working and health reasons not so much in later years.
    I want to, but my eyes right now just can’t seem to focus for long. Hopefully better in the future…
    I can just imagine your kitchen on Sunday with the wonderful smell of roast and pie!….. Diane

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  8. Finally we have a cool breeze her too. In florida it has been terribly hot this winter and humid. Feels wonderful to have my windows open. Wish i had some daphodils to look at!!

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      1. Me too! I always love to hear others thoughts. Here in Florida we never have actual cold. Just cold fronts that move through. Today it is a cool day. Tomorrow could be hot again! But things are always green here and something is always in bloom.

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  9. My dear mom loved to read books. She recorded all the books she read in a very tattered notebook. When she passed away, I asked my dad if I could have it. I cherish seeing her handwritting and to no surprise, we had read alot of the same books. I love holding a book and reading, just NOT the same feeling with an iPad.
    Love the slow cooking on a dreary winter day!

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  10. Running behind here… Nothing like showing up late! 🙂 I LoVe that you bought those books and that reading them transports you to places with your grandmother. That’s the sweetest thing ever!!

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