My very own aristocratic title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Grand Duchess Faith the Harmonious of Old Throcking in the Hole Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

This is particularly suitable in a week when I have become a consultant to the DC public school libraries.

Great book arrives!

Liberal Reform in an Illiberal Regime has just come to our house. You too can order it at Amazon; just put in "liberal reform," or "illiberal."

Surprising discovery!

Perhaps everyone else knew. Seattle's best coffee sells beverages in Small, Medium, and Large sizes. The one pictured is Medium.

A very important day

August 8th is the birthday of our first born. I have included some recent pictures.







Garrison Keillor has this Emily Dickinson poem today on his Writer's Almanac:

The Love a Life Can Show

The Love a Life can show Below
Is but a filament, I know,
Of that diviner thing
That faints upon the face of Noon—
And smites the Tinder in the Sun—
And hinders Gabriel's Wing—

'Tis this—in Music—hints and sways—
And far abroad on Summer days—
Distils uncertain pain—
'Tis this enamors in the East—
And tints the Transit in the West
With harrowing Iodine—

'Tis this—invites—appalls—endows—
Flits—glimmers—proves—dissolves—
Returns—suggests—convicts—enchants—
Then—flings in Paradise—

Becoming a parent transforms a person.

Starting over

I deleted my old blog because I hadn't written in it for years, not even this summer in Boulder. I'm calling this new one Edge of the shelf because I feel in between; in between middle and old age, being a parent and being myself, being a reader and being a writer, being a librarian in an elementary school and being an avid reader of adult poetry and fiction, being a lover of words and a lover of pictures (child artist). I could go on and on; someone else has already taken "liminal librarian"; of course everyone would always have to look it up. There's something appealing about being on the threshold, ready to apply "esprit d'escalier" (Look that up!).

The pictures show our grandson Ted, and our friend Mr. Pickles. Ms. Ruby will have to wait her turn.