{"id":514,"date":"2011-10-07T17:56:59","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T22:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/?p=514"},"modified":"2011-10-07T17:56:59","modified_gmt":"2011-10-07T22:56:59","slug":"aah-autumn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/2011\/10\/07\/aah-autumn\/","title":{"rendered":"Aah&#8230;Autumn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/scarecrows.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-515\" title=\"scarecrows\" src=\"http:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/scarecrows-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"scarecrows\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/scarecrows-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/scarecrows-1024x764.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>My favorite season. \u00a0Cool crisp days and long shadows that come earlier each evening. \u00a0They&#8217;ve started harvesting the corn in the field next door, the huge alien creature chewing through the stalks. \u00a0There&#8217;s pot roast for dinner, and I spent an hour this afternoon making the scarecrows in the picture. \u00a0Aren&#8217;t they a hoot! \u00a0I was in charge of the scarecrow making stand at the Cornwall Manor Fall Festival and learned how to make them with stuffed pantyhose and old clothes. \u00a0We made all boys; the girl with her braids, scarf and apron was my idea. \u00a0We didn&#8217;t have to buy anything except the bales of straw. \u00a0The chickens had fun playing in the leftover bale.<\/p>\n<p>The fall festival is always an excuse for a book binge. They sold shopping bags of books for $6. \u00a0I felt virtuous limiting myself to two bags but I&#8217;m pretty good at packing a bag. \u00a0I bought mostly fiction. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.librarything.com\/catalog\/witchyrichy&amp;tag=Cornwall%2BManor\">Did I really buy 30 books? <\/a> I&#8217;ve been craving good stories lately. \u00a0A friend recommended the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/25708\/book\/78689448\">Maisie Dobbs<\/a> mysteries by Jacqueline Winspear, and I really enjoyed the first one. \u00a0Now, I&#8217;m pretty far into <a href=\"http:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/2357\/book\/78801289\">Beach Music<\/a> by Pat Conroy and enjoying it much more than the last one I read.<\/p>\n<p>I tucked the books from the festival into the baskets of the window seat I found at a discount store. \u00a0I repurposed a futon chair seat to make a comfy spot to read this winter. \u00a0The late afternoon sun comes in and you have a beautiful view of the magnolia tree. \u00a0The upstairs is more inviting now since it continues to be warmer than the first floor.<\/p>\n<p>I went exploring today, heading east on 460 to visit the Windsor Food Lion, some 30 miles away*. \u00a0 A nice store and, low and behold, they had a discount book bin! \u00a0I took advantage of the 3 for $10 deal to pick up 3 well known writers: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/2774735\/covers\/78801062\">Nick Hornby (Slam)<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/45161\/78801068\">Saving Fish From Drowning (Amy Tan)<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/45161\/78801068\">One Fifth Avenue (Candace Bushnell)<\/a>. \u00a0The Bushnell book is marked First Edition but a quick Google search shows that it isn&#8217;t worth much more than I paid for it. \u00a0I do feel a bit bad paying so little for books but at least I&#8217;m giving them a good home and a chance of being read. \u00a0Doesn&#8217;t that count for something?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sorry to say that my dreams of owning a bookstore are fading. \u00a0We watched <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Paperback_Dreams\">Paperback Dreams<\/a>, a film about two independent bookstores and their struggles to make a living. \u00a0 Plus, I don&#8217;t think I have the commitment to run a retail operation. \u00a0So, I&#8217;m going to check out setting up an online bookstore since I&#8217;ve definitely got inventory. \u00a0I suppose I could rent space at flea markets but it&#8217;s just not the same.<\/p>\n<p>*This is the closest big name grocery store. \u00a0There&#8217;s another one about 30 miles west on 460. \u00a0There&#8217;s always the burg but it is crowded and getting there includes waiting on the ferry so it takes an hour each way. Getting access to a wide variety of food has been the biggest challenge for us. \u00a0We have some small stores with many people relying on Dollar General for their food. I was craving a chain grocery store.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My favorite season. \u00a0Cool crisp days and long shadows that come earlier each evening. \u00a0They&#8217;ve started harvesting the corn in the field next door, the huge alien creature chewing through the stalks. \u00a0There&#8217;s pot roast for dinner, and I spent an hour this afternoon making the scarecrows in the picture. \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/2011\/10\/07\/aah-autumn\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[50,115,112],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31UVs-8i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":517,"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions\/517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplykaren.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}