Who says that cats can't read?!

Who says that cats can't speak English?! Oliver can sure understand it, and I guess that he can read it, too. We spent yesterday in a very "literary" way. It was the annual AAUW book sale, so we couldn't miss that. Then, since we were in the vicinity, we stopped by the main County library. We don't get up there very often, and Elizabeth and I needed a book that we only know by sight. That means we have to spend some time browsing. Mom looked through all of the "New Arrival" books and found one for me; Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind": A Bestseller's Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood. Big title, but the book isn't that big! It is, literally, the "life story" of a book. Oliver seems to find it quite dull, and it put him to sleep!

I love reading about different authors' styles when it comes to their methods of creating a novel. Margaret Mitchell felt that stories should be started at the end, because then you (the author) knew where your characters needed to end up. Good point. She also believed in writing whatever chapter of the book that was inspiring you at the time. Another good point. She also felt that a novel should not be bogged down by flowery phrases and fancy words. She felt that if you kept your dialogue and description natural and to the point that your book would be more readable and interesting. Great point. I've taken several things to heart and am just about convinced to start putting our story down on paper.

This morning dawned another dark and rainy day, but that didn't stop us from heading out to the produce auction. There was not a lot of stuff there, so we were home in less than an hour and a half. We did get some nice stuff though, and it seems hard to believe that we can still be bringing home zucchini, tomatoes, peppers and cabbage this late in the season. Aren't the colors fabulous?! I got a box of over 100 mini-gourds, all in pastel shades, for just two dollars. Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit sunnier (at least there isn't supposed to be any rain!), so I'm hoping to take a bunch of the swan gourds and others into the garage. It's pretty impossible to hope that they'll dry in this constant precipitation. That means that a bunch of these mini gourds and little pumpkins will fill in those spaces in the Gnome Garden.



By the way, we made those strawberries into strawberry shortcake the other night. Homemade strawberry shortcake with homemade whipped cream. Let me tell you --- that was heaven on earth. Wow! I sure wish that I'd taken a picture of it, but we ate it before I had the chance. I can't think of many things that we've ever eaten that were as wonderful as that stuff!