Showing you mine

Bibliomom recently left me a comment that was essentially a challenge of “you show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”

So, here’s mine:

It’s one of many I’ve collected over the years. Here is an inside view:

The pen likes to ham it up and insisted on being included in the photo.

Some of you may be wondering what this is all about. Amuirin asked me where I get my quotes. I replied that I keep a journal of quotes, writing things in whenever I come across something that I like and/or might like to read again or refer to later. Bibliomom commented that she has a quote journal too, and said she’d show me hers if I’d show her mine.

Don’t you feel as though you just circled back to the beginning of this post?

The journal pictured is one of several. I’ve been keeping this sort of journal for quite a few years and have managed to fill up a few books. Sometimes I paste in photos or things I’ve torn out of a magazine or newspaper, but mostly I copy in quotes from books or a variety of other sources.

I also keep a personal (handwritten) journal, but I don’t have a collection of them because I’ve been known to burn them as a way of transitioning from one year to the next. There are some years I’d prefer to forget. Burning the journals doesn’t make me forget, but it is cathartic. All that bad energy turned to smoke and ash.

I didn’t have the time or a good place to artistically or prettily arrange the journal photos this morning. I’ve been so busy with my other masterpieces:

Pickling peppers. Lots and lots and lots of peppers.

With all the pickling, canning, and freezing going on around here, the rest of the house is a royal mess. Finding a dust-free, clutter-free surface wasn’t easy. The ottoman in the living room volunteered. And even that could use a quick vacuuming to rid it of the little kitten hairs.

I’m going to try to remedy the messy house situation today. M and I will be going to the market again tomorrow and that may mean another few days (or week) of food preservation. I figure I should grab hold of this opportunity to clean house while I can.

Not that I’m terribly worried about it. The harvest will be over soon, and winter will make its way here. There will be plenty of time to clean, organize, and rearrange in the coming months.

Still, I would like to give it a good Autumn cleaning before we close up the house to protect ourselves from the cold. We may be having summer-like weather this week, but I’m not going to let that fool me. I know the ways of northeast Ohio. Once we enter the month of October, snow could arrive any day.

I’ll leave you with this morning’s view of the pond:

(This just reminds me of more work: See those weeds growing around the edges? I’ll be out there later today with a huge rake, pulling them out of the water. We’ve found it’s more effective if we pull them by hand — or by rake — than spraying them. It’s hard work, too. Builds muscle. And character, so I’m told.)