It's the Neighborly Thing to Do

You just never know what you'll find when you go out your driveway on your bike. Our neighborhood (which is basically our whole town) is so fun. I was pedaling along on a street, and what do I behold? This! In someone's front yard!

What fun! The gravel path invited me to approach and check out this new "Little Free Library."

I read the plastic-coated brochure hanging there, and proceeded to open the cute blue doors, as if I were entering my own private library, out in public. Rather a contradiction, but there it is.

Atop the library, to make it peculiar to our lovely town, is a sailboat and a photo of an orange sunset.

What does this library offer? Here are some titles:

And a few more:

I didn't remove a tome from the Little Free Library today. I'm not much into modern cultural thrillers. I might read The Help one of these days. But I will -- oh, I will! -- bring a book or two to offer and add a sightly different flavor to the selection, which is always welcome. A little John Donne or Milton or Shakespeare, or something. I must find a spare book lying about the house that we no longer need. Children's books are welcome too!

I'm so proud of my neighbors. Wasn't that a kind thing to do for us all?
I rode on to the park and discovered a new Adirondack chair in our collection! Yippee! We can never have enough of these. I think this brings our total up to six.

This chair has a nice plaque on the back, indicating it's dedicated to the memory of a loved one. A man or two in town make these, and people pay to have them put in the park, for everyone's use. I think this is a lovely, generous thing to do.

I noticed some piles of brown on the side of the road. What in the world?

Clumps of mushrooms! Clearly they're growing from the roots of this cut-down tree.

The sight of something growing in such profusion is somehow slightly bizarre and disturbing. But I opted to share it with you nonetheless. Are they edible? I think no one in Oriental will ever find out.