Meaghan's Blog

So a little while ago Mom and I picked up a small box of books from the library in a sale they were having. I picked up old books like I usually do. We paid $8 for them, the money we’d gotten from taking the bottles back to the redemption centre, since it was by donation. When we got back home I looked at them a little more closely, I looked them up online if some had no date on them, and there were two German books (and one about learning German), another novel from the same guy who wrote Das Schweigen Im Walde, and one with songs. I didn’t look at the songs very closely, and from glancing it looked like German, especially after seeing the German foreword, until some days later I looked the title up in Google Translate:

‘One Hundred Eskimo Songs’ (complete with a German foreword!)

I don’t know a lot about the people up north, but this is the first I’ve heard of them reading German. I found out the songs are traditional German songs translated into Eskimo, and only one person is selling a copy, which has no picture, for $195 dollars. It is dated as 1872 in two places, but it’s in extremely good condition if that’s the case. I noticed yesterday that you can see the bumps from letters on the previous page, possibly from being embossed letters. Dad suggested it was probably a souvenir for a family and was in a special case, so nobody ever read it, explaining why there’s really no damage to it. (Picture here!)

Other good books I picked up were two copies of  History of the British Empire. One looks like it was hardly used and the other has all kinds of damage, including missing pages and pages falling out and it’s really soiled. The copyright says 1865 (!), but it’s possible it could be younger than that. The copies look the same from a glance, but both of them have some slight differences with the cover and what color it is, so maybe the one in better condition is not as old. (More pictures!)

On Saturday, we’re going down to Saint John to scatter Little Grampy’s ashes, and on the way down we’ll be picking up Sarah, who we were planning to see that weekend anyway. Addison, Kaytlyn, and a few other relatives will be there. The other day when we were getting groceries, we found an Artemis Fowl book on sale (The Lost Colony) and bought it, and at the last library book sale there was the third book, and a while before that there was the fourth book at another store. I still wish I had the sixth book, but at this rate, it’ll turn up somewhere.

For the past few days I’ve been quilting, and on Saturday I took scraps that were left behind in floral prints and I cut over four hundred two-inch squares out of them. My grandmother says I’m making a blanket for my grandchild because of how long it will take to finish, but I already have a good start on it, since I already sewed all of the pairs I made together.  I also finished most of the top to the green and purple quilt, and I just need to cut out and sew on another border. We bought stuffing for Mrs. Paddington, so I need to finish sewing her soon in time to take her with us on our weekend trip. I still haven’t written anything story-wise.

On Friday I went out shopping with Mom and Emma, and one stop was the library book sale. I found some more old books but held back a little more this time and left most of them there. One box had all German books in it, and I took one that was pretty and green. Since it was completely in German, we had to translate the book title when we got home. The first time we did, my mother got a few letters wrong, but I did it again and it was ‘The silence in the forest’ when translated. It’s from 1936, but on eBay it only goes for about five dollars. I also bought a books on mathematics, a book of the best short stories from 1917 (published in 1918), and a few others. I went and bought some things at a thrift store, and on our way back we saw a nice old footboard beside someone’s trash and stopped to look, but we didn’t take it because we may have never used it, even if we did fix it. I really wish we could’ve taken it, or that the people who threw it away would have at least sold it.

Tomorrow we’re going to go visit Sarah at her new apartment, to see how she’s doing and to bring her some more things, I think. I’m going to make her some cookies today, too, so I won’t have to make them there. I haven’t done much of anything for my story yet, but I hope I can soon.

For the past few days I’ve been reading those first four Artemis Fowl books again but in order, and I’m on the second one now. It makes me wish I could write, but I can’t yet. Yesterday we drove around and went out for ice cream, to the nursery (the flower one), and to a place that sold homeschooling books. I got a Latin dictionary that I’d wanted for some time, since the book I have now doesn’t have many words in it. Tonight, Sarah and I are going to see a movie, the first time I have since the last Harry Potter movie.

Emma has to have the spot on her hand removed on Thursday, since it’s the sort of spot that can turn into a bad one. Hopefully she’ll do fine. She just came up to me a few minutes ago and we made one of those string and cup telephones. Here is that chart I mentioned a little while ago (I finally found out where my mom put it).

Edit: It’s too big and doesn’t fit, so I’ll have to do something about that.