Mersydotes

Summertime.  Locusts, fireflies, corn fields.  It has a certain magic.  A season with clear edges, challenging you to take advantage of every last moment.  We'll miss the sunshine, and the warmth, the birdsong, and the  foliage, but they're here now for the taking.   And for me, summer also means choosing a theme.  I'm not sure how it started, but for a long time, I've chosen an overarching theme for my summer reading- once, it was happiness, once the grand classics of Russian literature (yes- that was a reallllllly depressing summer!), and this year it's Japan.  I've never gone into it with a theme already picked out, but once summer hits, I start "chain-reading", starting with one book, then reading another that was somehow mentioned or alluded to in the first or stumbled upon in the same section.  It's taken me on some pretty fun and rambling trips.  And then, when summer is drawing to a close, I can look back and see what my theme turn

September feels like a new beginning to me- fall is coming with its fresh crispness and colors and pencils are being sharpened as the academic year gears back up.  In recent years, I've also associated another event with the beginning of autumn- the Yarndale Festival in Yorkshire, England.  I've never been (dare to dream!), but I've followed it from afar, especially each year's charity crochet/knitting project.   (image from Attic24 blog, link here ) This year, the charity chosen by the organizers is Mercy Ships, an international medical aid organization sailing around the world, providing surgeries and medical  help  to communities in need.  I can't imagine a better charity to benefit!  As you can imagine, many of the patients are children, and Mercy Ships is collecting handmade stuffed bears to distribute as comfort animals to little ones who are experiencing the stress and anxiety of medical procedures. The 2019 goal is to collect 500 knitted/c