Bring on the Hounds

It was a perfectly November-ish weekend - grey, drizzly, chill - and therefore the perfect kind of day to spend a few hours at John King Books in Detroit. It's Michigan's largest used book store, and let me tell you, the thought of a larger one is terrifying, even for a book lover like me. The store is housed inside an old glove factory. It's still got the original hardwood floors and exposed duct work, but the old world charm ends there. The store is four floors of coppled together shelving, hand lettered signs, and narrow aisles. I hear it can get quite cold in there as they don't use much heating (I was fine in my outerwear) and if you need light, well you'll have to pull the chain hanging from the flourescent fixtures down each aisle yourself. Turn them off again when you leave, please. Still, it's a dangerous place to spend a drizzly Saturday. I recommend having at least a general idea of what you want before you get there or risk being hopelessly overwhelmed.

I came out with a bit of a haul, nicely reflective of the many aspects of my personality - fantasy, cooking, classic, fluff, and environment. Actually, the coolest thing I got isn't even here. It's an old beat-up piano stool, the kind that swivel up and down. In addition to the used books, John King does rare books, and also just about anything else you see there can be bought from the prints on the walls to the lonely, dusty furniture. I picked up the stool for $10. It needs some love, but luckily my dad is a woodworker, and the second I got it home, he'd popped the top off and dismantled the base before I could even get a picture! It's going to be a Thanksgiving project of ours.

You know, I didn't really mind the November-ish weather. Somehow, it seemed right, and the leaves were still clinging on. You know, the kind of day where you want to curl up in your library in front of the fire with the hounds at you feet like a country gentleman.

I love this combo of bright leaf on slate grey flagstone.

Christmas is coming, after all. Embrace it.

The holly and the ivy, when they are both full grown, of all the trees that are in the woods, the holly bears the crown....