Rainy Days are a Reader's Best Friend

Not that we don't all enjoy reading on the beach, beneath shady trees, on park benches, in hammocks, or anywhere else in fine weather. But reading is one of the rainy season's particular pleasures. The ground is too wet and cold and still for gardening; the mules would rather stand quietly than move; and dark creeps into the day early and lingers late in the mornings.

So brew some tea or melt some chocolate for milk, light some wicks on the periphery, and cuddle in for some reading time (preferably near a window so you can gaze periodically at the soaking outdoors and feel even more dry, warm, and comfortable).

Novels, picture books, short stories, adventure tales, photography collections, illustrated children's books, recipe books, histories, philosophies... anything suits an afternoon or evening of calm.

So, please, enjoy your Sunday. Go outside just long enough for the rain to soak through your sweater: move some things around the yard until your fingers start to feel a little raw and then warm again, straighten up a bit, observe the compost pile, visit the chickens, cluck and brood, give them some dry straw, and then come back inside, put some soup on to heat, settle in, and set sail in a book.