Beware of unwelcome bonus at Little Free Library boxes

 

Without reservation, I enjoy visiting Little Free Library boxes in and around my own hometown. I even peek into them sometimes when I am traveling. I love the idea of passing a book I’ve read along for someone else to enjoy, and it’s fun to pick out another one to dig into.

 You're probably familiar with these. They are little take-a-book, share-a-book stations that can be found in neighborhoods, village downtowns, school entries, and plenty of other spots. 

 Santa, are you listening? I’d be pleased to set up such a station outside my own home, so neighbors and friends could swap books easily. This one is really neat, with an appealing design and plenty of room inside. There's also a smaller one that resembles an old English photo booth, although I'd probably fill that in an instant with all the books I could pass along. And there's a handy compact double-decker version, although it looks a bit like an outhouse to me. (Hey, if you've even been to camp, you know.)

 Having said all that, I cannot forget three incidents that pestered me about poking into Little Free Library boxes in the past few years.

 

MITE-y annoying surprise.

 First, it was the book bugs. I grabbed a paperback mystery a while ago and headed home with it. I settled into a chair on my patio, enjoying a mild summer evening, and cracked open the new (passed-along) book. Almost immediately, I literally felt my skin crawling, as tiny mites escaped from between the pages. (I've heard of bookworms, but this was something altogether different.)

 

Getting ANTsy about a new read.

 On another occasion, I placed a trio of paperbacks into another Little Free Library box in our town. Delighted to find a fairly new title I’d been hoping to read, I pulled a book out of the box and began flipping through the pages. That’s when I noticed dozens of tiny ants crawling all over the inside of the book.

 

WASP up with that?

 More recently, I visited still another Little Free Library near my home. Clearing out my own bookshelf, I went and piled a few volumes inside the book box. I noticed the contents seemed to be randomly tossed into there, so I began straightening up the proffered collection. 

Suddenly, I felt a painfully sharp sting on one hand. That’s when I noticed a cloud of wasps, swarming out of their nest, which was situated up under the rafters of the house-shaped book box. I reported this to the village hall, located across the street from it, and the staff there promised to alert the Boy Scout troop that managed that Little Free Library. Later, I noticed a handwritten note on the front of the box, indicating its interior had been wasp-sprayed. A few were still zipping around inside and outside of it.

 

I won't give up on Little Free Libraries.

 I am still visiting such book swapping sites these days, but I have learned to look closely before digging around for books to read. And I examine those quite carefully, especially the ones that appear to be well worn or water-damaged. If I really want such a book, I place it in a zippered plastic bag and freeze it for a day or two, hoping to do away with any mold or creepy crawlies.

 Book mites and ants and wasps, oh my!

 I guess it takes a bit more effort to host a Little Free Library than simply setting up the box and filling it with books to share. 

 

Related Items:

• How to start your own neighborhood watch program
• Late Library Books and Super Fine
• R is for Recycling Resilient Reads
• Ripped off at the thrift store!

 

Image/s: Wasp nest – public domain photo, Others - LAN personal photo/s

 

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Holiday decorating can be extra deLIGHTful

 

 PINK – for the 2021 Holiday Photography Challenge (See sidebar for full list.).

 

The Chicago Botanic Gardens’ Lightscape display takes seasonal decorating to a new level – artistically, architecturally, and aesthetically. 

 

 I enjoyed walking through this remarkable exhibit a few weeks before Christmas. Lightscape runs through New Years.

 

Image/s: Personal photo/s. All rights reserved.

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It’s fun to get a little flaky with fine friends

 SNOWFLAKE - - for the 2021 Holiday Photography Challenge (See sidebar for full list.).

 

Snowflakes are sweet, as they float down towards us each winter. But I think flaky friends might be even sweeter sometimes.

 Not too many years ago, a group of us were invited to visit another friend at her family’s forest cabin up north. We packed cozy clothes and more than a few tasty snacks and piled into a couple of cars to convoy to the woodsy nest.

 While we were there, we ate too much. We stayed up too late. We walked a little too far in the woods. And we laughed even more.

 We also created a little craft, burning snowflake images into cross-slices of wood from our friend’s tree-filled acreage.

 

OK, that’s not altogether true.

 The plug-in wood-burning tool took a lot longer than expected, so several of us grabbed black Sharpie markers to finish our ornaments. And why not?

 Each year, when I drag out the Christmas decorations, my rustic homemade snowflake ornaments bring back happy memories of fellowship with friends.

Disclaimer: I actually took this photo a few years ago. But I haven’t previously published it, and it seems to fit the bill nicely here.

 

Image/s: Personal photo/s. All rights reserved.

Feel free to follow on Google Plus and Twitter. Like this blog?  Check out Practically at Home on Facebook. You are invited to visit my author page on Amazon.com.