Cygnets and Penguins and a bit of a Catch Up

Well, the month of October seems to be speeding by and today I had to look at my October challenge (here) of items to complete. Not sure if I'll get the 15 books finished but I'm having a great time finding new Penguins and reading the books I do have on hand.

I have finished another five goals this past week so am happy with that and definitely on track. A couple of others are half done.
Letter D:
Dog's Day at the Beach - Spring is here and time to take the dogs to the beach -  Unfortunately we couldn't go to the beach because one of my dogs, Molly, injured her eye when she ran into a stick amongst a pile of branches we had pruned. So no sand in her eye allowed. However they were allowed at the big cricket/soccer oval at Cornelian Bay and they love that ground as much as the beach.  They played frisbee, ran in high speed figure 8 loops and rolled in things they thought smelled bad. Probably possum or rabbit poo. But they sure had fun and we had a great time watching them. Tongues were hanging out all around.


Next goal was letter F:
Fuller's Book Shop Event: There are many things on in October. Be sure to attend one or two.

Her latest book.

I booked myself into two events but unfortunately was quite ill for the first one so I missed it. But I did manage to get to the second one which was an evening with the Australian author Lily Brett. Lily Brett is an amazing author who was raised in Australia but moved to New York City 22 years ago.  She was born to Jewish German parents and during WWII both of her parents survived the Nazi death camps, however the rest of her family of aunts, uncles and cousins were not so fortunate and perished.
  
Ms. Brett sang deep praises of her husband whom she has been with for many years, talked about how she writes the books and the ideas for her books as well as telling the audience how much the war years and death camp experiences of her parents affected her during her youth and young adulthood.  She was humorous, refreshingly articulate and really down to earth. Everyone there enjoyed her company and all lined up afterwards to have her latest book signed.  My other half is reading it now but I plan to get going on it as soon as I can.  

Some of her previous books

We skirted the rain as we came over the rise into
Cygnet.

Penguin hunter Scarabeo
in the background. Close to 40,000 kms
hunting for these elusive books.

The next challenge on the list was to ride the Penguin Hunter Scooter down to Cygnet as I heard there was a shop down there that had Penguins on the bookshelves at the back.

Today was a lovely sunny day though quite windy and rain due later a couple of us headed out about lunchtime for the trip south. Cygnet is a lovely small town about an hour's drive south. We took the coast road which was clear of traffic and has beautiful views of farmland and the Tasman Sea.

The shop I had heard about had one vintage Penguin but I had it already so the penguin hunting wasn't very good. However I did meet the lovely owner who said she'd ring me if any vintage Penguins come in and her

prices were good. 

We then left Cygnet for Huonville which is about 20 minutes north of Cygnet on the way back to Hobart. There is a large second hand bookshop there and the place is like a tip.  Books stacked up in every manner, very little room to walk around and as more books come in they are simply piled higher and higher on the very crowded shelf.  I went to the area of the shop where I know the Penguins to be and happily came across several I didn't have.  I also noticed the prices were a few dollars less per book this visit. 

Book sellers are finally starting to learn that people will not pay a lot of  money for old beat up Penguins. 

And as for the next two goals, Letter T: Tend to garden and plant some veggies and V for vote in the USA presidential election.

As my ballot wings its way across the Pacific to the state of Florida where I am still a registered voter although I am also a citizen in Australia (so I can try to get my choice in office in both countries), the lettuce, silverbeet and some strawberries are growing as I type.

I won't linger any longer as this post has been a bit long and if you're still at the end, thanks.  It is good to tick things off the list. So until next time...... stay warm in the northern hemisphere and continue to enjoy the ride to summer in the south.