Spring 2020 Newsletter
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THE Wadhams Free Library Spring 2020 NEWS We’re reaching out to our library community to share some resources that may be useful or enjoyable - - and as a way to exchange ideas and give each other something else to think about. We hope that you and your loved ones are safe and well. Please contact us if we can help answer questions or provide resources. Have something you’d like to share? Call or e-mail us. 518-962-8717 [email protected] we’re so sorry to miss our Spring Sourdough Waffle & Frittata Extravaganza we look forward to seeing you when we can Please support our local businesses! If you can’t visit them now, consider buying a gift certificate. virus resources - here’s a place to start - there are many more - and remember to watch out for scams https://www.coronavirus.gov https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/home https://www.co.essex.ny.us/Health/ a few of the many reading and information resources available online: https://cefls.org Clinton Essex Franklin Library System’s home page Click on the USE YOUR LIBRARY tab, then click on EBOOKS AND MORE or RESEARCH AND LEARNING TOOLS or KIDS & TEENS There’s a lot there to explore! https://www.myon.com myON digital reading resources for kids are free during the current school closures. Click login at the top of the screen. School name: New York Reads - Username: read - Password: books https://www.gutenberg.org/ free downloadable books Do you need your library card number and PIN in order to access e-books and other digital resources? Ask us! We’re expecting a delivery of new books and we’re thinking about how we might be able to hand out books - - separately! - - safely! - - cleanly! We’ll let you know what we come up with. Do you need help filling out your Census form? Contact us, we can help. The 2020 Census numbers determine how federal funds are allocated. Considering the financial challenges that we will be facing, it’s more important than ever that we all get counted. Together we can ensure that our community receives the resources it needs. Learn more at 2020census.gov. … and as Monty Python used to say: “...and now for something completely different...!” We asked some of our library Trustees and friends to tell us what they’ve been doing and thinking about lately. I WATCHED “OUR PLANET” ALL NIGHT last Mary Ann Walls says she and Frank have been night. SOLITARY TIGER, BLLIONS OF BIRDS, FaceTiming with all of their kids - one in Vermont and IMPOSSIBLE SHOTS, HOW DID THEY DO IT three on Long Island. “It’s really nice to see them!” absorbed in love glad to be alive, a part of it amazing startling convincing wholeness "A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its THE FILM itself a great work of imagination original dimensions." Oliver Wendell Holmes I HAVE BEEN READING GIANT BOOKS: Fall of the Roman Empire, Astrophyiscs for People in a Hurry, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Marilyn and Kip Trienens have been spending some winter months Human / I WANT THE WHOLE STORY what’s in Mexico, and Marilyn writes: IT ALL ABOUT WHAT A RIDE WORTH THE TRIP “I, for one, cannot live without books. There is an English library Ted Cornell here of sorts. We've been in to find used books to read - it's amazing what you'll read when you have few choices. Next year, I'm thinking of volunteering there as it seems most of their staff do not speak English which is odd for a library that has only “Why is it that in the aftermath of a disaster, English language books. They have little notes to hand out to whether manmade or natural, people suddenly explain the library to people. I think most of the ex-pats use become altruistic, resourceful, and brave? What this library to mingle with other ex-pats. They also are known makes the newfound communities and purpose for their fine cafeteria and clean bathrooms. There is also a many find in the ruins and crises after disaster so Spanish language library around the corner with computers, etc., joyous? And what does this joy reveal about but it doesn't look very big...” ordinarily unmet social desires and possibilities? In A Paradise Built in Hell, award-winning author Rebecca Solnit explores these phenomena, looking What I’ve been doing? at major calamities from the 1906 earthquake in San This, and Better Call Saul on Netflix. Francisco through the 1917 explosion that tore up The novel is beautifully written, but a tough read. Mary Burke Halifax, Nova Scotia, the 1985 Mexico City earth- quake, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes - Yotam Ottolenghi She examines how disaster throws people into a temporary utopia of changed states of mind and social possibilities, as well as looking at the cost of the widespread myths and rarer real cases of social deterioration during crisis.” I heard a snippet of an interview with this author on NPR today and thought it would be a good read for anyone looking for some good to come out of this extremely difficult time. I thought I’d buy the book and then donate it to the Library for anyone who may be interested. Kris Stephens Groovin' The Rascals 1967 Groovin', on a Sunday afternoon Really couldn't get away too soon I can't imagine anything that's better The world is ours whenever we're together There ain't a place I'd like to be instead of Groovin', down a crowded avenue Doin' anything we like to do A flat half mile walk from our home is a small cemetery on Brainards Forge Road. Our son requested a cemetery There's always lots of things that we can see We can be anyone we want to be nature walk instead of a woods walk for his school And all those happy people we could meet just project and we got twice the learning experience. We found large white pine trees, lichen, sounded out Groovin', on a Sunday afternoon the names on the memorial stones, and had a Really couldn't get away too soon discussion about time and dates as well as some talks We'll keep on spending sunny days this way about how people die and how we honor and remember family members. We also found a large We're gonna talk and laugh our time away I feel it comin' closer day by day animal hole. In addition to the nature lessons we Life would be ecstasy, you and me endlessly talked about the rules of cemetery and how to learn respectfully by treading lightly, not stepping on stones, Groovin', on a Sunday afternoon or disturbing the memorials. When we returned home Really couldn't get away too soon I put one of the names and dates into findagrave.com Ray Matteau and found that the name of the cemetery is Brainards Forge Cemetery. In this time of social distancing, our cemetery walk provided a way to get outside and weave nature and history together in one short walk. Elizabeth Bouchard-Hall This little guy was in one of our hotel rooms on the way back from Florida. When the weather gets nicer, I’ve been thinking of putting him on a fence post with the waterfalls in the background. Everyone all over the country who uses the Hilton will be able to see the wonderful Wadhams When this first started I took Erin Hance for a small hike waterfalls. Maybe I can get the Library in the photo? and we found ourselves overlooking Wadhams!! Sue Frisbie Liz Rowe As a way to turn your thoughts from Covid to Corvids, I can recommend Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays written and lavishly illustrated by Candace Savage. If you are feeling too distracted to read, Bird Brains also works as an art book. If you are tempted, as I was, to then move on to Ravens in Winter by Bernd Heinrich, be forewarned that this will involve spending hundreds of pages reading about dragging carcasses through the snow in Maine to feed Dr. Heinrich’s study ravens. Much as I admire Bernd Heinrich, this becomes rather tedious. Better to delve into The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf. I am only a few I enjoyed Bernd Heinrich’s chapters in, but can tell that naturalist, adventurer, and Mind of the Raven very scientist Alexander von Humboldt—who wrote of the much, but I did eventually dangers of man-made climate change over 200 years ago— start skimming over some is going to make great company. parts of his meticulously recorded scientific study. Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje is probably my favorite book of the year so far. Part poetry, family memoir, This reminds me - maybe and a portrait of what was then Ceylon, it manages to be now I’ll get around to beautifully written and very funny. reading The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at The Man in the Red Coat by Julian Barnes, Doxology by Nell the Tower of London. Zink, and A Time of Love and Tartan by Alexander McCall Liz Rapalee Smith are all worth reading. For ways to help deal with stress during this stressful time I can also recommend the podcast Unlocking Us by Brené Brown, and Governor Cuomo's daily updates.