I HAVE A CONFESSION to make. I collect too many things. They are not organized collections, in boxes neatly labeled or displayed on shelves for ohh-ing and ahh-ing. No, it's mostly just categories of items for which I have an affinity and hence I end up with more than I can actually use...things like old books, interesting old prints, pretty antique salt and pepper shakers (are you sensing a theme here?) I'm continually trying to figure out which of these appealing old items that have piled up I can part with so that there is still reasonable space to walk in the house and we don't end up living in little aisles. Once I bought myself a "how to get rid of clutter" book (not an old book, so, easily trundled out the door) and it advised taking photographs of items as a way of "keeping" them, thereby making it easier to let them go.


Okay, so here we have a case in point: my little Bird Guide. Land Birds East of the Rockies.
From Parrots to Bluebirds. This book was copyrighted in 1906, but published in 1920...the year of my father's birth...the year that women gained the right to vote... it's definitely and appealingly old. It's got such nice illustrations of the birds. And is plumb full of interesting information regarding "song and insectivorous birds"...look here... there are 29 kinds of warblers. Everything from the Prothonotary Warbler to the Worm-eating Warbler (What? They don't all eat worms?). There's the Nashville Warbler and the Tennessee Warbler, the Golden-cheeked Warbler, the Magnolia Warbler...perhaps I'd better not list them all, although it's tempting. (There are birds, and then, unfortunately there are rabbits with their trails. Where was I? Oh, yeah...all set to toss away one item).

Alright then, here are the photos:


Obviously, this is not a valuable book...it's falling apart, for heaven's sake.



But look at this lovely "topography of a bird"...and look at these...





That should be enough photos. I should be able to do it. Just put the book...in...the trash.

But now I'm engrossed in it. There is a preface and a long introduction from which I am sorely tempted to share fascinating and quaintly written tidbits (I'll restrain myself). And, isn't this book just as useful today as it was in 1920, should I wish to identify a bird or search out an interesting fact about a M'Cown Longspur? (Ha! I'll bet you didn't even know there was such a bird!) I'm enamored by the paintings of the birds, they're what attracted me to the book in the first place. Take photos? Get rid of the book? Maybe I'll just keep this old book and move on to the next one.

(Maybe I'll start planning where the aisles will be.)



...to be cont. (as practically the whole post was a rabbit trail, wouldn't you know!)

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