A Snuggling Up with Love Weekly Link Round-Up

I hope all of you who observe Thanksgiving are having the sort of celebration that does the heart good. Denis and I are relaxing here at Casa Kittling, enjoying each other's company and some of our favorite movies.

Since it is a time of celebration for many of us, I'm going to keep my introduction to a bit of show and tell for you.

The photo shows the first afghan my mother made. It was back in 1972. We were still living in Moweaqua, Illinois, and my best friend, Jeremy (a three-pound black toy poodle) was just over a year old.

The afghan contained many firsts for my mother. It was the first time she'd used more than one color of yarn. It was the first time she'd used the eyelet stitch that created all those little holes, and it was the first time she tried out the stitch that made those poofy four-leafed "flowers" in the middle of the red sections. It was also the first time she had to piece together so many bits to create something. I can still see her sitting in her chair, knitting away and watching television. (Hmmm...I wondered where I got that from!) As soon as there was any chance at all that Jeremy could get a body part on what she was knitting, he'd jump up in her lap-- even if he could only get his nose or part of a paw on her knitting, there he'd be. This is all so clear in my mind.

Well, I believe her first attempt has stood the test of time remarkably well, and I think she would be happy to know that it's still in use. In fact, during all this trouble with my leg, it has been my go-to for curling up under and getting warm. No matter how many years have passed. No matter how many times it's been washed. There's no way I can ever wash out Mom and Jeremy. Just think of all the love I'm snuggling myself up with-- and that's not even counting Denis!

Ohhhh... I smell pumpkin pie. Gotta go! Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Your soothing cup of tea may contain billions of microplastics.
• The poignant wartime diary of Renia Spiegel, a Jewish teenager living in Poland, has been published in English.
• Happy 30th anniversary, Poisoned Pen!
• Jane Eyre translated: 57 languages show how different cultures interpret Charlotte Brontë's classic novel.
• The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm were never meant for kids.
• Want to write a cookbook? Don't count the money just yet.
• In a Syrian town under siege, a secret library kept dreams alive. 
• Why we feel so compelled to make maps of fictional worlds.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Sold: Charles Dickens' liquor log.
• A Dutch treasure hunter is digging for 800 barrels of gold on Robinson Crusoe Island. 
• The ticking time bomb of World War II-era shipwrecks.
• The mystery queen in the Maya tomb.
• Three Roman skeletons, thought to be a family, were discovered under a metro station in Rome. 
• Gauguin, Gauguin, gone-- one of Paul Gauguin's Tahiti paintings is to be auctioned in Paris in December.
• Ancient scrolls charred by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius are being read by a light that's brighter than the sun.
• Found: An elaborate Viking graveyard at the end of a fjord.

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Dolphins are swimming, mating, and even giving birth in the Potomac.
• The Loch Ness eel? A new DNA study reveals what's really in the water. 
• A condor chick makes its first flight attempt from a cliff in Utah.
• Great apes may use their own experience to guess what others will do.
• Rare footage of an Arizona ocelot shows what could be lost by the border wall. 
• How drones are helping scientists figure out whales' weight.
• Wear your stillness as a disguise: On Sitting Still in Nature. (It works!)
• How the Iberian lynx bounced back from the brink of extinction.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Althea Crome, micro knitter.
• A conversation with John Marrs, author of The Passengers.
• Magellan was the first to sail around the world, right? Think again.
• Raymond Isidore, the cemetery caretaker who covered his cottage in mind-bending mosaics.
• Emily Warren Roebling, the woman who saved the Brooklyn Bridge.
• Fifteen women environmentalists you should know. 
• Wow! Take a look at artist Kerri Pajutee's incredibly realistic miniature animal sculptures.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• Turning Germany's Iron Curtain into a green belt. 
• Selling books in London from a 100-year-old Dutch barge.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• The ten best debut novels of the decade.
• Seven words from the working world.
• Twenty-three of the world's most enchanting libraries.
• The ten essential true-crime podcasts that shaped the genre.
• Eleven secrets of lexicographers. 
• Fifteen forgotten female mystery writers from the Golden Age and beyond.
• Thirteen revenge movies best served cold.
• The origins behind thirty Harry Potter words and spells.

That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Have a great weekend!