books and their makers (a garden too)

 'books are often wiser and more generous than their makers' - alberto manguel, packing my library.

at the start of it alberto is in france, near the loire valley. he is moving into an old farmhouse in a village and setting up his library there in the barn (it is a big library). 

there is a garden too. alberto mostly concerns himself with the library. his wife mostly concerns herself with the garden. 

and then he is moving out and putting the library into storage.

at the end of it alberto is head of the national library in buenos aires. the streets are changed from when he lived there as a teenager and read for the blind jorge luis borges.  the national library is a huge concrete monstrosity. 

horsemouth has stuff to do with the garden. a friend has brought over some seed potatoes and today horsemouth must plant them (they are 'earlies' he needs to get them in). 

'chickens are sociable creatures' a website tells him. horsemouth is tempted to name the chicken with a broken leg sociable creature (it is waiting for him at the front door as we speak) but the rule in farming is that you don't name the animals (it brings them too close to us). he has unleashed the chickens for the day and taken the milk over to the fridge in the garage. 

last night wailing foxes in the distance.