Green Knowe, or a gloomy day

Have you read the Treasure of Green Knowe? It's a children's book, surreal and weird and of its time (that's a nice way to say it's dated) and today my garden looks like the picture of Green Knowe I have in my head from my long-ago childhood. 

I have great respect for this hoary old oak. A town arborist says it's one of the oldest trees he's seen, and it is so huge three of us clasping hands cannot span it. But it is stern, foreboding, not friendly. I've spent a lot more time near it at night (new dog). It's a bit creepy. Just like Green Knowe.

I have been re-reading some of the books I loved as a child. And some I have discovered as an adult. 

Have you read The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy? I first read it when I was at Green Valley Elementary a hundred years ago, and it's one of the reasons I love the wild birds. 

Have you read Al Capone Does My Shirts? Al Capone Shines My Shoes? Is there a web site called Have You Read? Should be...what have you read recently?

Oh oh oh. My mom just gave me back my old hardback copy of Five Quarters of the Orange. One of the  best books I've ever read. Get it! Go to Rakestraw Books and ask Michael for a copy.

What are you reading? What do you remember fondly from childhood? (books, you silly person, not sleeping in and Christmas morning. Everyone loved that.)