{ Treasure Hunt }

The very best kind of adventures are ones that I did not purposely set out on, but then find myself up to my elbows in. This was my evening. Down in our basement, where the walls are the original foundation, circa 1875. They are the kind of walls that look a bit like castle walls, according to one of the little boys who came to our wedding rehearsal dinner, hosted in our backyard, who said, "Mr. Tim must be a king he even has a dungeon!" Down there we have a storage room. I ventured in there this evening to look for picture frames for the stairwell picture-hanging project that I am officially undertaking, and told myself that I ought to be scared of the dark, of spiders, of who knew what lurking in the shadows. Fact is, I love old dusty rooms with boxes lying about full of who knows what. After finding some really great frames and going into a bit of creative overload scheming up several other projects, I began looking through the various totes and boxes scattered around. I unearthed some photo books that my husband had compiled years back when he traveled through Germany, Italy and Switzerland. He had sent them off in hopes of selling them to jigsaw puzzle makers. They were sent back, unfortunately, as those publishers had "thousands of pictures already". I was impressed, nevertheless. I found another rug he purchased in Afghanistan. My mind is busy now finding a room for it. I surfaced a little while later, my fingers dusty, my imagination satisfied for the present, and put my Tiny Bear to bed. Now I am reading blogs and thinking about the visit I had with a friend this morning, when we talked, among other things about our literary interests and aspirations. Jane Austen came up. No surprise, when talking about great literature. It wasn't until just now, though, that I made a profound discovery. I feel a little silly to admit it, but I honestly had to idea that Jane Austen wrote several other works besides her well-known novels. Speaking of treasure hunts and treasures found. I've stumbled upon one! If you look for me in the next couple of days, you'll find me with dusty fingers, somewhere between the 18th and 19th centuries.