The Mixed-Up Lamy Candy Safari

It is spring moving into summer, and we are ready for bright and fun and happy things.

If you were having a hard time deciding on the right Candy Safari for you, we’re now offering, in limited quantities, a Mixed-Up Candy Safari. This year’s special edition safaris are vibrant: Mango, Violet and Aquamarine. As a trio, they’re called the Candy Safaris.

It’s the perfect opportunity to mix them up. That there are three colours, that these colours go together so well, the right contrast and tone, and they all share the same texture. A little modern Bauhaus, along with a celebration of this wild and crazy year’s special edition.

In other news, we have a few more exciting shipments coming in, including, fingers crossed, maybe a few bottles of ink from Diamine. It’s been a marathon, in addition to the exhaustion and anxiety of the virus and life, the waywardness of incoming stock, and now things seem to be trucking along a bit more predictably. Or more likely rather, perhaps, we are adjusting to what to expect.

The library is opening back up again some time in June for curbside pickup of holds. There is something so essential and necessary about access to books, especially for families who don’t have a lot of books at home, and I am tremendously thankful that my own kids have enough books to keep them busy and then some. It’s a glorious re-opening, but—also a bit sad to contemplate. Library staff are going to be in protective gear, patrons are going to be doing drive-bys, everyone is going to be a little on edge.

It will be long miles yet before we’re back to hour-long visits to our home branch, letting the kids roam and touch all the books, pulling out whatever they like for us to read together. Caleb asks about when the library will open again, but if this goes on much longer, I’m not sure Naomi, 2, will remember what a library visit was like pre-pandemic.

In grocery stores, health officials advise to only touch what you’re sure you’re going to buy, so you’re not rooting around in the carrots or picking up different boxes of crackers and putting them back on the shelf. I can’t imagine what that will look like in a library, where so much of the joy was squeezed in together, turning the pages, sharing books. And so we will do it at home, while we wait for what’s ahead.

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Currently reading: Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Currently eating: a fried egg
Currently listening to: Caleb flapping the page in his flip-o-ramas in Captain Underpants
Currently writing with: Pilot Kakuno fine (Bungubox Seiya Silent Night), TWSBI Mini AL Fine (Sailor Chu Shu), Parker Sonnet Brown Rubber Fine (J. Herbin Lie de the)
Latest heard from Caleb: “Broccoli? What’s that?”