Canadian Reader and I got to talking, well, emailing, about (of all things) place mats one evening. The comment was made that some were too small for the silverware to go along side … but wait, aren’t they a standard size? There was not much on the ‘net so I looked for a book and found one that looked hopeful: The Vintage Table: Personal Treasures and Standout Settings, by Jacqueline de Montravel. There was nothing, nothing at all about place mats! Still, it was a most pleasing read about what goes into a nice place setting, how to arrange plates, chargers, soup bowls, silverware and so forth. See if you recognize any of the vintage pieces!

I’ve read other books on the Lipizzan horses, but Ghost Riders: When US and German Soldiers Fought Together to Save the World’s Most Beautiful Horses in the Last Days of World War II, by Mark Felton, is by far the most ‘military.’ The amount of research that must have been done boggles the mind! In a POW camp are a thousand horses, or more, including not only the Lipizzans, but many prize Arabians and other breeds, all stolen to create an equine ‘master race’ (from the front flap). If the Red Army gets to them first, they will all be destroyed. And so ‘Operation Cowboy’ is formed to save them all. Imagine moving that many animals … over country filled with land mines, damaged by bombs, and filled with refugees as well. Lots of detail on how all this was done makes for an interesting if somewhat ‘textbook’ sort of read.

Reading Hermit With Dog