Library...

With libraries closing at an alarming rate, I read an article on the Guardian website, about how important they can be to new mothers and their babies: a safe, free, convivial space where 'anything goes'. 

I'm writing today in Otley’s temporary library, housed in the community centre. It’s busier - certainly noisier - than the proper library, but I rather like the to-ings and fro-ings. The mother and toddler group is meeting in the next room, and I can hear them singing “Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer”. Some of them are in tune. A few people wander in, wearing Santa hats and Christmas sweaters. Mums and dads are reading stories to their kids. Old guys are reading the paper and keeping warm. Nobody knows where to find the books they want, not even the librarians. An odd-job man comes in, with a ladder, to mend the lights. I tell him he needs to sort out the lights on the Christmas tree as well, because they keep going on and off. Ho, ho, ho! The true spirit of Christmas? It’s here!…

A recently licensed (but not very good) pic of Corfe Castle...