November 22, 2020 - Our Country Diary

This is going to be a different sort of post than what I've been doing this year with Project 365.

 

For years now a postcard has arrived at my house every October from Ferris Wheels & Carousels.

They sell a line of products created by Michel Design Works,

which includes the annual Our Country Diary.

I've been using this diary for close to 30 years, and have loved it.

Starting a brand new book every year has held the same excitement 

as beginning brand new notebooks every school year when I was a child...

a clean slate, a fresh start, a brand new year.

I have filled them with my daily activities, favorite photos, ticket stubs, fortunes, cards and notes, 

and any other meaningful memorabilia small enough to fit on their pages. 

I realized with a bit of a start late in the month that I hadn't received a postcard,

which was odd since I've never missed one, even through all our many moves over the years.

 I went to their website to order, and was horrified - 

horrified, I tell you! - 

to learn that this year's was the company's last publication.

And I had thought 2020 couldn't get any worse!

I know it probably sounds silly, but it felt like I was losing a friend.

 

I googled Our Country Diary to see what came up, 

and found a post written by an author named Kate Fellowes.

You can read it here if you're interested.

She was grieving the loss as much as I was, and it was comforting to know I wasn't the only one.

I left a comment and asked if she had any recommendations for replacements.

She did have a couple of books in mind, and I ordered them both,

as it didn't seem possible to evaluate them properly without seeing them in person.

Here they are, along with my comments:

French Country Diary, by Linda Dannenberg.

 This book is beautiful, as you can see from the following two photos of the inside spreads,

and it has a similar lay-out to Our Country Diary.

The problems are:

1.  I'm not drawn enough to French life to want it to be part of my diary.

2.  While the photographs are beautiful, 

they wouldn't make for a good background for my own photos and other memorabilia.

click on photos to enlarge for detail

Days from the Heart of the Home, by Susan Branch.

This book is similar to Our Country Diary in the artwork, 

and it's spiral bound, which is good for laying open well.

The problems are:

1. It is not yearly, so the dates in each spread are not going to reflect a calendar week,

which I know I'm used to, but which I'm sure I would prefer even if I wasn't.

2.  The number of days per spread are not consistent, 

and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the inconsistency.

3.  Each side of the spread has dates written on it, so there is no room for memorabilia

except on the also-inconsistent pages with art/writing sprinkled throughout.

As with the French Country Diary, these would not make for ideal backgrounds either.

Eccolo World Traveler Desk Size

This is what I've decided to go with, for now.

It's certainly not colorful and pretty like the Our Country Diary,

or either of the other options I've looked at,

but I don't mind that terribly.

The OCD covers are bright and colorful, but I'm not a huge fan of flowers.

The art in OCD is vintage, which I like, but sometimes it is in the way...

I end up writing over it (if I can; if not, I lose the writing space)

and covering it up with photos, etc., most of the time.

This blank notebook is lined, which is helpful not just for writing but for lining up photos as well

so they're not all slanting to the right as I'm prone to do. :)

The only thing missing is the Month and Date headings,

which will be easy enough to add.

The paper is a decent weight, 

and it's comparable in size to OCD, except a little larger, which can't hurt.

The end papers are similar to what would be inside an Our Country Diary,

which makes a nice background for cards.

Purchased at Amazon.

 

 We'll see how this goes...I'm a little nervous but also a little excited...

excited because I think I might actually end up preferring the plain pages.

Here's to 2021!

If you have any questions about any of these diaries or would like to see more photographs,

please leave a comment and I would be happy to help!