“A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.”

My love affair with the sea has continued, naturally, despite the wind and rain and sheer damp weather, the kind of weather that makes you feel bitterly cold to the core.So how am I keeping warm whilst still enjoying the romance of the open ocean? Welp, with books, and fisherman's wool, and candy. What? Candy? Let me expound.As I mentioned last weekend, the sea is the most romantic, albeit filled with so many unknowns, and I couldn't imagine living away from it. And so, after posting about my Friday Night along Winthrop Beach and Boston Harbor, I asked for more New England sea life books to read, since I had a hankering and have read Moby Dick one too many times. My friend Sarah suggested "Ahab's Wife, Or, The Star-Gazer" by Sena Jeter Naslund, which is a historical novel based on a passage in Moby Dick and centers around the narrator and lead character, Ahab's wife, Una. So, naturally, I had to pick it up, and scooped of Herman Melville's "Bartelby the Shrivener" as well, since it was just singing and calling to me like a giant whale.I have to say I'm quite pleased so far with "Ahab's Wife", which I just started yesterday despite the fact I'm currently reading Willa Cather's "O Pioneers", about a young Swedish girl who must take over her father's Nebraska farm after he passes away. They aren't divergent by any means--Una is currently in Kentucky giving birth in a little hinterland shack, and so, I feel like my reading pleasures are meeting somewheres in the middle.What's more, I mentioned casting on a cabled scarf out of Fisherman's Wool. It's already looking absolutely gorgeous and the unprocessed yarn is picking up the beautiful roving cables. This is definitely highly rewarding and I can't wait until it is finished and gifted out.And to help me along with all this reading and knitting and fishermen and ocean love, is the greatest gift of all, given to me by photographer extraordinaire, Harry Stuart Cahill, whose amazing photo snapping abilities you can check out at his website, or in the pages of the Boston Herald daily. Mr. Cahill also lives by the sea and shares a love for all things whale, salt, and fisherman wool cap. And so, he wonderfully scooped me up some brilliant Nantucket Whale Poop, which is actually just kitschy hilarity for homemade hand-dipped chocolate covered peanuts, which also happen to be my most favorite chocolately snack. Thanks, Harry.File Under: Thank you to my splendid friends who have helped keep my love affair with the sea alive!