Little library in a fridge

I'm in Australia for a week, for a conference (starting tomorrow).

Today was the only complete free day I had to myself, so together with

a coworker who's here with me I went for a bit of a wander and

explore. We walked most of the way to the centre of the city from the

suburban AirBnb where we're staying along a really nice combined

pedestrian-bike path which runs mostly through parkland.

At one point I spotted a little further ahead what looked like a small

fridge or freezer, sitting in the grass just a few metres to the side

of the path. What a shame, I thought, and how very strange, that

somebody would abandon a busted old fridge in the middle of a park!

As we passed it, to my surprise and delight I noticed that on the

front of the fridge was written, in large, neat letters in permanent

black marker:

			NATIONAL

			(LITTLE)

			LIBRARY

Cracking the door it was, indeed, full of books! Not perfectly

protected from the rain (maybe worn out door seals were the reason the

fridge was decomissioned), but mostly readable. In the same marker,

the temperature adjusting knob had been labelled "nerd levels"!

This, it turned out, was actually the first of three items in a really

charming little installation. Nearby to the fridge library was a

small table, reminiscent of an old-fashioned school desk, with

matching chair, painted red and labelled WRITING STATION. Atop the

desk was an old biscuit tin with a pair of ballpoints inside (much

better protected from the rain!), and in the drawer in a plastic

sleeve were some sheets of paper, as well as a laminated printout of

writing prompts. Finally, an old mailbox, also painted red, had been

turned into a "love box", where people could leave cards with messages

of love for random people to read. Sadly, this was by far the worst

rain-hit part of the whole thing.

Realistically, this is probably the kind of thing which sounds just

lovely on paper (no pun intended) but doesn't actually see an awful lot

of really meaningful use. Nevertheless, it really warmed my heart and

put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. What impressed me the

most, by far, was that the whole thing had neither been carted off by

the council (maybe some kind of official blessing was obtained?) nor

(and this is by far the bigger shock) vandalised in any way that I

could see.

I've seen small free libraries before in other parts of the world, but

never one housed in something as creative as a fridge, and I'd never

seen anything like the writing station before. I think it's a pretty

neat idea.

If there's anything like any of this close by to you, I'd love to hear

about it!