Sunday Salon

Well the week has once again flown by, and it'll be Monday in a few hours.  This week I finally finished

A little more graphic than I usually read, but very good, a page turner indeed.  I sat in Macdonald's (without eating anything) to finish the last chapter, it was raining outside.   A great recommendation by Nise from Under the Boardwalk.  
If you are the least bit squeemish, don't read this one.  I had no idea there was such ugliness in the world, I thought for sure I'd read it all, but after The Devils Punch Bowl, this one takes the cake.  I can't imagine how much therapy these people will need.

here is a description from amazon.ca

More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia’s teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that's cruelly ripped open when Claire's husband is killed.

The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.


Happy Reading, and Happy Sunday Salon.

Missed Sunday Salon...

Sunday Salon, or should I say Monday, finds me finishing up Anne Rivers Siddons, The Girls of August.  I didn't get to the beach this summer, at all... so I thought I'd read about others who did.

Product Description

Every August, four women would gather together to spend a week at the beach, renting a new house each year. The ritual began when they were in their twenties and their husbands were in medical school, and became a mainstay of every summer thereafter. Their only criteria was oceanfront and isolation, their only desire to strengthen their far-flung friendships. They called themselves the Girls of August. But when one of the Girls dies tragically, the group slowly drifts apart and their vacations together are brought to a halt. Years later, a new marriage reunites them and they decide to come together once again on a remote barrier island off the South Carolina coast. There, far from civilization, the women make startling discoveries that will change them in ways they never expected.



I don't usually read this type of book, however,  I needed some enjoyable reading, with not so much catastrophe, although this did "spark" in more than one spot.

What's next, I'm going to give Gone Girl another go,  I abandoned it earlier this year.

Sunday Salon...

Sunday Salon finds me completing "the Night Guest", Fiona McFarlane.  What a good book, a little out there, but then again so am I.  I wonder. will I be Ruth, with two sons?  I know I won't have the $ Ruth had, so perhaps I won't be such a tempting target.

from Amazon.ca

Ruth is widowed, her sons are grown, and she lives in an isolated beach house outside of town. Her routines are few and small. One day a stranger arrives at her door, looking as if she has been blown in from the sea. This woman--Frida--claims to be a care worker sent by the government. Ruth lets her in.
Now that Frida is in her house, is Ruth right to fear the tiger she hears on the prowl at night, far from its jungle habitat? Why do memories of childhood in Fiji press upon her with increasing urgency? How far can she trust this mysterious woman, Frida, who seems to carry with her own troubled past? And how far can Ruth trust herself?
The Night Guest, Fiona McFarlane's hypnotic first novel, is no simple tale of a crime committed and a mystery solved. This is a tale that soars above its own suspense to tell us, with exceptional grace and beauty, about ageing, love, trust, dependence, and fear; about processes of colonization; and about things (and people) in places they shouldn't be. Here is a new writer who comes to us fully formed, working wonders with language, renewing our faith in the power of fiction to describe the mysterious workings of our minds.

So if you are elderly or have an elderly person in your life, check on them... before Frida comes to stay.


Thank You Annie for suggesting this title, it was a very good read.

Sunday Salon...The Ice Queen

Sunday Salon finds me still reading The Ice Queen, it's quite intense, and certainly a genre I enjoy, so what's taking so long... I think I need to find a beach...

It's Monday What are you Reading?

Gone Girl is on the TBR pile along with Letters from Skye.  My reading is very slow these last few weeks.  But these two books need to be read so I can reduce the stack at the bedside.  Unfortunately by the time it's bed time, my eyes don't seem to stay open long enough to do anything.  GETTING OLD SUCKS!

I now understand when some of the ladies in the Long Term Care (where I volunteer) carry a book around for months.  There is some comfort in that, not much, but some.

I haven't pulled my camera out of it's case for months as well.  Maybe now that the snow has finally melted that can change too.  I don't know what's happening, but I get up all enthusiastic and get rolling, and then I flop.  I've actually pulled the blinds, so as not to look out at my messy yard.  The Dandelions are BACK with a vengeance., and the battle continues.  I want to be one of those people that say they are bored and have "nothing to do" just for one week, and not because I'm sick.

On the plus side, the winter was so wet that my evergreens have almost doubled in size.  BRAVO Mother Nature, that means I can hide the car parts from my neighbors view and we can still be friends, she works very hard in her yard, and I hate for her to see the awful mess.

Anyway... What are you reading and how are you spending this wonderful long weekend?

I

March Wrap up...

I've had a not so good reading month, not sure why, but I've only just finished an Inspector Banks Mystery by Peter Robinson.  Interesting and somewhat confusing, I almost wanted to take a highlighter out and sort things out.  Eventually I got it!  I've not read much of Inspector Banks, I like him, but I don't know him.

A piece of my Heart, was a scary trip back to the time of the Manson Murders.  It was a very scary time, all that LOUD music, drugs and free love.  I'm so glad I wasn't part of that.  Never been to a rock concert, even though I did wear bell bottoms.

From Publishers Weekly

Det. Insp. Alan Banks investigates the apparently motiveless murder of Nicholas Barber, a rock journalist from London visiting a small town near Banks's Yorkshire police precinct, in Robinson's less-than-stellar 14th novel to feature the Yorkshire police detective. Meanwhile, another mystery unfolds in a parallel narrative, the fatal stabbing of a young woman at a local rock festival back in 1969. Needless to say, the cases are intertwined—as Banks puts it, "the past is never over"—and part of the pleasure is trying to piece together the links. Unfortunately, Robinson takes too long to connect the two stories, and the earlier thread suffers from the lack of Banks's engaging presence (though it does capture, with great fidelity, that odd mixture of self-absorption and idealism of the late 1960s and the whole hippie/rock music scene). As always, the author's prose is clear, observant and intelligent, but the story itself is not nearly as compelling as 2005's Strange Affair. 6-city author tour. (June)

It's Monday what are you reading...The Forgotten Seamstress, Liz Trenow

 It's Monday What are you reading is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey

from the back cover:
She kept her secret for a lifetime...
A shy girl with no family, Maria knows she's lucky to have landed in the sewing room of the royal household.  Before World War I casts it's shadow, she catches the eye of the Prince of Wales, a glamorous and intense gentleman (not sure about that statement).  but her life takes a far darker turn, and soon all she has left is a fantastical story about her time at Buckingham Palace. 

Decades later, Caroline Meadows discovers a beautiful quilt in her mother's attic.  When she can't figure out the meaning...


It's Monday already.  I finished reading The Forgotten Seamstress ,Liz Trenow.  It's a neat little story,I found the historical facts quite interesting.  I also loved learning about the different fabrics used in Royal garments, not sure that still happens.  I was also heartbroken at the treatment of Maria, what a sad turn of events.    I didn't continue in the back of the book with book club questions for discussion.  I think the only thing that ticked me off and is still ticking me off is the "jumping into bed" with men you've just met, and after the recent medical issue.  I found that part not only in poor taste, but very unnecessary, it added nothing to the storyline, and if I were the editor... relationships aren't built in bedrooms, as we should have learned from Maria and the King.

A great little read for those of us who love a  little Royal  mystery

What's next... Alzheimer's 911, Frena Gray-Davidson.  I'm reading this book to decide if it should be on the shelf for the caregivers of the residents, in who's library I volunteer.  I sure could have used more available resources when my Mom was changing.  This is a MYSTERY that is ever evolving.


Photo of the book I own.

I read this book to tie off my War Through the Generations Challenge WWI and WWII combined. 

Sunday Salon...A Change of Climate

Sunday Salon finds me frustrated.  My lap top has had issues, so I'm forced to wait till one of the guys is not using their computers to do "anything" .  My husband has some weird program on that keeps asking me if I'm him.  Way too much security, wait till he sees I've "fixed that".  It's been an unusual week, other than I'm still waiting for workmen to get to me and do things they have been paid for.  I told my husband that it was his job to wait, but then again I can't exactly have him staying home from work to wait.  So it's me... that means I'll be missing my watercolour workshop tomorrow.  DANG! The inside job is very SLOW! and there are no inside fairies at work.  A dear friend is not doing well, and I suspect she'll give up.  SAD, all around story.  Why do some people just have it so hard? 

The rest of the week I imagine will be a bit of this and a bit of that.  It is suppose to cool down, so I'm hoping to use "pesticides" on my lillies, imagine a bug eating my beautiful lillies, one day they were there and then they weren't. 

I try really hard not to use pesticides, but this did it, between the red spider bite, and no I'm not radioactive, but I still have a hard unhealed spot in the area where I was bitten, so pesticides it is.  We here in the GTA are not permitted to use harsh chemicals so I'm not sure what I bought will be very effective, but dish liquid just didn't do it.

On the reading front,  I finished Change of Climate, Hilary Mantel,  a good story, which I enjoyed reading, even if it left me very sad.  I can't remember who reviewed it, but thank you for suggesting it.  It was well worth the trip to the library. 
from amazon.ca

Ralph and Anna Eldred are an exemplary couple, devoting themselves to doing good. Thirty years ago as missionaries in Africa, the worst that could happen did. Shattered by their encounter with inexplicable evil, they returned to England, never to speak of it again. But when Ralph falls into an affair, Anna finds no forgiveness in her heart, and thirty years of repressed rage and grief explode, destroying not only a marriage but also their love, their faith, and everything they thought they were.

My young niece is a missionary, and we worry. 

up next,  The Wives of Los Alamos, Tarashea Nesbit.  I'm not quite half way through, but so far all I can say is "we've come a long way baby..." or have we?

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Wednesday, what are you reading...

I know I've signed up for a number of reading challenges, and this book was not one that I had chosen for any of those, but, it was a Canadian Author and I couldn't help myself. I've just finished reading The Painted Girls  a love story, or sorts, the devotion of sisters, the neglect of an addictive mom, and poverty, poverty, poverty.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I've always loved that Degas  ballerinas.  And then I read this very little book The Orchard , the Swallow
When I started this little novel, I wasn't sure I'd like it, it was both horrific, and thought provoking.  Again a Canadian Author.

If you have an opportunity I highly recommend each of these books, I'm glad I read them.

My only complaint was finishing the book on my trip into town, and having to twiddle my thumbs on the way home.

What an Animal Reading Challenge.

Sunday Salon...

Well it's Sunday, and winter has reared it's very white head, here in the GTA, not sure how cold it is, but it's white again, or more white I should say.  I've done fairly well with my reading this week, finished How the Light Gets In, Louise Penny.  In my effort to read more Canadian authors, I chose this book on the recommendation of Shonna of the Canadian Book Worm.  Thanks Shonna.  I read at the bottom of the book description this is the ninth Inspector Gamache mystery, where have I been?  I love Armand.  I know I have read Louise Penny before, not sure which one though, I enjoyed it obviously as much as this one.  This was a murder mystery, with historical implications, all tightly woven in a thriller.  I was trying to cast the part of Armand (Hollywood style) and could only come up with my all time fav  Gregory Peck, now that says a lot, because I normally would cast Tom Sellick or Aidan Quinn, but they don't have that wonderful Peck quality.  It would have to be a young Peck. Like the time of Atticus Finch.  Now of course I have to go and read Pierre Berton's the Dionne Years, I remember having this on our reading list in highschool, but it never arrived in time for us to complete it, quite a lot of controversy about this one.  As a matter of fact, I've now searched 3 different cities in their libraries and had no luck,  is it a "forbidden read"? The mystery continues... I'll be calling the library board in the a.m.  A five star read.

“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” —Leonard Cohen. ( Love Leonard Cohen even if he is a bit weird.)

The next reading adventure was all Trish's fault.  I'm not big on graphic novels and Jenners almost had me convinced, but when Trish said she enjoyed this one, I thought "o.k. time to stop being so old, and venture into a new reading experience".   So I chose to read Maus,1: A survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History.

I was not disappointed, and I can see the purpose for graphic novels, they offer an avenue to tell a story in a format perhaps more appealing to a younger reader. I'm not a younger reader, but found the book easy enough to read.  Love the language used, even if it was a little stereotypical. Now I suppose I'll have to read the second part.

A four star read.



Beyond my reading adventures, I'm well on my way to finishing and oak desk for my son, to replace the one he lost in our flood.  wish I could get new arms, that sanding really does shake things up on an old babe, like me.  Needless to say pictures will follow.  AND, I'm almost done with a little painted sign for a friends business, for her ladies room.  It's coming out pretty cool.

My sister Donna is coming along very slowly, (she thinks she's fine) THANK YOU LORD.  We did a small road trip with her on Friday.

It was a good news week here on other fronts as well, so once again, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, if good news is coming our way we can handle the shoveling

Up next in reading, hmm...Five Little Pigs, Agatha Christie (thanks Margaret Books Please)  

What's in a Name... After Her

I've just finished reading this thriller.  A GOOD one.   While the product description will give you the particulars of this book, I truly enjoyed the story line for the relationships in the seemingly "disfunctional" family.  I'm not sure it was disfunctional, just different.  I would have a hard time believing that children are so unattended but, they must have been.  The mother in this story is almost not, yet the father, who is really a deadbeat dad is the hero.  I would have thought that with all the murders happening in the area, something more significant would have happened, but then again, this is fiction.  Having lived for a very long time with a police officer, I understand the "not home"ness of the dad, they just aren't there, or at least ours wasn't.  Things do consume them, even after they retire.  It's not like Blue Bloods at all, they are hardly ever at the table together,  I want to know how they all get the time off together, and I don't believe they get called to go either, you work your shift, and overtime.  But, I suspect if the truth were told it would make for a boring program.  I love Tom Selleck, but have not been able to get into this series, it's just too fake for me.  O.k. getting back to the book.  Good read, thrilling, but I found the conclusion a little out there, like the author couldn't tie things up so she just did.  I would have thought the extensive police investigation would have uncovered the evidence of the rusty vehicle, but then again maybe I've watched too many CSI programs.  I liked this book, I didn't love it, and I won't rush out to read another by this author, if one crosses my path... love the sisters and their dedication to each other, and Gina was just too convenient. But a good story nonetheless, not great, but good.

Product Description

The New York Times bestselling author of Labor Day and The Good Daughters returns with a haunting novel of sisterhood, sacrifice, and suspense.
I was always looking for excitement, until I found some . . .
Summer, 1979. A dry, hot Northern California school vacation stretches before Rachel and her younger sister, Patty—the daughters of a larger-than-life, irresistibly handsome (and chronically unfaithful) detective father and the mother whose heart he broke.
When we first meet her, Patty is eleven—a gangly kid who loves basketball and dogs and would do anything for her older sister, Rachel. Rachel is obsessed with making up stories and believes she possesses the gift of knowing what's in the minds of people around her. She has visions, whether she wants to or not. Left to their own devices, the sisters spend their days studying record jackets, concocting elaborate fantasies about the mysterious neighbor who moved in down the street, and playing dangerous games on the mountain that looms behind their house.
When young women start turning up dead on the mountain, the girls' father is put in charge of finding the murderer known as the "Sunset Strangler." Watching her father's life slowly unravel as months pass and more women are killed, Rachel embarks on her most dangerous game yet . . . using herself as bait to catch the killer. But rather than cracking the case, the consequences of Rachel's actions will destroy her father's career and alter forever the lives of everyone she loves.
Thirty years later, still haunted by the belief that the killer remains at large, Rachel constructs a new strategy to smoke out the Sunset Strangler and vindicate her father—a plan that unexpectedly unearths a long-buried family secret.
Loosely inspired by the Trailside Killer case that terrorized Marin County, California, in the late 1970s, After Her is part thriller, part love story. Maynard has created a poignant, suspenseful, and painfully real family saga that traces a young girl's first explorations of sexuality, the loss of innocence, the bond shared by sisters, and the tender but damaged relationship between a girl and her father that endures even beyond the grave.

Monday what are you reading...R.I.P challenge wrap up (late)

 Description from the book jacket:      .

  Riktor doesn't like the way the policeman comes straight into the house without knocking. He doesn't like the arrogant way he observes his home.The policeman doesn't tell him why he's there, and Riktor doesn't ask. Because he knows he's guilty.  But it turns out that the policeman isn't looking for a missing person. He is accusing Riktor of something totally unexpected. Riktor doesn't have a clear conscience, but this is a crime he certainly didn't commit.

my thoughts:

I almost quit reading this one early on in the book.  However, I was stuck at a hospital waiting with nothing to do, so I continued.  Mostly I wanted to throw up.  Riktor is a one sick person.  My fear is that people such as he do exist and work in the health care environment.  A compelling story line, certainly worthy of R.I.P. challenge, way to close to home for me though.  I'm a little slow in posting my R.I.P. challenge, but I must say, I think I may be scared silly till next year. 

Up next:  Line up(another too scary one) I'm continuing my R.I.P. challenge, just because these books were made available to me, I seemed to be on hold forever waiting for them from the library.

Thanks to Vicki for hosting this week.

It's Monday what are you reading?

Sheila at Book Journey hosts this weekly event where we celebrate what we are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week.

 I just finished reading this book, excellent, right up my alley.  I love historical, and a good story line,with a little romance.  What sort of threw me was I was watching some antique show and there was Murrow, with Frankie's recording machine. Talk about freaky. (or a machine like Frankie's, I should say)
Up next is Chains, a read along with the War Through the Generations Gang. I haven't done a read along this year so it's time.  enjoy your week.

photo taken of book I own

It's Monday What are you Reading...

Sheila at Book Journey hosts this weekly event where we celebrate what we are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week.

I didn't finish any books this week, started This Cake is For the Party, it's a series of short stories.  And while I liked the first story,I didn't love it, and I need a little more meat on my plate, or in my book bag as the case may be.  So ... I'm reading The Postmistress, I'm liking it so far.  I'm on the buses this week, so I suspect I shall finish it.

The big clean up/repair starts in the a.m. so I might be putting up my Christmas Tree sooner than ever, just so it's done, because I think I might be in a mess for some time.  And guess what, I DON'T CARE!

Happy Reading

The Glass Room... Ann Cleeves

I didn't write a real review of this great book when I read it, mostly because Margaret from Books Please did such a great job.  I must say this was a really good mystery, I truly didn't have a clue who dunit until the end.  I also like the investigative teams dynamics, and the mystery in some of their characters.

Certainly a candidate for the Best New Author to me.  Ann Cleeves does a outstanding job.

book description from Amazon.ca

This is the new novel in Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope crime series. DI Vera Stanhope is not one to make friends easily, but her hippy neighbours keep her well-supplied in homebrew and conversation so she has more tolerance for them than most. When one of them goes missing she feels duty-bound to find out what happened. But her path leads her to more than a missing friend...It's an easy job to track the young woman down to the Writer's House, a country retreat where aspiring authors gather to workshop and work through their novels. It gets complicated when a body is discovered and Vera's neighbour is found with a knife in her hand. Calling in the team, Vera knows that she should hand the case over to someone else. She's too close to the main suspect. But the investigation is too tempting and she's never been one to follow the rules. There seems to be no motive. No meaning to the crime. Then another body is found, and Vera suspects that someone is playing games with her. Somewhere there is a killer who has taken murder off the page and is making it real...

The Best of new Authors is hosted by Mysteries in Paradise

I will certainly be looking to read more of this authors works.

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Teaser Tuesday... Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English

My Teaser today is not from a book, it's from the mailman. He's such a tease. I deduced that a large envelope meant some kind of offer for further study, I phoned my eldest to discuss, and we concluded at 10 p.m. (yes I waited all day, the tease arrived unusually early) Yes, my son received a large envelope with a return address that was most acceptable. (Usually it's Amazon.ca, he orders a great # of books.) Since it's a federal offense to open mail not addressed to you,or so my boys keep telling me,  and I really wanted him to get the good news first, I had to watch it sitting there ALL DAY.  YES it is good news.  He's been offered admission to a Graduate Studies Program.  WOO HOO! his mother is delighted I think he is too. I will enjoy yet another first day of school.  After grade eight they really didn't want to pose for pictures, but knew their mother would nag the cr_p out of them if they didn't.  WOO HOO again.

On the other front of reading, I've finished reading Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English, Natasha Solomon.  I REALLY enjoyed this story.  I don't know why I have a link to refugees, and England but I do. Perhaps it's my parents being refugees and the many stories we listened to about their encounters throughout those years in their lives we will never really understand, or perhaps it's a previous life I'm remembering (time travel you know).   I loved all the characters and the story line delightful.  I know how Sadie felt trying to remember her mother and father, and holding on to the past that was so sacred to her.  How brave refugees are,imagine leaving everything you know to trade it in for a life that you thought would be a whole lot safer and happier and then to find out it was not all that you thought it would be AND never being able to go back. I remember some forty years ago, when my parents first returned to their homeland for a short visit.  I was with my mom, she hadn't seen her brother since he was twelve and here he was middle aged, she knew little about them and yet the visit seem to flow together as though they had been together all those years.  She darn near died when she saw the shambles her family home was in.  WAR is such a waste of everything.  My parents, just like the Rosenblums, rebuilt their lives and became proud Canadians, but one wonders?

I read Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English as part of my Regan Arthur Challenge
I'm also reading off my shelves this summer, no new books for at least June, July and August and I'd like to say part of the War Through the Generations Challenge WWII, but I'm a couple of years late on that one, so we'll say it's part of my What's in a Name.


Up next, The Wisdom of Hair, Kim Boykin.

Sunday Salon... Happy Anniversary

A few weeks ago we celebrated my sister and brother in laws 40th anniversary.  Today they will be attending a Eucharistic Celebration with many, many couples at the Cathedral in their town.  I expect the Bishop will be blessing these unions once again, amazing how quickly 40 years have flown by.  It's been a whirlwind of events this week, my other sister had undergone a major surgery, we are still worried about her, she's not getting better fast enough.  Although I think her extended stay in the hospital probably saved the young man in the bed next to her.  Apparently he suffered a heart attack during the night and staff were stumped? He's resting in an appropriate ward.  She's an ICU nurse with many years of experience.  She also teaches these emergency procedures, I bet she'll be telling those nurses they need to attend. Like many professions, nursing just isn't what it used to be.  Have we really advanced? or have we just saved a few bucks. 

Back to the newly weds.  They'll have a good time today, at least for a few hours, dinner afterwards, and then the bride will have to catchup with school work and the groom will doze off on the lazy boy.  Life is good!..

Me on the other hand, well, one more week of classes and then time to hit the housework and some serious spring cleaning, my garden has been o.k. with perennial plantings so far, but soon I'll have to clear out some of the leftovers.  My handy Andy killed a good portion of the grass with weed killer so... guess what ?  I left him unsupervised, and I don't care.  Time to learn something of being a home owner and not get your wife to "fix" your mistakes.  I'm in my sewing room AGAIN today.  On the reading front I'm almost finished Peaches for Monsieur le Cure, Joanne Harris.  GOOD BOOK.  Wish I spoke/read  French.  I'm trying to desperately reduce my book collection, it's the hardest thing ever.  And at some point I must sand down a little rocker, it's a nice day out there and it's easier to sand outside than in.  Who needs more dust, when I have cat hair to deal with.  I'm a cheap date, I'm sure you've gathered that, give me a sanding block and an old chuck of some furniture and I'm happy.  Dreaming of a drill press, no idea what I'd do with it... We've had a fair bit of rain this week so the pond is topped up and the fish are happy.  Have a good week.

Snapshot Saturday...

On one of our many visits to the green house in Niagara we were delighted with the hydrangea exhibit.  This particular one is quite different from the one's in my garden it's more lacey.  Apparently the ones I have in my garden don't or are suppose to not flower, well guess what? they do very well all summer long and well into the fall.  I'm a negligent gardener, and perhaps they appreciate that.

On the reading front, I finished The Glass Room, well!  I didn't have a clue who dunnit... until the very last chapter.  Well done.

I'm now reading The Sunshine When She's Gone, Thea Goodman. (different)
My sister's are reminiscing their trip to Barbados, wonder if they met up with Monika and the gang? This is a holiday weekend here in Canada, so I'm home alone, with the laundry and my paint brushes.  Wish I could download my photos to show you.  Stripped a  rocker yesterday and today off with the layers of paint, and pulling dandelions.  I have baby rabbits in my yard, so I don't want to spray the weeds.  They are such a delight to watch in the morning, they run around chasing each other, and then I suppose they are off for a nap. We don't see them again until late in the day/or early evening.  The cat of course is going bonkers watching and running from window to window.  My poppies have finally spread enough to my liking, they look great with the purple tulips and lillium.  I always think the lillium looks like a firecracker. It's growing up between the car parts, reaching for the sun.  Have a great weekend.


Snapshot Saturday is hosted by Alyce over at home with books.

Saturday Snapshot... Just dreamin' of spring

No these are not up yet, but I had to remind myself how great they looked.  I don't think I'll have any this year, those darn squirrels.  I could understand if they needed to eat them, but they don't they just pull them out and leave them to not grow.  UGH!  I was at the cemetery the other day and someone had brought a lovely flower box full of these beauties and here's me chasing the rodents away and digging them in deeper.  In my back flower bed I put chicken wire around my flower bed and it seems to have worked, but I can't do that everywhere or I'll be picking my letter carrier out of the wires.  Wouldn't Canada Post like that?  What's he doing cutting through my flower bed, I've already told him to stay out, every time he thinks I'm home he does the all the way around route, but I have evidence to the contrary, who does he think he's messing with, I watch CSI.  Anyway hope the weather where you are is wonderfully sunny and springlike and the blooms are a plenty. 

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce from at home with books

On the reading front, I finished The Burning Air, Erin Kelly.  HOLY SMOKE this is definitely going on my list of top ten.  If you like a little mystery and a whole lot of thriller, you must read this one.  Love the character development and the story line was just so gobsmacking in your face,   I'm sure the look on my face made people on the train move to another compartment.  BRAVO Erin Kelly.

On the creative front, I finished my princess chair.  The group have decided it should be called the preparation H chair, when I remember to take a photo, you'll understand why.  I won't have it home for a couple of weeks, it will be in the booth at the Creative Festival along with my cork chair and stool.  Now the request is to write up a little journal of the two transformations and the story behind them.  And I'm finally getting around to making a couple of cushions from some gifted embroidery, my aunt created.  I'm going for a McKenzie Child's look, with a little wild animal print,  the clerk at the fabric store was looking at me kinda strange.

Sunday Salon... Among Others

Well I finished Among Others, Jo Walton.  Well, I'm not sure what the criteria for a book award is but clearly I was not on the judging team.  I liked it, don't get me wrong, but award winning? not sure about that.  It could have been a bit more, heck a lot more.  I was expecting the end, but the middle seemed to be a list of books I have not read, I started to write them all down, gave up after eight.  Since I hadn't read any of the books being discussed I found it difficult to compare them, I loved that father and daughter had these discussions.  How special.  I would have like to know a little more of the background of the characters, was she a twin or not?  What was the car accident? I was half expecting Mor to be unstable and that we would discover she had an illusion of having a twin.  The witch mother thing wasn't developed enough either, and beyond that it was a teenage romance. 

In short Among Others (no idea where that title came from) is the story of a teenage girl who has come to live with her estranged father, after having had some kind of accident, which apparently killed her twin, and left her disabled.  Apparently she escaped her mother...? She remains in contact with her mothers family and maternal grandfather.  Magic is practiced here as is the strong discussion of Science Fiction books. Lists and lists of them.  She is enrolled in a private school where we see her develop some superficial relationships, and where she falls in love with a much older boy.  I found it somewhat disturbing that after only two weeks into the boy/girl relationship Mor was ready for a sexual relationship, she was planning contraception, but I'm thinking she's fifteen! I know, I know statistic show I'm naive.   Mor (the young teenage girl) has escaped from her witch mother... this is a cloud hanging over the story, that is never really made clear, to me at least.  I love the connection that grows with her dad and her dad's father, somewhat surprised at her relationship with her dads sisters, but... Did I like the book, sort of, but not as much as I would have thought.

What else did I do this week? The usual, laundry and cooking.  Almost no painting, very little furniture restoration, and I know I have fabric for my princess chair, but can't find it.   It's been a cold week, and I'm struggling to fight this cold thing off... Just resting and watching the Oscars tonight, as soon as I stop yelling at the T.V. for Downton Abbey ending, Can you believe it! What are they thinking. This isn't a soap opera.... What's up next?  The Bleak mid- Winter, Julia Spencer. I thought this was a suitable choice for this very snowy/cold winter week ahead.  What was that ground hog seeing?  Have a good week.