Life!

It's been awhile since I've posted here.  Life has taken precedence.  The business of living - shopping, cleaning, organizing, visiting, relaxing, planning, nursing, worrying.  You know what I mean.

I took these photos today because I had planned to take photos of the signs of spring.  An overnight snowfall changed that idea.

The snow will be fleeting as are many things in life. 

I've been on the road making three trip to care for my mother who fell on Friday evening. The broken bones are in her cheek.  She will be okay but at 94 life gets harder each day.

A neighbor suffered a major fire at their home.  (See this posting about that.) I've signed up to take them meals.  I've gotten the community galvanized to raise money for them especially since she was the one to do that when others were in need.

Life!  Will things change when spring arrives?  I doubt it.

Just Finished

My reading list is not as long this year so far.  At this rate I won't make it to the same number that I got to last year.  I have started many books and then put them down for lack of interest. I'm not going to read something I don't enjoy.

I did just finish my 5th book for the year: One Thousand White Women - The Journal of May Dodd by Jin Fergus.  The author says that many people write to him believing that the book is historical.  It does have historical characters and yes the Cheyenne Indians asked for 1000 white women to marry their men but the US government did not agree to it.  In his book though they did and May Dodd was one of those women.  It's written as a journal except it's not really.  No one writes a journal with so much dialog and details especially when they are on the move with an Indian tribe.  It does make for a good though sad story and I'd recommend it for that.  But I don't know how any reader was taken in to believe it could be true.

The other books I've read this year are:

1.  The Unlikely Pilgrimmage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.  Set in present day England this relates the story of an elderly gentleman who sets out on a quest to walk the entire south to north axis of England to see an old friend who is dying of cancer. He becomes quite a celebrity and develops a following that gets out of hand.  Slowly you learn what has transpired in his life that drives him to do this.

2. The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin.  This one was for book club and it generated so much discussion that night.  Mrs. Tom Thumb, Vinny, was a real person and though she did leave some writings about her life she did not write her own biography.  Melanie Benjamin did a fine job for her though and gave the reader a window into the world of P.T. Barnum and what life was like for a performer the size of Vinny.  We got out a yardstick the night we discussed this book to see what her height really was.  Our hostess then got out a doll that stood just a few inches shorter than Vinny's height but about equal to her sister, Minny.  Amazing!

3. Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.  I almost didn't finish this one because I was afraid for how it would end.  When I get that way I do turn to the end to read it. (I do that a lot lately.)  This one is about a woman who gives up her husband and children to be with Frank Lloyd Wright.  A decision I couldn't condone and that she lives to regret.  The descriptions of the houses he designed made me realize how much influence his style had on our architect for our home.

4. Molaka'i by Alan Brennert.  This is the story of girl diagnosed with leprosy and confined to the leper colony called Molaka'i in Hawaii.  I had previously read a nonfiction book about this place called The Colony which was historical with none of the feelings of this book.  It's been awhile since I've read a book that made me cry so much.  It is an incredibly sad story but also so very believable.  This is also one for book club that we will discuss next Friday.

I think I'll go back an read an old favorite: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Have any book recommendations for me?

Look What's Blooming!

From this:

to this:

My first ever amaryllis. A gift from a good friend.  What a nice spot of color in the midst of winter.

A Wish Granted

Remember last week my pining for spring but still wishing for a very cold snap to freeze the pond?  Wish granted!  Cold snap upon us and last night it included snow - 2 inches.

 Here's the pond this morning after I came in from helping Dan shovel the driveway.

Here's the pond now after spending an hour out there cutting the cat tails and hauling them off to the piles in the woods.  It will make for a much neater pond come spring.  True I will still have to trim the irises and the Joe Pye weed and the butterfly bush.  But for those I don't have to venture into water.

I'm sorry for the birds though which liked to take cover amongst the cat tails.  That's another reason not to keep trimming out there.  That and the temps at 22º.