Random Friday

Five random things about me on this date.

1.  I'm ready for spring.  I placed my seed order this week and am looking forward to starting some lettuce, Chinese cabbage and spinach inside come February.

2.  Just finished reading a good mystery called "Death Toll" by Jim Kelly.  The detective reminded me of Christopher Foyle of the Foyle's War series.

3.  Dan and I are addicted to Foyle's War.  We started season 3 this week and the second episode is waiting for me at the library.

4. I've taken up watercolor painting with mixed results.  Yesterday I tried to follow some of the instruction in a book I got for my birthday to a frustrating conclusion.  Good thing I'm signed up for lessons that begin next week.

5. Look who's up close and personal outside my study window.

I know she's doing me a service trimming the liriope.

 I think she's pregnant too which means she'll be bringing her offspring by later this year. 

 I will definitely start the Liquid Fence with the warm weather.

[I know there must he a host for this post for me to link to but I'm clueless.  So if you read this and know the host please let me know.  I've been reading Latane's random 5 things for a long time but couldn't see her link today.]

1-11-14: My husband found the link for me.  Random Five Friday

Wordless Wednesday - Snow Gone, Cold Here

Winter's Grasp

We woke up to snow on Friday morning the 3rd.  I think we got between 5-6 inches of the white fluffy stuff.  Dan did his snow blowing chore while I used our plow shovels to push the snow off the area outside the garage. But there was a lot of snow and even with our efforts we didn't get it down to pavement because there was ice under the snow.

The wind was fierce and blew the snow all over.

It's beautiful but limiting when you live on a hill with a very steep driveway that empties not on a road that gets maintained by the county plows but a lane which is salted or plowed by neighbors who have that equipment.  Dan managed to drive out on Friday but my car a Prius does not like this kind of weather so it stays put which means I stay put.

Bitter cold has followed this storm which means nothing is melting.  The birds know they need to keep feeding.

Do the birds use these birdhouses I leave up for them?

This morning it's raining expect that it's below freezing so everything is getting a coating of ice.  I wonder if our driveway should be a location for the winter Olympics?  Does it classify as a flume run?

View of the driveway outside the garage from my study window

The deer come through looking for food.  They even have moved the snow to get to the liriope and have trimmed the little volunteer cedar tree.

It's supposed to continue to rain today but the temperatures will get above freezing so the ice and snow will melt.  I sure hope so.  I have things to do and places to go next week and my Prius wants the driveway clear.

Note: all photos taken from the warmth of my house.

Looking Back at the Books of 2013

I didn't read 100 books as I attempted last year, but it's a new year and I can set that as a goal again.  I did read 81.  I also almost finished my challenge of reading all of Agatha Christie's books.  I have 14 more of those to read and most of those are short story collections.  Rather than listing all the books I've read in the order read, I'm grouping them.

Agatha Christie books read in 2013
The Man in the Brown Suit - recommended by my doctor and she was right.  Great book.
The Secret of Chimneys
The Seven Dials Mystery
THe Mysterious Mr. Quin
The Sittaford Mystery
Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
Murder is Easy
And Then There Were None - I knew how this one came out because I saw it as a play.
Towards Zero
Death Comes at the End
Sparkling Cyanide
Crooked House
They Came to Baghdad
Destination Unknown
The Pale Horse
Endless Night
Passenger to Frankfurt- this was the strangest one I've read of hers.
The Secret Adversary
Nemesis - A Miss Marple mystery, one that I missed reading in 2012.
Partners in Crime
Black Coffee

Books Read for My Book Clubs in 2013
The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb - excellent!
Molaka'i - a sad story
Five Quarters of an Orange - quite an intriguing story
The Orchardist - tedious, too wordy.
Guest of Honor
Plain Song
The Kitchen House - not believable
Go Tell it on the Mountain
The Talk Funny Girl - spellbinding
The Silver Star
Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker - not what you'd expect from historical fiction, a disappointment.

Non-fiction Selections in 2013
Adoption is a Family Affair
The Hare With Amber Eyes - A Family's Century of Art and Loss
Wicked Baltimore - Charm City Sin & Scandal
Finding Everett Ruess
A Dream So Big
In the Sea There Are Crocodiles
100 Objects from the British Museum
The Mary Lincoln Enigma

Other Books I Enjoyed in 2013 that I Recommend to You
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
The Language of Flowers
Playing for Pizza
The Aviator's Wife
The Secret Keeper
Remarkable Creatures
Soloman's Oak
The Gallery of Vanished Husbands

I'm not going to list all the books I read.  The ones not included above were okay, but largely not worth mentioning.  I don't make a practice of reading a book I don't like unless it's for the book club. I did re-read four books this year that I highly recommend.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - read it for the third time.
Time and Again - read after many years break for the third time.
Tears of the Giraffe- part of the series No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, re-read for second time.
The Secret Garden - a children's book I hadn't read in a very long time.  Still a delight.

What books would you recommend I add to my list to read in 2014?

Happy New Year!