Throwback Thursday

I feel as though I've shared this photo on my blog before, but I can't remember, so you probably can't either, right?

P.S. My brother loves it when I share this photo. Ha! I don't know why he minds - I look at least as dorky as he does, if not more :)

Wordless Wednesday

2015 Project 365 – Week Seven

I have been in a funk. I realized late Monday night that I hadn’t written a blog post & thought, “meh.” And the rest of the week was “meh” too. Don’t know why – perhaps I’ll snap out of it soon. In the meantime, Dr. M has a blog post showing all his fabulous birds – he had QUITE the bird week (eagles, hawks, herons…). Go here to check it out!

Sunday, February 8^th

Finally got my disgusting car washed. Woot!

I forgot to tell Map My Walk that I was doing an indoor walk, so it tried to show me where I had been. Made me laugh.

Monday, February 9th  

This is what a granny square looks like when you frog it (rip it, rip it) – I was almost finished & realized that I was too far off to try to fix it.

Tuesday, February 10^th       

I was going to do a 10 on 10 post, but work was too busy – I took two pictures & then didn’t even think about it until I was on my way home. In my “meh” state I decided to not mess with it. This was my “before work” picture.

The temperature in my office. Last week the air conditioner had been on, so I brought a thermometer in. Sadly, even though my hands were freezing I decided that 67 degrees wasn’t low enough to complain about. (Except to you people – to you I will say, “That’s Too Darn Cold for Bug Working Conditions!”)

Dr. M took this really cool picture of the sun – even it was in a funk…

Wednesday, February 11^th

I’ve completed 8 squares (2 designs) for the afghans I’m making. Keep in mind that I’m making four different afghans – these squares don’t all go together. There will be 24 squares per afghan.

I got so many comments about my “blonde” hair when I posted Tuesday’s picture on Facebook that I decided to take another selfie in different light to show that my hair is NOT blonde. Although I think my brain is blonde these days (yep, I’m referencing a stereotype there).               

Thursday, February 12^th   

A friend who has left the Episcopal church for another denomination sent me these goodies – a sweatshirt and a bag with the Episcopal shield on them. Score! Thanks Jayne!

I finished another square. I decided to make all the ones of this design solid colors – because otherwise I’m going to end up with some VERY busy afghans! I really like the windmill design on this one.

Friday, February 13^th  

Another Friday, another sun pillar. Dr. M gets to see these – I have the sun at my back on my morning commute. Steve had asked what a sun pillar was – it’s just a vertical shaft of light extending upward or downward from the sun – which is different from a “sun dog” – those sort of mini suns that appear on either side of the sun.

Campus bluejay.

Saturday, February 14^th        

I had a great Valentine’s Day! I had informed Dr. M that I didn’t want to leave the house on Saturday so he volunteered to go out to get groceries. When he left it was doing this. It’s hard to tell, but the wind was blowing really hard & snow was flying everywhere. Super cold too.  I was so grateful that he let me stay home (where I vacuumed & dusted & did laundry – but DID NOT HAVE TO PUT ON MAKEUP, so that was fabulous).

Here are my Valentine presents – chocolate & flowers are always a big hit around here. And I had asked for one of those solar dancing critters to take to the office (we have a penguin here at home & it makes me laugh), so he gave me a bug. Ha!

The back yard has been very busy, as you might imagine. We’ve had the usual suspects – sparrows & starlings – but yesterday Dr. M saw a sweet little junco.

Hope everyone has a great week!

2015 Project 365 – Week Six

I can’t believe we’re already finished with week 6 of the year! On the other hand, I guess that means we’re that much closer to spring… This week was all about the moon (as you might imagine). Also, Dr. M has a blog post with some lovely scenes of Our Frozen Ohio.

Sunday, February 1^st

It was Superb Owl Sunday! Here are a couple of our Superb Owls, plus a look at Dr. M’s bowl of chicken chili. Yum!

Monday, February 2^nd   

I tried to take a picture of the beautiful moon with my cell phone. Can’t see it?

How about here?

Reckon I should just leave the job to the Moon Man :)  

Tuesday, February 3^rd       

Great blue heron! Such a shaggy gentleman…

Love love love this picture Dr. M took of the sun.

Pinky is blooming again. Silly old girl.

The moon!

Wednesday, February 4^th

It’s been pretty cold here…

Practicing the choir anthem.      

Thursday, February 5^th   

On frozen pond…

We watched Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood – gotta love those outrageous costumes!

Friday, February 6^th  

Campus deer.

Dr. M saw this sun pillar on his way home from school – so cool!

Saturday, February 7^th        

Our neighbor’s yard. Mary & Joseph just can’t even.

I went to Heart & Hands (my church’s yarny group) & was highly amused by my friend’s resourcefulness. It worked pretty well!

I went for a walk!

The moon!

Hope everyone has a great week!

About today

Clear blue sky above

My shoes and I took a walk

Today was a Gift

Sigh...

My poor neglected new shoes...

But as long as there's this

and this

I'll have to be satisfied with this...

Throwback Thursday

Just hanging out in a bucket on my grandmother's front porch with my Aunt Lila. I don't know why I'm in a bucket. But you can tell that I thought I was the stuff! Also, I have a memory of being terrified by Lad - but I don't look very scared, do I?

Not So Wordless Wednesday

Book Review Tuesday

It’s time once again for my scintillating interesting brief book reviews!

1. The Long Way Home (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #10), by Louise Penny. Happily retired in the village of Three Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec, has found a peace he'd only imagined possible. On warm summer mornings he sits on a bench holding a small book, The Balm in Gilead, in his large hands. "There is a balm in Gilead," his neighbor Clara Morrow reads from the dust jacket, "to make the wounded whole." While Gamache doesn't talk about his wounds and his balm, Clara tells him about hers. Peter, her artist husband, has failed to come home… She wants Gamache's help to find him… The journey takes them further and further from Three Pines, to the very mouth of the great St. Lawrence river. To an area so desolate, so damned, the first mariners called it The land God gave to Cain. And there they discover the terrible damage done by a sin-sick soul.

The Bug Says: I listened to the audio version of this book. I love the narrator, and as I said on the last Book Review Tuesday, I could listen to Louise Penny’s characters talk about cheese all day & be perfectly happy. Her style might not appeal to everyone, but I always feel like I’m coming home when I read an Inspector Gamache book. I’m thinking of re-reading all of them before the next one comes out! I gave this book five stars.

2.  The Ice Princess (Fjällbacka #1), by Camilla Läckberg. Returning to her hometown after the funeral of her parents, writer Erica Falck finds a community on the brink of tragedy. The death of her childhood friend, Alex, is just the beginning. Her wrists slashed, her body frozen in an ice cold bath, it seems that she has taken her own life. Erica conceives a memoir about the beautiful but remote Alex, one that will answer questions about their lost friendship. While her interest grows to an obsession, local detective Patrik Hedström is following his own suspicions about the case. But it is only when they start working together that the truth begins to emerge about the small town with a deeply disturbing past.

The Bug Says: I listened to this one on audio too – which is good because the book is set in Sweden, & all the Swedish names would have been hard for me to keep straight in print! I had read books 3 & 4 of the series & decided that I wanted to start from the beginning. I don’t know why I enjoy them so much – they’re police procedurals wherein a small town police department has to solve murders. I think that the characters are so well written – there’s humor and a really great turn of phrase (much better than I’m able to convey, obviously – ha!). I gave it five stars too.

3. Still Midnight (Alex Morrow #1), by Denise Mina. It's the case that could make DS Alex Morrow's career, it would make any salivate. A home invaded in the dead of night, deep in the heart of the cosy suburbs; a hard working family at the heart of it and a vulnerable old man taken hostage. It's high profile, a black-and-white case and it shouldn't be hard to solve ...

The Bug Says: As you may or may not recall, I read the 2^nd book in this series first & really enjoyed it. I wasn’t able to get the audio version of this book (I missed the Scottish narrator), and for some reason I took my own sweet time reading it. (I see from Goodreads that it took me 26 days to finish!) But once I got into the meat of the story I really really enjoyed it (yes, broken record here). She’s another writer who has a lovely turn of phrase, often about a grim reality. I gave it 4 stars (just because of how long it took me to get into it).

4. The Job (Fox and O'Hare #3), by Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg. Charming con man Nicolas Fox and dedicated FBI agent Kate O'Hare secretly take down world’s most-wanted and untouchable felons. Next job: Violante, the brutal leader of a global drug-smuggling empire. The FBI doesn’t know what he looks like, where he is, or how to find him, but Nick knows his tastes in gourmet chocolate.  From Nashville to Lisbon back alleys, from Istanbul rooftops to Thames, they chase clues to lookalike thefts. Pitted against a psychopathic bodyguard holding Kate hostage and a Portuguese enforcer getting advice from an ancestor's pickled head, they again call driver Willie for the ship, actor Boyd for one-eyed Captain Bridger, special effects carpenter Tom, her father Jake - retired Special Forces, and his talent - machete-wielding Somali pirate Billy Dee. This could be their biggest job - if they survive. 

The Bug Says: Evanovich is the author of the popular Stephanie Plum series, and this one is somewhat similar, except that in this series the woman is competent at her job. I love the humor in these books & the fact that they don’t require a lot of thought – or time investment. I gave it three stars.

5. Serial, the Podcast. Serial is a podcast from the creators of This American Life, and is hosted by Sarah Koenig. Serial tells one story - a true story - over the course of an entire season. Each season, we'll follow a plot and characters wherever they take us. And we won’t know what happens at the end until we get there, not long before you get there with us. 

The Bug Says: OK, so it’s not really a book, per se. But I listened to it instead of listening to an audio book so I’m counting it. They’re planning to tell a different story each season. This season the story was about a convicted murderer, Adnon Syed, who may or may not be guilty. There are 12 episodes that you can download & listen to. I’d been told that I would LOVE this podcast by a number of people, but I stubbornly resisted until it was “assigned” for book club. And as promised, I loved it! Which should not be a surprise since most of the books I read have something to do with murder. I even gave it four stars on Goodreads, but apparently seeing as how it’s not actually a book, Goodreads has since removed it from their database. Ha!

Currently I’m listening to Sycamore Row, by John Grisham (just love the southern accent of the narrator), and reading The Cypher (Guardians Inc. #1), by Julian Rosado-Machain. The Cypher is my Kindle freebie for book club & it’s surprisingly good! He needs an editor (grammar typos), but the story is pretty interesting. Of course, I’m only 34% done, so who knows how it’ll turn out. I’ll let you know in the next edition of Book Review Tuesday!

Mary's Smile

If my math is correct, today would have been my grandmother's 99th birthday. To celebrate, I'm re-posting this Magpie Tale from 2012. 

image: River Irwell by R.A.D. Stainforth

Mary's Smile

My grandmother

had a smile

deep as this river.

She smiled as she

did the ladies’ hair

and raised six

children.

She smiled as my

grandfather milked

all those cows.

And she smiled

as she asked where

I’d been Sunday night.

Her smile contained

the souls of everyone

she ever knew.

And at night,

as she said her prayers,

she tucked those souls

behind her lips

for safekeeping.

This is a Magpie Tale.