I love that limelight hydrangeas turn pink. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to happen in the spring – pinkish pastel flowers – but no, limelights turn everything upside down and give us this delicate pink in the fall. What an unexpected treat.
This week has been quite beautiful, with temperatures in the 70s, cool mornings, and abundant sunlight. We’re still in a drought and the rivers are very low. This is a repeat of what happened last year. I’m not so stressed about it this time because I know at some point we’ll start getting a ton of rain. Just not now.
I’m reading Katabasis, by R.F. Kuang. It’s quite magical, in fact, it’s about doctoral students at Oxford University studying to be magicians. It’s much more than that, though. Two of them travel to Hell to bring back their recently deceased mentor. The first Kuang I read was Babel. I really loved it. I then tried The Poppy Wars Trilogy (maybe her first books?) and I got about halfway through them and lost interest. Then I read Yellowface, which was wonderful. And now, Katabasis. Rebecca is a truly wonderful author. I love the way her mind works. Fantasy fiction is not a genre I am drawn to, as a rule, but Babel was so impressive that I vowed to read more of her work. And she is impressive. If you ever read her bio, you’ll see what I mean. I can’t conceive of accomplishing all she has at such a young age. I’m reading at least 100 pages a day so I can finish it and get to the next book in my queue. Katabasis is due on the 25th, and The Hallmarked Man is due on the 30th. A note about the latter book. It’s written by Robert Galbraith who is really JK Rowling. I’ve read all the books in this mystery series, and hesitated about this one because of Rowling’s hateful anti-trans stance. I’ve been disgusted by her actions. So, I vowed not to buy the book and I haven’t. No more money in her coffers. I got in a queue for it in our library system. It clocks in at 897 pages, so I’ll have to do the same kind of scheduling I did for Katabasis. Luckily, I have a fair amount of free time at the moment.
I also have the newest in Mick Herron’s Slough House series, Clown Town, which I preordered a few months back and promptly forgot about. It arrived here last week. And Louise Penny’s newest is on the horizon. It’s a good time for losing myself in books, and heaven knows, I need that. We all do.
Tonight is opening night for the play. Break a leg, my friends! (I’m also happy because that means I will get the second half of my fee and a check for travel reimbursement sometime next week.)
Stay safe.
Happy Friday.
