books — Page 148

The Garden, Weed Chomping & Emoticons

July 30, 2016 at 9:30 am by Claudia

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A Saturday morning with some rainy days ahead means more mowing and weed chomping today. I’ve decided I’m going to use ‘Weed Chomping’ instead of constantly wondering whether it’s ‘whacking’ or ‘wacking.’ Henceforth: Weed Chomper, Weed Chomping.

Anyway, the weed chomper’s battery ran out of charge rather quickly yesterday, so I’ll finish the job today. We mowed the front yard yesterday in the midst of seemingly lower temps but actually very high humidity, which left us dripping. Dripping, I tell you.

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The garden is so pretty at the moment. The phlox is blooming, the bee balm is hanging in there, the rudbeckia is gorgeous, the coneflowers are in every garden bed, with a few that have self-seeded in interesting spots here and there.

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In the bed on the side of the house, the butterfly bush is starting to bloom, along with the liatris, daylilies and coneflowers. All in all, a very pretty time that I hope will stay just as it is through my best friend’s visit on Wednesday.

By the way, I refuse to use BFF or any of that sort of thing. If I can’t use the entire word, I’m in trouble. And I’m an official Eschewer of Emoticons. Yes, I have weakened as to the use of hashtags, but other than that? Words are important. Hopefully I can find a way to write here in this space and on Instagram that describes the way I feel at any given time, without resorting to a smiley face. I don’t mind others using emoticons at all. I just can’t do it. But you can use them here to your heart’s content!

Ask any of my longtime friends: I was on record as a Detester of Smiley Faces in the seventies. Oh, yes. I couldn’t stand them; indeed, so much so that my friends loved to send me anything with a smiley face on it just to see my reaction.

My beloved McCoy Pottery made a piece with a smiley face.

I don’t want it.

Claudia: Eschewer of Emoticons, Detester of Smiley Faces. Uses a Weed Chomper.

I have a neat giveaway coming up next week. Stay tuned.

Speaking of giveaways, the winner of a copy of The Branson Beauty is ChrisK in Wisconsin! (I choose the winners of these giveaways through Random (dot) org, which generates a number, you guessed it, randomly. Chris, congratulations! Send me you address and I’ll forward to TLC Book Tours.

Happy Saturday.

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A Lovely Day, Indeed

July 5, 2016 at 9:44 am by Claudia

It was a perfectly lovely day yesterday, made even more lovely by your wonderful comments. Thank you, dear friends!

We ate lunch at our favorite restaurant, stopped off to visit a few shop owners that we know, had a lovely dinner (Don gave me – that sneak – a little miniature rose plant and a pine scented candle) and we watched The Music Man on TCM. My father and I used to watch that movie together whenever we saw it listed in our TV Guide. He had a major crush on Shirley Jones. So, we toasted my dad as the movie started. I hope he was watching with us.

I didn’t give Don anything because, and I confessed this to Don, after Father’s Day and his birthday, I was fresh out of ideas! I couldn’t come up with one – not even an appropriate card. He didn’t care, thank goodness.

Caught on camera the other day – a lovely goldfinch.

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I love seeing that flash of bright yellow. We have a lot of finches that hang about the property and they are at the birdbath fairly frequently.

We stopped in at Postmark Books yesterday.

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This is one of Maggie’s flower arrangements. It’s simply gorgeous – she’s so talented!

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I took this picture because I want to remind myself to read some more John Irving. I read so many of his books years ago but I haven’t been keeping up and Jesse (the owner) told me Avenue of Mysteries is really interesting. I also want to read Mycroft Holmes by multi-talented Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

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Hurrah – Postmark Books now has a lovely bag with their logo on it.

I wasn’t going to buy anything – we are having to be really frugal at the moment – but I couldn’t resist this book (and Don was loving it as well):

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My beloved Elements of Style by Strunk & White – this version illustrated by Maira Kalman. The illustrations are whimsical and charming and they are based on sentences in the text.

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Lovely.

This reminds me that a re-read of Elements of Style is in order. It is the wisest source of sound, basic advice for the writer and I think I’ve probably acquired a few bad habits that need to be corrected.

Our period of birthday and anniversary and Father’s Day celebrations has drawn to a close. It’s been lots of fun, but now we’re back to our daily routine. By the way, Meredith thanks you for all your Happy Birthday messages. She tried to write to everyone, but some of you are No Reply commenters so she couldn’t respond. She was very touched by all the good cheer sent her way.

We’ll close with Sunday evening’s sunset:

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Happy Tuesday.

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Thunder, Lightning, Books, Flowers & Theater

June 29, 2016 at 8:32 am by Claudia

Big, big thunderstorm last night! It seemed to go on for hours. Cracks of lightning, the sky lit up, thunder, torrential rain. This morning everything in the garden is water-logged and sort of smashed down. I know this because I had to go out to remind Henry that the big garden bed was not for him. That scamp!

During the storm, I had my iPhone out and was checking The Weather Channel. There was a warning saying “Lightning Strikes in your area. 0 miles WSW.” In other words, right here. When I tapped the warning, a map came up and I could see all the lightning strikes happening around us and it was actually sort of terrifying! It felt like we were sitting ducks! Maybe it’s better not to know that sort of thing.

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Impatiens are my favorite plant for our shady porch and there are pots and pots of them. Normally, I overwinter several of them, but I only overwintered one plant this past winter.

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Yesterday, the first flower opened up on that overwintered plant. Hurrah!

We chat with Little Z most every night, but now we have introduced FaceTime to the mix. I had a long FaceTime chat with Z the other day where we talked and laughed and he asked to see ‘my things’ and I played a little of the piano for him. He immediately requested another chat, which took place yesterday evening. I love seeing his adorable little face on the screen. I do my best to make him laugh and give him kisses and Uncle Don, who was in the middle of cooking dinner, also made an appearance that sent Z off into gales of laughter. (We’re actors, after all, and are really good with funny faces and voices.) Added bonus: I get to see my dear sister. I had a nice long chat (a traditional phone call) with her yesterday afternoon, as well.

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Yarrow in the big garden bed. I have two yarrows this year.

I’ve started John Connolly’s newest book (I’m a big fan) titled, A Time of Torment. It won’t be published until the beginning of August, but I have an eGalley. You know that feeling when you open the newest book by a favorite author and you read the first page or two and then you sigh with happiness because you know you’re in good hands? That’s what I felt yesterday.

I’ll feel the same way when Daniel Silva’s newest comes out next month and Louise Penny publishes her newest at the end of August. By the way, in case you missed it, I reviewed a book by a new-to-me author yesterday as part of Soho Crime’s 25th Anniversary Read-Along. It’s Rock Paper Tiger by Lisa Brackmann. I really liked it and plan to read the other books in this series. Book review here.

We received the official news yesterday that Anastasia will open on Broadway on April 24, 2017 at the Broadhurst Theater. Even better, the actors playing the four leading characters have been signed. I love that – they are talented actors who captivated audiences and deserve to be a part of the Broadway production. Bravo!

Wonderful piece of writing on LitHub: On the Invisibility of Middle-Aged Women.

Happy Wednesday.

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The Garden, Weed Chomping & Emoticons

A Lovely Day, Indeed

Thunder, Lightning, Books, Flowers & Theater

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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