Goodness, it’s gray and cloudy out there – both yesterday and today, with rain coming this evening. I started to work outside yesterday, but I was only out there for about 2 hours. I’m not used to working outdoors as I tend to be sedentary in the winter, and the air was that kind of damp that cuts right through you. But, I made a start.

We’ve been watching a groundhog who isn’t Henry. I see him on our property daily; he’ll investigate the places in which Henry and that scamp, Nigel, have resided. He’ll dine on some grass. He’s the same guy who periodically jumps up on the overturned wheelbarrow to see what’s going on. And invariably, he runs around the chicken wire fence at the back of the ‘corral’ and heads toward our neighbor’s shed. Does he live there? Does he live here? We’re not sure. But we’ve named him Joe.

My latest treasure from Vintage by Crystal arrived yesterday. Here it is:

She’s called Bedazzler. Talk about whimsical! I love everything about her; the base with the glitter, crepe paper and flowers, the egg with gold ‘grass’ inside, the little girl wearing lavender and yellow, holding a wire hoop of chicks and stars, sporting a hat with a little yellow chick.

Isn’t she the best? I’m in love with her.

On book reviews: I never answer comments on a book review post. I have to count comments in order to determine the winner, so any extra comments, like those that don’t have anything to do with the review itself, or a reply from me (which also counts as a comment) confuses the issue and makes it much more difficult to get a count. So if you have a question for me, please send it in an email. The address is under the envelope icon at the top of the sidebar. Or leave it on another post other than the book review. Then I can respond. In the future, I would appreciate you limiting your comments on these posts as they are meant to indicate whether you want to be part of the giveaway. Thanks, my friends.

Yesterday’s egg cup theme:

Wooden egg cups with faces. The man and woman on the left were sent to me by a reader of this blog. Those eggs are salt and pepper shakers. The sailor in the middle was a birthday gift from my girl, Scout. And the little girl on the right with the knitted cap was also a gift from a blog reader.

I’m surely blessed by all of you!

I’m reading another Ian Rankin mystery, Rather Be The Devil. I ended up liking my first venture into Rankin’s books very much indeed. I’m reading these out-of-order, which isn’t ideal, but for now, it’s the best I can do.

We watched The Florida Project  last night on Amazon Prime. A simply stunning movie. We were initially interested because we like Willem Dafoe and he was nominated for an Oscar for his performance. But we really had no idea what it was about. I put it right up there with Roma. It’s so real and the performances – mostly by people who had never acted before – are so honest that it seems like it’s a documentary. It’s an important film.

And Dafoe is amazing.

We couldn’t stop talking about it afterwards. I’m still thinking about it this morning.

Beverly Cleary is 103 today!

Happy Friday.