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Flowers, Robins, and What are you Reading?

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Today is sunny and beautiful. I am feeling extremely lazy (in the best sense of that word) and am determined to move through the day slowly and deliberately. We did a heck of a lot of mowing yesterday and we’re tired! Some of that mowing was rather hurried as we took pains to finish the area by the nest as quickly as possible so mama robin wouldn’t get stressed. The only section we haven’t dealt with is the Secret Garden and that’s because it’s still too wet back there.

Those baby robins are getting bigger. Now, when they are about to be fed, I can see not only their beaks but part of their bodies as they they thrust upwards in search of food. We are so lucky to be able to watch it all from the kitchen and bathroom. It’s like having our very own television screen permanently set on the Robin’s Nest Channel.

As far as the Opening Ceremonies go, I’m afraid we didn’t even last beyond the US team marching in. It was already nearly 11:30 pm and we were tired! I’m sure it was spectacular but I’m fine with missing it. I can always search for highlights of the ceremony online.

Is it time for another edition of What are you Reading? I think it is.

I’ll start. I’m reading A Dying Fall  by Elly Griffiths and The Life and Works of Monet, both of which are excellent.

Now it’s your turn!

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

Comments

  1. Elly Griffith’s The Postscript Murders. I just finished Lisa Unger’s Confessions on the 7:45.

  2. I just finished Elly Griffith’s newest “The Night Hawks” which was great. I am now reading “People Like Her”, a psychological suspense story by a husband and wife team, Ellery Lloyd. It is interesting so far and since it is so warm out, I can spend lots of time reading without feeling too guilty!! :)

    • Just finished Klara and the Sun and started rereading Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory while I decide what’s next at the library. I know I’ll get inspiration here. I always do!

  3. Dh has just turned the Olympics on while we have a bit of breakfast before we head out to the garden. But truthfully, we haven’t been as interested as we have in the past. Maybe as it goes on, it will pique our interest.

    I’m just finishing up “I Was Anastasia” by Ariel Lawhon. It’s been amazing! I’ve got a nice little stacks of books that I’ve picked up the last few weeks to read over the Summer. Hope you love your selection!

    X Chy

    • I love swimming, diving and gymnastics, so as they get going I’m sure I’ll get engaged.

      Thanks, Chy!

      Stay safe.

      • I am trying to finish “All The Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr ,Then I will read “The book of Lost Friends” by Lisa Wingate. I to am watching the Olympics. The weather in my part of the PNW is in the 90s the next couple of weeks. Very glad the smoke from all the fires are not blowing this way yet. Have a blessed week.

        • All the Light We Cannot See is one of my top reads of the last decade. He has a new book coming out sometime in the next year.

          You guys have had such hot weather! I know it’s not normal for the PNW.

          Stay safe, Erika.

  4. glad you and don have front row seats to the robin family nest!

    and that you’re taking it easy. mowing may be fun to you, but it’s still hard work!

    the Bible, always.

    i am a “do what has to be done” kind of person and believe in facing fears (i’ve done, for example, quite a few static-line skydiving jumps and some rock-climbing to not only get past a fear of heights, but also learn to enjoy it). that said, i just started reading a book about pushing past fear … due and no thanks given to covid-19 and my badly-broken back. i can no longer skydive or climb and now (during a pandemic) is not the best time to pursue alternatives. and a book can’t substitute for running (now very sadly off-limits), etc., but it’s a place to start. i want that part of me back.

    thanks to you and everyone else for adding to my “tbr” list. i love that question … “what are you reading?”!

    hope you have a good day and stay safe.

    kathy in iowa

  5. The good thing-bad thing about being at the lake is no network TV. And we could stream but decided to continue watching the PBS version of Professor T instead. I’ll watch the Belgian version when we finish this one!

    I think you sent your deluge of rain here to Michigan so it’s a good day to read. Yesterday I finished the second book by Rennie Airth in the John Madden series, “The Blood Dimmed Tide.” Now I’m reading the first of the Jeanne Dams “Dorothy Martin” mysteries — “The Body in the Transept.” It’s very light, rather comic, probably a tad too cozy for me but a good transition reading between the rather intense Airth book and whatever is next, probably “A House in the Country” by Ruth Adam,1950s, I think, about her post-WWII experiences.

    The Monet sounds very interesting.

    • I’ve heard a few people recommend A House in the Country.

      Thanks, Jeanie.

      Stay safe.

  6. All Day and a Night by Alafair Burke. But too many distractions to get really into anything right now.

    • It’s definitely hard to read when there are distractions, Shanna.

      Hang in there and stay safe!

  7. Oh, my fav question!! Recently finished Miss Benson’s Beetle, and The Masterpiece. Now reading The Midnight Library. I am finding it to be a rather tough read. Coulda, shoulda, woulda…

    It is really hot and humid today. What else is new. Hope you have a good day. Take care.

  8. Hello Claudia!
    I just finished 3 books by Jeff Nania. Great books that take place in Northern WI. Now I am reading “Miss Pinkerton” by Mary Roberts Rhinehart.
    I’m glad you get to enjoy the robins. My mama has her nest on my outside light.

  9. I am currently reading The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It is already pretty intense and I’m not that far along. It’s narrated by a young man, Hiram, who is a slave on his white father’s plantation. The title refers to the African water dance where women balance water jugs on their heads as they move. Hiram’s mother was known both for her beauty and for her skill as a water dancer.

    • I’m pretty sure Don read that book, Anne. He’s a wonderful writer.

      Stay safe.

  10. Hi Claudia, love you brown eyed Susan’s, so pretty.
    I have just started a book recommended by someone on Instagram titled “Little Heathens, Hard times and high spirits on an Iowa farm during the Great Depression “ . I am enjoying it very much. I usually have a few books going at once but summer is busy with gardening, preserving……I have lots on my tbr pile for the winter.
    Enjoy your relaxing day!
    Robin

  11. Hi Claudia,

    I am currently reading (rereading) books byJen Lancaster. She has written alot of books about her everyday life and her books always make me laugh out loud.
    On a more serious note, I am reading “The Journalist of Castro Street, The Life of Randy Shilts.” Having lived in the S.F. bay area during the 1980’s, I saw this book and felt I had to read it as I was aware of Randy Shilts and how he was one of the first to report on Aids. I guess I wanted to know more about who he was, not just as a journalist but as a person. I know that when his book, ” And The Band Played On” came out it was mind blowing to me to read in depth what was going on just a few miles from where I lived. I always wanted to meet him because it seemed he cared so passionately and I was sorry that he eventually died of Aids.
    So, on a brighter note, our Calif. heat wave is abating and I am enjoying my yard and plants. Last year I planted my 1st white hydrageon. Had 1 bloom last year, this year 8 blooms! Happy!

    You and Don take care.

    • I read And the Band Played on when it first came out and am familiar with Randy Shilts, I lost so many friends to AIDS – so very many.

      Thanks, Linda.

      Stay safe.

  12. I must admit I watched the Opening Ceremonies while reading a book. I am so use to not having commercials that it drove me a bit crazy. Had to mute them. I just started The Friendship List by Susan Mallery.

    • On the rare occasions that we watch commercial tv, we always mute commercials!

      Stay safe, Linda!

  13. I am re-reading (yet again) an old novel I came across 30 years ago which is called “Bitter Sweet” (written by my when-I-need-comfort-reading-light-fiction [Calgon take me away; get relaxed!] author, LaVyrle Spencer [who hasn’t written anything for over 20 years; she retired from writing]); it has a setting of Door County in Wisconsin which I’m interested in (Fish Creek area). Some would call it a cloying romance novel; for now, it’s what I’m enjoying. (I’ll read her books over the decades, here and there; she’ll pick a setting like Camden in Maine, would go live there for a few months and write from the location, so I feel her descriptions of the locale are accurate; one of her books was about pioneer life in Minnesota and it brought early-settler life alive for me, back in the day, of an area [Upper Midwest] of which I know so little.)

    Am also thumbing thru “The Chalk Art Handbook” by David Zinn who is this incredible street artist in Ann Arbor, Michigan; he apparently pops up all over the city with these whimsical 3-D, chalk-drawn creatures on sidewalks, doorways, window sills; in crevices, rocks, brick walls, drains. He draws monsters, otters, his favorite mouse named Nadine; fish, birds, little piggy angels, sheep, dogs, cats, bears, foxes, hedgehogs, frogs. He’s been doing this for 35 years (where the heck have I been?) and his whimsical, temporary art is a happy surprise for both children and adults. It seems he’s a big hit on Instagram. (Ann Arbor sounds fascinating; it not only has the street painting, but it’s also known for its fairy doors all over the city.)

    I have a friend who’s a chalk artist from Traverse City, Michigan and she first introduced me to chalk art on sidewalks when we both lived in Santa Barbara, Calif which has a benefit street-painting festival most years in May, held at its beautiful Mission Santa Barbara which has been there since the 1700s and is still a parish church. These are elaborate, original works of art and I so LOVE the colors! I picked this up off an online site: “Street painting, using chalk as the medium, is an Italian tradition that is believed to have begun during the 16th century. It is called ‘Madonnari’ because of their practice of reproducing the image of the Madonna. The early Italian street painters were travelers who would arrive in small towns and villages for Catholic religious festivals and transform the streets and public squares into temporary galleries for their works of art. The (Santa Barbara) festival features more than 150 street-painting squares drawn with chalk pastels on the pavement in front of the Mission. As the public watches, hundreds of local artists transform these pavement canvases into elaborate artwork in unexpectedly vibrant colors. The spaces range in size from 4-by-6 feet to 12-by-12 feet, each one bearing the name of its sponsor – a business, organization, family, or individual, that donates to the cause.”

    • I haven’t read it yet, but I recently picked up a ‘Borscht Belt’ novel by Harvey Jacobs, “Summer on a Mountain of Spices” (‘based on life at The Spring Lake House, a small family hotel, in the summer of 1945 during the last week of World War II; Spring Lake was a mile from Monticello, the summit of the Jewish Alps; it catered to refugees from the garment center and an occasional professional such as a lawyer, a dentist; escaping Manhattan’s brutal heat for a few weeks and allowing wives and children the chance to breathe some fresh air, feast on incredible Jewish dishes and polish their skills at tennis, baseball, swimming, Mah Jong, Poker, Pinochle, even dancing to a four-piece band in the “casino” – guests at the modest hotel considered themselves “superior” to families who rented bungalows where you did your own cooking and cleaning’ [those bungalows reminiscent of a film I just recently watched again with a time frame of the first moon landing and Woodstock in summer of 1969, directed by the talented actor Tony Goldwyn called A Walk On The Moon with gorgeous Viggo Mortensen and Diane Lane {and the magnificent Tovah Feldshuh}]).

      So, we’ll see how this new novel above goes, but I do return (probably too much) to a lot of old favorites these days on both books and movies (and music; can I lately get enough of 1968 and the Beatles’ White Album?!! [or Sheryl Crow; her stuff from early 1990s]). Maybe I’m craving familiarity in unsure times. Or I’m just getting OLD(er)…

      • Monticello is in Sullivan County and it’s not far from us. We’ve been there.
        That area is no longer the famed Borscht Belt, but there are still lots of camps and resorts where families go for the summer. And of course, the Woodstock festival took place, not in Woodstock, but in Bethel NY, which is also in Sullivan County. There is a museum there now, as well as The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, a performance venue.

        Stay safe!

    • I’m familiar with David Zinn as I follow him on IG.

      I’m also very familiar with Ann Arbor as I went to college in Ypsilanti, which is just down the road from AA. I’ve spent tons of time there over the years. It’s a great college town. Great city for the arts and bookstores. The original Border’s was in Ann Arbor and I went there frequently. This was before it turned into a chain and lost all its personality.

      Stay safe, Vicki.

      • Interesting! I had just been reading about a wealth of independent bookstores in Ann Arbor, something I see so rarely in my neck ‘o the woods. I was also remembering the film called The Big Chill and the main characters of the story were Univ of Michigan alumni.

        I say again, oh wow do I hope I can visit these places someday!

      • I agree Brendab; I wish she hadn’t stopped writing; I guess she’s well into her 70s now. She retired early because she met her financial goals.

  14. That is so precious about the baby robins! That dear mama.

    I found a paperback of David McCullough’s Truman at a garage sale, and am finishing it with Audible while I work on paintings. I love his writing because he brings people to life! I’ve only read one other by him: John Adams, but it really stuck with me. Especially the part in it, where they tried to vaccinate themselves from disease, and how they were so desperate to do it!

  15. It is indeed hot and humid here today. And, I’m very tired, too, from the last several days. We’ve been doing house projects around here, and I’ve been helping my husband prepare for his volunteer stint at EAA this year. All projects completed, and he’s off. So, now, I’m going to take it easy for a bit.

    I started to watch the opening ceremony last night. But, I had turned it on late, and just couldn’t get into it. So, I switched the channel. Hopefully, I’ll enjoy the competitions more.

    I do love this question….I always find new reads. I’m currently reading The Russian, part of the Detective Michael Bennett series.

    Enjoy your day! ;)

  17. I am reading The Outlier by Kai Bird
    A biography of Jimmy Carter
    He will definitely leave this earth a better place

  20. Thanks for the Robin update. Hopefully I’m not too late but I am just starting the A Kind of Loving trilogy by Stan Barstow. Written and set in the industrial North of England in the post war Britain of late 50s/early 60s, it’s a world almost unrecognisable today.
    I recently watched Alan Bates in the 1962 film version and his performance is wonderful. He plays a young draughtsman Vic who’s attracted to the very pretty Ingrid who works in the typing pool.
    There’s one scene where they’re in a coffee bar and Ingrid who has almost no conversational skills is wittering on about a TV game show and the realisation on his face, that this is going to be his life if he carries on courting her is perfect.
    He tries to end the relationship but it’s too late, Ingrid is pregnant and he has to marry her and live with her overbearing widowed mother, played by the equally wonderful Thora Hird.

    Happy Saturday

  21. Windswept by McCormack…excellent writing. I read one a day for Netgalley usually 4 am…daughter brought me Stacey Abrams fiction…quite good…she has a website where she reviews so many books…they send her the books. No bookend in sight Facebook and Instagram

  22. I’m reading Judy Bolton’s The Living Portrait. My grandson is coming down tomorrow to stay with us for a few days and I didn’t want to start anything heavy. After he leaves, I would love to read The Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz.

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