Saturday Snapshots. - My kind of flower

I am linking up with Melinda at West Metro Mommy Reads to share a few snapshots. Check out Melinda's blog for the few rules. You know the drill. Only your photos or ones you have permission to share, appropriate for all eyes, and such. 

Last week everyone was sharing photos of the flowers in their yards on my FB feeds. I had yet to plant any annuals and have no perennials these days. So I posted these! 

I have 12 or so of these kinds of appliqued banners from Patchabilities. There is the perfect place for them between the front closet and the stairway to the basement. 

Then later in the week, I got busy and did some planting. So here is the hosta garden in my back yard. The hostas have been there for a few years and should be bigger, but we have had dry season up until this year. I added mulch and planted some free standing pots of impatiens. They add a little pop of white in the otherwise shady spot.

I know those of you who live in the Northwest or the Southeast where there is so much moisture and resulting green, probably don't understand, but getting even a little green in this high plains desert takes lots of work, lots of expensive city water and more than a little luck. 

 When I look at these photos I can see I need to do something to the retaining wall in the back. A trellis or maybe even a mural!

 This is another angle and I notice the paint needs to be redone on the shed siding!  "sigh"

This close up is a little better, mostly green and the pot of white. I am happy that I upgraded this little space this year. 

How 'bout sharing your green thumbs with me this week? 

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros -The Boston Girl

 First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday is a place to share the first bit of a book you are currently reading or plan to start soon.  Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea hosts. Post the first paragraph or two of the first chapter of your featured book and link it up at Diane's Blog.

The Boston Girl 

Anita Diamant

Schribner, A Division of Simon and Schuster

Published 2014

1985
Nobody told you?

Ava, sweetheart, if you ask me to talk about how I got to be the woman I am today, what do you think I'm going to say? I'm flattered you want to interview me. And when did I ever say no to my favorite grandchild?
I know I say that to all of my grandchildren and I mean it every single time. That sounds ridiculous or like I'm losing my marbles, but it's true. When your a grandmother you'll understand. 

This is the first chapter first paragraph of The Boston Girl. Sort of a prologue.  The next chapter is titled 1915-16, That's where I started to be my own person.  I think I will like this one. How about you? Would you read on?


Staying Busy and sort of Staying Happy

Mailbox Monday and from other sources 6/14/15

Mailbox Monday is hosted at it's very own blog.  I'm taking a bit of blogger liberty with this meme. It is supposed to be titles that showed up in my mailbox. But all of these did not come in the mail.

I haven't posted to Mailbox  Monday in a very long time. I don't receive any ARC copies and rarely purchase books. I have been using the library a lot lately and of course share with friends. Plus, I have a pretty full bookcase of books that I have not read and really want and need to.

That being said, these last couple of  weeks were a bit different. My F2F book club does not meet in the summer. I don't know why this was decided 12 years ago when the club was formed, but I think it was because most members were teachers, and teachers like their summers free. ( not that I blame them one bit). Nowadays, our membership is about 1/2 teachers and the rest of us. Retired teachers, wives of teachers, bookkeepers, retired bookkeepers, receptionists, make up the balance. We are reading a trilogy over the summer.

So these are the new books at my house this week!

Top to bottom:

The Summer Hideway: The Lakeshore Chronicles by Susan Wiggs   Shared from a friend and the 7th in the series. I have not read any of them.

The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen     Shared from a friend and a book club read that I missed when we were traveling in March.

The Ticket by Karen Schutte  #1 in the trilogy that is our summer read
Seed of the Volga by Karen Schutte  #2
Flesh on the Bone  by Karen Schutte  #3
I purchased all three of these from Amazon, so these really did come in my mailbox (well in actuality on the porch because they came via FedEx. )

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant.  This one is from the library. It has been on my TBR list for a few months.

Did you have a full mailbox last week?  Have you read any of these titles?

After the Storm - Saturday Snapshots

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on Melinga's blog, West Metro Mommy Reads.  Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

We had a couple of days with severe thunderstorms late in the afternoon. They came on quickly and were over quickly too. After the rain was gone and the wind died down, the sky was amazing. 

 This one is to the west, you can see the sun reflecting on the clouds.

 Another one to the west. Just a quarter of a turn to the north.

 This one is the same time but facing east. The clouds were pink and blue and puffy.

 The camera on my old android phone is not the best but was easily accessible.

And this last photo is from our front porch looking southwest.

Tonight, Friday, we have flash flood warnings and watches in our area. Our house is not threatened, but  Donkey Creek, which runs through our town is running swift and at flood depth. I hope there is no damage during the night.

Until next time


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Saturday Snaphots - Birds in my Sister's Yard and a tiny speckled flower.

Every Saturday, Melinda hosts the fun meme, Saturday Snapshots on her blog, West Metro Mommy Reads. The rules are few:  the photos must have been taken by you or a friend or family member, ( not something found on the internet), they must be appropriate for all ages. How much detail you share is up to you.  Post your photos on your blog then link up at Melinda's blog.

Today I am sharing photos taken by my sister. She lives in western South Dakota and stated with the first photo that it was a rare sighting of a female red crossbill.

This photo was taken in her yard, not sure what the container is, but you can see she hasn't planted all her pots yet. It has been so wet and cold. 

Feeding Frenzy at the backyard feeders  Red Crossbills

Also in her yard near an  old table built by her husband years ago and there are three feeders containing, safflower, niger and sunflower seeds. She said they seemed to like eating at her feeders. My sister is an excellent cook, so I agree. I like to eat at her house too. 

My brother's oldest granddaughter is five. She calls these little beauties, "wild speckled violets".  I do believe she named them very well.  She lives in Minnesota, I have not seen any in Wyoming, though I wish I would spy these beautiful little flowers. 

That is all my nature photos for today. What wonderful subjects have your captured lately? 

Until next time, 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday 5-27-15

Linking up at Kathy's blog - BermudaOnion's Weblog today to share a couple of words discovered as I finished reading Our Lady of the Lost and Found by Diane Schoemperlen.



verisimilitude  noun    -the quality of seeming real

When I taught writing, .............I would often emphasize how precision in the details helps create atmosphere, character and verisimilitude; how the color of a bedroom wall, the dirt on a third-floor window, the drape of a black silk skirt can all be used to draw the reader deeper into the fictional world, a world that should be, as John Gardner advised, a "vivid and continuous dream" in the reader's mind.


expiatory   adj     serving to expiate   (which led me to look up expiate)

expiate:
: to do something as a way to show that you are sorry about doing something bad
: to extinguish the guilt incurred by


I have never had a priest bestow absolution upon me and send me on my way with some expiatory homework: Say twelve Hail Marys.


What wondrous words have you discovered lately?


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday - The Secrets of Mary Bowser - Lois Leveen

Link up with us at Diane's blog to peek at the first paragraph or two in some books other bloggers are reading. Write your post about your current or soon to be read and link it up at Bibliophile By the Sea. 

Today I am sharing the first two paragraph of the prologue to 

The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen.

Published by Harper Collins 2012



Prologue

Mama was always so busy. Busy tending to Old Master Van Lew and Mistress Van Lew, Young Master John, Miss Bet. But she was never too busy to riddle me. She said it was the first kind of learning she could give me, and the most important, too. Be alert, Mama meant. See the world around you. Find what you seek, because it's already there.
"I spy with my little eye, where the bird goes when he doesn't fly", Mama said one mid-day, her word floating on the Richmond heat as we carried empty cookpots through the yard to the kitchen.


Would you read on?  This is based on a true story, though no doubt it is historical fiction.  I am nearly a quarter way through and am mesmerized so far. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy