Saturday Snapshots At the County Fair

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by Melinda at West Metro Mommy Reads. The rules are few, check them out at Melinda's blog.

Thursday evening we went to the County Fair. I always like to look at the exhibits of quilts, and photography, and paintings. We had our granddaughter, her husband and her son with us. Daddy decided JR would like to ride the ponies.  He did not agree. The man running the pony ride was very kind. After about 4 times around, he stopped the ponies and let Daddy take JR off.  Maybe another year! :)

They also feed the goats in the petting pen, but those goats were very persistent.  They had a baby pot bellied pig, a calf and a young alpaca. Momma did most of the feeding. JR just watched.

He really enjoyed chasing the bubbles from the bubble tower, but I did not get a picture of that!  Bad Great Gramma!


We did enjoy our time together, and that is the most important thing.



Does your family attend the County Fair in your area?

Wondrous Word Wednesday 7-29

Sharing Wondrous Words found while reading is definitely fun and a learning experience. Diane at BermudaOnion's Weblog gives us a place to do that. Come join the fun. 


This classic bildungsroman tells the story of Philip Carey, a sensitive boy born with a clubfoot who is orphaned and raised by a religious aunt and uncle.
 
Yesterday, as I was reading the posts at First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, I came across this word.   This classic bildungsroman tells the story of Philip Carey, a sensitive boy born with a clubfoot who is orphaned and raised by a religious aunt and uncle.

Sandra  at  Writing With a Texas Twang was sharing  her current read Of Human Bondage. She included the synopsis from Goodreads and even linked it to the definition. 

         noun  :  a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character. 



What Wondrous Words did you find in your reading this week?



Stay Busy and Stay Happy

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - If I Stay 7-28

Every Tuesday Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea hosts this place to share a bit of the book you are currently reading or on you hope to read soon. It is fun to read about what others are reading and test the waters a bet to see if you might be interested in that particular title. Share the first paragraph or two of the first paragraph of the book you are reading and then link up at Diane's Blog. 



If I Stay
Gayle Forman
Penguin Goup 2009

7:09 AM
Everyone thinks it was because of the snow. And in a way, I suppose that is true.

I wake up this morning to a thin blanket of white covering our front lawn. It isn't even an inch,  but in this part of Oregon a slight dusting brings everything to a standstill as the one snowplow in the county get busy clearing the roads. It is wet water that drops from the sky - and drops and drops and drops - not the frozen kind. 

These first two paragraphs don't really give you an idea of the subject of the book. Maybe most of you have read this one or have seen the movie.

                       

When I purchased this book at a local store the clerk asked me if I had seen the movie. I said I hadn't and that I usually liked to read the book first. The lady behind me, with a walker (so she wasn't young), said "Definitely read the book first, but see the movie too."   I am finally finding time to read the book and it is so engrossing, I am having a hard time putting it down to go to sleep. I will rent the movie too.


Stay Busy and Stay Happy
Judy

Saturday Snapshots 7-25-15 Sweden Vicariously

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by Melinda at West Metro Mommy Reads. The rules are few, check them out at Melinda's blog.



I rummaged through my photos (there were very few) and decided I did not have anything of note to share. So I am sharing photos taken by my brother and sister-in-law on their recent vacation in Sweden. They were accompanied by their son and his wife. You may remember that last fall I shared photos from Seth and Mollie's honeymoon in London and Paris. Now they have traveled to Sweden. My sister-in-law has cousin in Gotland ,Sweden and so they spent several days visiting family, enjoying new foods and even picking strawberries. They also spent several days in Stockholm before flying home to Minneapolis for Seth and Mollie and Rapid City SD for my brother and SIL.

 This is a church in Gotland. My SIL's relatives helps maintain this one and I think 3-4 others.

 I am not sure where this deli is. It is  The Hairy Pig Deli, but they enjoyed the food there very much.

This is what was brought to their table.  Interesting I think. Don't your like the pig shaped bread or cracker. (At least I think that is what they are made of)

 My SIL post photos of hearts that she finds in nature and other unexpected places. She even found a heart shaped rock with a wild flower in Sweden.

 Another picture of food they ate. She commented that it was"Reindeer for dinner...please don't tell Santa!"

This photo was taken on their last day in Stockholm. I love the various colors on the buildings and the outdoor dining.

OK, so much for my photo trip to a place I'll probably never get to visit. Have you ever been to Sweden or Norway ( the land of my heritage)?

Wondrous Words Wednesday 7-22

Linking up some new to me words from a recent read. Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by Kathy at BermudaOnion's Weblog. It is a place to share words your discovered while reading or just to highlight words you like.



My words today are a few I found in Fifty Shades Freed, the 3rd in the Fifty Shades trilogy by E.L. James. There were a few others that I was unable to define, but I know all you word nerds would know them right away.  NO...NO...not those kinds of words!!   They were hyperbole and alacrity. 

 - a signature from a email.

Christian Grey
CEO & Hoplophobe, Grey Enterprises Holding, Inc.


This word was not in my regular dictionary so I checked the Urban Dictionary.

hoplophobe - someone with an irrational fear off firearms.

                         hoplophobia  -coined by Lt Jeff Cooper from  the Greek hoplites, or warriors.




a conversation between Christian and Anastasia.

"Well, Mr. Grey, I'm glad one of us is punctilious.


punctilious   adj    very careful about behaving properly and doing things in a correct and accurate way.


What interesting or new to you words do you find in your reading?



Stay Busy and Stay Happy

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Garden Spells

Linking up with Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea for this week's First Chapter First Paragraph.

Garden Spells
Sarah Addison Allen
Bantam Books 2007
A Division of Random House


           Chapter 1

Every smiley moon, without fail, Claire dreamed of her childhood. She always tried to stay awake those nights when the stars winked and the moon was just a cresting sliver smiling provocatively down at the world, the way pretty women on vintage billboards used to smile as they sold cigarettes and limeade. On those nights in the summer, Claire would garden by the light of the solar-powered footpath lamps, weeding and trimming the night bloomers--the moon vine and the angel's trumpet, the night jasmine and the flowering tobacco. These weren't part of the Waverley legacy of edible flowers, but sleepless as she often was, Claire had added flowers to the garden to give her something to do at night when she was so wound up that frustration singed the edge of her nightgown and she set tiny fires with her fingertips.

Have you read this one?   Would you read on?   Sarah Addison Allen also wrote The Sugar Queen, which I read in  February 2014.

I'm off to see what others are featuring today.

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wrap Up Post - What's In A Name 2015

Here are the categories and my selection, when I read it and a link back to my review

1. A book with "ing" in the title: The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs 1/12/15

2. A color in the title:  The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls 1/6/15

3. A familial relation: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards 1/3/15

4. A body of water: Shem Creek by Dorothea Benton Frank 7/20/15

5. A city:  The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant   6/28/15

6. An Animal:  Blind Your Ponies by Stanley Gordon West   3/31/15


I am already looking forward to this challenge in 2016.