July Reading: Second Half of the Month

 July has ended and August has begun, which means it's time for me to post my thoughts about the books I read in the second half of July. My post about my reading during the first half of July can be found here.

I read a good variety of books in the last couple weeks, which I'm pleased about. I also discovered a new-to-me author I love and I hope to find more of her books. On to the books!

The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 1/4 Years Old  translated from Dutch by Hester Velmans (borrowed from a friend)

This isn't a book I would have picked up. I'm always slightly suspicious about covers like this since I slogged my way through he 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window. I hated that book but read it because it was a book group read. I was new to Ireland and to the group and I later learned that people DNFed books all the time. If I'd only known! There have been more books like that in the years since, always with a similar font for the title and cutesy names. I pass them by and I would not have been drawn to this one. But a friend came over and handed it to me. It was a gift to him for his recent birthday. He read the first few pages, thought it was very funny, but wasn't sure that could be sustained through the entire book and he wanted to know what I thought of it. I read the first few pages and laughed out loud, reading passages to Bill. Since the book is written in the form of a diary, it's an easy one to pick up, read a few entries, and put down. I figured that's how I'd read it. I didn't expect to like it, so short bursts of reading seemed wise. That's how I started. Then I started reading an entire month of entries at a sitting, then two months. Before I knew it, the year was over and I was done with the book. I was surprised to find that I quite enjoyed it. As you can tell from the title, it's about an 83-year-old guy. He lives in a care home in the Netherlands. He makes friends and with them forms a group, the Old But Not Dead group. They organize outings for themselves, which leads to resentment on the part of those outside the group. They also get up to mischief within the care home on a regular basis. My friend thought maybe diary entries about the hijinks of elderly people in a care home would get kind of boring after a while, but there is more to the book than that and the humor held up through the book. In addition to being funny, there are also poignant moments as people look back on their lives. Readers do get glimpses of Hendrik's past and that of a few others in the course of the book, although none of these are dwelt on. Hendrik's observations of the behavior of his fellow residents are presented with a dry with which I quite enjoyed. I was reading various passages to Bill throughout the book. When I gave the book back to my friend, I told him what I thought of it and he was surprised, saying he feels more inclined to read it now. 

Biological War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen

I posted my review of this book here.

I read a few books that will be published soon. I thank NetGalley, the publishers, and the authors or their estates for digital review copies.

Hiroshima, 8:15:The Lost Memoir by Kiyoshi Tanimoto

ISBN 9781529992731

to be published on August 6, 2026 by Ebury Publishing/Penguin Random House

This powerful book is an account of the author's experience of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath. He was one of 6 people featured in John Hersey's book, Hiroshima and as a result of that, Kiyoshi Tanimoto was inspired to write his own manuscript in English, based on diaries he kept at the time these events unfolded. The manuscript was sent to Hersey who thought highly of it, by all accounts. It remained with Hersey's papers in the rare book collection at Yale until his grandson found it and knew it was important.

Tanimoto is an important voice and has a fairly unique perspective. He was a Methodist minister, having converted as a young man upon the death of his mother. His father disowned him. He studied in Japan and then went to the US where, after ordination, served a congregation in Los Angeles before going back to Japan. His experiences in the US and ability to communicate in English, allowed him to interact with both sides in the months and years after the bombing. His observations are important, but they are necessarily limited. This would be true of everyone, of course, but readers should be aware that Tanimoto was interested in converting people to Christianity and some of his ideas about how and why the bombs were dropped and how the military on both sides behaved are colored by this. That doesn't make them wrong necessarily, but some of the statements he makes seemed a bit jarring to me. Others seemed like they illustrated his awareness of the reality of the situation. The power of this book doesn't come from his desire to convert people, however. It comes from his account of what he experienced and observed in the immediate aftermath of the detonation and in the longer term. The US military was keen to downplay the civilian casualties, which one official going so far as to say that radiation sickness provided an easy and pleasant way to die. Of course now we know what really happened but when this book was written, just a couple of years later, it was not widely known. The book contains an excellent foreword by Koko Tanimoto Kondo, his daughter, and an afterword by David Corn, which sums up basic biographical details already presented in the main text, but also provides new information. This is an important book. It's well worth a read.

Illusions (Faber Editions) by Ruth Rehmann; Megan Nolan with Rob Madole (Translator)

ISBN 9780571396580

to be published on August 27, 2026 by Faber and Faber, Ltd

In this quietly devastating book, first published in German in 1959, we follow four employees at a German corporation. They're all at different stages of life and have different backgrounds. They're not particularly friendly with one another, don't really know one another, often misunderstand each other, and are, in some cases, envious of the others. They all work in one small area, which can sometimes create tension. The window cleaner observes them from outside and takes an interest in a couple of them. Frau Schramm has devoted her life to the corporation and it's pretty much what she lives for, but she's aging and although she pushes the reality from her awareness, her working life won't continue on forever. What then? Fraulein Viol is also no longer young, but trying desperately to hide every sign of aging. She's still looking for love, which has been elusive. Therese, the young trainee, makes Fraulein Viol uncomfortable because she's young, attractive, and seemingly with her whole life ahead of her. But Therese is searching too--for what, she has no idea. She is reckless and looking for both excitement and a place/group to belong. Paul, the lone male of the group, is a failed academic who has been hired to translate documents into French. He's not very good at this in a business context and he resents having to do this work, being more comfortable in what he sees as the higher realm of literature. His job performance makes his position precarious. One Saturday at midday, their weekends begin and they leave the building to spend a day and a half without the demands of work. This time they have to fill, with no work distractions, quickly becomes difficult for all of them, each in their own way. The book takes place over this day and a half as we alternate between their stories and their lives change.

This is an excellent book. It is set at a particular time and place, but in some ways, it is timeless. The quiet desperation with which these people face the weekend is so beautifully communicated--I could feel it with each of these characters. The inability to relax and enjoy the time they have, the overthinking, the attempts to manipulate, all illustrate the pain and lack of self awareness these characters are living with. The window cleaner, observing from the other side of the glass, is often not even noticed by these people, but he seems to understand more about them than they do themselves. There would be some sort of dissonance in that time and place, I suppose, so soon after Germany's defeat in the war and the attempts to either bury or come to grips with what the country was in the not-so-distant past. It's not stated what specific year the book is set in, and the war is mentioned in passing a few times, but since it was published in 1959, it would have had an impact on the author and, by extension, the characters. However, I've known people with the same sorts of issues and I wasn't even born when the book was written, so I would say the book goes beyond a particular time and place and describes very human struggles. I had never read anything by this author before, but after having read this, I'd love to read more. Her writing is gorgeous. This is a book I highly recommend. It was a 5-star read for me.

Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel (The New Miss Marple Novel) by Lucy Foley

ISBN 9780008694821

to be published on September 8, 2026 by HarperCollins UK, Harper Fiction

The Swiss Alps, 1950, and the Grand Alpine Hotel is welcoming visitors. Among others, there are Miss Jane Marple, Dolly Bantry, and Mrs. Bantry's paid companion, Diana. Miss Marple's presence is fortuitous because one morning, a guest is found dead in the gondola. With the heavy snow falling and access to the hotel blocked, the police can't get there for a while, so an informal investigation ensues.

The story unfolds from different perspectives. Each chapter is told from the point of view of either The Help (Diana), The Wife, The Friend, or The Star. This is very effective because we are inside the heads of multiple characters. The mystery is well plotted and paced. The characters are an interesting mix of people. I enjoyed the setting. I will say that I had to keep reminding myself that it was supposed to be 1950 because it really didn't feel that way as I was reading. For example, in one scene, one of the characters is called 'Ms' which just felt off in terms of the time and the character using the term. It was out of place.

I'll be honest--I wanted to read this because it features Miss Marple. I love Miss Marple. At the same time, I knew that it wasn't going to read like a Christie novel and Miss Marple would probably seem different, in the same way all of the screen adaptations seem different, depending on who is playing Miss Marple. I decided to set any expectations aside and just read the book, judging it on its own merits as a mystery novel. And I wasn't disappointed. It was a fun read and I was immersed in the story from the start. I kept turning pages because I wanted to see what was going to happen. The twists and turns kept the story moving and the ending was satisfying. The writing was excellent and even though this isn't Christie's Miss Marple, it was fun to see which aspects of her this author chose to feature in her characterization. If there are more Miss Marple mysteries in future, I will definitely read them.

And that wraps up July! I hope you all had an excellent reading month and that August provides us with many excellent books 😀📘📚

Share

Biological War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen

 Biological War:A Scenario

by Annie Jacobsen

published by: Random House UK, Transworld Publishers

ISBN 9781911742029

In various places around the world, often located near large population centers, sit laboratories exploiting a loophole in international law, where scientists are working to develop and test biological weapons. As technology has evolved, so have the ways in which biological agents can be manipulated to cause maximum harm to humans and other creatures. Unlike nuclear weapons, which have at least a very short window of time between launch and detonation, by the time anyone knows that a biological weapon has been deployed, huge numbers of people are already sick, dying, and dead and the disease is spreading faster than any potential antidote can be administered--if there is an antidote. In this stunning book, Annie Jacobsen explains what these weapons are, how they have been developed, and what could/probably would happen in the event one of these manipulated biological agents of mass destruction was to escape the lab in some way and enter the general population. She does this by laying out one possible scenario--as she points out, not the only scenario or even the worst case scenario, but one that is possible and highly likely. She draws on history, conversations with retired governmental and military personnel with experience in this area, interviews with scientists, including some who worked on biological weapons in the Soviet Union and left, and documents in the public domain, some previously classified. She begins with some background about what kind of work is being done in these labs and how technology is enabling people to create more lethal biological weapons. The benefit of these, at least according to former Soviet officials, was that they would kill the people, leaving the infrastructure intact. After giving readers this necessary background information, Jacobsen then creates a plausible scenario for the escape of one such weapon--a genetically modified plague that has been manipulated to spread more easily through the air and has a higher rate of transmission than plague alone. It's also been created to delay the onset of symptoms. Rather, people feel euphoric when first infected, thus more likely to go out and socialize, which spreads the lethal agent further. In this scenario, the lab is located in Siberia and is unleashed when a worker in the lab recognizes the evil of the project and tries to destroy it by burning the lab down. This wouldn't work anyway, because the flames wouldn't be hot enough to destroy the weapon, but in any case, something goes awry and he is infected. Then he goes to confession, leaving droplets of genetically modified plague in his wake. When he collapses, people--tourists there to hunt big game--try to help him and begin artificial respiration, then carry him to a location where he might get help. They then disperse to their respective countries. Plague spreads. And what happens when people suddenly begin getting horribly sick and dying? Of course, panic, fear, anger, conspiracy theories, and violence. Societal breakdown ensues. We don't have to look too far back--just a few years--to see how this works. And if it was that bad during COVID, imagine what it'd be in a situation like this. Of course, we knew what COVID was. In this scenario, it would take days for people to realize they were dealing with a bioweapon and even more time to figure out what the weapon consisted of. Even more time would elapse before people found out whether or not there were secondary harms added to the plague. 

This book reads like a dystopian thriller, even though it's a scenario built on information, facts, history, science, and expertise. As with her last book, Nuclear War: A Scenario, Jacobsen has created an informative, important work that is also highly readable and explains things beautifully for a general readership. At various points in the book, there are boxes telling the story of some historical event. Each of these was fascinating in and of itself. Usually I'm not keen on that kind of interruption in the text, but it worked really well here. These interludes were well placed, added to the story, and offered a kind of intermission in the tense story unfolding in the main text. Annie Jacobsen is excellent at this kind of writing. I will definitely read whatever she writes next. This is a powerful book packed with important information and much food for thought. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It made me wonder again what on earth humans think we're doing. And how is it that we're even still here? 5 stars--if I could give it more, I would.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a digital review copy. 

Share

Make Yourself at Home

 As we continue to move through summer, a month past summer solstice and two to go until the autumnal equinox, I'm starting to feel like my usual antsy self--the one that always shows up at this time of year and really, really, REALLY wants autumn to start NOW. Our heat warnings have gone and we've had some lovely grey and breezy days, which always make me feel better. I'm eagerly awaiting the rain that is forecast to appear on Saturday and come back again at the beginning of next week. It's only Wednesday, so plenty of time for the forecast to change. I hope it doesn't but even if it does, I know the rain will return and I will savor it. Any day with little or none of that nasty sun is always welcome.

The plumber says the stabilizing piece for the shower is in his van and will be here 'shortly' to install it. Vague? Yeah, just a little. It could mean anything. In the meantime, we're just being extremely careful, which isn't a bad thing to be in the shower anyway. Still, I'd feel better when 'I'll do it shortly' becomes 'Glad that's sorted.'

Our furry friend Finn is with us for a few weeks and he wasted no time making himself at home.

Since this used to be his home, it's not surprising that he took over immediately 😉😏😃Wherever he is when he's with us, he's done it enough now that he's got a Shari and Bill routine that he just slides right into when his mum goes away.

I am surrounded here by flowers, trees, grass, and various plants. I adore this place. It brings me a feeling of peace, joy, and contentment whenever I am here so being able to live here again feels like a great gift. It is true that I've been slammed by my physical response to the grass and the flowers, but I wouldn't trade it. I was puzzled for a while because I'm used to my seasonal cycle of responses to the natural world. The spring/early summer stuff gets me in the sinuses and when that wanes and the grass starts coming on, I get a sore, scratchy, tickly throat. This year I was getting headaches, which is unusual. I used to get migraines, but that was a different issue and they were different kinds of headaches. Then one day I was outside in the evening and the fragrance from some of the flowers was wafting over me and the light dawned. I have a history of flower-induced, intense headaches. The headaches I was experiencing this year weren't that bad and aspirin took care of them, so as long as I can keep the flowers out of the house--at least the scented ones--I can manage things.  They are just so gorgeous. They take my breath away every time I go outside. I have no idea what most of them are--F is the flower gardener and I just enjoy what results from her work. Here's a very small sample of what's blooming now. There is so much more. 

F says these are honeymoon lilies--not sure if that means the pink ones too

I hope that, whatever you're doing today, there's plenty of time for you to do the things you enjoy. I've got some library books to start!

Share

I'll Do It Myself

 Some of you may remember the recent shower saga--the delay in installation and subsequent issues. Just when we thought it was ready to go, we hit yet another snag as briefly described at the top of this post. It was leaking and not draining. From there, we went back into waiting mode. F ordered the missing part for the shower door which was needed to fix the leak. When it arrived, she contacted Plumber Guy, who replied 'Great to know.' Well, yes, it's great to know that it's here and it'd also be great to know when you'll be here to put it on. The day finally arrived. Plumber Guy came, commenting that we must be sick of seeing his face. What could I say to that? On the one hand, I am genuinely tired of needing to see his face. On the other, since his face is needed, I am not sorry to see it. He went up and put the part on the door. F appeared. He tried to address the slow drain issue. He showed F various parts. He left, saying that we were good to go and that one day he would make that bracket and put that on to stabilize the wobbly shower sides. Later that evening, Bill and I went up to adjust the water. Since it can't be controlled from inside the shower, we figured we'd better get it close to where we wanted it so we wouldn't have to do it in the morning. Plumber Guy had fiddled around with it quite a bit and messing around with it in the morning didn't seem appealing. I stood at the controls and Bill at the door (photos of the set-up are here). I turned on the water. Bill's hand barely had time to get wet when we saw the water accumulating in the shower tray at a rapid clip. I turned off the shower. We heard a kind of weak trickle as the water drained verrrrrry sloooooowly. The shower head was dripping. I knew this was most likely just because I'd turned off the shower and it would stop, but there wasn't any room to add any more water in the bottom of the shower without it overflowing. I had visions of myself downstairs trying to read or knit and wondering all the while if the dripping had started up again. I started bailing the water out of the shower. Then I said, 'This is really stupid. I'm going to see if I can take care of this myself.'  I waded in.   

You can barely see the drain in this photo--specifically the silver dome thing sitting on top.

Before the plumber came, that was sitting tight in the drain opening. Now it was just perched on top with space between it and the shower floor. I lifted it off. The water continued to trickle. I looked inside the drain and spotted a piece of PVC pipe with a kind of rim that allowed it to perch on the rim of the drain. I pulled that out and discovered that it was open on both ends and had been sitting in a kind of plastic cup. There were no holes or anything in this cup--you could have had a drink of water out of it. I pulled that out. The water drained almost instantly. Bill and I examined these things and wondered wtf they were doing in the drain and what on earth could be their purpose? I took a look inside the drain opening and discovered what the issue was. The drain does not drain right down, like this: T (with the top horizontal bar being the shower floor and the vertical bar being the drain). Rather, it drains like this: T-- . There's a small area with a solid bottom beneath the drain opening and off of that comes the actual drain pipe. The plastic cup and PVC things were sitting in there and blocking the pipe that drains the water. 

When we discovered the water backing up, I contacted F. When I discovered what the issue was, I messaged her again, told her what I'd done and suggested that we might just leave the stuff out of the drain and cover the opening with one of those round flattish strainer things with holes. She said that seemed like a good idea and she'd be over in the morning. We left everything as it was. The next morning, she came over, looked at everything, wondered aloud wtf that stuff was even doing in the drain, and said that she was sure he showed her some kind of basket thing with holes that would act like a strainer. No such thing was anywhere to be found. She agreed with my idea regarding how to proceed, so that's what we did. We've been taking uneventful showers ever since. We continue to await the bespoke bracket. No breath is being held while we wait. 

Share

July Reading: First Half of the Month

 I'm a couple days late with my mid-month reading check-in as it has been a busy few days. But it's close enough, so here it is.

Murder in the Midday Sun by various authors and edited by Cecily Gaylord (BorrowBox e-bok)

This is a collection of classic crime stories, with a few more contemporary authors in the mix. I read another of these books last month and had a reserve on this one. I've enjoyed all the books I've read--the summery ones and the Christmas/winter ones. 

The Usual Desire to Kill by Camilla Barnes (borrowed from the library)

I'm not sure exactly how I found out about this book, but I think it was from a post in one of the book blogs that I receive in my email. As soon as I read about it, I went looking for it at the library and placed a hold. The person who was writing about the book mentioned the humor and that's what sold me on it. Miranda is a theater professional who is based in Paris, but frequently goes to see her parents in rural France. The family is originally from the UK and Miranda's sister still lives there, but she doesn't see the parents as often. Miranda has one child, a grown daughter. The parents have a relationship that they've both become accustomed to, but is exasperating for others (and indeed themselves). Father is a retired philosophy professor and Mother is a bookish person who is rather obsessed with WWII even though she was born at the very end of it and didn't experience it. communication between the two isn't really happening so when Miranda is there, she runs interference, translates, and tries to smooth things over. She vents her frustrations in emails to her sister and daughter. In one exchange, the sister asks her how she's doing and Miranda replies, 'Oh fine. Just the usual desire to kill.' I did laugh a lot as I read this book, but as I turned the pages, I learned more about how things came to be the way they are and there was sadness mingled with the humor. I couldn't help but feel for people who were so sure they knew what the other person was thinking and feeling only to learn as the point of view shifted, how wrong those assumptions were. People feel certain they have answers about what's going on, but they're often way off the mark. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Said the Dead by Doireann Ní Ghríofa (personal copy)

I almost never buy novels new. I don't buy many new books at all actually, but when I do, they're almost always nonfiction. This author is an exception. I've bought both of her novels new and if there's another one, I'll buy that too. She is excellent. I still have her first novel, Ghost in the Throat, and am looking forward to re-reading it in the not-too-distant future. This book is a keeper too and I expect I'll also re-read it one day. I was so excited when I read this book was coming out and I kept track of the publication date. I didn't want to pre-order it because I wasn't sure when exactly we'd be moving and I didn't want to risk having it sent to our old address. But as soon as we got here and got all the address changes sorted, Bill ordered it for me. Then I had to be patient again because I was so tired from everything that was going on, the grass pollen, and the other summer yuck, that I was I no fit state to be reading a book that I knew would require some focus. As soon as I felt I could give it the attention it deserves, I picked it up and started reading. Like her previous novel, this one isn't easily categorized--she does cross genre boundaries with great skill and the book is part history, part autobiography, part gender analysis, part psychology. The book opens with a woman seeing a newspaper announcement that a section of a local asylum, long abandoned, is going to be transformed into apartments. She ends up going to the location and drawn into the story of the place, the people who lived and worked there, and how these stories intersect with her own life. She becomes obsessed and revisits the site numerous times, observes herself doing things she normally wouldn't do, and going to the archives again and again to read the files pertaining to this place. She realizes that if she'd been born at an earlier time, she wouldn't be raising her children and living with her family because she might well have been brought to this place, having almost committed suicide twice.  She feels connected to it and some of the women who were brought there for real and manufactured reasons--some women had genuine mental health issues but some were just there because they were poor or their husbands/fathers got tired of them and called them crazy, dumping them at the asylum. The author feels a responsibility to these women, very aware that she is now speaking for them, telling their stories, and bringing their lives out of obscurity. When the archivist tells her that she cannot use any real names, the author struggles to come up with pseudonyms, but it feels wrong. She and the archivist come to an understanding--she can use real first names only. As the author reads the case books from the files, she feels herself getting deeper into her curiosity and questions. Much of what she reads was written by one of the first women to become a medical doctor with a specialty in mental illness. Away from the archives, she delves deeper into the personal histories of the doctor and some of the patients. The novel (if that's what it is), contains photos and excerpts from the archives. Much of the book is created from this material, but there's another strand and that's the unknown person who is watching the author. This other narrator describes 'The Reader' and what she was reading and how she felt about it. So there are three layers here: the residents and doctors at the asylum, The Reader, and the unknown observer who seems to haunt the author. I don't think I've gotten across how excellent I think this book is, but I can say that I loved it and am so glad I have a copy that I'll be able to pick up again. There is so much to think about here--history, gendered history, culture change, how some things change superficially but not fundamentally, how to respect people from the past who can no longer speak for themselves, and so much more. The author is also a poet and it shows--her writing is superb. There is a bibliography at the end as well as some further information.  This is not a quick or fluffy read, but it's well worth the time spent with it.

The Bluestockings: The First Women's Movement by Susannah Gibson (borrowed from the library)

This is exactly what the titles indicates--a history of the group of women who came to be known as bluestockings. This history is presented through the stories of the women who were heavily involved, such as Elizabeth Montagu, Harriet Thrale, Frances Burney, and others. I was particularly pleased to see Burney featured in this book. I quite like her novels. I loved this book. In addition to being very informative, it's well-written, tells the stories of these fascinating women while telling the story of the movement they were a part of, including its limitations, and situates them in the context of their times and places. It was inspiring to see the various ways these women pushed back against the barriers they faced and built satisfying lives for themselves. It's a great read.

Finally, I read a couple of books that will be published soon. Thanks to NetGalley, the publishers, and the authors for digital review copies of these books.

The Campervan Detectives by Maeve Haran 

to be published on July 28, 2026 by Bookouture

ISBN 9781805506317

Sadie is approaching 60. One day she discovers something that upends her life. She leaves her home with her miniature schnauzer, Sam Spade. On the spur of the moment, she buys a bright orange campervan and sets off for Winching, where she has happy memories of time spent there with her late father. Sadie was at boarding school in the area, which brings some not-so-happy memories, but she does reconnect with a beloved teacher she had there. Taking Sam Spade for a walk through the community gardens, Sadie sees a mysterious person acting suspiciously. Then she sees the body of a deceased woman, although she can't see her face. After dealing with the police, she finally gets to the campground where she plans to park her campervan. Having no experience with campervans, she is relieved when a fellow camper, Rose, helps her set up her bed and promises to be back in the morning. From there Sadie meets a couple of other women who live in their campervans at the site and quickly connects with them, becoming part of the group. When the closed-minded guy who is in charge of the investigation doesn't get very far, the women decide to investigate themselves. They start calling themselves the Vintage Vanettes and plot ensues from there.

I had such a great time reading this book. I loved the Vanettes and was happy to spend time in their company. Each woman had their own back story which was provided in enough detail to connect with readers, but also leaving room for things to be fleshed out further in subsequent books. The supporting cast was full of interesting personalities. I enjoyed the setting a lot, including the way that Sadie interacted with this environment, which held so many memories but also possibilities for the future. The story moved along at just the right pace and I was kept interested in both the mystery and the people. I admit that at first I was slightly skeptical of the rapid connection between Sadie and the other Vanettes, but then I remembered instances in my own life when such connections happen seemingly in the blink of an eye and in completely unexpected ways. In any case, I soon overcame my skepticism and just settled into the story, which had many elements to it--at times tense, heartwarming, funny, and of course, mysterious. The ending was quite satisfying with regard to the mystery, but also in terms of Sadie's decision-making about where she wants her life to go from there. Will she go back to her old life or will she choose another path?

I'm thrilled that this is the first in a series and I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next book. It's good to know that there's more in store for Sadie and the rest of the Vintage Vanettes.

An Uncommonly Festive Fiasco by Hannah Hendy

to be published on August 6, 2026 by Canelo

ISBN 9781835981610

This is a fun addition to the Dinner Ladies Detectives series. This time, the dinner ladies, led by Margery and Clementine Butcher-Baker, are off-site, catering for the vendors and bands taking part in the Christmas festival at a local community center. Margery, the manager of the dinner ladies group, isn't keen on accepting this gig when offered, but she's talked into it because there's payment involved. It's not long before she wishes she'd gone with her gut and turned it down. It's a cold and rainy weekend and when a tree goes down blocking the road, everyone at the event is stuck there. When the power goes off, things get even worse. While spending a cold and uncomfortable night attempting to sleep on the floor, Margery--no spring chicken--is awakened several times by various noises, including the sounds of an argument. In the morning, Santa's grotto is found to contain a dead body. With the police unable to get through, the dinner ladies are asked to investigate and the story goes on from there.

This isn't quite a festive book, although the cozy aspects of the season are mentioned in the context of what everyone is hoping to get home in time to enjoy. The book could be read as a standalone, but I think it'd be more enjoyable if one has read at least some of the previous books in the series. There are several recurring characters and knowing some of their back stories is helpful, both in terms of understanding who they are and why they behave as they do. There's plenty of humor in the book and I chuckled to myself throughout. The mystery was well done and the ending tied everything up neatly. I do like a cozy Christmas mystery and I enjoyed my time with this one.

And there you have my thoughts on what I read during the first half of July. I hope you're reading some excellent books this month and that you're getting plenty of reading time.

Share

Score!

 Today we headed off to Donegal town on the bus. We had library books to pick up and I wanted to go to the Animals in Need charity shop. I always like poking around in there and this week they're having a sale-- all denim jeans are €1. Denim is great for various stitching projects so I wanted to pick up a pair or two. Of course the first stop was the bookshelves and I was pretty happy to find a short story anthology, Great Irish Detective Stories and also an old copy of Three Men in a Boat, first published in 1889. I've never seen old Penguin books like this.

After the books, I went over to the sale rack and chose a couple pair of jeans.

I already have some denim in the 'regular' medium shade of blue, so I chose black jeans and the very light blue--almost white ones. I didn't want to go overboard so I stopped there. The pale jeans have holes in them and I have some ideas about how I will use those.

The black jeans have flared legs so a bit more fabric to work with than if they weren't so wide. On my way out the door I looked in the box of free stuff and picked up an oval metal platter that I plan to put plants on. I'm quite pleased with my charity shop score today. I'll have many hours of happy reading and stitching with this lot. It was €3 well spent. 😀

Share

June Reading: Nonfiction and Upcoming Publications

 After my post yesterday about the fiction and poetry I read last month, I'm finishing up my June reading wrap-up with the nonfiction and soon-to-be-published books I read.

The Making of Home by Judith Flanders (personal copy)

I'd borrowed this book from the library and as soon as I got it home and looked at it, I knew I wanted my own copy. Bill found it at Awesome Books and while he was at it, picked up a couple of other books by this author. Her name seemed familiar and it dawned on me that I might have read one of her later books about the history of alphabetical order which was an extremely enjoyable and fascinating read. I looked it up and yes, that's her. At that point I had even higher hopes for this book and I was not disappointed. It's an excellent book and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute I spent reading it. I was engrossed. Flanders starts by making the distinction between languages that have the same words for house and home and those that have different words. She argues that in the former, much of life occurs in public places while in the latter, it takes place in more private settings. Because of this, ideas of what home is evolved in different ways, which she proceeds to lay out. As she does throughout the book, she provides numerous examples to illustrate her ideas. These examples come from various countries, primarily western European, but also the US. She recognizes that this is a limited area, but to include Asia and other places would make the book impossibly long. Even within this limited geographical area, the differences are interesting, going from when home was pretty much one room to what we see today. Once houses started to have more specialized areas, family life changed as well, of course. She writes about practical things, such as how the process of cooking changed as the configuration of houses changed as well as how attitudes and cultural/societal expectations changed. For example, heating used to be from a kind of fireplace, of course. This was usually in the center of the room and there was a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape. This had implications for how people lived on the ground but also showed the ways in which people used the smoke to preserve meats and to clear thatched roofs of vermin. Eventually, the fireplace was moved to a wall and there was a sort of hood over it. People would sit under this hood to eat and socialize. When the swinging crane to hold the cooking pots was introduced, the cook no longer had to lean into the fire to deal with the food. And because there was usually just one big pot, food was usually boiled or stewed. It wasn't until stoves were invented that people could plan on cooking numerous things at once. Beyond the practicalities, there were also emotional connotations to fireplaces, not to mention image issues. When more efficient stoves became available, many people (depending on class) bought them because they gave out more heat more efficiently. Expert advice manuals chided people who preferred the stoves for abandoning the fireplace because the stove didn't create the same image. Even small changes could lead to culture change, as it did with a switch from twig brooms to corn brooms. When people used brooms made from twigs, there were certain bits that did not get swept up. These bits were not considered dirt and were just left on the floor. But when corn brooms became the norm, that changed. These brooms could sweep up finer particles so what didn't used to be considered dirt now was and it was expected that it would be removed. Reading this I was reminded of things I've read about the impact of electricity in rural Ireland. When people used oil lamps for light, much simply wasn't visible. When electric light was installed, people felt some dismay about the dirt in the corners that became visible. And of course, all these changes in expectations and definitions of cleanliness--the evolution of the definition of dirt--meant more work for women. You can probably tell that I just love this book and I'm so glad to have my own copy.

Here are a few books that will be published soon. I thank NetGalley, the publishers, and the authors for digital review copies of these books. Publication dates may vary, depending on location.

On Taste: In Humans and Other Animals

by Davide Risso; Gabriella Morini

Published on August 25, 2026 by Columbia University Press

ISBN: 9780231221290

This fascinating and informative book does exactly what the title says--explores how taste works in humans and other animals. I'll say at the outset that I have no background in biology or other hard sciences, other than a general class or two as an undergraduate. No matter--I found this book to be very accessible. Concepts were explained well without getting deep into the weeds where it would be hard to follow. It's a short book, but ranges widely across different aspects of taste. I was particularly interested in the cultural and linguistic evidence/aspects of taste and the foods humans eat and don't eat. I learned some fascinating things, like the fact that we have taste receptors all over, not just in our mouths, that temperature has an impact on taste, and that some sea mammals and penguins do not taste because they simply swallow their food, for example. Some whales, however, still have active receptors for salty tastes. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can definitely recommend it.

Christina Rossetti: Over 100 selected poems

by Christina Rosetti; Pele Cox

to be published on March 16, 2027 by Gemini Books Group

ISBN 9781786752116

This is a lovely collection of some of Christina Rosetti's poems, which includes well-known work like Goblin Market and In the Bleak Midwinter, as well as other poems across a variety of topics. These topics include love (not only romantic love), spirituality, death and the afterlife, , and nature and beauty. Like so many people, my introduction to Rosetti's work was the Christmas carol, In the Bleak Midwinter, which I still love. Later I read Goblin Market in an anthology. I thoroughly enjoyed reading more of her work, all of which was new to me. I will seek out more.

I quite like the way the book is structured. It begins with a picture of Rosetti and a short biographical sketch. Each chapter is based on one of the themes listed above and begins with a short (one page long) explanation of the significance in the topic to Rosetti and her work. Following this, there are poems with one or two in each section accompanied by a short critique of the poem. This is the third book in this series that I've read and I have loved them all. I highly recommend this one if you're at all interested in Rosetti, Victorian literature, or poetry in general.

Gaining Ground

by Joan Barfoot

to be published on August 25, 2026 by Faber and Faber

ISBN 9780571399888

As I was reading this excellent and powerful book, I kept wondering why I'd never read any work by this author before. After reading it, I know I'll be reading more. I loved this book, which opens with a woman who is outside, hard at work and reminding herself that her name is Abra. She is so used to being alone that she's almost forgotten her name, even as she knows who she is. She sees a visitor coming up the lane towards her cabin and is dismayed. She doesn't know who this person is or what she wants, but soon learns that this is her daughter, Katie, now grown, who was 9 years old when her mother left. The interaction is tense, but Abra suggests that Katie book herself into a hotel in the nearby town and visit her from time to time. Katie agrees. These visits and their time together bring up memories for Abra and readers learn about her past life--how she ended up in what other people might see as an enviable life, only to walk away to create a life based on what felt right to her.

There is so much in this book and so much that I could relate to in my own life. I grew up in the kind of world Abra left behind and the author captures the shallowness and game-playing aspect of it so well. Even though Abra and her husband, Stephen, are successfully 'improving' their situation as the years go by, at least by societal standards, Abra feels less and less satisfied with and more and more distant from her own life. She doesn't feel successful at all, even as she rationalizes with herself about what she 'should' feel. She loses herself and feels like she's acting out a life. I've been there myself. It can be bewildering to understand that what people think is a good life is quite the opposite of that on a personal level. Abra doesn't set out a plan to leave her family, the whole thing unfolds quickly and unexpectedly. One day, she just knows where she is supposed to be. But the groundwork had been laid over several years as she came to understand that she was the outlier and she couldn't live her life in the situation she was in. Her husband wasn't going to give up his life and while some version of her could continue to exist in that world, she couldn't build a life there. Throughout the book, readers follow Abra's thought processes, her growing awareness, her epiphanies, and her evolution. I was gripped by this book from the start. I was rooting for Abra and felt some tension about how Katie's arrival would impact her hard won peace. For me, moving away from a situation in which I was acting out a life with my name on it didn't involve leaving my family, but it did involve leaving a world in which I'd invested most of my adult life to that point. It was extremely difficult and it took a long time to get back to myself. Joan Barfoot captures this perfectly. This edition also contains a fascinating afterword by the author in which she writes about the book and about the reactions to the book when it was first published. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

And that wraps up my reading wrap-up for June. I hope you had an excellent reading month then and are having one now. Happy reading!

PS: Jeanie, of The Marmelade Gypsy, commented on yesterday's post that she's not a fan of short stories in general, but enjoys mystery short stories. For Jeanie and anyone else that enjoys mystery short story collections, I wanted to recommend Deadlier: 100 of the Best Crime Stories Written by Women, edited by Sophie Hannah. It's an excellent collection and a great read--perfect for dipping into to read a story here and there as the mood strikes. I highly recommend it--and Jeanie's blog, which also involves books and art as well as beautiful photos and interesting stories.

Share

June Reading: Fiction and Poetry

 Before I get to the books, for those of you following along with the shower saga, we've hit a snag. When Bill took a shower, the water was very slow to drain and was backing up. He successfully completed the shower and went about his day. The following day, I just washed up at the sink as I had been doing. Good thing because later when I was upstairs and picking up the bath mat, I discovered that it was soaking wet. Then I checked the scatter rug F had left upstairs. It's long so I folded it in half, placed it alongside the shower (on the side, not in front of the door), and put a plant and a box of books on top of it. Sure enough, it was wet. The wet had soaked through two layers of the rug and the box was so wet it was falling apart when lifted. Fortunately the books were fine and I was able to remove them and put the box with the recycling. F contacted plumber who arrived that evening and was puzzled about it all. He added more silicone. He discovered that there was a defective piece at the bottom of the shower door that was creating a gap in the seal. A new piece has been ordered. Not sure what's happening next, but we're steering clear for now. With that update, let's get to a more pleasant subject--books!

With everything that was going on at the beginning of the month, I was craving my favorite classic mysteries. I have many on my e-reader and it can be hard to choose sometimes, but I went with Miss Silver. When I was done with that book, I went on to the next in the series. These were the perfect reads for the moment.

The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth (e-book, personal copy)

The patriarch of the Paradine family wants everyone to be at dinner one night. This includes the family members that live in the house--his sister and her adopted daughter, his sons and daughetr, as well as his employee. He also expects some extended family members who live nearby to be there. He sends an urgent message to a colleague telling him to show up as soon as possible. He too stays for dinner, where there is an announcement accusing one of the family of committing a crime. He informs everyone that he will be in his study if the person wants to come and confess. Everyone there knows his routine and all are well aware that at midnight he steps out onto the verandah, where there's a steep drop, for a breath of fresh air before bed. He never gets to bed on this night because he is found dead at the bottom of the drop. Was it an accident or did someone push him? As is usual, someone knows someone who was helped by Miss Silver and suggests that she be called in to investigate. She agrees to take the case and things go on from there. I enjoy these books. I like Miss Silver and her no-nonsense ways. 

The Key by Patricia Wentworth (e-book, personal copy)

World War II was a part of the background to the previous book and it plays a slightly more prominent role here in that the victim is a scientist, Michael Harsch, who escaped the Nazis and landed in England. His wife and daughter did not escape and did not survive, so he feels he is on a mission with regard to his scientific research into an element that he thinks can be used to make powerful weapons. He is driven because he wants revenge. His experiments are successful and he calls his contact in the British government to tell him so. They make plans to meet the following day and Dr Harsch goes to the church to play the organ, which he often does to unwind. He never leaves the church and is found slumped at the organ with a gun on the floor at his side. It looks like suicide. Someone thinks of Miss Silver and she agrees to investigate. 

Sometimes when I stitch I like to listen to podcasts or audiobooks. As I was scrolling through the 'new to library' section of the BorrowBox site, I came across the first two books in a cozy mystery series that I'd never heard of. Both were available so I decided to give them a try. Both are set in Australia and the narrator is Australian, which was interesting in terms of hearing slang and turns of phrase that were new to me. After I listened to these two I looked up more about the series and discovered that there are several more books. The author is using the alphabet to come up with her titles and I think I saw book titles through F. If I saw more of these books in a charity shop or on BorrowBox, I'd probably pick them up/borrow them, but I don't think I'll be actively seeking them out. They were good listens and I certainly enjoyed them enough to keep listening, though.

Arson at the Art Gallery by Catherine Lee (BorrowBox e-audiobook)

Addison is about to become an empty-nester as her daughter, Olivia, prepares to go away to university. Her son is already on his own. Her husband has been dead for a couple of years. She feels it's a good time for a change so on a whim, while at Getaway Bay, a place she has fond memories of from childhood, she buys a beach house, thinking she might convert it into a bed and breakfast. Her cousin, who is an artist and gallery owner, lives in Getaway Bay too. Addison's uncle (the cousin's father) is suffering from dementia and is in a care home. It's thought that he doesn't have much time left, so Addison's other cousin arrives and stays at the art gallery. Addison and her cousin are out one night when they learn that the gallery has burned down and the other cousin didn't make it out. Addison, having been married to a police detective in Sydney, starts looking into things herself, with the help of some new friends, her daughter, and her cousin--and the local police detective who is also a transplant from Sydney and knew Addison's late husband. There's an interesting mix of quirky characters and the expected village vibe. It was an enjoyable book to listen to and I liked it enough to go on to the next one.

The Body at the Beach House by Catherine Lee (BorrowBox audiobook)

In this one, work is ongoing at Addison's beach house but things are far enough along that people can stay there. When everyone gathers for the usual Friday night drinks on the patio, one person is missing. When people go to find him, they find the door locked from the inside so they break it down and discover him hanging from the wardrobe door. It certainly looks like suicide, but that theory is disproved pretty quickly. Who would want him dead and why? Once again Addison and the gang are on the case.

One evening I was sitting here knitting when I got a message from a friend. He was out walking the dog near the wee free library up the hill and took photos of what was in there. I spotted the following book, which I'd never read. I did listen to a dramatization on BBC Radio 4 years ago, but I thought I'd like to read the book. He brought it back for me and I picked it up right away. When we were in the process of moving and I went to drop off stuff at a charity shop, I stopped to look at the books they had there and came away with 4, one of which was a different novel by the same author. I have yet to read that one. Maybe soon, since both of these are books I don't plan to keep and will deposit into the wee free library at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (personal copy)

This book has been around for a couple of decades. It's narrated by Kathy, who was a student at Hailsham which at first seems like a regular boarding school. However, it quickly becomes clear that there's something special about Hailsham and something that sets the students apart. Unease starts to grow as it becomes more evident that what sets the students and Hailsham apart is something quite sinister. In case someone hasn't read the book, I won't say more than that about the plot itself. In the book, Kathy is looking back at her life and her relationships with her closest friends and others. It's a good book with heartwarming moments mixed in with the sinister undertones, anger at what is occurring, and deep sadness as we follow these children through their adolescence and young adulthood.

Murder Takes a Holiday by various authors (BorrowBox e-book)

Always with the classic mysteries 😁 I do love them. This book combines that love with another of my literary loves, short story collections. This is a fun collection of classic crime stories. The editor, Cecily Gaylord, has also put together several Christmas classic crime collections and another summer-themed one which is ready for me to read as I type. This collection is exactly what the title suggests--mysteries that involve being on holiday in some way. I admit that nothing much beats a Christmas classic crime story collection for me, but this comes very, very close. It's a fun read.

I read a few poetry collections last month. One will be in tomorrow's post which will include soon-to-be-published books. One was a collection that I'd started a while back and read a little at a time, finishing in June.

The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem: From Baudelaire to Anne Carson by various poets (personal copy)

I love short story collections. I love the work of Lydia Davis, who sometimes writes short stories that are just a line or two. These stories have a poetic quality to them and through them I became interested in finding out more about prose poetry. This is an excellent collection with a very informative introduction. It's a book I will dip into again and again, with poems ranging across time and geography. The line between prose poetry and short stories is impossible to pin down, so if you're a fan of poetry, short prose, short stories, this is a great collection to have.

The Tree is Missing by Sharon Kuta Kelly (BorrowBox e-book)

I found this on the BorrowBox website and checked it out. It contains powerful poems about borders, crossing them, what they mean, and how they impact her and her sense of identity. Other themes include history, political and personal turmoil, and more. This is an excellent collection. 

This is long enough, so I'll be back tomorrow with some nonfiction and soon-to-be-published books. Happy reading!

Share

Here's a Visual

 A couple of people mentioned that they'd like to see photos to visualize the shower setup, so here they come. Just for background--this is a 150-year-old building of terraced cottages. There was no indoor plumbing when it was built and each cottage had this installed in whatever way suited the owner at the time. A couple of them had small bathrooms put in, which took away space from an already small bedroom. In this cottage, the different elements you'd normally find in a bathroom are sort of scattered around. So the shower is in one of the bedrooms.

This first one is of the room from the doorway. Note that the window is a reflection and isn't next to the shower as it appears to be in the photo.

I'm still in the process of putting things away in this room. While we were waiting for the shower to be installed, everything was piled onto the bed to be out of the way and the shower parts were in big boxes leaning against the bed.

In the photo above, you can see the pipe sticking up from the floor. This is what that looks like at floor level between the front wall of the room and the side of the shower.

These all have something to do with the antique cast iron tub that used to be in that spot. When the plumber comes to put on the stabilizing bracket (assuming that happens), he says he will remove the pipes as well. You can see why the shower couldn't go in the corner.

This is what's on the wall above these pipes--the electric shower control box. The water flows through this and is heated on the way through.

The top dial adjusts the water pressure, the bottom one is for the temperature, and the power button is above the dials. That's how we turn on the shower. There are no taps. This is a pretty standard sort of shower here and the kind we've had in almost all the places we've lived since we've been in Ireland. There's a switch to turn on the power to the box across the room by the bedroom door. That gets turned on and off for each shower.

You can see the silver hose coming out of the bottom of the box above. This is connected to the showerhead, which you can see a bit of in the photo below. Again, the window is just a reflection.

As you can see, the pipe holding the showerhead comes over the side of the shower. The shower itself was installed to be used with the tub I mentioned earlier. That tub was on feet and raised off the floor so the showerhead had to be higher, which works out well for this setup. 

So you can see that to turn the water on and off, we have to be outside the shower. This is fine. I'm used to those showerheads that you can take off and hold in your hand, so I used to get in, take it down, point it away from myself, and then turn on the water, waiting for it to warm up before turning it on myself. I also used to turn the dial so that I had a concentrated flow of water with a bit more pressure. That's not happening here. And that's fine. These are such minor quirks and I'm sure I will quickly get used to things, being very careful all the while 😊

Share

Not So Fast

 As I said in my last post, PVC Guy showed up on Saturday and did what he was hired to do. Plumber guy showed up with him and then disappeared. On Monday, F asked him if he planned to show up that night. He said he would and he did. He changed the kitchen taps, reinstalled the macerating toilet and tested the shower. However, we're still not quite done. The shower is usable, but needs some stabilizing. Since there's only one 90 degree corner in that room and one wall of that has various things on and in front of it, the shower couldn't go in a corner. It has been installed with a bit of space between that wall and the side of the shower. One of the things on the wall is the shower controls themselves. This makes sense, since the shower used to be over an antique cast iron tub, so controls for the electric shower had to be on the wall. What it means now is that we can't access these controls from inside the shower, so have to turn it on and test the temperature before we get in. And of course, we have to get out before we can turn it off. This is all manageable. The issue we still have though is that the sides of the shower are a bit wobbly if any pressure is applied. Plumber Guy says he will create a bracket that he can put on to stabilize the structure. The shower is a decent sized square with two glass sides and a glass door in between. The back is the PVC covered wall. So I'm not sure what he has in mind, but the goal is to keep the sides stable. In any case, who knows when this will actually occur. In the meantime, it can be used and I was planning to try it out last night rather than yesterday morning. Because I knew it was going to be sunny and warm and we were going out, I also knew I'd be too hot and feeling grubby afterwards. I figured a nice shower at the end of the day would be quite refreshing, so in the morning, I did my usual washing up routine at the kitchen sink. The day progressed. I was just about to go upstairs and take that shower when the power went off. No power, no electric shower. After about an hour, the power was back before going out again 15 minutes later. So no shower last night. Today was the day though. I got up and I had a shower. I was very careful to not touch the sides at all. I moved slowly. It was nice. Today I go up and do a bit of clean-up, since Plumber Guy did not bother to clean up after himself like PVC Guy did. Then I can start putting stuff away in that room. We've done almost nothing upstairs because of this plumbing work waiting to be done. Now that it's finished, we can proceed. It's a cool, grey day with some heavy rain expected in a while, so it's a perfect day to do that kind of thing. But right now it's time for another cup of coffee. 

Share

Yeah, I Will--Unless I Won't

 Plumber Guy, who apparently finds basic communication problematic, appeared on Friday evening. He seemed like he was in a rush, but he did construct the shower--tray in, drain hooked up (I think), two sides, and the door are all up. This took a couple of hours and when F came to see how things were progressing, he said he had to take his son to a disco and son would soon be calling him. He said he'd be back Saturday afternoon to re-install the macerating toilet upstairs and replace the kitchen taps. He also told F that he'd call PVC guy to see when he could come. Although F didn't share this information with him, she'd followed a lead and found someone else who would probably do the PVC if this guy was as unreliable as Plumber Guy. However, late Saturday morning, both Plumber Guy and PVC Guy appeared. They went upstairs. They came downstairs. PVC Guy told me he had to go get some stuff and would be back in half an hour. Plumber Guy stood there saying nothing.  The two guys stood outside having a chat for a fair bit of time before they both left. I foolishly thought that Plumber Guy would come back and do the other jobs he has to do while PVC Guy did the PVC wall covering in the shower. LOL.  PVC Guy did come back in less than half an hour. He got to work. It took him three hours, but he completed the job--and he cleaned up after himself, too. He wanted me to look at it, so I did. We had a brief chat about silage and grass quality (he's a farmer and as he repeated a few times, jack of all trades, master of none). He left to do another job. So that's done. It'll take a couple of days for the silicone to dry, he said, but his part of the project is complete.

And what about Plumber Guy, you may be thinking to yourself--or perhaps you're not, because of course, when he left with PVC Guy earlier in the day, that was the last we saw of him. So in spite of telling F he would do the other jobs for her Saturday afternoon, they remain undone. What else needs to be done in the shower? We don't know (and neither did PVC Guy). When will he return to do these things? We don't know (and neither did PVC Guy). Will he ever return to do anything? We don't know. Will he communicate with F to tell her more things that may or may not be true? Time will tell. So we sit here not knowing if he will just pop up out of the blue or if we'll never see him again. However, progress has been made and since the PVC was the big issue preventing other plumbers from taking the job, it might be easier to get someone else to finish it if necessary now that that's no longer an issue. 

At this point, I'm curious about why he took the job in the first place, since it seems like he's trying to avoid doing it. But I hope the kid had a good time at the disco.

Share

A Chilly Blast from the Past

 It's been warm here. We haven't had the extreme heat that other parts of Europe have been experiencing, but it's been warm enough that we've been under a yellow warning for high heat for most of this week. The warning expires tomorrow morning. Yesterday was the hottest day at around 30C (about 86F). This is very hot for here. As someone who doesn't care for temperatures beyond the mid-teens, this was unpleasant, but not horrible. I've experienced hotter days. I've also had much cooler days and yesterday, Bill sent me a photo reminding me of one of them.

It was about -42C (-45F) on this day in downtown Fairbanks at the start of the Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race. As you can see, I had my coffee. 😃 I was quite warm and toasty in the parka my Inupiaq friend had made for me. This photo landed in my inbox at the perfect time-- it was oppressively humid and very stuffy as a thunderstorm was about to roll in. It lasted for about half an hour. We could have more storms today, but it's not supposed to be as hot and although it's a bit humid, it's fairly pleasant, with a slight breeze, plenty of cloud cover, and the birds singing away outside. Ah, we've just heard a rumble of thunder.  If you're sweltering in a heatwave, I hope the snowy scene and the thought of -42/-45 cools you off just a little bit. I hope it cools down soon and that you have ways to make your home environment less uncomfortable. 

In shower news (or perhaps non-news), no progress has occurred. Plumber Guy hasn't shown up all week, and there was no communication from him until yesterday when he said he'll be here tonight. We'll see. No idea what's going on with PVC guy. F continues to search for someone who will actually show up and do the job. It's rather ridiculous. 

Whatever the weather is like in your part of the world, have a wonderful weekend!

Share

We Don't Have Showers, But We Do Have Flowers

 Well, in what is a surprise to no one, Plumber Guy decided not to appear here yesterday and opted not to tell anyone that he wasn't coming. Will he ever reappear? Who knows. Will PVC Guy decide to show up and do that part of the job on any random day in future? Only time will tell. From what I've observed and the things people tell me, this isn't really unusual. People either say they'll do a job on a certain day and don't or they just don't bother communicating. This isn't a situation that I can really do anything about--I'm not the one having the work done. And I know that F is also feeling like things are out of her control, although she does try to think of ways to solve the problem and act on those ideas. She's been dealing with this for 6 weeks or more at this point and she was told at the start that the work would be done by the last weekend of May. I know that she is doing everything she can and she is extremely frustrated and stressed about it. 

We were outside this afternoon having a chat and she showed me where there are some pots and soil that I can use to plant a few veggies. I planted chard seeds the other day and they've sprouted. I'm pleased that I found the seeds because I have never seen chard in a grocery store here, except baby chard as part of a bagged salad mix. I have some cress, mizuna, and parsley seeds that I want to plant and I hope to get to a garden centre soon to pick up a few more seed packets for other greens and also radishes. Things like tomatoes don't do well here unless they're grown in a polytunnel or greenhouse. We're thinking about that for next year. I've got a couple different kinds of mint growing, which makes a lovely infusion to have either hot or cold. There is plenty of lemon balm and rosemary outside so I've been cutting some of that to use. I like each one--mint, lemon balm, rosemary--individually, but they're especially good in combination. I particularly like mint/lemon and rosemary/lemon. 

And the flowers! F is a keen, creative, knowledgeable, and highly skilled flower gardener (and retired florist) so there are flowers everywhere. Today after our chat, in which I asked her about a certain flowering plant, she whipped up this arrangement for me, which is quite lovely. 

It has my beloved hydrangeas, as you can see. I'm told I will love the little purple flowers that will open on the grey-green stems. The poppies started to bloom late last week. 

The other day she gave me a rosebud which has since opened.

And of course the fuchsias are blooming.

Some flowers have already come and gone and still more are yet to come. I'm looking forward to seeing what blooms through the summer and into the autumn.

So no showers for us humans right now, but after a record-breaking day of hot weather tomorrow (so they tell us), it looks like there will be showers for the flowers in the following days. Maybe I'll just join them outside and bring a washcloth. 😉

Share