Out of the Frying Pan

Up at Hummel

We're not the only creatures whose countenances sometimes seem to lack dignity ;)

On the reading table (or tablet)

This is kind of a clean up week, a sweep of some odds and ends left over from weeks past.

• The Investment Answer, Daniel C. Goldie and Gordon S. Murray. Frankly, once you get away from tips about frugality and basic household finances (topics I had covered about thirty years ago), finance books tend to lose me. This one riveted me because I could understand it. It made sense and I could see clearly how it applies. And I could also see clear action steps. Highly recommended.
• The Ladybug Farm books, Donna Ball. These three books are the purest kind of fantasy. Friends buy a big place in the country together to Change Their Lives and, despite various hardships, It All Works Out. Far, far from the reality of money pits, but sometimes escape is kinda fun, 'kay? ;)
• Lost and Found, Geneen Roth. The acclaimed diet (actually, anti-diet) guru turns out to have been one of the many Madoff victims. It's breathtaking, really, how many victims acted against the more most important investment strategy they knew -- diversify! And the author discovers her yearning for spending "highs" even after being brought low. It's almost anti-climactic that soon after losing it all, she published a best-seller. I think this is worth a read as an inoculation against being stupid with money.
• The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O'Farrell. A story of what might have happened to "difficult" daughters in the Edwardian age and, taking the matter further, what might happen now with de-institutionalization. I found this a difficult read; you might like it better.

There are still a few leftovers, but maybe this next week's reading table will prove more interesting.

"Easter" rose

It's actually Helleborus orientalis -- Lenten Rose -- but it's Alleluia season, so I'll briefly rechristen this lovely plant.

I've had offices with worse views

In the backyard around the feeders and baths, these guys can be pretty bossy. On their own amid the darling buds of April, they're all right. Especially when they stay still long enough for me to grab a camera ;)

Pretty wild life in the back garden

At the nigella seed feeder, it's starting to look like mating season.

Monday Mix

• Journal and tea is a site with magnificent hand crafted journals and more. Go and delight your eyes.
• Easter eggs? How about making a photo-mosaic Easter egg? Another cute idea from Photojojo.
• Last week one of my new favorite garden blogs, Amateur Bot-ann-ist, had an entry about Shore Acres State Park on the southern Oregon coast. The photos and text are simply lovely.
• I am really enjoying working with Picturing Plants. It's like being able to peer over the shoulders of gardeners from centuries past. And you should see today's artist. I mean, you should see her. Wow.
• Yesterday I mentioned that the yellow-headed blackbirds are starting to reappear at the lake. The one I saw kept pace with our (slowly moving) car so I didn't get a photo, but here's Cornell's information and a darn good photo.

At the lake right now

According to my log, the birds are slow to return to the lake this year. We saw the first of the yellowheads today and, of course, the meadowlarks never left.

On the reading table (or tablet)

• My Father at 100, Ron Reagan. The Reagan children have interesting reputations, all, and it is hard to pick up a title by one of them without the reputation somehow preceding them. But if you pick up this book, try to set aside whatever you thought you knew about Ron Reagan and simply travel along on a journey of discovery with its roots in the 19th century. I admire the research and self-awareness that went into the writing of this book. And I am, as you probably know, a great admirer of President Reagan. After reading this book, I find more to admire in him as a man and much to admire about his son as a writer. I'm glad I picked it up.
• This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres and a Family Undone, by Melissa Coleman. This book looks unblinkingly at the cost to a family of a father's single-minded quest to go back to the land as a disciple of Helen and Scott Nearing. It isn't that the mother did not support the dream; it was that the cost of trying to keep a family, not merely the land, fell disproportionately on her, with tragic results. In a way, this is a cautionary tale that should be read by anyone who feels the lure of putting a cause before all else. It's going to cause a world of damage.
• Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden, by Emily Whaley in conversation with William Baldwin. As much as the previous title was about lives out of balance, this one is about life balanced mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Oh -- and some of it is about gardening. Fun and inspiring read, even for those of us in zone 5 who cannot know, except by way of this delightful book, the joys of zone 9.
• The shibumi strategy: a powerful way to create meaningful change by Matthew E. May. This brief fable suggests more than teaches strategies for responding to the seismic shifts life sometimes puts in our way. Simplicity, austerity, stillness... "Japanese" ideas in their labels, but mostly good concepts --these and more-- worth considering and incorporating in taking on change.

Good news from the lake

So the good news from the lake is that the pelicans are making a belated appearance. Sunday evening we saw two in the sky; today I saw two zooming around overhead and two in the water. Last year they showed up on March 21 and there were plenty more by now. I wonder if they've not heard that there will be no mass meetings on the lake this year.

The bad news is that the warm weather has brought out mobs of mosquitoes, mosquitoes that are the size of hummingbirds. Some birds are back, but not enough to balance things out.

On the reading table (or tablet)

Even more fluff than usual this week and that's about what I'm up for right now.

• Drawing Conclusions by Donna Leon is the latest in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series. It's a good mystery, not quite a cozy but not in the least blood curdling. I like this series a lot and wish only that this installment included more of the setting that has been so wonderfully evoked in other parts of the series.
• If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren't There More Happy People? compiled by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. This book of quotations is sorted by topic, which I enjoy. But its title seemed to promise a preponderance of funny quotations. I'm over considering sarcasm and irony to be funny, so I'm kind of over this book, too.
• Speaking of "over"... I'm Over All That by Shirley MacLaine is funny in some of the expected ways, but also actually amusing in the anecdotes she tells from a long career in show business. Some of this book was LOL funny.
• Standing in the Rainbow and Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg -- I read these in the wrong order, which usually drives me nuts, but in these happy and poignant novels I lost myself so much in each story that it didn't really matter. If you were my good friend and you were looking for something nice to read, I'd suggest these two books.

It seems that I read more and more on my iPad. It's convenient not only for reading, itself, but also for obtaining books. This past week, for instance, it was delightful to be able to download the Guido Brunetti book on the date of its publication. What I don't like is being unable to pass books along. The "loan" feature of Nook is really attractive; neither iPad nor Kindle have it.

Monday Mix: Springtime, etc

Trees beginning to leaf out is a sign of imminent wet, heavy snow where we live. Yesterday's little storm was just enough to flatten the iris reticulata that were already in bloom and the neighbor's daffodils. (The stiff, upright hyacinths that I've no use for in my garden came through just fine in his.) This kind of snow is an excellent harbinger of Spring.

• Look up your last frost date by zip code. (This works for U.S. only, I think.)
• Look up sunrise, sunset, dawn, and dusk times around the world.
• While thinking about the garden, I looked up an article on the tastiest tomatoes to grow.
• My little tumbler gadget in the backyard isn't working too well yet, so this article on basic composting caught my eye.
• Finally I've begun posting old images of birds at Picturing Birds. There are some cool ones scheduled, but the ones already up are okay, too. I especially like the b&w of the kingfishers.

On the reading table (or tablet)

• Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Food and Recipes by Harold McGee is a treasure, straight up. Both knowledge and wisdom are served up in liberal measure. And I found an implicit solution to a problem of cooking pasta at altitude (it takes forever): soak it for an hour! Maybe everybody else up here already knows this.
• The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton. When I was 13 years old, I read the Reader's Digest Condensed Version on a cross-county road trip. What a great thing that the book has come out again. With its great sweep across the first 50 years of the 20th century, it's a real family saga. The novel is full of beautiful language and promises, from the outset, to break the reader's heart. I loved it, again, and highly recommend it.
• I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg. From the author of Fried Green Tomatoes, a novel that is hilarious and wraps up like a fairy tale. OK, so it's a little cheesy... And your point is?
• Who knows why, but my head was deep into chick lit this week. Of these three titles, the only one I might recommend as an airplane book is The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. The father of the family insists on speaking in quotations from Shakespeare and it's a sweet story. The Island Elin Hinderbrand starts with pages and pages of language so wooden that you'll swear that you can write a novel but has some entertaining characters. Promises to Keep by Jane Green takes about 150 pages to get a thin story line going. So, in order: "OK", "eh", and "I warned you." Got that? ;-)

Computers Are Your Future

Toddling around looking for botanical art books, for some reason I ran across a textbook:

Computers Are Your Future provides extensive technology reference without being overwhelming.

Well, good, I guess.