September musings

The weather changed this week. Having enjoyed an Indian Summer earlier in the month, much-needed rain began to fall. This week is forecast to be showery with some heavy rain. Thunder and lightning keep featuring in the forecast for a few days ahead, but then disappearing nearer the time. Electrical storms are fairly uncommon where we live.

Last week our usual routine changed with visitors for 3 days. Enjoyable walks in the local area with them used up some of my regular writing time. After they had gone home I spent a lazy weekend reading a book a day as well as getting out in the fresh air for a walk and to attend a church service.

This week two mornings have been given up to gardening – one to visit a garden centre and the second to plant the pansies and violas purchased the day before.

A low water-level in a beck

The reservoirs in this county are very low at present. The rain will help to refill them. It was surprising how high the water-level in the nearest beck had risen after a day and night of heavy rain. Previously it was at the lowest level I can remember.

A higher water-level at the same spot

I have recently been reading a book on my phone using BorrowBox. I found it interesting, but there was rather more technical detail than I required as a non-medical person. After renewing it twice and accidentally losing my place by an over-enthusiastic session of cached data-clearing, I have decided not to finish it. Had it been a physical book I might have flicked through to see whether there was anything else of interest in it.

The book was The Changing Mind: A neuroscientist’s guide to ageing well by Daniel Levitin. I found much of the early part interesting especially the references to music – the author is a musician as well as a scientist. It is really too long to read on a phone, so I am abandoning it.

If you find the photos with this post interesting, you may also like Sue’s words and pictures, my blog with pictures in every post.

Thank you for dropping by. Normal service will be resumed soon!

Free choice paint chip poem

Linda Kruschke’s paint chip poetry prompt this week left the choice open to us. I wrote a very clunky 20 line rhyme, which only had the merit of being factual. Then I decided to try haikus. My Grandma wasn’t a gardener, so didn’t have any hydrangeas, but I guess a little poetic licence is permissible!

Linda was busy coordinating a writing competition. She writes:

So today I’m just posting a few paint chips with no other details. It’s a free write week. Do with these three paint chips whatever you want.

The words and phrases you have at your disposal are stepping stone, grandma’s hydrangeas, and heirloom tomato.

Have some fun with this one, with no parameters to hold you back.

Spring thoughts

Plants are sprouting shoots.
Grandma’s hydrangeas were blue;
Our lace-caps are pink.

Heirloom tomato
Plants’ crop may be tastier
Than we remember.

Growing sunflowers
Is sometimes a stepping stone
To having bird seed.

What I read in August 2016

This is the latest in my series of posts about books I have read.  One way to find my earlier posts about books is to scroll down until the categories appear in the sidebar and click on Books.  Or click here.

August seems to have flashed past.  I have spent more time gardening, knitting, playing the piano and going for walks.  Although most of my regular group activities are suspended for the holidays, I have not read as many books as in recent months.

The first book I finished reading was a beautiful library book, which I found on a display to mark the 150^th anniversary of the birth of Beatrix Potter.  I have now returned it and am writing from memory.   Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life by Marta McDowell is a lovely book in sections. There is a section about Beatrix Potter’s life and one about visiting some gardens, which have strong connections with her.  There are many illustrations including her paintings of plants.  This is a very well-produced, readable book by an American author, who has produced a similar book about Emily Dickinson.  (Emily Dickinson’s Gardens.)

The other book I read in August was a historical novel.  The Maid of Buttermere by Melvyn Bragg  tells a story, which was something of a sensation in its time.  Buttermere is a small village (and lake) in the English Lake District.  The maid of Buttermere was the beautiful daughter of the innkeeper.  I have read other books by Melvyn Bragg and found it difficult to keep track of all the characters.  Although this book includes a list of characters as an appendix, it does not give any further details about them.   The book paints a picture of life in remote rural communities in the time of the Lake Poets.

It is a racy tale, which takes a while to develop, but then has elements of suspense and adventure, which kept me reading to the end.