First Day of Spring

First day of spring and it's flash flood time. Let's harken back to Sunday at the arboretum - cloudy, breezy, and festive. Discovered this little nook, tucked off the DeGolyer home entrance. Quite cozy.

You're worried about how you're going to feel at the end of your life? What about right now? Live. Right this minute. That's where the joy's at - Abigail Thomas, writer.

learn flower names
bask in bountiful purple
snapdragon sway

My happiness is not the means to an end. It is the end. - Ayn Rand, author

To be quite oneself one must first waste a little time - Elizabeth Bowen, author

Super Snow Bowl

It could be rain, It could be snow, Weathermen never know - Willard Scott/NBC Today Show 11/27/95

The weathermen actually did get it right this week in Dallas-Ft.Worth. Ice on Tuesday, temperatures in the teens Wednesday and Thursday, then snow up to three inches or more accumulation on Friday. Bingo! All plows all the time on any Road to the Super Bowl - Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Our visitors from Pittsburgh and Green Bay must regret packing shorts, sunscreen, and a swimsuit. Hopefully, they brought an ice scraper for their car rental.

Some are weatherwise, some are otherwise - Ben Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac, December 1735.

Nature is always serious - does not jest with us Ralph Waldo Emerson 1883

Nature, as we know her, is no saint - Ralph Waldo Emerson 1844

Day Four. Cabin Fever. To heck with writing poems about the ice, snow, lovely flakes falling so delicately - Joanne Faries

766 pages of Wow

Mr. Cronin has had superb buzz on his book The Passage, and rightly so. I read rave reviews in Entertainment Weekly, the Dallas Morning News, and the Wall Street Journal, plus Stephen King has the book listed in his summer must reads.

I jumped on the bandwagon, just finished all 766 pages, and I have to say I did not skim, jump ahead, or get bored. I finished it last night with an out loud, "Wow!" and told my husband, Ray, he would love it.

The book blurb says, "It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die. Another to be born." Yikes! Indeed, I don't want to give anything away, but there's an expedition in the jungles of Bolivia that might prolong life. Then again, could be trouble. There's a military experiment that might have gone a teensy bit off track. Uh-oh. There's action, chases, a few treks, and some memorable characters along the way.

And then there's his first sentence, which ropes you in, intrigues, and introduces you to a compelling character who holds the key to everything: Before she became the Girl from Nowhere - the One Who Walked In, the First and Last and Only, who lived a thousand years - she was just a little girl in Iowa, named Amy. Amy Harper Bellafonte.

The Passage is a saga - there's love, fear, doubt, recrimination, and exaltation. Births and deaths abound. There are some scary creatures, and sometimes they are human, or part-human, or part of a dream. This book is enthralling and the writing is damn clean. Descriptions, dialogue, character development - check, check, check.

Trust me. If you really love a great story, this is your must read summer immersion.

Travel Treats

Had an excellent week in PA to visit my father, enjoy Easter, and embrace spring. The time flew - walks, laughs sitting at the kitchen table, and hours spent with friends and family. All too soon, Dad dropped me at the airport for the return flight and the reality bell gonged. One hour delay. Vacation was OVER.
That was all right. I still had images in my head of fun times and good meals. The flowering trees inspired me to scribble some haiku (still tweaking them, David (my brother) ) and despite the annoyances of travel, there is a positive: permission to purchase magazines, books, and tic-tacs at the airport newstand. AT FULL PRICE. Hey, I'm captive, I'm delayed, and in theory, I was desperate.
I had mismanaged my reading during the week. Jeffrey Deaver's An Empty Chair proved riveting so rather than pace myself, I greedily finished it without a backup plan. Oops - hence the need to purchase reading material in case I was trapped at the Philly airport for days. True readers understand - at home I have a stack of books at the ready. I just didn't pack them.
An abundance. A plethora of print presented itself and I chose the latest Vanity Fair with Grace Kelly on the cover (her memory lives on in To Catch a Thief and Rear Window - yummy movies), a National Geographic Travel magazine featuring Italy's Amalfi Coast (hey, I might want to go there instead of back to DFW), and the book Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (haven't seen the movie, but he's a great writer. How did I miss this one at the library?). Thus the return flight was painless. I could escape (except during thirty minutes of turbulence - can't read or write when we're bumping along) into others' words. Travel treats are worth every penny. When's my next trip?



Note - Pictures from the University of PA - Morris Arboretum. Glorious place to wander.

Mad for March

March is Madness. Chance of flurries today and I planned to enjoy the arboretum with friends. Instead this picture from 2/11/10 sums up the day. I shall have to keep highlighting my bracket wins over Ray, as we watch NCAA basketball.

"Hoop Dreams", "Hoosiers" - those are worthy basketball movies. I was trying to think of any basketball themed books? "Basketball Diaries" - but that was more drug themed if I remember correctly.

Instead, I have a selection of reading material as the sports commentators blather in the background. O - Oprah's magazine provides all that is worthy in the world of Oprah. I like that she features in-depth book reviews. Entertainment Weekly keeps me apprised of movies I probably won't see and another re-cap of Lost. Traditional Home magazine allows me to peer into other's snazzy spaces and garner fabulous gardening tips. Time magazine should arrive today and I can read if the world has ended. Wall Street Journal - I gloss through the economic lack of goodies to see if the world has ended. And finally, I'm almost finished with a book The Reliable Wife. It's been mildly entertaining. I like the main character, a woman who claims she's honest as she's poisoning her new husband with arsenic. It's not a deep book and can be read with basketball in the background.


Reading material - check, yellow highlighter - check, bracket pages - check, remote control - in Ray's hand - check.

Let the Madness continue.

There's a Reason for February

Gray sky bleeds through empty boughs. Rain drop blahs penetrate the soul. But there's a reason for February. Hibernation. There's absolutely nothing one can do but wallow in a sweatshirt, sip hot cocoa, and read. For those who say they don't have enough time to read - how many hours will you spend watching the Super Bowl, not to mention pre-Super events? I'm not saying you should skip the Super Bowl party. Believe me, my butt will be planted with a bowl of chips by my side. However, think about your allocation of time and then hallow out minutes or an hour in a week to read a book or magazine that appeals to you.

Have a book handy that you want to read, not one you think you should read. There's a difference. Quiet with no distractions is essential. I just finished The Likeness by Tana French. Fun exciting read and I ignored cooking, cleaning, and other duties that weren't going to go away to zoom to the conclusion. Whew!

February is a month to get entangled in an exciting story or twisted plot. Find a book that ensnares you. Revel in the wordplay. Love or hate characters. Be happy the groundhog saw his shadow and there's six more weeks of winter. Hide the rake. Shut the door on the vacuum.

Rejoice in reading. Up next for me - The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee