Praying for a safe return.

There is always a lot I want to write about and something to get out.  My last post tells of the anxiety of salvaging everything of personal value from our family home, which my parents had to sell.  It needed facelifts my parents couldn’t afford.  Moving to an apartment is fine but my parents turned it into a desperate race.  From the point of view of getting money’s worth, I said my parents should have held a few garage sales over the years, which would have whittled down volume too.  I discovered recently, personal and loved things belonging to me in several places!  I would have happily taken charge of everything pertinent to me, if Mom had told me she had it.  She lost track of what she was storing for twenty and even as many as thirty-seven years, since we owned that house.  We figured out there were some boxes she didn’t open there, or I would have kept my belongings together.

I monitored the books, teddy bears, dolls, and items I knew about by the time I was ten….  Sometimes expunging what I outgrew, keeping what mattered.  I was stunned to rediscover others teddy bears and things that mattered!  Mom should have gone through things periodically, insteading of leaving me in a mad dash to find important things.  Ron & I, with help from one of our dearest friends, cleaned out handy household goods too.  Nothing was wasted but each of us three kids should have been given our personal effects decades ago, so that it was only geneal family items to sift through.  I’m summarizing how frenzied and time-consuming this was, especially with only cars to pack full per session and no truck, to explain why the push became daily, the final week the house was owned by my parents.

Whether my parents told my brother & sister-in-law we were working to remove what we needed, or it was obvious;  I was relieved to find them courteous when we eventually ran into each other.  I did what I needed in peace.  They were very fair in our short chat about a few items they didn’t mind us keeping and respectful too, by asking where in the house I was finished so they could take items to donate.  I said I was done with the basement and away they went.  We three and my sister-in-law had the same goal for my parents:  an uncluttered life in a place they could afford, meeting the needs of people their age.  It can merely be hard for history-keepers like me and non-wasting mindsets to work with those on a mission to discard what they can.  It worked out well that we pitched in at our individual convenience and there was no clashing when we met up.

In that week, I let my cats outside much less.  They are housecats who have the freedom to be out in our country surroundings each day;  forest smart but bonded with us and pampered.  I like them inside before dark and the rare time I’m not home.  Many neighbours let their cats out whether they’re home or not but I’m not comfortable with that.  Unfortunately, on the last day cleaning my family home, where took me 11 hours on July 13;  our boy Conan, did not come in before I left.  He was by our door at 2:30PM but I couldn’t find him after I bathed and reluctantly left at 3:30PM.  No doubt he was frustrated because they got a little jaunt each day, before I sifted for keepsakes and household items in the city.  I am a worry-wort with my kitties but was sure he would be back when Ron came home at 7:30PM.  Daylight hours our cats are always out.  What’s more, the risk is low of anything being amiss the sole time we were away 4 hours, compared people leaving their cats out daily.

We searched and listened for an injured kitty, although most often they can walk home and would do so if injured.  Our others would hear and find him even better than our searching, calling, and listening.  The fact that Conan has been away means he is on a trip by choice.  There is no reason to be near roads or people but we checked a wide perimeter of roads and alerted many neighours.  He is registered with four lost cat places and there are pictures posted locally.  The litterbox is out, which supposely lures cats home for a mile.  Predators cross through any forest but we find them rare here.  We are highly populated and there are a couple of cats who are outdoors here 24/7.  Conan doesn’t like heat, I was away a lot for a week when he is used to me being home-based, and the weather hasn’t stopped being +30C.  Ron feels when he wants to be home, or the weather stops being so darned enjoyable, or if he had a fight;  he’ll be home.

Of course human nature worries about the worst.  “What if the one time he was alone a few measely hours, a preditor came around in daylight”.  No way!  “What if someone has him in their house”.  Ron thinks our friendly cat would be wary of people when his mind is alert to being in the forest for awhile.  He certainly isn’t on vacation to be at someone else’s house but to be comfortable in the heat after being cooped up.  It isn’t like the city either, where people might believe it is safer to take in an unknown cat.  Ron & I come to the same conclusion about not being stuck in a house, with differing logic.  I feel the kind of people who bring in a cat would pay attention to the signs I put up, even if some people don’t think of checking with humane society-type places.  We will worry until Conan shows up at home.  We know our worst fear is not being with us again.  I call him every night and feel like crying, despite our thoroughly-discussed logic.  But I successfully fight to remind myself that it is possible to presume the best!  It allows me to enjoy our other cats, a few outings, our home and gardens and what makes summer nice.

In conclusion, however:  Ron & I believe the happy outcome is more likely!  Such few hours, daylight, the weather and….  Ron found a mouse at the library door the next morning.  I asked him what time he put the other cats away and it was still light, with him walking back & forth through that door.  I didn’t see one when I arrived home late that night either.  I wonder if Conan heard me sobbing and beseeching him to be safe, no more than an hour before and this was his message that he was alive and well.  It keeps pointing to him being on a walk by choice, even if he hadn’t taken off before.  Part of me is confused because this isn’t like him.  He loves to cuddle inside my arm every night when I read and insists on sleeping in our bed.  However either our environment is more dangerous than we think or our closeknit cat is more capable of roaming than we think.  Many people think any cat is willing to take a vacation is he got the chance and that they can be gone all summer without a problem.

I hope he’s home any day but have been asking friends to keep me boosted and encouraged, hanging on to faith.  I have also asked everyone to pray and use whatever positive energy they believe in, to protect Conan so that he comes home safely.  It is the only thing that matters and the rest of my days will be happy.  Bidding farewell to my family home was fine and the ascension date of Conan’s brother, Love, on July 31 was fine.  It is year three and I am at peace even with that.  I only ask that my present generation of cats be with me and well for long lives.  Ron & I have consulted God, angels, and worked physically to ensure this is so.  I send my love and gratitude to all of you who help too.  Love, Carolyn & Ron.

Always remembering her birthday.

Anyone who knows me at all, knows animals are equal to me and that my family cats are more important than anyone in the world.  They are real sons and daughters.  I am also well-known for caring about physical connections to places and keepsakes and dates, which I retain keenly.  Very different from fixating on wealth or acquiring things out of a need to spend, is respecting and recognizing why some objects, places, dates, and memories are cherished by us.  Thus,  one day after Canada day, I always remember Thumbelina Sandy’s birthday!  She was my childhood cat, like her Mom, Sandy but we were blessed with her much longer.

An emotionally-hard thing I am working through right now is the sudden need for my parents to leave our family home.  I wish it weren’t rushed and that they weren’t urged by my siblings & one wife ungently, to dispense with several possessions in a wave.  They should have gone through things over time and prepared for this.  But to be fair to my releatives, while not approving of the demeanour, it came to my understanding that my parents left things so long;  they had to move this summer.  They hoped to find a way to keep their house.  Unrelated to that, they refused to let me have garage sales each year that I offered.  There was a need to clean-up anyway.  This sibling & his wife have practically carried my parents through all the steps and probably don’t enjoy that.  The other brother came from out-of-town for a whirwind week and has been supportive by phone.  My spouse & I help as much as we can in numerous ways and are going there again today.  My parents were so nervous about opening their yard to a garage sale in the past but had they listened, could have cleaned without panic and made a few dollars.  We will all enjoy their new apartment.  I’m not against them downsizing and recognize they can’t afford to renovate and upkeep a city house.  What feels awful is the way this is so hastily occurring.  Suddenly it’s time for a good-bye.  My long-distance brother already had his and asked for a picture of the house with our cottonwood tree showing happily from behind it.

Most people wish their parents and descendents can go on living there so we can keep visiting it. I have been out of there a long time and know our belongings feel more like home than the rooms without them.  Ron & I, for instance, tackled the attic and brought home most of the toys that were stored there for 30 years.  These were things that mattered, as well as a few belonings from other places, like my doll crib.  When I was little and Sandy was a baby, she slept in it like a baby and so did her predecessor, Candy, who lived too briefly.  Thus I was desperate to get my crib safely to my adult home and I did.  I have taken care of most of my belongings since I was small.  My parents stored a few items I was unaware of.  It has been nice seeing all of the doll faces, toys, and unexpected books again.

For me the landscape of our house and yard is what looks and feels like home.  Especially with my dear, favourite cottonwood tree. It might be at least 800 years old and has a triple trunk! It is very tall, comforting, and positive. I feel it has always protected us and while the inside began to feel suffocating with clutter, the outside always feels great. I will add photographs to this writing later.  I’ve snapped some recently but fortunately have many from the thirty-seven years this has been our family home.  I prefer that pictures not be of someone else’s, or an emptied home but it’s nice to know we can drive by and still see our place occasionally.  Mom’s heart is in the frontyard where she constantly added small trees, flowers, which wonderfully gave them privacy and shade on a city street. I took photos of them for her.  Not least, is our 21 year-old cat and one of the love’s of my life: Thumbelina Sandy. Her resting place is in the backyard.  I only have two more weeks to drop in a couple more times and see it.

Her spirit is with me of course but sharing this isn’t about what I can still do. Sharing this is dealing with what I am reluctantly parting from. She’s been physically gone since July 21, 2003 so I can do this but will certainly miss our very alive cottonwood tree too. Thumbelina was born July 2, 1982!  I can and will bring flowers to her resting place today.  Ron & I will help Mom pack up what she still needs to do and I’m sure we’ll all enjoy the new place. This is about the difficulty of leaving the original one.

Today is her birthday! Happy birthday to you, my dearest girl!  We really do remember our most cherished loved ones always.  Her birth, at our home, was a very happy one.  Thank you for reading this.
Yours from the heart, Carolyn.

No time period excuses any behaviour.

Just as I am in awe of Chuck Berry, as the pioneer of rock and pop music I have loved, I sample mystery classics.  If not for demanding its own writing criteria, like ensuring scenes apply to the plot and move it along;  it is almost as broad as the fiction category.  I really have to be entertained by literature that has no spirit encounters or genuinely mysterious puzzles!  I grew up on gothic mysteries so old, I never sought addresses to contact my favourite authors because I imagined they must be deceased!  I joked to Ron that a 2000 release was new for me.  Mysteries that drum-up their plots from a crime, when there are so many more creative puzzles in the world, are my least favourite and least of all;  police crime-solving.  I at least want an everyday heroine to solve it but since few authors utilize true mysteriousness;  those blueprints are prevalent.  I wanted to give a pioneer like Ellery Queen a try.  Goodness knows I collected twenty-five of these novels, before opening “The Roman Hat Mystery“.

It took me eight days to finish it today because I hated it.  However rare for me, I issued it one star!  My review can speak for itself, under my menu up top, called “Reviews – Mine“.  Another tab singles out Canadian authors.  I have not always swooned over a supposed classic but we have estalished it’s nothing to do with lacking appreciation for bygone eras.  What surprised me this afternoon was that my low rating was in the minority.  It reminds me of people who think everyone must love The Beatles.  I don’t!  Did they contribute memorably to their field?  Yes indeed and even Ellery Queen created a magazine that lasted decades.  Unfortunately I loathed their writing style.  I could hardly bear to get through the novel and will sell their remaining novels without going through it again.  I am sure any reader sees for herself that no matter how creative a plot, or however interesting any subject, even if it should be up our alley;  it comes to nothing if we can’t stand how it’s written.

It was also boring, when I wasn’t shrieking over awfully-chosen adjectives and adverbs.  The novel comprises speeches and takes 90 pages to leave the first location!  It seriously felt as if I were sitting through the Roman Theatre’s interrogation in real time;  stuck with the detained audience and cast!  A few reviewers doling out two stars, agreed it was boring, lecturesome, and racist.  This is the subject of the discussion I offer.  My largest shock, glancing at other write-ups, is that because this came out in 1929….  nearly everyone thought it was okay or “expected”!!!!  Ladies and gentlemen:  degrading behaviour and attitudes are never okay!  There is no year in time that excuses it!

One woman’s review rebuked editing books for politically-decent content, saying we should depicts periods as they were.  Was every person across time prejudist?  I submit that it was never the majority at all.  Negative news gets the front page and dictates history books.  The rebuked low ratings in the context of a book’s time period.  As someone who frequently champions those points, politely, I would agree;  if she had not missed the boat on her intentions.  Sure, it would be prepostrous to replace letter mail with computers and parasols with Iphones;  on the notion that youngsters would relate to a story better.  I advocate time snapshots.  I loved the legitmate 1929 flair;  prohibition, the idea of theatre when there was no television, the titular tophats.  If a book depecited separate washrooms for blacks in the United States;  well, that was a fact.  Outdated words, not deemed unkind at the time, can be overlooked.  No ill will was intended by the descriptors “indian” or “coloured”.

Prejudism means thinking of someone as inferior.  It is wholly different from words or customs that are today considered gauche.  See the difference?  The idea that rejecting or giving low grades to in reaction to prejudism, is unfair to a 1929 novel, is false.  My principal message is that racism does not and never has, represented any era of time!  Racist actions occurred if racist people had governing positions and thus, passed abominable laws.  If we think of Jews ostracized, imprisoned, or killed in the second world war:  no one would dare say:  “Oh, that was all right for the 1940s”.  If we think of women murdered in the 1700s over the absurd accusation of witchcraft (an actual Wicca gave a helping hand when I was at my lowest):  do we say  “Oh well, those were just the times”?  No!  Mistreatment is mistreatment and a year never excuses it.

One of Gabrielle Roy’s humourous short stories is about two housewives fighting to be first on their street to board a black gentleman!  “Street Of Riches” is from 1955 (see either of my blog’s review tabs).  One of Phyllis A. Whitney’s civil war epics, “Step To The Music” is from 1953 and this great lady was born in 1903.  She is a relic of old attitudes.  Well then, what was hers?  The story contains a scene in which a respected black woman is afraid to dismount a Long Island ferry and asks the protagonist’s family, high class no less, to escort her home.  They help her unhesitatingly.  I don’t buy into the idea that Richard Queen grabbing a Turkish ward’s neck and calling black ancestry “a bad break”, is a sign of those times.  You must know of animal and human rights defenders, or just plain moral people, of older eras.

I do not believe that bad behaviour receiving publicity over history, is representative of most of us!  We don’t hear enough stories, except in Hollywood films, about people who opposed racism, no matter if it was silently or stoutly.  There have also always been people who adored and respected animals, so I don’t buy the “old way of thinking” crap about that either.  Some people still dismiss animals and other races as expendible and inferior (let canaries and Chinese citizens check the safety of mines).  Contrarily, I have an anthology of poetry dating hundreds of years, dedicated to people’s love of household animals.  I add this because in Ellery Queen’s novel, a very inappropriate joke was made about vivisection!  And a rabbit was sacrificed to test poison;  casually!  As if she or he were an disposable object.

There is no failure to appreciate any epoch, which assuredly comprised fine people and customs, when I refuse to accept or overlook prejudism.  Opposition through negative feedback is not akin to wanting horses & buggies out of literature of the 1800s.  So too, off-colour titles like Agatha Christie’s.  Politically-incorrect expressions do factually represent the jargon of olden days.  Low regard of a person or animal?  That never represents the best, nor majority of us;  time period be damned.  It is a personal attitude and SHOULD be graded for what it is:  unacceptable.

Amazon Change Might Be All Right.

Where do you buy physical books?  If you appreciate the real objects versus reading the contents any old way;  the best way to afford as many as we have is to seek far and wide for second-hand deals!  This is true of anything, isn’t it?  We plant a lot of garden foods and every variety of flowers Manitoba can handle, so we can’t be paying $2.00 each for seed packs.  We find deals and stock up.  There are a few places we drive out-of-town and my spouse, Ron & I certainly know the Winnipeg second-hand book circuit.  These and charity sales bring us the greatest success;  list-wise and bargain-wise!

We search thrift shops and garage sales too but the odds of them furnishing something on our lists is slow business and many garage sales, to our surprise, don’t have books.  Nothing other than children’s books or romances anyway.  Garage sellers:  if you sell adult fiction, please advertize!  It is a waste of time to trail after a sign, stop the car, only to see that there are no books at all.  Although we remain polite, fortunately we are assertive enough with our time to briskly thank hosts for a look and stride away.  Bored sellers are chatty and as much as we love meeting people, we need to march on in the few hours most of these places offer.

Due to endless selection, even though this option is the most expensive, I have bought second-hand at Amazon Canada more than anywhere else.  Presumably to avoid fees, many “marketplace sellers” list books for one penny and for Canada, $6.49 is added in shipping.  I would not pay more than $6.50 for used books, certainly not in poorer condition than “very good” and “like new”.  Second-hand shops in person are prefereable so long as they keep their prices beneath $6.50.  Otherwise my mantra was:  “I might as well get it from Amazon”.  Occasionally, books I wanted a great deal that did not seem to go for a penny;  I treated myself to new.  When spending $35.00 in new stock, Amazon Canada ships for free.  Otherwise $6.50 can get us 4 books for an even $26.00 gift certificate.  There you have my book-pricing gauge.

I went to buy the last book I need by Simone St. James last night, because a seller had a “very good” copy for a penny.  I watch my wish list every day and pounce on those $6.50 “like new” deals.  There are fantastic sellers like ‘Your Online Bookstore’, ‘Canwest Books’, ‘Motor City Books’, and ‘Better World Books’ whose idea of “very good” usually amounts to “like new”.  We need a way to score several without incurring $6.49 each.  Canwest Books sells privately if you obtain the wonderful lady’s e-mail address.  Since e-mail addresses are blocked through Amazon, sellers are wise to enclose them with purchases.  I like the savings from bulk purchases through reputable sellers.  Goodness knows we need to save all the bucks we can.

I did not buy the Simone St. James novel because an $8.26 total stopped me in my tracks.  What on Earth was this?  The Amazon website said nothing but in a search, I saw a sellers’ thread about a change that was made just on May 1, 2017.  The set $6.49 and $3.49 shipping for books and music is no more!  Sellers can make their own shipping prices!  If you did not know, I want to clue you in.

I have observed what sellers were making of this, before I panicked or reported this article.  If a person were greedy, or understandably wanted better coverage for postage that might indeed cost $8.00;  wouldn’t the outcome be raised postage?  My first reaction was dismay.  If second-hand books were higher than $6.50, it would not be worth obtaining them from Amazon any longer.  With respect to what postage costs the other end, there is a line a person who might buy 200 books a year, has to draw.  Any higher and I’d rather wait out second-hand shops, or spend buy products new.  Thankfully, a look at books I want on Amazon.ca is encouraging!  I read an inkling in the seller’s forum along these lines too:  there are sellers who want to remain at $6.49.  This is what the marketplace offerings show today.

Other sellers have taken an even better tack, albeit not for .1c books, and used Amazon’s change to offer free shipping!  However the books I’ve seen so far are priced at $10.00:  too expensive and not even if great shape.  If marketplace sources would charge no more than, let’s say, $5.00 for books;  not only would this be an opportunity rather than a blow.  It would become feasible to purchase several books at a time, which I would not do at $6.50 each!  Since the change includes taking a percentage of seller’s postage, which thankfully prevents exorbitance (as well as lining Amazon’s pockets), one would think there is no point to high postage.

 How much do you think is too much?  The mathematically-inclined might ponder gas spent on our treks but should know that we seldom score fewer than 30 books on our outings.  (Except at garage sales.  People really need to bring out the mystery and paranormal literature)!  We are beginning to offer books at home for local people, many bought new which we aren’t keeping, for an average of $3.00.  I guess people who don’t purchase books as often as our WordPress and Goodreads community, aren’t aware that used books have been $6.50 a pop and new ones can be $20.00.  I don’t dare charge more than $4.50 unless it is a first edition and I’m keeping our fantastic collection for locals.  Southern Manitobans, write-in if you’re curious about what we have!  :)

This price change is new and sellers must be testing the waters for feedback!  Let’s send them the right message right away:  that we are glad of an opportunity to do better than a fixed $6.49 each but that we definitely will not exeed it.  How?  Easily.  Look-up a book from your wish list that appears to be at a low price, in the used link beneath the new price.  Scan the list of marketplace sellers and take note of who is exempting shipping, offering low shipping, or at least sticking with $6.49.  (Of course, less at Amazon.com in the United States).  Click on the marketplace name and then select “contact the seller”.

Tell fair sellers you appreciate their affordability.  Contact those who raised the price, politely informing them that you will not go higher for second-hand books, music, or blu-rays.  Suggest that if they provide free shipping and charge up to $5.00 per book:  that you are not only likelier to patronize them but that you might start purchasing multiple items, if they use Amazon’s shipping change for the better.

Where to buy music albums nowadays!

How do you play music at home?  It’s great to have a little Ipod when you’re on a bus or plane, to tune out the random public, or brighten your commute.  Anyone can play music on a PC but that is a room away from visiting guests.  When you have company for supper, or a party:  do you have a stereo in your livingroom?  Or allow me to pose this another way:  do you like collecting music?

Ron & I have not yet created space for a record player and our cassette decks no longer work.  The best for our small house would be a unit with its own speakers, which can turn rare material among our records and cassettes into MP3s and run an Ipod too.  I presume these units must have USB ports for removing music one has converted.  I love making music CDs from the best songs of albums I own.  I carve out fantastic dancing moods that a long list of Ipod tracks would not accomplish, like 22-song CDs would.  The way I tailor them gets me exhilerated enough to dance around our house and to waltz with a few of our cats!

Having factory albums in hand is, you might be surprised, more important to us than physical books.  We’re likelier to give books away we aren’t excited about.  Music-shopping seems to be rarer but on those days, the selections we make feel much more like a personal, permanent purchase, isn’t it?  For practicality, songs can downloaded or heard on TV and radio.  We know we’re fans of a few songs at least and that sparks our album purchases.  Did you buy 45s or cassette singles as children?  I did!  I found no thrill in cassette singles and their pricing was never worth it, so I only have a few of those but along with LP records, 45s are my greatest collection.  The way I used to decide “album versus 45” was this:  if I loved three songs on the same album, I bought the album.  If I only loved a couple of tracks, presuming this was not “a completionist” music artist for me;  the 45s would do.

From another tack:  Ron is not comfortable buying on-line and neither of our parents have a way to do it, come Christmas.  So a place to choose something for my birthday of Jesus’s, from my well-varied wish list, has closed.  We were sorry that HMV music stores closed all across Canada last month!  I started my record collection as a child, switching to tapes when records stopped being produced for a long time around 1990, and eventually getting into compact discs, which we still enjoy.  I remember having a plethora of literal “record stores” for new stock, from which to choose:  A&A Records & Tapes, The Record Baron….  I seldom have occasion to travel but those tiems I have been in Toronto, Ontario:  one of my biggest treats was always perusing the huge, head office HMV store on Yonge Street!

It is one thing for Winnipeg’s three or four branches to be gone.  However I have to say, I never shopped in there, even while their stock was dwindling this year, without about 20 people squeezing by me, saying “Excuse me”!  Every browse down their aisle was always a densely-navigated stampede!  How could they not have been doing a thriving business?  However what shocks and disappoints me the most, is the thought of that huge, three-storey store no longer being at Eaton’s Place Centre in Toronto.  A huge, exciting place like that;  with not only rows, but FLOORS of music and things that our city didn’t carry!  To any record shop employees of any kind around the world reading this:  I appreciate you and my family and friends patronized you!  I told employees on my final two shopping trips to HMV, where I scored blu-rays and music at $3.00 each, that many love having a place to buy real copies of music.  Most thanked me for saying my family is not among those creating demographics that suggest our world doesn’t need music stores.

Future Shop is gone, who had a fantastic selection.  Best Buy cut their music department and Ron noticed on birthday shopping trips for me, no longer have a great blu-ray & DVD department. There might be one supplier of new releases in Winnipeg, otherwise we’ll have to hope used shops have a good selection.  For new music most notably and blu-rays, since Wal-Mart’s selection is tiny, this leaves Amazon Canada.  I will try to get my spouse comfortable using it but it is useless to people like our parents, without internet, or sufficient computer know-how.  Last night I was dealt a blow by Amazon too, in the used department, called “marketplace sellers”.  Please watch for my article about how to give feedback to second-hand sellers, who aren’t pleased with some major shipping changes either.

A cute story about a very special trip to California when I was a teenager:  it was 1992 and stores no longer sold records in my city.  I am sure I danced, when my host’s little brother took me around town and we spotted a music store….  full of LP records, 12″ singles, and 45s!!!!  New ones, in plastic!!!!  I dove into those bins so long, probably for a couple of hours (it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance after all), that staff brought me a catalogue and a box.  I worried customs would be a problem and emptied my suitcase of anything that didn’t need to stay with me;  mailing home rolls of film and even laundry!  My parents appreciated the postcard.  {Wry shrug!}  I don’t believe the charge was very much and stored my prizes on the plane with me.  Customs and airlines were kind 25 years ago.  Besides, a place that still sold NEW RECORDS was a wonderland!  I did not pass it up.

Music sources for Winnipeg and our environs!

The last employee, so friendly seven though they were losing their jobs, said Sunrise Records might replace HMV!  I believe this is a second-hand store but that is all right.

I would like to plug to the wonderful discovery of a great record store in Steinbach!  What a surprise to find such a thing in the infamous “closed on Sundays” town.

A favourite CD and record shop I loved when I lived near Grant Park mall in Winnipeg, still has the same very likeable manager.  It feels good to visit our old neighbourhoods, doesn’t it?  Especially when our country life is far from the ones we led in those great urban places.

My old neighbourhood where I lived with my twenty year-old kitty, before we rented a dwelling with Ron….  the always colourful Osbourne Village!  There is certainly used music there.  All of these places are where we can buy music.  Perhaps the interval will be brief for newer releases.

Manitoba’s April Magic!

We are already seeing our way through the magical month of April.  Although I call my birthday month, November, magical because I feel like it belongs to me and powerfully marks when I was born:  March and April in Manitoba are diverse in a way you couldn’t believe if you didn’t visit or live here.  The proverb about March is:  “In like a lamb, out like a lion” or the reverse and I can tell you that it is true!  If it starts out warm, even with snow melting; temperatures dip later.  Spring and summer enthusiasts hope for the reverse.

I love warm weather and am a garden-lover but wildlife-lovers appreciate and treasure all months.  There are birds and tableaux we only see in winter and we have to say, a reduction in neighbour’s dogs and kids being out.  We value quiet.  Rain and any inclement weather protects us similarly, freeing us to open windows, be outside, and read in peace.  We believe our neighbour is convinced to finally try anti-bark training collars so we are never blasted again, when we chat aloud and step out our doors.

April has the final word on the metamorphosis of our seasons, capable of surprising us even more.  We awaken to different sketches of the landscapes of our home every day!  We have hit +20C, which is already summer weather and I have indeed sat in the sun wearing shorts.  Pine siskens are still with us and purple finches and juncos were only away briefly.  The robins and black birds are back too, perennial flowerbed plants have been growing, the grass was well on its way to being green.  Our earliest three kinds of frogs have been singing strongly right until last night: wood frogs, peepers, and Borealis chorus frogs.  Today?  Have a look at this beautiful, graceful surprise and sparkling energy.  One more time, the birds, cats, and I can play and delight in this very special blanket.

 

A north east view of what is a back yard to us, from the east door of our house.

 

You are seeing a dry, budding Manitoba receive 30 centimetres of snow in one day!  This is the magic and surprise of April’s final word on winter changing to spring.  How does it look where you live today?  Share a link to small or medium phographs (this is slow-speed internet).  Explain the climate and geography of your home! I am in Southern Manitoba, in central Canada but also called Western Canada or the prairies.  Prairieland and marshland abound, even in our cities but there is lots of forestland too and that is where I live.  Our hardiness zone for gardening is 3, which means we dare not plant gardens before mid-May but we go ahead with cool weather or early-blooming vegetables, like peas, the first week.

 

North:  space between our house and library, which is west of our house and front door.

 

In the country and in the forest, there is always a beautiful animal to welcome and a beautiful scene to see.  We keep our property free of a junk-looking environmen that we see elsewhere.  We established one place for piling and storing things out-of-doors.  It is behind our second building, our workshop & library.  You see no clutter unless you walk up to our one storage zone.  We’re striving to eventually say the same about our small house but all around us outside, I am so proud and inspired by how free and natural it stays.

This week is Earth day and this spring, Ron & I will again plant extra flowers to help strengthen our province’s colonies of bees.  Gladdening your heart and helping little creatures has a much more powerful purpose than smelling and looking lovely.  Any of your own love and colour that you add to the world, even in pots that you can set upon doorsteps or apartment balconies;  matters a great deal.

In apartment life before we left the city, Ron & I took tremendous pleasure in leaving a tin pie plate full of birdseed for the house sparrows common to cities and our two elder cats, who have moved with us, were thrilled to see them too.  Give city kitties something to look at and don’t worry about them catching birds if you let them rush outside to the balcony.  Sparrows are fast!  :)  I visited and brought as much nature as we could to our city life and am thrilled to be where nature densely lives now.  I would love to hear about the nature you protect and boost around your homes.

I am loving this weather today and the junkos and other birds seem to be playing around in it delightedly.  Our six cats are sticking indoors!  Go figure:  they were born and raised in this province as much as us and our eldest is a snowshoe Siamese, no less!  McCartney is hanging out with me and peeking at the door with me frequently while I take pictures and enjoy the view.  Our sixteen year-old always has been our most playful kitty, although I did encourage Spirit, Marigold, and Petal to relax in our library building;  which meant walking down our snowy sidewalk.  Happy spring, whatever it’s stage at your place!

Etiquette Of Carrying Our Cell Phones!

When I began to find it uncomfortable that friends were consulting their gadgets, even if it was to show a picture, or look up trivia….  I thought carefully about why.  They are very good about establishing a new courtesy after I proposed shutting phones off in our time together and perhaps your friends and family will be too.  It is handy to look up trivia but with an addiction at hand, we mustn’t justify reasons to keep brandishing cell phones.  I figured out whence my concern derives.  If we do not establish a fresh etiquette for technology;  people would consult them all of the time and there would be no more visits with just PEOPLE.  If this is a habit you started: here is an easy way to clarify the faux-pas.  What do you suppose second-hand communication modes are for?

A letter, mail, a phone call, electronic mail…. secondary, remote communication takes the place of a visit you can’t have in person!  A way to get messages to one another when you can’t talk in person.  To keep in touch until you can be together.  If you can’t attend an occasion, you mail a card in place of bringing one to the party.  We love and care for a variety of people and enjoy milder acquaintaces too. We only live with a few of them. The remainder, who do not rise and retire in the same home, arrange time to be together. That is what a visit is!  If you mess around with an Iphone when you have the blessing of someone setting aside personal time to be with you:  it defeats it’s purpose! Secondary communication modes are meant to close gaps and make do, until you can be together with someone in the same place…. therefore put them away when you are indeed with a person!!!!

If you left children with a babysitter or if a relative were unwell, certainly that is different. It unfortunately still takes your attention away from the group but there is nothing rude about it You will feel relieved and better fit to visit when an awaited call is dispensed with, no call from a babysitter after a couple of hours is a good sign. If there is a way you can arrange with your relative or babysitter to contact you in one particular way, perhaps by calling, and turn off the sound or applications of the other communication modes; then those superfluous modes won’t be a factor. If you think it would be easier and faster: phone the babysitter or relative and verify that things are all right.

Another way to make the distinction easy between right and wrong, is to ask how we did things before cell phones carried e-mail and text messages with them; made our home offices portable?  I would check e-mail and phone messages, if I wanted to, when I got home!  If I were anticipating a call or message that was on our minds, or if we were with people for hours:  I might ask to check my answering machine or e-mail.  One session:  not randomly monitoring whatever might be incoming!  Because the people phoning, e-mailing, text messaging don’t know you are with friends and because the nature of today’s cell phones mean you carry your home office with you:  you have to turn them off!  To keep the connection open to beep the arrival of any message or call that rolls in, interrupts the people you are with and pulls you out of the present.  If your eye or ear flickers to your gadget every time something rolls in, or you actually have the nerve to answer the phone;  you aren’t giving your companions the attention they deserve.  You are depriving yourself of throwing your spirit into it.  Do you know people who are terrible at remembering detail?  This is why!  They have never focused on anthing wholly enough to absorb it.

There’s something else you might relate to. A visit at someone’s home is the most personal kind there can be. You experience their milieu, their world, along with them. I occasionally bring some of my cats with me largely, pets are only seen at their home and because they are family for many of us, we want our visitors to delight in them. Think of the decor of your home too. You put care into what you collect and they way your environment is displayed: an atmosphere you would like guests to soak in while they are there and enjoy. I would like our guests to roam around if we have left the room, or during a lull and take a close look at our many books, music albums, and blu-rays. How are our plants looking? How about those pictures on the walls? I would be as disappointed and uncomfortable to find guests bending over the gadgets after we have stepped out of the room, that they will be taking home with them. Why should they want to rip themselves away from the relaxation and joy our environment might give to them?

It also gives the impression that they are so focused on their devices, as if addicted, that they couldn’t wait to snatch a chance to look and were glad we left the room.  Simply put:  do you need to look for messages now?  Can you not contain yourself until you are home?  Why aren’t you more interested in our visit?  If your friends notice changes in your decor when they return and clearly made the most out of their previous visit by having paid attention; it is most rewarding and brings you closer. There’s nothing so special as friends and family who have spent enough personal time with us, to notice changes in our decor or personal collections. Our pets will welcome them back too when they have bonded.

What is the goal of this article? To help you have this conversation with your visitors, as easily as forwarding this to them if you would like. You see, we need to collaborate together and establish a new etiquette because there is none for technology that brings your e-mail, text messages, and your phone calls along with you. Two women who believe in giving their full attention to the present and respect to their personal time, Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres, frequently shared that they were very late getting involved with cell phones or text messaging. Matthew McConaghy said in an interview with Ellen that his home does not even have an answering machine paired with their land line telephone. Just like the good old days, it rings and if no one is there, it ends there. If you catch them at home, then indeed they will answer the phone.

I carry a cell phone when I’m out, an old one that has no internet and which is not ideal for text messages, mainly in case of emergency and of course for convenience.  If I’d like to let someone know I’m in the city and might wish to visit, I can call them.  If I can’t find their house, I can clarify directions.  If I can’t find Ron at the mall, I ask where he is.  Here, cell phones serve their puproses well.  Interrupting time you have set aside to spend with someone, they defeat their purpose and rob your focus.  But we need to shake people into awareness of this.  They certainly aren’t meaning to be rude and will be glad to have new modern rules.

How about protecting our alone time?  Talk show hostess, Ayisha Taylor, admits she can’t bear not to monitor her Iphone.  Putting it away doesn’t work.  But if such a person set aside particular periods when she can consult her Iphone as much as she would like and periods when the pull of external forces is turned off, it WOULD work.  You aren’t separated from your messages.  You are choosing sessions for attending to them, instead of allowing your life to be interrupted at random.  If I am sharing a special moment with my cats, when we are all in the sun at a window and I am reading;  I unplug our main phone and have my cell in the drawer of a different room.  In other words, nothing rings through and disturbs that sacred hour or more.  My am satisfied that my cell phone will record messages and I can go on-line for e-mail later.

Candidly:  I believe it is an uncreative person who can’t relish spare moments, apart from pecking through electronic devices.  Walk, watch a film, clean a room, plant seeds in flowerpots, cuddle your pets without any distractions!  I remember an episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond” in which Debra Barone lands a marketing job in New York City and is excited about a long train commute from Long Island.  (You see what I mean about a sharply-focused memory!  I saw this years ago).  She said:  “I have the gift of time!  I can actually read!”  Even aside from visiting courtesy, I believe it maintains an underestimated element of health to clear a few hours for ourselves, in which messages don’t jangle us.  We will go to them when we wish to.

Some etiquette is so well-engrained, like not punching anyone;  it scarcely needs to be taught.  More detailed etiquette, our parents and teachers instill.  Flushing toilets and washing hands at every use….  these seem like no-brainers but we have trained our behaviour for millenia.  Favouring gadgets ahead of people who put aside time, has more serious implications than people are aware of.  If it makes you uncomfortable, as if humanity is getting away from us:  politely make a rule with friends and family to turn devices off.  Open a conversation by forwarding this article if that would help.  Putting away the home office and allowing ourselves to just be people when we are together, is the fresh rule to guide us.

Carolyn’s “Global Reading” 2017!

 

Hello from a warm winter week-end in Manitoba’s marshland and forestland!  I am passionate about our adored cats, the plants we grow, and books and music I have gathered all my life.  You hear about my reading most because hosting and joining “reading challenges” generates posts.  I fell in love with them because they give me somewhere self-competitively and if there are prizes, competitively to direct the private reading I do.  These furnish an activity for a pastime that was for a long time solitary.  Their main attraction and function is giving me a creative way to categorize the books I choose to read in a year.  This one is one of my favourites, which places authors and the contents of their books according to countries in the world.

I quickly saw that most hosts stop at the most inconvenient time of year to choose:  December 31st.  Too many times, these precious weeks were spent busily filling-in links to my posts and reviews at numerous nost websites, when anyone would rather focus on Christmas and all of the activities that surround that.  I continue to recommend running groups February 1 to January 31 like I do.  It is one month that makes a difference.  I began prioritizing prize opportunities but the most futile thing is hosts who seldom or never read the posts we spent precious enthusiasm preparing!  Of highest importance is hosts who care when we share what we finished.

I search for this unadvertized group every year, which I hope makes her feel appreciated.  The layout is detailed and surely took a lot of time.  Goodness knows the review pages alone for my four groups took a lot of care.  Filling in my reading by continent is one of my most satisfying ways to play.  I pay attention to where settings are and whence authors come and the other part that appeals to me is that a few of the continents are tricky;  outside my reading norm.  It pushes me to read something South American (my hardest!), Australian / New Zealander, and Asian.  Phyllis A. Whitney saves me there, with her abundance of books, because she was born in Japan.  I have almost all of Amy Tan’s books and a few other Asian selections so I will use some of that this year.

I meet challenges with books we have, books plentiful enough that my spouse &  I shop within our own home store.  I seek no books elsewhere;  the point for me is to read-up our own supply.  You might find my weak continent odd because I have a huge selection of Hispanic literature.  I studied Spanish, speak and read it in fact, since grade 9 through to universitiy.  It doesn’t seem I built this collection however, for a love of this literature but because I learned who the greats are and wanted to try them as a grown-up.  I only dug into it a couple of years ago and must not think that finding those two or three oeuvres depressing means all South American literature is like that.  There must be funny, exciting, or spooky books among them too.  Thanks to the “Global Reading Challenge“;  I invest a few days reading three such books and see.

 I hope starting this year, my posts and articles are read and commented on!  This theme is one of my favourite mental scavenger hunts, which is what reading challenges are.  I concur with what must have been her thought:  it is well worth acquainting the settings and arts of other countries.  Either the site used to say, or Kerrie acknowledged that our choices can be based on an author’s residence or birthplace.  This year’s post doesn’t elaborate but I reiterate that many of my items are checked-off via an author’s origins.

Fictional is requested and is usually what I bring.  A reason is not evident, except preference so I’m not going to stress about hopping over that in a few instances.  Margaret Laurence’s writings on her work in Africa are special and important enough to share and one of my Hispanic items might be poetry.  I want to count the tough items on my list;  South America being a culture I read seldom.  We aren’t competing for prizes and our hostess lives too far to smack me.  Hehe!  Please revisit these categories to see how I match them.  I aim for triplicates but will keep recording the books I like best.
~

 

AFRICA

“The Prophet’s Camel Bell”  Margaret Laurence  1963  SOMALILA
“The Jackal’s Head”  Elizabeth Peters  1968  EGYPT
“The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency”  Alexander McCall Smith  1998  BOTSWANA

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ASIA

“The Red Carnelian”  Phyllis A. Whitney  1943  Born in JAPAN

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NORTH AMERICA

“A Question Of Murder”  Eric Wright  1988  Toronto, Ontario
“A City Called July”  Howard Engel  1986  St. Catherine’s, Ontario
“The Girl On Legare Street”  Karen White  2009  Charleston, South Carolina

~

EUROPE

“Ghost Behind Me”  Eve Bunting  1984  Born in IRELAND
“Sense And Sensibility”  Jane Austen  1811  ENGLAND

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AUSTRALIA

“The Distant Hours”  Kate Morton  2010  Born in AUSTRALIA

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SOUTH AMERICA

“One-Hundred Years Of Solitude”  Gabriel García Márquez  1967  COLUMBIA

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Dread And Read 2017

I have wanted to write about giving authors another try, if we didn’t enjoy a book at first.  I’ve wondered under what circumstances people are gracious and would love stories about this turning out well. Unless I can’t bear the writing or its style, I do give a mulligan.  Any standalone story and first series volumes have a character and fresh idea to construct.  The largest reason is the way I buy:  often an author’s full catalogue of oeuvres years, before I read one page!  That is the thrifty and “completionist’s” mentality both at once.  I am a real book-reader;  the physical object.  There is a satisfaction in finding those objects and filling in the complete picture.  Sometimes I encounter volumes at cheap prices which can’t be read until I procure rgw volumes preceding it.  I try sticking to what’s on my existing wish list, or series-opening volumes I discover.  When you have ten or even twenty books by an author;  there is a physically mountainous incentive to give them a chance!

This served me well with Juliet Blackwell.  I love the paranormal, which is why I run “Ethereal” and mysteries, which brought about “My Kind Of Mystery“.  A witch series should be a shoe-in but I could not stand her first novel.  I still hate her gnome sidekick, who disguises himself as a pet pig and the focus was too high on him.  The culdren-brewing concept rushing in abruptly for someone unsued to that too.  I had several of her other novels and not only was I glad I gave volume two a try;  it catapaulted her to becoming one of my favourite authors!  I loved the changed tone and focus, largely because it was about old history, a secret room, and a ghost!  Unfortunately more of a demon but we were getting closer to my milieu.  When Juliet came up with a haunted house renovation series, the first volume was weak but I persisted more readily and again:  the second and third mysteries were exponentially more atmospheric and enthralling.  Is there anyone you are tempted to retry, or dreaded reading that would feel like an accomplishment if you vaulted over that hurdle?  What would be on your list?

J.G, who kindly calls me “dynamic” and is equally so, has a group about diving into books we are uncertain we’ll like!  I had joined her nature theme and revisited her blog descriptions to find her birth date group is simpler than it seemed.  So is this.  Books for which we have a dampened enthusiasm take a sharp breath before digging in because for most of us, a 300-page novel is a 2 to 3-day investment of time.  I almost always read at night and unless a book sweeps me away at a gallop, I go through them in a few sips.  The trick even when we’re nuts about books or enjoying them generally.  Well:  if I finish even three of these, I will be happy.

~

(1)  “Death Of A Cad”  Marion C. Beaton  1987

I guess I’ll close by entertaining you with my reasons for naming the books that I do herein.  These are in order of dread!  First:  does it shock you that I name Marion Chesney Beaton?  She is a very popular “cozy mystery” authoress, one of those whom I collected vastly.  I even have several first editions.  It took some time tracking down the first and second volumes of her earliest series, about a Scottish constable.  I love Scotland and the Celtic countries.  I’ve been to Scotland and treasured every second with my spouse there.  It is the reason I created “Celtic Coasts“.   But when I finally got around to reading “Death Of A Gossip”, I loathed it!  I think I gave it one star, which I have to tell you is rare for me.  I am forgiving and try to find the good wherever it is, as a future (even if long off) author who hopes to receive good ratings of my own.  I loathed it like I seldom loathe other books, in every aspect that counts which my review as tactfully as possible, itemized.  I loathed it so much, I have waited two years to try the second book, which took even more trouble to obtain.  But there’s that hope that the awfulness is due to this being an opening novel, both series must be loved for some reason, and I heard one or two people say that the first volume is not very good but differs greatly from all the others.  That is reassuring but still, I have needed two years to collect myself!  J.G. offers prizes and this forum for me to brace myself and try again.

(2)  “One Hundred Years Of Solitude”  Gabriel García Márquez  1967

I am familiar with this gentleman’s revered standing because I took Spanish all through highschool and university.  As a matter of fact, it was my major.  Granted, I haven’t read enough South American literature in my own language, as a grown-up but the few I tackled the last few years were depressing.  Does this region write of nothing but the starkest hardship?  Literary or general fiction sidestep my preferences as it is.  I have a vast seleciton of South American and Hispanic literature.  I clearly intended to use my eduacation and read it to see what I make of it as an adult.  Therefore just because I thumbed down the first couple (Alejo Carpentier was another one star recipient), doesn’t mean there isn’t great stuff among the others.  “One Hundred Years Of Solitude” looks like some of it will be army or war-oriented, which is not my thing but I am willing to be surprised.  Enjoyment and appreciation can be found anywhere.  Rereading the synopsis yesterday indicates there might be a surreal element.  Many novels are described as being about “joys and sorrows” but while I have no interest in reading of, or watching examples of sorrow in my choice of entertainment, perhaps joy and surrealness play the greater part.

(3)  “Sense And Sensibility”  Jane Austen  1811

I have never read Jane Austen and I feel that if I am to be a serious writer and authoress, I should.  Oh yes, I have collected all of them.  There are millions of editions at those bargain places I riffle through and I am all ready to go.  But I have worried that the enjoyment might be hampered by these being too old-fashioned, in a “women not treated properly” manner.  She has been described as a romance writer, which is not my cup of tea but she is also billed as a must-read authoress of all time, the queen of excellence in writing.  For goodness sakes, I own each book and as always, I like beginning with the first.  I’ll just try it.  If I find the pace lagging, I’ll try to read by day and get through it.  Maybe I’ll find humour or other surprises.  Maybe I’ll be intoxicated by the writing.  With me, that is possible;  definitely one thing I admire most.  If I love the writing, the subject almost never matters.  If all of this is not incentive enough:  I have visited her house in Bath!  Well, the entryway.  I figured I wouldn’t get what I should out of a tour upstairs if I hadn’t read any of her books yet.  If I can afford to return to England, up I go!

(4)  “One Corpse Too Many”  Ellis Peters  1979

Much more briefly:  this is another case of widely gathering the pieces of a beloved, long-lasting series but not falling in love with the character or premise.  I can live with that.  Why I hesitate to step forward to the second novel is hating the writing.  I cannot stand anyone using the adjective “gently” more than once;  especially if it applies to things I do not deem gentle, like snoring!!!!  Gosh, I hated reading this but once again, I took the time to acquire about twenty of this lady’s books.  I assert that this is rare;  I am usually right when I think I’ll love something!  Let’s hope I like the second book much better.  Maybe somebody advised her to stop overdoing the soft sort of adjectives.

(5)  “The Tin Flute”  Gabrielle Roy  1945

I have read Gabrielle Roy, who is from my very own home city, and already know her writing is graceful;  a genuine writer’s writer who is unparalleled!  That was her first short story collection, presented as ficiton but which was autobiographical.  Remember not liking any of the books you took in school, probably because it was for education’s sake or perhaps because the scenarios were depressing?  There’s a reason a curriculum is mostly comprised of things we wouldn’t choose;  certainly not as children.  Most of it can’t be appreciated until we’re grown-ups.  Well, I had an extra cultural layer added to what most of you got through because I attended French schools since grade 4.  Yes indeed, I speak and read in more than two languages.  :)  Therefore taking Winnipeg’s own Gabrielle Roy in her native French was a must.

I don’t remember the book but I remember two French films we took and even their names.  Although I far prefer cats and almost any animal to dogs, due to the contingent in my rural neighbourbood that is allowed to be noisy;  I was horrified to watch a children’s movie in which the dog was killed:  “La guerre des toques”.  That means “War Of The Toques” and the poor dog is the victim of a collapsed snow fort.  Awful, futile, and sad!  A sweet, big Saint Bernard type.  I must have seen it the same year and maybe in the same class, because I seem to pair this negative memory with “Bonheur D’Occasion”.  This is Gabrielle’s original title for “The Tin Flute”.  It was written at war time and is about an impoverished Montréal family, for whom nothing goes right.  That is all I remember.  So I am worried this will be depressing but it is last on my list for a reason.  Perhaps as an adult I will appreciate the story in a way I couldn’t before;  certainly with the omission of that disturbing toque movie.  I already love Gabrielle’s writing, my advantage in this and this is the award-winning first book that rocketed her career.
~

(6)  “Body Of Evidence”  Patricia Cornwall 1991

Her first novel and that of this long Kay Scarpetta series, “Postmortem”, was so violent and disturbing that I seriously doubted wanting to read any further.  I pondered the same of Kathy Reichs, twisting so uncomfortably with her first novel that only hashing out my decision by reading reviews avoided something I do not do;  not finish a book I have begun.  A glance at the next of Kathy’s told me the subject matter was no less horrifying and depressing but I wanted to give Patricia a try.  In the manner of my book-gathering style;  I already owned most of their series!  It was a matter of deciding I would open this one up and get going.  I am fortunate that I started with Patricia’s less popular and surprisingly, less-liked trilogy.  However I loved her writing in that much letter story and believe it was the main reason I endured “Postmortem” and thought I would continue.

To my relief, even though the most awful of subjects was mentioned, sexual assault;  it was distantly, a past that does not pertain to this story.  Thankfully “Body Of Evidence” focused on solving a murder and although unfortunately brutal, the book’s tone wasn’t as dark and depressing.  I was surprised to find Kay moaning about a lost love that occurred long ago when she is independent and respected today but the suspicion of a love interest lent a personal angle that made the threads of this case matter.  The police inspector is becoming a friend and we even travel to Florida, which we discover is her home.  I think the book was brisker and brighter because we only see one hasty part of an autopsy and seldom enter her workplace.  The whole book was about her being a sleuth and Frank Marino helping;  with a series of small leads that grow into excellent detecting.  Thumbs-up!  I will continue with a series I have already bought!
~

J.G. asks that we overcome three dreaded books but in case I plunge well ahead of my aim, I listed five.  She is offering prizes!  As someone who struggles to afford that in my groups, I want to be rewarded for an appreciable, measurable effort.  Please wish me luck!  In closing, J.G. requests our ideas of treats.  Who wouldn’t be delighted by that!  Mine are as bizarre as they are modest, which should make it fun for her.

*  If J.G. lives near second hand shops and happened upon this mystery, a great wish to grant would be this:  “Service For Two” by Kate Kingsbury!

*  I can’t find CD-labelling markers in my city.  It’s as if they stopped producing them but I love making music CDs and need to write on the blank DVDs that back up my files anyway.  A set of coloured markers for writing on CDs!  I’ll bet the US has a lot of stores that still sell this.  All the fun cereals, like “Cookie Crisp” and “Count Chocula” used to be there.  ;)

*  I love flower seeds!  Whether they grow house plants that keep living in pots, or annuals for summer;  it would be fun to receive seeds from somewhere else.  I offer plant seeds as one of my prize choices.  I already have a lot of Marigolds, cosmoses, bachelor’s buttons, and regular “tall” sunflowers.  The giant “Grey Stripe” and other varieties would be lovely and anything not named here.  Thank you, J.G!  This is generous and fun!

Carolyn’s “Birth Year Reading”!

 

I have been happy to discover the wonderful J.G. (whose given name I must ask), the rewarding kind of hostess I strive to be, who takes interest in your contributions and makes you glad you put in the energy to write them.  I joined her “Naturally Reading” theme and have had this birthday year one on my mind.  The criteria are a lot more narrowed, straight to your birth year but other than that, revisiting her post clarifies for me that the rest is as easy as finishing one book.  I prefer to do better than that, so I am looking around our pride and joy, our very generous library of book possibilities here at home!

I am the most enthusiastic birthday celebrator!  I take meaningful pleasure in savouring the magic of mine each November;  with music, friends, and great vegetarian food.  This is another theme for me!  You know my rule, since our personal library of unread books is a large, generous queue:  right?  I use these themes to trot through books we already own, so I can’t cast around for other sources.  However there is a lot of fun shopping to come from within the collection Ron & I have built, that started with my childhood bargain bin purchases at my uncle’s family cottage.  Here are two books I will read.

I know very well the young year 1972 is a wonderful source of literature and music.  I have a third novel on hand but am reading other ouevres by that authoress and preferring spacing her pseudonyms and many heroines out.  Stay tuned for the third alternative I know I will find and perhaps more.  I have a good idea where more good 1972 material is in our reserves, as long as they aren’t far inside a series I am just beginning to read.

 

“Uncle Robert’s Secret”  Wylly Folk St. John  1972
“Nobody Likes Trina”  Phyllis A. Whitney  1972

February 11th, 2016:
I found my third!  I alluded that there are two others I know of;  by Barbara Mertz, with her Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters pseudonyms.  I want to get along in another Amelia Peabody novel, my least favourite series and after a two year wait, treat myself at last to the second Vicky Bliss, her best series.  I wish it were the longer one.  From Barbara Michaels, there is a 1969 novel that precedes the right one I own.  I read in order, single novel or not!  However with a break provided by a plethora of other authors even over the next couple of months, I can surely fit those in.  I’m not done browsing our home for other candidates.  If prize competition is fierce, it might behoove me to gather my special year now.  Hehehe.  The third separate novel I found thus far, a gothic one, is this!

“The Late Mrs. Fonsell”  Velda Johnston  1972

Carolyn’s “Mount To Be Read”

I have belonged to Bev’s reading challenges for years and she to mine, in their fourth year.  My newer, fourth theme is “Celtic Coasts“, reprising for its second year!  She wracks our brains with some crazy criteria and particularly this time, has two generalized outlets.  I like “Mount To Be Read” as a full year’s list of every book I read, all of which I review as well.  She does offer prizes, which I have been thrilled to win a few times and I’m sure she knows that, very much like her, it is in my personality to strive for the best I can do each time.  We are not women to choose a level and close out shop when we arrive at that plateau, oh no!  We push higher, which is why she and really everyone in my own groups, make me feel rewarded about creating themes, as well as playing along elsewhere.  Bev would be glad to know her groups are a great part of the reason I track how much I read and fit in many more books than I used to.  I became one of the heavy-hitters, of 125-150 a year.  I will aim for “Mount Everest” right away.

There are rules but we buy in such bulk at charity sales, it is important for me to keep reading.  Because they are physical objects, with recent exception of a few freebies on a PC app (no portable device to make this a comfortable, frequent mode);  second-hand is the only way to afford the authors’ suites and series I have spent my life gathering.  A new release is rare:  new to me if published since 2000.  Although I honestly can’t keep track, it is also a rarity to read something recently procured.  I need to keep pushing forward to stay atop the literary gems of our home but my year’s queue is usually comprised of “it’s about time” material.  How could it not be?  I have been buying in bulk since I was at least 15.  I am no sharp tac with mathematics but I hastily calculated about two years ago that if I read 150 books per year, I probably couldn’t finish what we have in 20 years.  Everywhere I glance around any of our rooms, I behold several books I would love to start reading.  Ron & I have in real life what the heaviest readers store in virtual reality “Kindles”.  If you don’t believe me, watch my blog for a reprisal of my well-received photograph activity:  “Show Me Your Stash”.  Onwards and upwards!

Pike’s Peak:  12 books
Mount Blanc:  24 books
Mount Vancouver:  36 books
Mount Ararat:  48 books
Mount Kilimanjaro:  60 books
Mount El Toro:  75 books
Mount Everest:  100 books
Mount Olympus:  150+ books

“Nancy’s Mysterious Letter”  Mildred A. Wirt  1932
“Postcards From The Edge”  Carrie Fisher  1987
“The Prophet’s Camel Bell”  Margaret Laurence  1963
“Emily Carr:  The Life & Adventures Of A West Coast Artist”  Cat Klerks  2003
“Escape From Big Muddy”  Eric Wilson  1997
“A Question Of Murder”  Eric Wright  1988
“A City Called July”  Howard Engel  1986
“Ghost Behind Me”  Eve Bunting  1984
“The Girl On Legare Street”  Karen White  2009
(10)  “Bliss House”  Laura Benedict  2014
“The Red Carnelian”  Phyllis A. Whitney  1943

Reading Naturally

Now that my groups are started February 1, including colourfully-decorated review pages and my participation posts:  I turn towards other bloggers as a guest!  The distinction of my first this 2017 goes to a new discovery and her year creating it:  “Reading Naturally“.  I saw that my reading would fulfill a lot of J.G.’s categories, enough to join;  as long as the generous prizes are inclusive of Canadian guests.  It matters that anyone offering Amazon gift certificates will e-mail the Canadian equivalent from the “.ca” website instead of “.com” because we cannot use American certificates on our site.  Of course, we wouldn’t buy from their site (I only purchase physical objects) and lose a portion to out-of-country postage.  She reassured me by replying:  “Yes”!

What I notice most strongly is an eager hostess.  This is most important when I consider challenges!  Will they stick with it, take interest in what you contribute;  care to acquaint you?  I put a lot of concentration into updating posts for the challenges I join and would not do it, if hosts and other members did not read them.  J.G. is very engaged and appreciative in a way I hope my guests feel too, because this is always my aim.  I anticipate a sense of community, however small the group.  It is well worth joining.

The subject matter is a pleasure too:  all about animal and nature protection, natural vistas and stories.  Our cats are daughters & sons to Ron & I and our year is happily dedicated to gardening:  food, including fruit and herbs, regardless of our location and flowers galore!  This is a theme fitting me well.  This year especially, I can’t believe how much books I have had queued are uncannily matched!  Here is how my application to her headings looks.  Come back to see what I add, including my reviews.  I am getting warmed-up with 10 books so far!  Here are J.G.’s criteria and categories.

Exposed to nature:  1-3 books
Engaged with nature:  4-6 books
Immersed in nature:  7+ books.

 

(01)  A giant in animal advocacy, environment protection.

“Lost In The Barrens” Farley Mowat 1956

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(02)  Outdoors activity or gear on the cover.

“The Emily Carr Mystery” Eric Wilson 2001

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(03)  ANIMALS.

“Natural Pet Healing”  Von Braschler  2003
“The Mystery Of The Gulls”  Phyllis A. Whitney  1949

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(04)  OUTDOORSY HEROINE.

“House Of Rising Water”  Melissa Napier  1972

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(05)  CURRENT ISSUE:  climate change, biodiversity.

“The Prophet’s Camel Bell”  Margaret Laurence  1963

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(06)  WATER.

“A Deadly Cliché”  Ellery Adams  2011

“Talking With Nature” Michael J. Roads 1985

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(07)  NEW:  published in 2016 or 2017.

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(08) DYSTOPIA-FLAVOURED:  emphasizing future consequences.

“Timescape”  Robert Liparulo  2009

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(09)  EXTREME ELEMENT:  sailing, mountain-climbing.

“Women Explorers:  One Hundred Years Of Courage And Audacity”  Helen Y. Rolfe  2003

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(10)  SEASONS.

“A City Called July”  Howard Engel  1986

“Robert Frost Seasons”  Robert Frost, Christopher Burkett  1992

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(11)  PLANTS.

“L’Arbre Aux Ballons”  Phoebe Gilman  1984

“Journey Into Nature” Michael J. Roads 1990

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(12)  A wilderness locale.

“Escape From Big Muddy”  Eric Wilson  1997

“The Crying Child”  Barbara Michaels  1971

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(13)  SPIRITUAL:  emphasizing connection.

“A Wind In The Door”  Margaret L’Engle  1973

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(14)  SKILLS.

“Celebrating Earth Day”  Janet MacDonnell, Diana Magnuson  1994

“Beyond Words”  Marta Williams  2005

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(15)  ADVOCACY:  speaking up for nature.

“Owls In The Family”  Farley Mowat  1961

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(16)  MEMOIR of Canada’s ‘Green Party’ leader.

“Who We Are”  Elizabeth May  2014