Yesterday when I was out doing errands I spotted these mums in the gardening center of my supermarket and decided to splurge. Flowers really aren't the most practical purchase for me since I always seem to either over water or under water and end up with sad, pathetic looking plants, but I couldn't resist. I had petunias in these pots that were turning brown, which I couldn't bear looking at any longer, so I did a switch. I didn't pitch the poor petunias, however, just set them aside so they aren't the focal point of my porch ledge. They still had blooms so I couldn't throw them out. Now I have lovely mums in fall colors for passersby to look at. I will do my best to follow the instructions and keep the soil moist. Today is the first day with below average temperatures and little humidity that we've had in far too long, so the mums seem fitting.
I think it was only last week that I posted a photo of my Mystery Sampler. As you can see I've made some really good progress this week on it.
Only to discover as the circle was finally meeting up, that, the circle was not going to meet up--I had made a counting error. One square off was going to throw it all off. Arrggh. Often I will leave the mistake in and work around it, but as this is the second part of the Mystery and will be sewed to two other parts I want to make sure everything will actually match. So out came all that work. It's very discouraging.
But as you can see I've jumped right back in and am working on the vine one more time. Hopefully the circle will meet up correctly this time.
A few bookish notes. After wondering what to read next, I've started two new books and in the end chose one that hadn't even been in the running. Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio is one of those novels I always 'mean to read' but never seem to pick up, so I decided to pick it up this time. John Updike wrote the introduction to it, but I'll wait until the end to read it. The novel is actually made up of a series of interconnected stories about the residents of Winesburg. Interestingly I've just started listening to the audio book The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury writes in his own introduction that Winesburg, Ohio was the inspiration for his own work, so I'm glad I'm reading it now.
I couldn't decide on a second book, but in the end I didn't have to. Yesterday in the mail I received Cathi Unsworth's Bad Penny Blues from the publicist for Serpent's Tail. It came as a surprise, but somehow it seemed just what I was looking for. It's a crime/detective novel set in 1959 London and when I started reading I fell right into the rhythm of the story and think I am going to enjoy it. I'm also reading Andrew Taylor's An Air that Kills at the moment, which is also set in post-WWII England, but in the fictional northern town of Lydmouth. It'll be interesting to compare the two since Austerity Britain is the backdrop to the stories. First impressions, though, I get the feeling that the Taylor book looks back towards the war more than the Unsworth, which seems to look forward to the swinging Sixties. The Unsworth is also very noir with the murder of a prostitute at the center and a young and rising Police Constable getting caught up in the solving of the crime.
I'm going to have to dig out my copy of May Sarton's The Small Room, which the Slaves of Golconda will be reading in October. I often know roughly where my books are--on which shelf or in which pile so it's only a matter of a little sorting. I'm not sure where my copy of the Sarton is. I have a feeling if I spend too much time looking I'm going to walk away with yet another new pile of unread books I feel the need to bring to my bedside for perusal. I was hoping to reread I Capture the Castle along with Cornflowers Book Group. It looks like there are still a few weeks before they'll be chatting about it, but should I really be thinking of starting any other books. I will say I Capture the Castle is easily one of my favorites and one of the most charming stories I think I've ever read. If I plan ahead I could reread Madame Bovary with the group Frances at Nonsuch Book is organizing--also in October. They are reading a new translation by Lydia Davis that is being released in September. So many temptations, aren't there?