A Work in Progress

October in Stillmeadow: Bounty

Shh.  Let's pretend it didn't just snow here last night and we are forecast yet more (albeit only a couple of inches) tomorrow.  If I do this quickly I can get my October Stillmeadow reading post in just under the gun and pretend it is still autumnal and not rather winter like.  Of course the weather in the Midwest is so changeable that in another week it might indeed be all warm and sunny.  A person can hope anyway.

Here's what I like to see in October:

"Days grow shorter now, the nights chillier.  Crisp mornings call for buttermilk pancakes and maple syrup, with country sausage on the side; at super the popovers are almost too hot to hold.  The trees kindle with color, a few at a time: small flashes of scarlet appear in the swamp, and the sugar maples begin to glow, as the great wave of autumn glory slowly rises to tide.  Leaves start to fall; I pick one up.  It is cool to the touch; a hint of pink lies under the gold.  As it dries, the serrated edges curl inward and the leaf turns to tawny brown.  I think, I am holding autumn in my hand."

Autumn is my favorite season.  The sticky heat of summer has drained away, there is a crispness to the mornings and all the glorious apples.  I buy more than I know I can easily eat in a week, but I want to stretch them out as far as they will go.  I am still hoping to get a loaf of sweet potato date pecan bread (heavenly) and then there will be pumpkin pie to look forward to. 

Sorry,  more descriptions of food, but then this is harvest time and the bounty of fresh food must be appreciated.

"Roadside stands splash more color along he roads now, and I wish I could paint them.  Great smoky blue Hubbard squash, dark green acorn squash, bright orange pumpkins, strings of Chinese lanterns, baskets of rosy apples and bouquets of bittersweet, and sometimes Indian corn and gourds--all make a carnival of autumn and testify to nature's endless bounty.  Jugs of freshly pressed cider stand in the cool shade, as well as jars of clover honey.  Sometimes there are new-laid eggs for sale, or homemade jellies, lucent in the sun, or rich preserves and jars of crisp pickles, and sometimes loaves of fresh homemade bread and pans of crusty rolls."

Maybe because I am especially fond of Autumn, I particularly enjoyed the descriptions she gave of Stillmeadow.

"As I light the fire, small flames catch the leaves, and a spicy odor fills the room.  The scent of dead leaves is another of the many things that cant be described.  It is cool and musty and something else which may be the vanished sap.  It evokes memories of walking in deep autumn woods in Wisconsin when I was growing up, and of bonfires celebrating the big homecoming football game and of picnics by the Eight Mile Brook when the small children dropped their frankfurters in the smoky embers.  Jill used to say I spent half my life inhaling the smells of everything from mint to macaroni and that I certainly had some hound inheritance."

I agree with her and the idea of smells evoking feelings and memories.  To this day when I smell freshly cut grass on a summer's day I remember the heat of summer when I was little and out playing early in the morning an that fresh smell of grass that had just been mown.  Fond memories!

To end this post--some wise words (and Tabor always has some very wise words). 

"I reflect that nothing really ends, but grows into something new.  The harvest is in and the leaves will all be down soon, but they enrich the ground, and new leaves will put forth tender green in the spring, in the endless cycle of nature.  Today is a part of time, a unit, but it evolved from yesterday and flows into tomorrow like a tide"

As we near the dark days of winter, I find those sentiments comforting indeed.

Halloween Spooky Basket

There was frost on the lawn this morning when I left and I had to wear my winter coat.  I am not ready for the cold, but this will certainly make the leaves really start falling from the trees.  So, I think it is finally time to share my most recent basket that I made in a class last month.  This is a basket that hangs from a doorknob and is Halloween themed!

To be honest I thought this was going to be a piece of cake to make, but it proved more challenging than expected.  I think it was the narrowness of the basket and having to weave while holding it upright and how fidgety it felt working with those first few rows.

Once the form took shape and more rows of weaving were added it became easier to manage.

The next challenge was getting the embellishment attached to the reeds.  It is a narrow space to try and squeeze your hand into to get the wires firmly attached, but I am glad I did it as I was weaving rather than at the very end with all the rows finished.

Getting near the top here and ready to finish the top edge.  As challenging as it was, I am happy to have learned how to make a different shape basket.  Third basket under my belt!

Here is my previous basket, which is an Autumn basket, which was the easiest to make.  I still need to tea stain it, but I have not gotten all the ingredients I need.  I think I will use it for postcards and letters that come in the mail.

And my first attempt--my herb basket.  I am pleased with it, but I can see how I would do it differently in the shaping and the way the sides sit.  Still, not at all shabby, I think!

I am going to take one last class to make a "poinsettia" basket later in November.  Something to look forward to.  I love basketweaving and want to keep honing my skills.  I would love to try my hand alone at home, but for now I am happy to keep taking classes and working with a teacher.  The more I learn in class the easier it will be when I try one solo.

I still want to get back to my at home crafts, most notably my cross stitching.  I did start a new project which I want to share but was hoping to get more of the design stitched before sharing here.  Maybe I should share sooner rather than later and it will inspire me to spend more time working on it!

Midweek Reading Notes: Mystery Edition!

I'm nearly finished with Sue Grafton's N is for Noose.  I am to that point of no return where I have to find out how the story ends, so I will be finishing today.  I have to say this is one story in the series which has left me a little unsettled.  I know these are hardboiled mysteries and bad things happen, and sometimes bad things happen to Kinsey, but for such an innocuous case as the one she is working on now, she has most decidedly rubbed someone the wrong way with the questions she is posing in her latest investigation.

I am not sure I have written about my last few Kinsey reads (It looks like "L" was the last letter I mentioned here), but in this case she is sort of back with on-again off-again love interest Robert Dietz.  He is actually off stage for most of the story, but it is through him that she must travel north to take on a new case.  The wife of a deceased sheriff is sure something was troubling her husband before a heart attack ended their happy marriage.  She wants to know what was bothering him, and when Kinsey opens this can of worms, she gets more than she bargained for.  

Remember how I thought I should note her many bumps and bruises with each new mystery--well, occasionally they are more serious than a bruise.  Kinsey had two of her fingers dislocated in this story and while that sounds like a minor inconvenience it was a little harrowing to read about an intruder tackling her and roughing up her fingers--first one and then the other.  Crack--finger at a very unhealthy and abnormal direction to body.  The other chilling bit of the story is the "noose" aspect of the title, which I had not given much thought to.  I'm not sure ultimately how it is going to play out, but the descriptions of how a person can hang themselves was a little upsetting.  As usual I have dogeared pages where Kinsey's quips have amused me and made me laugh--maybe I will share a few of them this week, too.  I should really start a tab for her--is it too late?  Seeing as this has become an ongoing project of sorts. 

Which leads me to my next topic.  What do I do when I finish the alphabet?  I am past the halfway mark and I have every intention of finishing the remaining letters next year--sooner rather than later.  I really am enjoying reading these books back to back and feeling the continuity of the storyline and development of the characters.  Who would be equally as interesting and entertaining to repeat the experience with?  Who is your favorite sleuth?  

I've been thinking about mystery series that I want to finish or make progress on, or maybe an entirely new one that would be something I can happily keep returning to.  I tend to read a mystery and then move on to some other crime novel rather than reading them one after another as I have with the Grafton books.  But there is something really appealing and satisfying to know I am making such good progress with a series.  I have started a little list as a matter of fact of potential detectives/sleuths I might want to spend time with next.

New to me (more or less--series I have not yet tried or only read the first book): 

Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache (Quebec, Canada) -- 15 books (have read first)

Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford (Sussex, UK) -- 24 books! (have read first)

Sarah Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski (Chicago, US) -- 20 books (new series for me)

Laura Wilson's DI Ted Stratton (London, UK WWII) -- 5 books (another new series)

Magdalen Nabb's Marshal Guarnaccia (Florence, Italy) -- 14 books (have read first)

Nicola Upson's Josephine Tey (UK) -- 8 books (have read first)

Series I am reading and should finish:

Liza Marklund's Annika Bengtzon (Stockholm, Sweden) -- 11 books (have read first 2)

Maurizio de Giovanni's Commissario Ricciardi -- 9 books (have read the first 2)

Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley (UK) -- (have read 15 out of 20)

Sara Sheridan's Mirabelle Bevan (Brighton, UK) -- 8 books (have finished 2)

Andrew Taylor's Lydmouth series (UK) -- 8 books (have finished first 3)

Laurie King' Mary Russell (Sussex, UK) -- 16 books (have read 8 so far!)

I am already catching up with Maisie Dobbs (the next book is not due out until 2020, so I will easily catch up as I only have one more after I finish my current read).  It's not as if this is a pressing problem, of course, but only an enjoyable quandary to spend my time thinking about.  You know how that goes, right?!

October Clean Up Reading Notes?

Yes, the question.  Is it time to clean up my reading as the year dwindles down to a few months?  Is it worth making any sort of very very loose plans on what I want to try and accomplish or finish reading.  I don't really have any goals that I feel the need to meet at this point other than to finish out my reading prompts.  It would be nice to clean up my reading pile, however, which is what I usually try and do at this point of the year.  

I did this last year and the year before (and probably previous years, too) with mixed results, but usually I can finish some of those 'in progress' books sitting on my pile or return those false starts back to their spots on the bookshelves.  This year I have a few books I would love to still read just to round things out--series books or sequels or catching up on an author books.  Not necessities but would be nice to accomplish sorts of reads.  

So my list of reading to see me through the end of the year starting with those in progress books that have been languishing (as opposed to those books I am consistently reading and will finish for sure):

1. Circe by Madeline Miller
2. Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki
3. I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
4. When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams
5. Melmoth by Sarah Perry
6. I have almost a whole year's worth of NYRB Classics (and it is time to decide whether to renew for next year or not) to consider as well.  Usually at this point those books just get added to my library collection--I only managed to read one and have three in various stages of completion.  But they are books I want to own in any case and don't get recycled out of  my collection even after I have read them.  Definite keepers for me.

And then there are those 'rounding out' reads that would be nice to get to still this year.

1. Joy School by Elizabeth Berg (there are three books about the character Katie Nash)
2. The American Agent by Jacqueline Winspear (it would be nice to catch up with this series before the next book comes out--I am reading To Die But Once right now, which was her previous book)
3. The Long Trail (1917) by Cynthia Harrod Eagles (the next book in her WWI six book series
4. O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton (I would like to finish the series next year, and then maybe I will find another mystery author to tackle--but who can possibly compare with Kinsey?!)
5. Autumn by Ali Smith (It would be nice to read her books according to the season I am in)

The books on the first list are all in progress, so it is only a matter of sticking with them.  A few not mentioned here will quietly go back to the shelves and the second list is only a wishlist and easy enough to carry those books over into the new year.  

I have two more prompts to look forward to: "Something Blue", and "Art and Music".  At the moment I am reading John Wyndham's Trouble with Lichen  for October and I think everyone has convinced me that I really should read AJ Pearce's Dear Mrs. Bird.  I will finish my Gladys Tabor book--three months left and three chapters.

I am only peripherally thinking about next year (is it too soon?).  I need to start a new list of prompts--any ideas of fun themes for my monthly reads?  But I think to start the year (and these are only loose ideas of where I want to start my reading journey for 2020--not a set plan for the whole year), I think I want to pay more attention to my own shelves (which means not requesting so many library books--even if they mostly end up being returned to the library unread as this seems to be a distraction for me--but easier said than done!) and especially my classics shelves and that lovely NYRB collection.

I really need to do a serious weeding of my books and other crafty things in general.  I am constantly thinking of downsizing and getting rid of things.  It is a matter of where to start and maybe once that first attempt is successfully made it will go much easier.  I live in a house I no longer really like and dream of a small space very pared down of contents (other than books that is).  I know spring tends to be the traditional time to clean house, but apparently fall is the time for me.

September in Stillmeadow: Transitioning

I was thinking it is time to take a close look at where I am with my reading, where I had wanted to be and what I can realistically accomplish in the last few months of the year.  I am forever in 'catch up mode' these days, however.  So first a quick visit to Stillmeadow and I see that life there is much how I am feeling right now.  I had to smile when Gladys noted that her Spring to-do list needed to be chucked and one for winter should be started, since I am feeling the same way.

September really does feel like a transitional month and I get that feeling that it was similar for Gladys on the Cape.  School is in full force, summer is weirdly lingering but hot days in September don't feel exactly the same as they do in July.  The seasons are gearing up and Fall has arrived.  On the Cape the summer people have returned to their rest of the year lives and the permanent Cape Cod families can start their real/normal everyday lives finally.

The leaves are changing on the Cape.  But all at different speeds and curiously the same kind of trees in the same setting seem to be each doing their own thing.  For me Fall is all about the apples, which are my favorite, so this time of year they are an almost gourmet treat.  

"September meals are no problem, except how to keep up with the vegetables.  I eat tomatoes  at least twice a day.  The season is all too short for sun-ripened tomatoes.  I like them friend for breakfast.  I first fry thin slices of bacon until very crisp.  Then I take the bacon from the pan and cut tomatoes in half, dip them in seasoned flour, and fry them in the bacon drippings, turning only once.  I garnish them with chopped parsley."

I imagine her house must have always had the smell of good cooking wafting about.  I might stick with my apples for now, but I do hope she talks about pumpkins and squash in her October writing.  She mentions her cookbooks, which would be quite interesting to look at, so I will have to look for them.

There is the usual chat about kids and neighbors and even the dogs, but I seem most drawn to her reflections on nature and time and how to slow things down.  These are the bit I most like to dog ear in my book.

"Most of us spend a lot of time seeking happiness and always feel we shall achieve it magically.  We translate our yearning into symbols--a new house, a bigger and better car, a place in the city, a collection of something special or a rare painting worth more money than we have.  We want material success for our children along with ease of living and more luxuries then we had  when we were their age.  And then most of us wonder that happiness doesn't come to sit by our fireside.  If we are fortunate, we realize at some point in our search that we are taking the wrong path.  Happiness is, in the end, an attitude of mind.  It involves acceptance of reality and a warm appreciation of such simple things as a friend looking happy when we meet unexpectedly or the way the first star comes out at twilight.  It means an open heart."

Yes, I agree with her on meeting a friend who has a twinkle in their eye when they see you.  I have not had enough of that of late.  Maybe that is why I find my frustration level so easily raised.  I try and tell myself to just slow down, and breathe.  I am working (endlessly it seems) on finding the right balance.  Each month when I set myself a little time to read the next chapter (always making time to read it in one slow go), I find that it reminds me that calmness is a really good thing and to cultivate it.  But must make ready for the next thing, the coming of shorter, darker and colder days.  I am not quite ready for those, but it hovers in the back of  my mind.

"September is a special grace for those of us who face a long, bitter New England [and Midwestern, too!] winter.  Summer's lease has been all too short; now it is over.  Nature is at her mysterious work of turning leaves, putting gardens to bed, signaling wildlife to prepare for the heavy snows."

On to October, but hopefully not yet more than those turning of leaves!

October Prompt: Call of the Wild

I was hoping last month to tackle two books from my reading stack, but I did at least finish the one I set out to read.  As always time gets away from me and my eyes are always always always bigger than my stomach.  So here we are in a new month (and Fall has arrived with a bang by the way, as well) and a new prompt and I am going to have to agonize over my choice as they all really do look good and I want to read several, but likely I will manage one only.  Maybe two if I can be especially diligent in my reading.  But to choose one to start with!

So my prompt is "Call of the Wild" and initially I think I was aiming for a nature book with this theme, but now that the month is here . . . I do want to read a nature book still this year (and I still need to catch up--once again--on last month's chapter about Stillmeadow) . . . but I am not quite in the mood for it just this moment.  So, maybe a little word play instead with the theme.  How about nature words in the titles?  My prompts are only meant to be inspirations and jumping off places anyway.  

My "longlist" of books this month:

Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase -- I really liked the other book by her I read and this one is described as a cross between Daphne du Maurier and Ruth Rendell and they are both favorite authors of mine.  "Amber Alton knows that the hours pass differently at Black Rabbit Hall, her London family’s Cornish country house, where no two clocks read the same. Summers there are perfect, timeless. Not much ever happens. Until, one terrible day, it does."

Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce -- "'This charming, irresistible debut novel set in London during World War II about a young woman who longs to be a war correspondent and inadvertently becomes a secret advice columnist is “a jaunty, heartbreaking winner' (People).  I really want to read this, but do I really want 'heartbreaking' at the moment?

A Catalog of Birds by Laura Harrington -- This sounds like something more off the beaten path for me, which is very inviting to be honest.  "A Catalog of Birds is the story of a family and a community confronted with a loss of innocence and wounds that may never heal. The legacy of war and its destruction of nature is seared onto the memories of a small American town.  Laura Harrington has written a tale of forgiveness, of ourselves, and those we love. Illuminated by heartbreak and promise, the novel is alive with spirit and wonder and hope for the future."

Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham -- I do enjoy a good John Wyndham novel and it has been too long since I last read him.  "Francis Saxover and Diana Brackley, two scientists investigating a rare lichen, discover it has a remarkable property: it retards the aging process. Francis, realizing the implications for the world of an ever-youthful, wealthy elite, wants to keep it secret, but Diana sees an opportunity to overturn the male status quo by using the lichen to inspire a feminist revolution. As each scientist wrestles with the implications and practicalities of exploiting the discovery, the world comes ever closer to learning the truth . . ."  

The Yellow Dog by Georges Simenon -- You can never read enough Simenon in my book!  "In the course of this strange case, a customs official is shot, a retired journalist is lost and found, and a vagrant is attested, but through it all Maigret has his sights set firmly in the direction of the truth, even as a strange yellow dog haunts the neighborhood. Fast-paced and wholly unpredictable, The Yellow Dog is a sharp mystery set against the cutthroat backdrop of small town politics."

The Language of Bees by Laurie King -- I am ready for another Mary Russell adventure and this is up next.  However, these mysteries require attention and commitment (and they are worth every ounce of effort by the way), so is this the best month for it--as I am rushing to catch up on so many things?!  "Mary has often observed that there are many kinds of madness, and before this case yields its shattering solution she’ll come into dangerous contact with a fair number of them. From suicides at Stonehenge to the dark secrets of a young woman’s past on the streets of Shanghai, Mary will find herself on the trail of a killer more dangerous than any she’s ever faced—a killer Sherlock Holmes himself may be protecting for reasons near and dear to his heart."

The Peacock Emporium by Jojo Moyes -- "In the sixties, Athene Forster was the most glamorous girl of her generation. Nicknamed the Last Deb, she was also beautiful, spoiled, and out of control. When she agreed to marry the gorgeous young heir Douglas Fairley-Hulme, her parents breathed a sigh of relief. But within two years, rumors had begun to circulate about Athene's affair with a young salesman.  Thirty-five years later, Suzanna Peacock is struggling with her notorious mother's legacy. The only place Suzanna finds comfort is in The Peacock Emporium, the beautiful coffee bar and shop she opens that soon enchants her little town. There she makes perhaps the first real friends of her life, including Alejandro, a male midwife, escaping his own ghosts in Argentina."

Not to make any snap decisions, but I don't want to spend ages over choosing either . . .  What should I read next?  I shall be giving the books the one page test--read the first page or so and whichever clicks--I hope that will be the one!

The Flower Arranger by JJ Ellis

The right book at the right time, don't you like it when you have a reading experience like that?  I sometimes feel a little jaded when it comes to mysteries and crime novels.  There is so much to choose from yet it often feels like there is nothing new to add variety and spice to  my reading.  I often lament the sameness of thrillers.  One really successful story seems to spawn so many readalikes.  And while this is not necessarily a bad thing if you enjoy a story and want it to continue or want something in a similar vein, it's also nice to find something a little off the beaten track.  A story with unusual characters or a storyteller trying to do something different within the genre is always welcome. 

So I was pleasantly surprised not only to come across a debut novel with a Japanese setting, The Flower Arranger by British author JJ Ellis, but to discover that two more stories featuring the same characters are planned.  Since I have been reading Japan this summer it was serendipitous to find a new-to-me author/mystery series with this setting.  The characters are engaging and really quite interesting not only for their personalities, but what I particularly enjoyed was how the story was steeped in Japanese culture without the details being over the top and becoming a distraction from the storytelling.  

The crime.  The story opens with the death of a young woman, a Swedish tourist whose body is found among the refuse in an incinerator plant.  Caught in the jaws of a grab bucket a worker was using to move the detritus to the incinerator, the body was partially lolling over the side.  Her pale face and striking blond hair caught the man's eye and Inspector Tetsu Tanaka of the Gaikoku-jin Unit is brought in.  Tanaka heads this special unit of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department that deals with foreigners and in this case, one teenager is dead while another French girl has gone missing.  Is this a strange accident or the result of something far more sinister?

The culprit.  A little backtracking first.  Interleaved in the threads of the story, which is told by a few different narrators is the voice of the murderer.  There are hints along the way of, if not who he is, of what he is.  How he has come to do the things he does.  He is quickly labeled the Otaku Killer, which signifies someone who is so immersed in pop culture, computers and social media that they are lacking in regular social skills.  Does that set a tone?  When the body of the young woman is carefully maneuvered off the crane, a delicate floral blossom falls from her ear.  And so the stage is set.

The investigation.  What makes this such an interesting story for me are the two main characters involved in the investigation.  Tanaka is our detective, but he is joined by a young journalist looking for her first big break.  Holly Blain works for a small Tokyo newspaper covering the entertainment beat.  It's only meant to be a stepping stone to get into crime reporting, which is where her sights are set and the Otaku Killer just might offer her an "in" to this upper echelon of journalists.  It doesn't hurt that her expertise in the popular culture she is meant to be writing about also happens to be where the killer is looking for his victims.  Young women who dress in the Kawaii fashion.

What sets the story apart from others are all the little details that create such an intriguing picture of a culture that feels so foreign that for me verges on the exotic, yet has all the marks of a good mystery.  There is tension and suspense, the sorting of clues and piecing together of a puzzle that will come together masterfully in the end.  Although the pairing of a detective and journalist is not a new trope, I like how the two personalities played off each other.  Theirs is a relationship that works for each beneficially yet is not without its antagonistic moments.  Over the course of the story the relationship builds setting the stage for further adventures yet ends quite satisfyingly. 

Not to give all the best bits away, but only as a little teaser since I do like a story that is as much character- as action-driven, but Tanaka is the son of a Japanese mother and American GI father and Holly Blain a British woman, tomboyish in appearance with just a hint of what might pass as Japanese features and can speak Japanese almost as good as a native.  If the mystery kept me reading, the characters hooked me from the first page.  The Flower Arranger has just the right mix of elements to transport a reader to another place and engage the mental puzzle solving faculties all the while tagging along after Tanaka and Blain through cherry blossom season in Japan.  Bring on the next installment please!

Many thanks to Agora Books for yet another great read!