Season of Mysteries, Witchery, and Magic

What a mild Fall we are having in Colorado. No snow yet, not even on Halloween. I've been slowly putting the garden to bed. Geraniums and begonias are now inside, but the pots of herbs are still on the deck and thriving.  

My Christmas cacti are doing their usual pre-Thanksgiving show, which I love, and I'm gearing up to start working on the Civil War quilt again, and toying with the idea of bringing out the puzzle table. The Winter lights are up on the outside of the house, but pumpkins and leaves are still the main decor inside. 

I do love the changing seasons. No, I didn't get to see the Northern Lights display last week. Did any of you?

Here's what I've been reading this season:

Run for the Hills, by Kevin Wilson - I finally got my turn for the audio from the library and was not disappointed. It didn't blow me away like Now is Not the Time to Panic, (the other Wilson book I've read and which I gave 5 stars), but it was still fresh and quirky and interesting and moving. Mid-way through, I started seeing it as a Wizard of Oz story, and lo, the narrator ended up spelling that out near the end--and here I thought I was being clever in making the connection. Anyway, I liked all of the weird characters, never understood the psychological misfires of the dad, but loved how the siblings ended up learning to become a family despite him.

Mysteries

Dance of Cranes, by Steve Burrows - #7 in the fabulous birder-murder series. Our UK police detective, Dominic Jejeune is back in his native Canada, implementing a plan to save his girlfriend from a heinous felon who is back on the loose and out for vengeance against those who incarcerated him. As always, I enjoyed the characters, setting, birding, and convoluted mystery immensely. At 392 pages, these are not short books, but such a pleasure to read. So much more than simple whodunits.

The Rising Tide, by Ann Cleeves - #10 in the Vera Stanhope series, and what a treat. Most of the action takes place on and around Lindisfarne, aka Holy Island, off the eastern edge of England, and the plot deals with old friends who reunite every five years to celebrate their decades-old friendship. Great plot, great setting, such fun to read.

Lindisfarne is in the top 10 places I hope to visit in the not-too-distant future, and I love reading about places I've been or plan to visit.

Mrs. Malory: Death of a Dean, by Hazel Holt - I am quickly becoming addicted to this series, and this is #7. I am not reading them in order, which is fine, but as I find them in used bookstores and my library. This time the story has definite Trollope overtones as the Dean of a cathedral is murdered, and Sheila Malory, as a friend of the family, is bent on finding the killer who just may be one of said family! Also, I good bit of it takes place in Stratford, so again, the setting was just marvelous, and again, is a place I've visited.

Bosch Books - I listened to two Harry Bosch detective novels, The Burning Room and The Crossing, #17 and #18 in the series -- both were excellent and read by Titus Welliver, the actor who plays Bosch in the TV series. Very meta but also very good, just cementing him in my brain as Harry.

Witchy Magic

Practical Magic, by Alice Hoffman - After reading and enjoying The Rules of Magic last year, I finally got around to reading Practical Magic. Halfway through I wasn't sure I was liking it, but I did end up enjoying it quite a bit. I know I should watch the movie, and I have read about how the book and movie differ, so fully prepared. And I have almost a year to watch the movie before the sequel, Practical Magic 2, comes out next September.

TV Stuff

We are rewatching the John Adams mini-series with Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. Last episode is tonight, and then we move on to the new Ken Burns documentary on the American Revolution, which started on PBS last night.

We are also rewatching Never Have I Ever, which is a delightful three-season show with great dialogue and wonderful characters. It's a Mindy Kaling thing, and is funny, touching, and a good palate cleanser before going to bed.

Just finished the current season of The Great British Bakeoff last week and hoping they will have some holiday specials again this year. Every time I watch it, I am inspired to try some of the signature bakes, but then I have a cup of tea and wait for the urge to pass! Hope I am not spoiling this for anyone, but Jasmine is totally amazing!

Still watching the current season of The Amazing Race and making the Romanian mici that were featured in last week's episode for dinner tonight. I think risotto will go well with them.

--------------------------------------

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, whether you celebrate or not! Thanksgiving is just such a perfect holiday. Giving thanks to the universe for the air we breathe just works.

Dog Days of Summer

Three Sisters Garden in July

Garden Notes

It happens every year, August hits and I am ready to harvest and move on to other things, like working on the Civil War Underground Railroad quilt (lying dormant since May) and practicing the piano. But, there is a lot of work to do before I hang up my gardening apron for the season.

I picked a colander of Anaheim peppers yesterday, roasted, peeled, diced, and froze enough for three pots of green chili. I expect to do the same in another week and then a third time before I start donating peppers to the local food bank. I have loads of jalapenos, which I will pickle, and then I need to figure out what to do with the poblanos, which my son insisted I plant. Maybe a multi-pepper salsa...

The tomatoes are coming in, so that means I will be making tomato sauce next week and the week after to fill the freezer with sauce for the winter. I use tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, and herbs from the garden, only needing to buy celery and balsamic vinegar to add some punch to the sauce.

The zucchini is doing what it does best, and I've been making zucchini bread as well as adding it to a wonderful pasta salad recipe in which I parboil diced carrots and zucchini and add them to diced artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, peas, diced bell pepper, and spiral pasta with a vinaigrette and a splash of lemon juice. I have my eye on a high-altitude chocolate zucchini cake that sounds amazing.

Our Three Sisters Garden seems to be doing okay--we planted the corn first, and the tassels are darkening nicely, meaning we can pick corn maybe next week. The pinto beans have lots of pods--I've never grown pinto beans before, but I read that you need to wait until the pods dry out before you harvest them. The yellow squash went in last and is just now flowering. This was an experiment this year, and I devoted only one raised bed to see how the Three Sisters would do. If you're interested in Three Sisters gardening method, here's a good description: Plant a Three Sisters Garden: Corn, Beans, and Squash | The Old Farmer's Almanac, although I planted pinto beans instead of pole beans mainly because I wanted to see if I could!

The native flower garden is looking a bit tired, probably from the repetitive strings of 90+degree days that Colorado has endured this summer. I am letting most of the plants wither instead of deadheading so that they drop their seeds and spread their goodness for next year. It may look tired, but the pollinators are still working the blossoms that are left...and I did see a Monarch butterfly this morning. So, happiness all around.

Reading Notes

I'm in the middle of quite a few books right now, so not much completed to talk about...

Three Days in June, by Anne Tyler - very short but very enjoyable. Literally, three days in June - before the wedding, the day of the wedding, and the day after the wedding. Great premise in which the story of Gail, the main character, her ex-husband Max, and their daughter Debbie unfolds as Debbie gets married. 

I haven't actually read a lot of Tyler--I had mixed feelings about Vinegar Girl, her take on Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew--and I read The Accidental Tourist so long ago, I can't really remember if I liked it all that much. But Three Days in June was a fun respite from the long books that are currently filling my reading life. And I did really like the ending! That makes all the difference.

My friend Pam Mingle recommended a couple of Mrs. Mallory mysteries because she knew I would enjoy them and she was right. I started with Mrs. Mallory and the Fatal Legacy, by Hazel Holt. Here is the GoodReads blurb:

When Shelia Malory ran into her old college chum, Beth, now a bestselling novelist, she expected a pleasant lunch, some reminiscing, and a little harmless gossip. What she didn't expect was her friend to wind up dead shortly after their meeting. Now Sheila must act as literary executer, which means sifting through Beth's papers and letters, writing her biography, and preparing her short stories for press. But in her attempt to keep her friend's work alive, she discovers something deadly...the means and motives for murder!

And Mrs. Malory will have to read between the lines to find out the truth, before someone else dies for this legacy...

Hazel Holt was actually Barbara Pym's friend, colleague, biographer, and literary executor, making this mystery a bit meta.

It was a fun, easy, relaxing read set mostly in London, circa 2000. Seemed like the same world that Rosamunde Pilcher's and Josephine Tey's books describe. 

Travel Notes

Gearing up for two trips, one in September and one in October. 

We'll be going to the Port Townsend Wooden Boat festival again this year just after Labor Day. We are adding time to visit a couple of cool looking gardens north of Tacoma as well as the Glass Museum in Tacoma, plus birding sites between Tacoma and Port Townsend. Look for a travelogue mid-September!

In October, I am going to Baltimore for the JASNA Annual General Meeting, and then my husband is joining me for sightseeing in Baltimore after the AGM and then three days in Gettysburg where I can put all that Civil War reading I've been doing to good use. Fingers crossed for a travelogue in mid-October.

Enjoy the rest of these Dog Days of Summer.