Catching Up and Feeling a Bit of Deja Vu

 Since my last post, we took a wonderful trip to Cortez, CO for the annual Ute Mt Birding Festival, came home to two birds' nests in very inconvenient locations (of course), suffered through a bad cold, relistened to a couple of great audio books on the road trip, and read a couple of new books.

What to cover first?

Travelogue: Cortez 

Let's go with the trip to Cortez. It was our 5th time going to the festival, and as usual it was great. Most memorable was the tour of the Yucca House National Monument, led by a Mesa Verde park ranger and expert birder. Until this trip, I had never heard of this site, and believe me, I spent a lot of time in this part of the country as a kid. It was established early, 1919, but never developed as a destination, simply preserved, which is a good thing.

The site, which is contemporaneous to Mesa Verde, is mostly unexcavated, but the ranger was able to make the lives of the people who inhabited this huge village come alive. We also saw a lot of cool birds, including a shrike, but no roadrunner, which he had sort of promised us we would see!

Brownheaded Cowbird

Northern Shrike

Cortez is a cute little town, near the Four Corners (i.e., where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona come together), and I especially love the street art. Below is a mural on one of the outside walls of the Cortez Cultural Center. 

Another mural

And yet another mural

Nests with Eggs

Once home, we discovered that an enterprising House Finch had set up housekeeping on our front porch, taking advagtage of the twigs in my spring wreath to create a safe, dry place for her family.

My husband thoughtfully put up caution tape around the front porch so that Mama Finch isn't startled too often. 

The other nest is that of a Eurasian Collared Dove and is situated so that we cannot go from the garage to the backyard without disturbing Mama EC Dove.  

Feels like we are running a maternity ward but proud to have created a congenial habitat.

Books

Finally, we get to the books read and reread.

For the road trip, we listened to You Are Here, but David Nicholls, which I loved and knew my husband would enjoy. He did. Since we finished that on the drive home, we started Murder Takes a Vacation, by Laura Lippman, which again I had really enjoyed and knew would be a good, light book to listen to. 

I've also recently read the following:

A Case of Mice and Murder, by Sally Smith - recommended by both Constance of Staircase Wit and I think also Lark of Lark Reads. It took me a little while to fall in love but now I am smitten and intend to read more in the series (The Trials of Gabriel Ward). Gabriel is an unlikely detective, but I like the way his mind works and he definitely became someone I liked spending time with. I had the whodunnit part figured out early on, but so what? A very fun read. And, I think I now have a better grasp on the Inns of Court in London, which means whenh I reread Bleak House I won't feel so lost...maybe.

 The Impossible Fortune, by Richard Osman - #5 in the immensely popular (and rightly so) Thursday Murder Club series. It was as good as all its predecessors. These books are genuinely funny and always make me laugh out loud, but the plots are complicated, relevant, timely, and often techie (so, like Joyce, I learn something!).

I also just finished another Scottish-history novel, but I will save that for another Reading Scotland post.

The Cold

I know, I know. Everyone gets a cold. But I haven't had one in a long time, and I am a big baby. I actually took a Covid test because I felt so crummy. Negative, which is good. I am finally feeling better today, with the proverbial lingering cough

We started rewatching Outlander last night and just watching Claire and Jamie and the other Highlanders riding for days and nights in the rain was almost more than I could take!

Murder and Mayhem - Fall Reading, Watching, Learning, and Playing

I didn't do the R.I.P. challenge this year. Not from not wanting to, or not trying. I simply couldn't figure out the logistics based on Instagram posts. I tried searching for a hosting blog, but that seems to be old school. I guess I am feeling my age, but I couldn't figure out how to sign up. post, etc. So, I punted and just read a bunch of mysteries sans challenge.

The Last Devil to Die, by Richard Osman - 4th in the fantastic Thursday Murder Club series, I gave this 5 stars on GoodReads as there is some seriously beautiful, heartbreaking, breathtaking writing that isn't part of the overall whodunit but puts this book outside the realm of a simple mystery novel. And the mystery part of the book is really good--we dive into the world of antiques, antiquities, fraud, and heroin smuggling, and there are some wonderful characters in this world, some of whom end up dead and some don't. And the fab four are as wonderful as ever. I am so looking forward to the Netflix movie that just finished production.

The Zig-Zag Girl, by Elly Griffiths - I have been hearing good things about Griffiths's Ruth Galloway series but decided (mainly because my library had a copy) to start with book 1 of her Stephens and Mephisto series. Set in Brighton in the 1950s, not long after WWII has ended, the book features a police detective and a famous (on the UK vaudeville circuit) magician who have to figure out who is murdering people using magician's acts horribly gone wrong. Good writing, good setting, good characters--I will definitely be reading more by this author.

Vanishing Edge, by Claire Kells - I've gotten burnt out on the Nevada Barr series, so when Lark from Lark Writes blogged about a mystery series based in National Parks, I knew I had to check it out. This is the first book in the series--set in Sequoia NP in CA. The main character, Felicity Harland, is a former FBI agent now working as a detective with the NPS and her sidekick in this novel (and hopefully into the future) is the brawny, sweet park ranger known as Hux. They are a wonderful pair, with some chemistry, but lots of smarts and wilderness skills. I enjoyed the mystery, setting, and characters and already have the next book in the series on my nightstand.

The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware - I picked up this book on vacation in WA state and devoured it while traveling. I had heard lots of buzz about it earlier in the year, and it was a "can't put it down" thriller. Lo, the main character, works for a travel magazine in the UK and is lucky enough to get chosen for a major perk--a berth on a luxury cruise in the North Atlantic. She stumbles into a mystery and finds herself in grave danger in her attempt to figure out who she saw in the supposedly empty cabin next to hers, and what happened to her.

Murder in Chianti, by Camilla Trinchieri - book 1 of yet another mystery series, and this one was also recommended by Lark. Again, I have found a new series to love, as I really enjoy reading books set in Italy, and in this case, we have a former NYPD cop who has relocated to Tuscany and gets roped into helping solve a murder. Again, great setting, interesting set of villagers and side characters, and lots of discussion of great food and drink.

Fatal Pursuit, by Martin Walker - finally, not a new series! This is book 9 in the fabulous Bruno series set in the Dordogne valley in France. One of my absolute favorites in the entire series so far -- we have another WWII mystery, this time involving a gorgeous racing car (only 1 of 4 made) that went missing with a French resistance driver on his way from Alsace to the Dordogne. We also have a rally car event with Bruno as a reluctant participant, as well as the usual horses, dogs, friends, baguettes, fabulous food and drink, and cultural history.

I'm halfway through Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz, which I am loving and will wax poetic about in a later blog post.

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Still reading up on the Civil War--1/3 of the way through another Bruce Catton, this time The Coming Fury, which covers a lot of the same ground as The Demon of Unrest, but terrific nonetheless. I also watch Manhunt on Apple TV about the search for John Wilkes Booth and the other conspirators involved in the Lincoln assassination. Tobias Menzies was excellent as Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, sometime political rival, and friend and champion. Definitely worth watching.

Also, just started watching The New Look on Apple TV about Christian Dior and Coco Chanel during WWII in Paris and afterwards. Absolutely riveting. Honestly, I am glad I no longer use Chanel No. 5. Coco should have been prosecuted as a Nazi spy.

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Still harvesting tomatoes--what a bumper crop. My freezer is full of tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes,  and we've been eating a lot of tomato soup, salsa, bruschetta, and tomato sandwiches. And I have given away so many bags to friends, neighbors, and the food share.

I just started piano lessons--I haven't played in >30 years and I was mostly self-taught, so this is great fun and challenging.

Gearing up for quilting season. I have a king-size quilt that I am almost done quilting, and then there is a Civil War era quilt that I would love to make this winter.

And that's a wrap. Hope everyone is doing well, staying healthy and reading lots!

First Roundup of 2024

A beautiful visitor to our neighborhood on a December afternoon.

Happy New Year! I did a fair amount of reading in November and December, so here's a roundup of how I closed out my reading year. One notable exception is Demon Copperfield, which I finished on December 31. Demon deserves his own post, so I didn't include him here.

Nature's Best Hope, by Douglas W. Tallamy - another life-changing book. The basic idea is that everyone, from apartment dwellers in big cities to suburban neighborhood  types, can take positive, small steps that can have a big impact in terms of recreating the local ecosystems that have been paved over, plowed under, or simply overrun by non-native plants that do not provide the right food for the insects and microorganisms at the bottom of the food chain, which affects everything else (including us) in the food chain. While many of Tallamy's followers insist on everyone ripping out their lawn and rewilding their yards, Tallamy would be happy if you just learned about a couple of keystone plants (i.e., those that feed/house a wide variety of insects and birds) like goldenrod and planted them. Baby steps lead to life changes!

If you are interested in learning what plants are native to your area, you can enter your zip code here: Native Plants | Audubon

The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman - really enjoyed this, especially the setting (a retirement village in England) and the 70-something characters who keep sharp by solving cold (and not so cold) cases. This is a series, so I am looking forward to getting to know all of the characters better, especially Elizabeth, who seems to have had a very Cold War career if I am reading rightly between the lines.

Murder at an Irish Christmas, by Carlene O'Connor - I wanted to do some holiday reading this year, and this popped up. It was a decent 3-star read--it is part of a series, which could be fun. Loved the Irish setting and a good set of characters, although I confess there were a lot of them and most with unpronounceable names, which sadly made it hard for me to remember who was who.

The Shortest Day, by Colm Tóibín - a super short story that takes place in New Grange outside of Dublin. New Grange is a prehistoric site, and the story links the ghosts of the past with an archeology professor. It was okay--Tóibín's work never seems to live up to the hype surrounding him as an author. I didn't come away with a deeper insight in the connections between past and present. I think I would have liked it better without the ghosts actually.  The part about the professor and how he relates to the site was more interesting than the dynamics of the ghost society. I just am not into fantasy, I guess.  

A Christmas Secret, by Anne Perry - another 3-star holiday read, this time set in a Victorian (or maybe Edwardian) English village. Fun to read but fairly light in terms of mystery and characterization. It also felt very contrived as opposed to an organic story, if that makes sense. I believe that the Vicar and his wife who are the main characters were minor characters in other Perry mysteries.

The Road to Dalton, by Shannon Bowring - set in the 1990's Maine small town where the inhabitants struggle with poverty, boredom, prying eyes, and judging hearts but manage to find sparks of hope and moments of joy and love and purpose that keep them moving forward. This is Bowring's debut novel, and I am looking forward to seeing what she does next, especially if she continues to set her stories in Maine.

The Late Show, by Michael Connelly - the first in the Renee Ballard series. Very promising beginning to the series, with a good main character with lots of quirks that make for interesting reading--I like the fact that she is from Hawaii, paddleboards for exercise, works the night shift, and has a dog and a grandmother. I swear, I am learning my way around LA just from reading Connelly's mysteries! 

Here is an interesting LA Times article about the woman that Connelly based Renee on: There’s a real-life Michael Connelly character in the LAPD, and she’s gunning for Harry Bosch’s job - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)