A report on my pitiful garden and some book reviews. Take it or leave it.

Yesterday we received over three inches of rain, for which I am thankful.  We've had some well-timed rainfall this year; the rains come just as I'm about to give up and water my now weedy garden.  I've had disappointments out there, but there have been small victories.  Many of my first plantings didn't come up, for no reason I know of.  Just when the tomatoes started to ripen, blight spread on the three plants, but we've certainly had plenty of tomatoes for the past couple of weeks, as well as green beans, some rather puny sweet peppers, and cucumbers.  Today I brought in enough sweet corn for a meal, so there's that.

The whole table was practically covered in tomatoes yesterday, so I froze three quarts of tomatoes to use in my next three batches of spaghetti sauce.  The five okra plants are beginning to produce, and I have second plantings of green beans coming along.  I sowed some turnip seeds in a bare spot of the garden, but that three inches of torential rainfall we got may have washed them all away.  Now there is a huge chance of rain for the next three days.  The Japanese beetles seem to eat every growing thing in sight.  Sevin Dust kills them for a day or two, then a new army of them shows up for a feast. 

If you didn't read my previous blog entry, the book I pictured there is absolutely great.  It's G-rated, too!  It may be difficult to find, since it doesn't seem to be well-known.  I check out e-books from two libraries:  I normally use Mid-Continent Library because they have a larger selection; they did not have The  in any form.  So I found a hard copy of "The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee" at one of the several libraries that are part of the group "Trails Regional".  I very seldom buy books, so had our library not had that one lonely copy, I would not have had the privilege of reading this book.  I wonder if it's out of print, since even Abebooks.com didn't have a reasonably-priced used copy of it.

I finished the psychological thriller "The Silent Patient"; it didn't scare me even a little bit, and was somewhat predictable... with a surprising twist at the end; don't waste your time on it.  But the book I'm reading now is a treasure; this is my second day reading it, and I'm over halfway through.  It's one I won't forget for years, if ever.  Believe me when I tell you that you need to read "American Dirt".  Cliff finished "Educated" and seemed to share my enthusiasm for the book.  He always makes me find his next book on the iPad because it's just more "computing" than he wants to mess with.  Most of the books I check out for myself have to be on hold for awhile before I read them, so I always need to find him something that can be checked out instantly, I looked at the 2017 New York Times Best Seller List and found one that sounds good, "The Life We Bury".  I also put "American Dirt" on hold for him.  While waiting for my next hold, I may read the one I checked out for him as well.  It sounds interesting, and unlike anything else I've read.

That's all I have... gardening and book reports.  Take it or leave it.

Yours truly,

Donna

  

These are trying times, but books sustain me

It took me three or four days to admit it, but yesterday I realized I was suffering from depression.  Not the deep, dark, dangerous kind of depression, but the kind that happens when a somewhat self-centered, spoiled person realizes times won't be normal again for a long while, and she can't safely do the things she likes to do... like escape on a trip to, say, Colorado.  

Cliff and I aren't totally sequestered, as my readers are well aware.  We're doing our own shopping (wearing masks), we interact face to face with our relatives and friends and yes, we hug the babies.  No virus has touched us as far as I know.  I'm not bragging, because I know there is that possibility.  But I'm thankful we've survived thus far, and often think of people like my sister who have actually been on genuine lockdown since March.  She's a widow in her 90's, with nobody living in her house with her.  Her children and grandchildren visit her outside, with masks on and/or over six feet away; and they shop for her.  But I have my husband here to talk to if I want to say something, and she is alone at home.  So I think about Maxine a lot, and pray for her often.  One thing about it, her family members in the Oklahoma City area are the most thoughtful, caring people you'd ever meet.  I know they are doing everything in their power to help and encourage her.  

But I digress:  Once I admitted to myself I was depressed, I began to think about solutions.  Cliff and I talked about Colorado, but it's one of the hardest-hit states by the virus.  It's about twelve hours from here to Colorado Springs, which means we'd be using public rest rooms on the trip, as well as after we arrived.  We'd have to stay in hotels, and we have enough concern about bedbugs in hotels, without adding Covid-19 to our worries!  Many of the spots popular with tourists are closed, too, which takes the fun out of things.  In fact, we can't think of any safe road trips; we are planning a trip to Georgia to visit our son and his family in October, although Georgia is another hotbed of Covid.  But our son lives out of town now, so we'd only be interacting with family.  

So, once I admitted to myself that I was depressed, it didn't take long to realize I had a way out of all this mess.  I can travel while sitting in my most comfortable chair, and it costs me nothing:  I have books to read, libraries full of books at my fingertips!  This should be no big surprise to anyone, because I always have a book available on the iPad.  But I've not been taking full advantage of this wealth:  I've let myself spend time playing silly games or scrolling Facebook (which is depressing on its own) rather than reading.  I may not get much else done today, but I have pledged to read like I used to, before the Internet.  I finished "Ava's Man", and would rate it at four stars out of five.  Then I went directly to another library book suggested by my Arkansas friend.

So today I've traveled to Arkansas in the 1970's living the life of a pre-teen girl, quite an interesting trip so far.  I'm forced to read a genuine book rather that an e-book, since that's the only format the library had this in.  At least the print is large enough to read comfortably, and if I use a clothespin to hold it open, I can lay it down in my lap instead of having to hold it;  my wrists have arthritis, so long periods of holding a physical book can be painful.  The fact it's a paperback helps a lot.  

I happened to recall this morning that Spencer Quinn was going to release a new Chet and Bernie book in July, so I looked it up on Amazon to get the title, Of Mutts and Men, then put it on hold at the library.  Other books waiting in the wings at the library are American Dirt, Normal People, and Too Much, Never Enough.  I also have one waiting on my shelf in the Libby app, The Silent Patient; but it's a psychological thriller, so if it scares me too much, I may not make it through that one.   

So I'm going to post this entry and get back to Gracie Lee.  

Thank God I have free access to any book I want to read without ever leaving home.