A Wee Road Trip

For golfers there is always excitement when they get to play a beautiful course they don't play very often. And Brotherbob's devoted wife bought him a golf package at Sentry World in Stevens Point that is a present for Good Guy too. Because it's two days of golf, and lodging for two people.

Well, peeps, Stevens Point is but a sneeze away from Wisconsin Rapids, home of the originator of The Eclectic Company, one of the mischief makers who got me to start blogging. What better punishment for her than a visit?

You're right, nothing could be more suitable, or more fun! That's what I'm looking forward to tomorrow and Thursday. And I will take projects to work on, and a camera, too (for all the good it does me). If the wind is right, you'll probably hear us laughing.

You have a good week, too.

Our Book Club Choices

Since I can't find an e-mail address for Leanne of Arrow Acres and since she inquired about things our book club has read, this is sort of narrow in scope.

We have read these books, (and I have to admit that not everybody was equally enthralled with them.)

An MC Beaton mystery featuring Agatha Raisin. (It was a quick read but she's an unpleasant character. I've read a couple of Beaton's other mysteries, too with a different crime solver. The Scottishness of them is pleasant, but the stories are goofy.)

The No#1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. (We all enjoyed that one.)

Fool's Puzzle by Earlene Fowler (There's a whole series of these with Quilt names.) I like the characters.

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain inspired more laughter and discussion than anything else we've read.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was one I enjoyed way more than any of the others. I'm a Swede so I liked all the place names and description. Too violent for some, too.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. Quirky and fun.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. We all loved this book!

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. An all time fave of mine recommended to me by my son. He knew I'd love it.

Saint Maybe by Ann Somebody----I forget. (Depressing.)

Dreamer of the Day by Mary Doria Russell. (I love this author. This isn't my favorite book by her, but all her books are worth reading, in my estimation.)

I've typed more here twice and lost it both times. Somebody's trying to tell me something.....

To be continued:

Another Great Read

I have just finished re-reading The Help for my book club. We have talked about reading it for many months, but were waiting for the paperbacks to be published. Being on the list at the library seemed to take longer than anyone's patience could endure.

What drove us to reading this together now was the fact that a movie will soon be released and we want to have a chance to discuss it before seeing the film.

I am very conscious of being a life-long Yankee, a stranger in another culture, when I read a book set in the South, especially when it concerns race relations.

My only experience was six months in Virginia in the early 60's. ( Hardly long enough to qualify as an observer in that length of time. ) Especially after coming from a part of the country with so little diversity, as I mentioned the other day.

But, I have lived among other people for a very long time indeed. I have observed some people with a sense of entitlement and superiority for no particular reason that I could discern. So I have no trouble at all with believing that a fair cross section of employers and maid's experiences are represented.

So I have to join the legions of others who enjoyed and heartily recommend this book. I liked the characters, except for the rascally villians, and I enjoyed the various plot lines and the mysteries that were part of the story.

Now, I ardently hope they made a wonderful movie from the book!

Another Opportunity

So many of you have commented on the comments for charity, that I assume that many of you who pop in from time to time as kindhearted, generous folk.

I'm sure that this organization has been doing good work for a very long time, and I feel as though I'm the last person on Earth to hear about them, but just in case, here's the scoop.

There's a way to lend money to small enterprises in third world countries; small amounts of money which don't make that much difference to us, but can make a world of difference to others. Our contributions are pooled and loaned to people who can't get conventional loans.

When/if the $25 is repaid to us, we can collect it from Kiva or we can choose to re-lend the money to another borrower in need. (They have just had a promotion in which new folks could get acquainted, risk-free, by lending $25 that was supplied by some other benefactor. Don't ask. I don't know) I signed in today to read about the program, joined the Michiganders team, and left some money, too. That promo money has all been used up, by the way.

It's worth spending some time there just to read about the teams that have formed. There are about 16,000 teams from schools, states, countries, philosophies, and some of them are laugh out loud crazy. I almost joined Cheeseheads for Change, or Nurses, or Women Helping Women. There are so many possibilities!

Anyway, in the spirit of public service, and as my kind deed of the day, I'm just giving you a heads up. My blogging friends who have been doing this for quite a while are discouraged that more people haven't joined up. I just consider us planting the seed of information.

As for me, sometimes I think about these things for quite a while before I make a move. But if you are curious at all, you how much fun surfing the internet can be. Check them out at Kiva.

We are learning that only so much can be done by our governments at any level. Much of the help in the world is going to have to be done by the good people of every persuasion, who care about other people.

Evidence

I have spoken before about the deer population in our neighborhood and wanted to show you some evidence of the way they feast on the shrubbery. My neighbor on the northwest corner of the block has a lot encircled by cedar shrubs. At least they used to be nice full cedar shrubs.

The deer have eaten them as high as they can conveniently reach, and they are quite free of greenery. They go inside on the grass and eat the other side, too.

In my yard, they are especially fond of the hostas used to grow where the raspberry bushes have sprung up. (Yesterday's post.) Never a dull moment.

Be Careful What You Wish For!

One of the less appealing aspects of summer here is that, in order to be good neighbors, we have to be vigilant about mowing our lawn.

Good Guy is a "let's get Astroturf" kind of guy, and our objective was to eliminate grass somehow. We are too lazy to make that work, and last summer we hired a kid to cut the grass. He did a fine job too, when we could find him.

But this year, our kind neighbor started cutting our grass at the same time he did his own. I told him I'd gladly hire his daughter to do it, to which he replied, "You'd be better off with me." Well, you don't have to hit me with a brick. I wrote a check, brought it to him, and said, when you need more, let me know." He mows, edges the sidewalks, runs the weed whacker. He's worth his weight in gold!

But, while we were plotting how to eliminate grass, I kept thinking, "If I'd only started planting raspberry bushes when we moved here, we'd be eating berries all year long." (A gross overstatement, but a happy thought.)

Then I noticed that we were getting volunteer raspberry brush along the long side of the deck. That's cool. I bought a tame bush this spring and added it to the wild stuff. Not only is it thriving on the side, it is coming up through the small spaces in the decking! We will be able to reach out from the kitchen table and grab a handful of berries----in due time. Perhaps you can spot the leaves coming up through the decking.

There are some invasive species that I just love!

Every Day

You know what a booster I am of Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project. I agree with her that more gets accomplished on a project if I do something every day.

She'll tell her yourself right here.

More later.