Saturday, September 5, 2026

August's Books

  Hi everyone. Happy Saturday.  And if you're living somewhere where Labor or Labour Day is happening this upcoming Monday, I hope you enjoy your holiday weekend. I'm not  posting tomorrow (for Sunday in the Art Room and Sunday Smiles)  since I feel like I've already had a lot of posts this past week and need a mini blogging break.

    Since it's a new month it's time for my monthly reading post. Last month, thanks to resting my sore shoulder and having some fantastic hammock lounging weather, I out-read even my own average reading amount. ❤👍😏 There were several mysteries, an autobiography, a couple of fiction stories, a  garden themed book, a cookbook with stories, along with some local New England history too. All I can say is FYI,  this is a bit of LONG post.

    My first book for August was a reread of this Dr. Ruth Galloway mystery, number 11 out of the 15 in the series. Funny, but other than remembering about one character (Michelle) who had her baby in this story, I didn't remember much else about this book. I was surprised since I didn't read this book all that many years ago, back in 2020. But then with the way 2020 went, I shouldn't be surprised. 

   This mystery in many ways revisits book one in this series. There is a Bronze Age hendge found along the shore, and in it is the body of a missing child. The tall Viking, who at first scares everyone thinking he is a character named Erik who has come back from the grave, ends up being Erik's son. Also, Nelson and Ruth get letters much like the threatening letters they received in the first book. However, this is NOT a retelling of book one. There is another murdered missing child, a murder of a 70 year old man and a kidnapped baby.

   Ruth's big question in this book is should she leave King's Lynn and move to Cambridge with Frank. Nelson decides he is going to tell his daughters that they have a sister named Kate, and they, at least to start with, have a hard time with the news. Of course there's the rest of the regular characters too, including Judy who figures out who murdered the child, and there is a car accident that leaves Ruth with a concussion.

  I enjoyed this book. A few things came back to me while I read it. I like how this book had some interesting archaeology and how by this point in the series the characters are like old friends. I feel like Griffiths seemed to get a new jolt of inspiration after her last couple of books too. I enjoyed the last couple of books, but some of the dialogue in this book seemed to start pointing the way to the ending of this series in book 15. 


    For my next book I read this 2003 non-fiction book about the hurricane of 1938 called Sudden Sea The Great Hurricane of 1938 by RA Scotti. I chose this book for 2 main reasons. One, I was feeling like I was slacking off and reading too many mysteries (could I really be thinking this- it's not like I'm in school and shouldn't be reading for enjoyment, right?), but also mainly because I grew up hearing a lot about this storm from my father. He was 14 at the time it hit, and his family was impacted by it. 

   The Hurricane of 1938 hit Long Island and New England. All 6 states in New England were impacted to the cost of millions of dollars in 1938 values. Maine was least impacted, but the most impacted was Southern New England in places like eastern  Connecticut and Rhode Island. Providence, Rhode Island was especially hit hard. However, the effects of this storm were felt even further inland with flooding in parts of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont as well as a lot of timber being knocked down. It took 5 years to clear the timber for lumber and it was used to build 20,000 homes, and if I remember correctly (? as I wrote this a few days later), that was just in New Hampshire. But before this book got around to the damage and the actual storm, it brought you back to life in these areas. Being a native New Englander, I loved reading about this time period. Some of this sounded like one of my parents or my grandmother telling me about the time. And when the author described a typical New Englander, I must say at least in my generation, many of those traits are still true.  

 The book also brought you back to the early days of hurricane weather watching back in 1938. It had some history about weather prediction and discussed a bit about a few other horrible hurricanes. It also discussed how hurricanes form and how they travel in the Northern Atlantic Ocean. This particular storm was thought to go out to sea by a majority of men at the Washington DC weather bureau, and no hurricane warnings were put up for where the storm hit. Since no one expected it, there was a large loss of lives due to mostly, but not only, a deadly storm surge. 

   I enjoyed reading this book. It was fascinating to read about the full power of a huge storm that historically impacted my home area. I think the author could have been a bit less dramatic in places, but then the storm was quite a dramatic event for people in its wake. I think unless you enjoy reading about storms and weather or unless you have some connection, this book may not be top of your reading list. This book did have me searching online for photos from that September storm, and it was really devastating. I do recommend this book if it sounds interesting to you. 


   My first listen for August was book 11, the final book (to date that I know of), in the Simon Serrailer series. I've been spreading these out for too long, and it was time finish it up with this volume from 2022, A Change of Circumstance

   This time there is a heroin issue in Lafferton, and the book starts with an overdose death. It also deals with children being "runners" in the drug trade. The police force is down in numbers mainly because it's winter and the flu has knocked out so many of the police force. Cat, Simon's doctor sister, is still a main character too. She's dealing with bad hospital care and an injured dog, while Simon is dealing with a child's suicide and a family who is killed. Plus there are the side stories with this family (Sam, Hannah, Simon and Cat's father), which are as interesting as the police investigations.

   The question is, will there be or is there a book 12? I was looking and noticed some short stories I haven't read, but from what I discovered Hill is now in her 80's, and even though I see that one was published, I wonder if it ever actually was. This book ends with Simon on the phone past midnight with the last woman (Rachel) in his life, asking her a serious personal question. She doesn't answer. Perhaps if there will be no more books in this series, this is not a bad place to end the series. But it is such a good series I hope there is a book 12 at some point sooner rather than later. 


   I was then debating whether to read something "new" or continue on with this "new-to-me series" by Sue Grafton. However, with the heat we had the day I was picking out my next book, I decided to continue with the alphabet series and the 1989 next letter book, F is for Fugitive .  

   This time Kinsey is hired by a father to check out his son. His son had some petty teenage convictions, and then, on a plea deal, ended up going to jail for killing his girlfriend which he claimed he did not do. He was in jail for a while, and then he escaped. After being a good citizen with a false name, he was then arrested in confusion over this false name, and that's when the police realized he was the convict who had escaped many years earlier. The dad, who is not in good health and thought his son was no longer alive, is trying at this point to help as best he can.

   This book was moving along when at about page 55, there was a big twist. One thing I enjoy about these stories is that Grafton totally surprises you when you least expect it. If you've read this book, you might remember the courtroom scene (not to spoil this for anyone who might later read it) which changed the whole flow of the story. 

  Floral Beach, where this story is set, is not a big town, and Kinsey seems to meet just about everyone who could have something to do with the murder. The characters this time were interesting. I guessed who the murderer was, not that it was really obvious, and there were a few other suspects. But I definitely did not put the whole 2+2 together and figure out the whole story. F is for Fugitive is another good book in this series with another exciting ending.


   I swear I read this autobiography of Katharine Hepburn at some point years ago since this book was published in 1991. At some point I probably did. However, when I recently read the book about the Hurricane of 1938, Hepburn's experiences in the storm were mentioned. I knew Hepburn was originally from Connecticut, but I did not remember anything about the hurricane. And I did not remember anything much about this book either, if I even actually read it. The hurricane story inspired me to read this book, and perhaps I'm reading it again for the second time. But that's still a question because I didn't have any big moments of remembering while I read.

   I like Hepburn the actress, and I like a lot of the movies she made. I'm glad she wrote this book, because her writing style sounds just like her. I like how she didn't get too in depth into any topic; she just stated what was what and added in a few details. And because she wrote this book later in her life, she was able to look back at her own flaws, like (her words) how she was "a pig" to her husband Luddy, who she married while young when she was really trying to just get her career started and not focus on being married. They divorced, and she decided never to marry again, but she remained good friends with Luddy until his death. 

   Hepburn was a strong family person too, even though it would be easy to think she wasn't, especially after divorcing Luddy and not remarrying. But she had her parents and her siblings, and then she had her nieces and nephews. And her Connecticut home, the one rebuilt after the first one washed away after the Hurricane of 1938. It was actually a Hepburn family home. It was where she died and spent much of her time, especially in her older years after the love of her life, Spencer Tracy died. She also had her friends, and lots of Hollywood stories, but as she said many times, she didn't like to "go out" all that much and she liked to go to bed early so her Hollywood stories were not really all that glamorous. 

    I enjoyed reading this book. There were a couple of chapters that I skimmed through because they just weren't speaking to me, and their format was different from the rest of the book which kind of threw me off. I think after reading this book Hepburn fits the New England character that I mentioned in my Hurricane book review. And I did like that this story wasn't a tell-all story either about Hepburn or others she knew. There is just enough though to get the picture. I also loved the huge number of photos that went along with her life's story. Those photos helped illustrate her tale.


   This next book is not a science book, but definitely an interesting garden  book. When I say gardening, it's not a book about how to garden. Soil is by Camille T Dungy, and Dungy is a literature professor and poet at the University of Colorado, Fort Collins campus. In very general and broad terms this  book is the story of when Dungy and her husband bought a house in Colorado, and how she went about making her mono-culture yard into a pollinator friendly garden.

  In specific terms, this book is more than just about gardening, although that is the basic focus.  It's not just the author's gardening, but family gardening and also Black Gardeners in general. You also read about being a Black woman in a White community, about being multi-cultural, about being an author, about being a mother, and (along with a few other things) about the author herself as a person.  Because she is a literature professor, she also mentions books about the wilderness and about gardening. 

  This book is in some ways  biographical and in some ways about self discovery through gardening. It's book that is hard to label. I noticed it in the Nature section one day in Barnes and Nobel bookstore, but in many ways it isn't really a good fit for the nature section. It is also about culture, Black history and art. In some ways it reminded me of the Penelope Lively book I read back in March (Life in the Garden) where it referred to gardening in various books and other types of art. This book is looking at Black culture and gardening. Even though it is not just about gardening, I enjoy reading it however you want to label it.


   I was still sticking with local New England history for my next listen. As you can tell from the image, in 1919 there was a HUGE flood in Boston, not from water, but from molasses bursting from a leaking tank. This is definitely one of those under-recorded events, perhaps because it sounds (although it wasn't) a bit underwhelming. I learned about the molasses flood several years ago while taking a Duck Boat tour of the city, but I had never heard of it otherwise. Until this book that is. 

  I like the narrator of this book, Grover Gardner. He was the narrator I listened to  a few months back when I listened to John Jakes's pre-Civil War long novel, North and South.  I had to remind myself that this wasn't a continuation of North and South though, and that this book was not a fictional story. The fact that a huge tank could break open and not only flood an area, but take 21 lives, does sound more like fiction than actual history.

   This book is about the molasses flood and a lot more too. The author really sets the background and the times of the whole event. It's a story of Boston and about New England too. Topics cover the molasses business all the way back to slave days. There's also a short history of Boston's North End, and what it was like to be an Italian immigrant living there back during the early parts of the 20th century. (For those of you unfamiliar, Boston's North End was and still is an area filled with people of Italian descent.) The book also covers the anarchist movement before and during the years of the First World War, why molasses was so important and big business during this war, and how the area actually reacted to the war. There's corruption, people who want to do good, and then a court battle after the event.

  The court battle was interesting because the company that owned the tank tried to blame the event on anarchists and a bomb, not their own failings. It took a long time to collect all the evidence needed. I liked how the author also continued the history of the times as he proceeded with the court case.

   I very much enjoyed this book. It was a well written history. Like the Hurricane of 1938 book, this is something that may not jump to the top of your reading list, but if you're interested, then I do recommend it. 


  I'd seen Rex Stout books in stores while growing up, but I had never read anything. In fact, I was surprised he's been writing his Nero Wolfe mysteries since the 1930's. I always thought he was more of a 1950's or 1960's author. In all there are 33 complete novels and 44 novellas plus some short stories starring his detective Nero Wolfe. Stout published these between 1934-1975. (Info according to Wikipedia) This book, Fer-de-Lance, is the first Nero Wolfe mystery, and it was published in 1934.

  Nero Wolfe is a wealthy New York recluse who likes to solve murders and care for his orchids. His assistant, secretary and chauffeur is Archie Goodwin, who does all the leg work and information collecting. This time a young woman comes to the pair asking if they would help find her missing brother. The brother had borrowed money from her, and his ultimate plan was to return to Italy. However, he has disappeared and not taken any of his belongings, nor said goodbye. The missing brother is found dead on the side of the road a short time later.

  Then there is a well respected college professor who fell over dead on the golf course one day. A doctor claims he died of a heart attack. However, Nero Wolfe finds a connection between the him and the missing brother by reading the newspaper. It was not a heart attack, but a poison filled needle that jabbed him when he went to swing his golf club. The question I had as I read the book was the needle actually meant for who it stabbed and killed.

   I enjoyed reading this book. I liked Archie's investigation, although if this book was written today, some of this might have been more condensed that it was here. Nero Wolfe was an interesting character who drank a lot of beer and could be kind of cranky. I'm not sure I really liked him, but I did like this story and the events along the way. I especially didn't expect the snake scene, even though the book is named after a venomous one. Although not a long book (just about 200 pages), it seemed to take me awhile to get through it; it moved along but the writing style wasn't the fluffiest. It also took a bit to get back to connecting the 2 deaths which are the heart of this story. 

   I will most probably read another book in this series at some point. It was good to learn that all the books are set in the same time period, and they don't progress so you can pick up any Nero Wolfe book at any point in the series without having missed anything. 


    I haven't read any Doris Lessing since college, and my next book was her first novel, published in 1950 called The Grass is Singing . If you haven't read any Lessing, she was a British novelist who spent her early years first in Iran, and then in colonial British Africa where her father tried to become a rich and successful farmer in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). After that she moved to England. 

   This short novel opens with a woman named Mary Turner's death. She lives with her husband Dick on a poor farm in Southern Rhodesia. Right after her death, when the police arrive, Mary's Native servant Moses admits to killing her and is arrested. 

   Mary isn't a happy well adjusted person, and her marriage to Dick  was more for convenience. I wouldn't say they fell in love with each other, and they didn't even know each other all that well when they married. Dick lived on a farm out in the wilderness, and Mary seemed to thrive in the city. But they each wanted to get married for their own reasons, and so they did.

   However, Mary was not a likable lady, and she certainly didn't win any points with the local workers on their farm.  As the story progresses, Mary falls  apart. I'm sure there were many  farm women, not just in Africa, who could not cope with the isolation and the lack of money from living out of town on a dirt poor farm. If this story had been written by someone who didn't write as well as Lessing did, it probably would not have been so compelling to keep reading it, especially since you know right at the start that Mary dies at the end. Overall, I liked this book because it was very well written, although I didn't like Mary, and her  story was ultimately very sad.
 

   My other listen for August was this fictional story, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig,  that a friend recommended to me.  It's from 2020, and my friend loved it. I was looking for something different to read, and usually I like this friend's recommendations, so I decided I'd make it my next book.

   I had been reading reviews for this book, and one said how they almost stopped reading after 5 or 6 chapters, but to stick with it because it was a really good book. That's exactly where I was after 5 or 6 chapters.  OK, I stuck with it.  And glad I did.

   Nora Seed feels like her life is a failure. She could have been a world class swimmer. She could have been a rock star. She could have been a glaciologist. She could have been married to a man whose dream it was to open his own pub in the English countryside.  However, she ends up being in her thirties, let go from her job at a guitar store, her cat recently being hit by a car, no boy friend, her best friend in Australia (who she could have gone with), and now she is back feeling lost in her hometown. Since then, she hasn't gone anywhere she thought she should be. One night, Nora tries to kill herself, and she ends up in this library where each book is one of the roads she could have taken in life if she'd made a different decision at that point. 

   I agree with that reviewer who said stick with the book. I suddenly found myself quite into this story. It had a slightly predictable ending, but it was a feel good ending. It was interesting to see and then think about how picking a different choice would have changed our  lives, which for Nora was being a giant rock star, a glaciologist, and (among others) a philosophy professor. But it was also interesting how the choices  and events really led to the life that was meant to be lived. 

  Although my friend loved this story,  I wouldn't use the word love to describe how I felt about this book. I would say I  liked it quite a bit and wanted to know how the story would end. If you're looking for something not fluffy but lighter and enjoyable to read (or listen to), then you might enjoy this book.
   

    I don't usually list cookbooks in my monthly reading post, but this book, In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite by  Melissa Clark was different. Clark writes for the New York Times food section, and so this cookbook, although it does contain recipes, has interesting prequels for each recipe. Whereas many cookbooks have a paragraph or 2 before a recipe, the blurbs here are more like short  stories.   Many cookbooks also have a (sometimes long) introduction tell you all about things you should have in your kitchen and a list of how to's for certain cooking techniques, this book had a wonderful story about how, when the author was child, she, her sister and her parents would travel through France every summer trying out Michelin starred restaurants. 

    I think some of the difference is because Clark is someone who loves cooking, but who has an MFA rather than a background in a restaurant. That doesn't mean the recipes are boring or lacking. Or don't seem to be at least. I  guess shouldn't write about a cookbook where I haven't tried any of the recipes YET! However, I really enjoyed reading all the bits and pieces of this particular cookbook, and I have marked a few recipes to try, once we get past the summer "lighter fair" cooking.

   Here's a few recipes that sound good to me: The Mysterious David Dares Pancake, Creme Brule French Toast, Max's Artcic Char with Egg Lemon Dragon Sauce, Sausages with Sweet Pepper and Onion Stew and Fried  Croutons, Easy Stove-top Macaroni, Peas, Bacon and Cheese A LA Jamie Oliver, and for dessert. Honey-Glazed Pear Upside-Down Cake. Plus several others.

  This isn't a new book as it was published in 2010. The section on Holiday Recipes also includes Jewish holidays as well as non-Jewish ones like Christmas. This book was a pleasure to read and think about about the food in the recipes. If anyone is interested, I can report back once I actually try some. The Mysterious David Dares pancake is the first one I want to try. 😊


  After  I finished reading the Doris Lessing novel, I wanted something "lighter", so I went back to the Dr. Ruth Galloway mysteries series that I've been slowly rereading. I know the mystery isn't exactly light and fluffy, but it is a nice feeling to know the main characters. This is book 12 of the 15 in this series.

  Ruth, Kate and Flint the cat are now living in Cambridge with Frank. Nelson's infant son George, who was just born in book 11, is now 2 and a half years old. Nelson's latest police case, a man who is a serial killer of tall blonde women, has been found guilty, but there are still a few other missing women. From jail, the murdered says he tell Nelson where those bodies are, but only if Ruth is the forensic archaeologist on the case. She agrees and commutes back to King's Lynn to do the dig.

   This  jailed man (who Cathbad claims could not be the murderer) once  lived in a commune style building for a while with his ex-wife as well as his now wife. They  also both claim he is not guilty. And to tie things in, Ruth had just spent a week doing a writing retreat in the building with the ex-wife in charge.

   This book progresses by introducing some other characters connected to the commune style building and finally a bike race that takes Ruth back to the salt marsh. Of course, it isn't all peaceful back there, as a text that takes her there is from the murderer of the other women who wants to make Ruth the next victim. 

  This  was a very enjoyable reread. As I mentioned in my review above of The Stone Circle, I think at this point the author (Elly Griffiths) knew where she was heading with the last few books. It's interesting to do a reread and realize how many clues about that ending are peppered throughout the story. 


  If you like book posts, I hope you found something interesting in my list. As for the number of books, yes there's a lot, but I think  this month (September), I'll be lucky to read half as many since I'll be gone for almost 2 weeks at the end of the month.   Happy reading!

 

Friday, September 4, 2026

Friday Faces- Lots of ArthropodsToday

   Hi everyone. Happy Friday. I hope everyone has had a nice week so far.  Today I'll be joining. Nicole's  Friday Face Off  and Gillena's  Friday Lunch Break.

 

Please note: I've been trying to publish comments this morning. I'm not getting fail to publish messages, but if you're on blogger, the publishing message goes on and on and on. It's like it's stuck in publishing mode. I'm out for the day today, but I will try back this weekend. But please know I am trying to comment. 😟

    Lately I've been noticing all kinds of arthropods, mainly spiders and other insects. My yard seems to be full of them. Like everywhere. In fact, if I look outside, there are all kinds of "things" flying by the window, not just birds.  🦋🐞🪲🐝  Here's a few I've seen this past week.

      FYI, I know not everyone finds these creepy crawlies as fascinating as I do. So let me warn you this post has some creepy crawlies, but most of them aren't too bad. Just scroll quickly past the first photo if you don't like spidery things.

   I'll start with this photo of a Daddy-Long-Legs.  I really like how I captured his or her shadow.❤


   For those of you who like pretty, here's a pot of zinnias in my yard.  These 2 Great Spangle Fritillary butterflies seem to love feeding at these flowers.  Can you see both of them in this next photo?





Here's a cabbage white butterfly on some  lavender.


  I've seen a couple of monarch butterflies this summer. Boy are they hard to get a photo of. I swear they see you coming and flitter off.  I haven't seen any caterpillars on my milkweed plants though, but I keep looking. 



    When I went out to check the bees the other day,  this grasshopper was just chilling on one of the bricks that holds the top in place.


And of course, here's lots of honeybees. 


   And here's my smoker for when I visit the bees. I like how the smoke photographed. 


     I'm hoping this weekend to go collect my honey. I'm very late doing it, mainly because of my shoulder.  I had to put it off because  1) I couldn't lift the hive box off  and  2) I need to assemble my spinner (that spins the honey off the  frames). I haven't been able to do a lot of heavy-ish lifting without pain, and both the hive box and the honey spinner are a bit heavy and awkward sized for someone short like me. 🏋

  I hope everyone has a super start to the weekend.  If you live where Labor Day or Labour Day are celebrated, I hope you enjoy the long weekend. I've scheduled my monthly book post for tomorrow, but other than that, I'm taking the weekend off from blogging. Let me also wish you a great start to the new week. ❤ I'll be back Monday night for T Day. 



Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Second on the Second- A Multi-Year Look Back

   Hi everyone. Happy September 2. I hope you had a nice start to the new month. We were supposed to have some much needed rain yesterday, but mostly it was just clouds. But  besides nothing more than a few drips falling, it made for a nice relaxing day for me. 😊 Today I am posting to  join Bleubeard and Elizabeth and Squiggles too for Second on the Second, where all you have to do is repost something from an earlier post.

   I recently started my 7th year of retirement.  Where does the time go? I decided  for this month's second look I would go back to the start of the last year I was teaching, September 2019.  It was fun  to look back and see what I posted and what life was like when I was working full time. 

Sept. 17, 2019


   Then I started to wonder what I was up to during my first retired September, right in the full swing of COVID and before we had vaccinations to protect us. 



   How had 2021 changed from 2020, now that I was vaccinated and felt a little more "free" to get out and about?



   I might as well keep going at this point,right?



   I remember making that 2022 page. Was it really 4 years ago? On to 2023.



   And then onto 2024. I also remember making this spread like it was yesterday also.



    And finally, last year. 



   Time just goes by too fast. However, I am glad I have a blog so I can look back and see what else I was up to during those months and years. 👍 It's a nice reminder of just how rich and wonderful life can be.

    I may be slow to comment on blogs today as I am off to my last play for this season at the Ogunquit Playhouse.  I'm looking forward to this one; it's The Producers by Mel Brooks, which I saw years ago in Boston. I remember laughing a lot.

   Enjoy your day!





Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Time for a New Challenge Already

   Hi everyone. I am back again with another post because it's Tuesday, and 2 weeks have passed. That means it's time for a new challenge at   Try It On Tuesday . 

   Thank you to everyone who linked up and joined our Inspired by a Song challenge. I always enjoy seeing what songs people pick and if I can guess them from looking at their art. 😊

   Our newest challenge for the next 2 weeks is  Emboss It-Wet or Dry. I made a journal page with lots of dry embossing on it. 


   To make this page I started with a sheet of watercolor paper  and some orange, green and brown juicy ink pads that I randomly rubbed over my paper. Then I took a sheet of glossy white paper (actually the back of some packaging) and used an older embossing folder (from Spellbinders)  to give it some texture. After I embossed the image, I rubbed yellow, gold and some light brown ink lightly over the embossing  so that part would have some color.

   I die cut the leaves with a Frantic Stamper stitched leaf die. You can see these have some stitched embossing on them. I cut them from this rusty orange paper, and then to add some depth, I lightly rubbed just a bit of brown ink on them. The sparkle leaves are some of those foam leaves you can buy that you often see in children's craft kits. I added a few gold half pearls under each to try to make it appear like the leaf was falling. The scarecrow  was in a set of fall felt images I found several years ago, and I added a few little confetti pieces to him to spruce him up.  Finally, I used the same  rusty orange paper and a quote from a Creative Expressions stamps set. I outlined the quote with a gold Sharpie. I also decided to outline the embossed centerpiece of my page too.

   As always, we accept any form of art as long as it has some type of embossing on it. Please be sure to check out the examples my design team members shared also. 

  I hope you have fun embossing and share your creations with us here at Try It on Tuesday.

 I will also be linking up this page to Sharon's Hello Autumn art journal challenge over at Art Journal Journey.  Please remember if you join Sharon at AJJ to only link up journaling, not cards, tags and other art forms. 


September is Here

   Hi everyone. Happy new month to you. We've been having a very nice summer in New Hampshire this year, well maybe it was a bit on the dry side, but overall, very lovely. However it is time to say goodbye to August and hello to September.

  This is the first of 2 posts I am sharing today since  the first of the month  is time for a new challenge at Art Journal Journey. Plus, 2 weeks have passed so it is also time for a new challenge at  Try It on Tuesday.  My TIOT post goes live in a few hours, but this post focuses on welcoming a new host to Art Journal Journey.

  First, I want to thank everyone who joined my In The Good Old Summertime challenge last month.  I appreciated all your link ups, and I enjoyed seeing how people interpreted my challenge. ❤❤❤

  Now it's time to introduce our host for September. My co-admins and I are excited to welcome back the talented journal and scrapbook artist Sharon. Sharon has hosted for us before and who you can find over at her blog That Girl Fritchey.  This month Sharon has chosen the theme

HELLO AUTUMN


      And ha-ha, I went from summer art last week directly into fall/autumn art this week. Luckily in real life the seasons don't change quite that fast.  (Although there are already some signs of fall starting including a night down in the high 40's (it was around 8.3 degrees C).

    To make this page, I started with a sheet of watercolor paper and some Paper Artsy Infusions. If you haven't used them, you shake just a little on your paper and when you spray with water you get some interesting effects. I used yellow,  rust, brown and some olive green because I thought they were nice fall colors.

   I then took a  wrapped ribbon/striped Cover a Card background stamp from Impression Obsession (another now defunct stamp company) and some black ink to create a place for my autumn scene.  The pumpkin is a very old Sizzix die (the thick kind they used to exclusively make). The pumpkin patch below it is a die from  Die-versions,  an old old company also no longer around.  I cut 2 of the pumpkin patch die. I used one complete one in the center and then cut the flowing leaf designs off each side of the second one. I added them to make the image large and so it fit across the bottom of the stamped area. I didn't realize it glued down so crooked until I saw this page in my photo. 😒 (But then pumpkin plants never grow exactly straight do they?)

   The mushroom is from an AALL&Create image set, and the little bird is a laser cut from an old 49 and Market set.  The quote is one of my favorites, and it comes from Unity Rubber stamp.

   I also must mention our dreaded rules. Remember, we only accept ART JOURNALING. Any kind of art journal works. Please, don't link up tags, ATCs, cards, etc. Unless of course they are on a journal page. And also, please  link up from a blog and not from any other form of social media as not everyone can comment on your link because not everyone belongs to every social media platform.

   I hope you are as excited about Sharon's theme as I am, and I hope to see you over at Art Journal Journey this month.

  


Monday, August 31, 2026

T Stands for Dead Batteries

   Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. And hello to all of you who stop by Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog for T Day this week.

  What's new with me?  My physical therapy is going well. I have some exercises to do to relax my neck muscles and to strengthen my back and chest muscles. They aren't hard and seem to be helping. 👍  I even vacuumed the other day with no pain, and although vacuuming is not the most exciting thing, 2 weeks ago even that simple task hurt a lot. 


  For T today let me start by showing you this view from the back of my husband's truck. There are 2 gas cans of gas for his boat, 2 boat batteries and a cooler full of drinks. Sadly when we tried to go out fishing last Thursday, both batteries were dead. One is just a backup, and who knows how long it had been out of juice. The other one, which was the one we'd been using when we went out in the boat, was also dead. It had been 2 weeks since we last used the boat, but none of the power draining switches had been left on. Whatever the reason  that the battery had no charge, it meant we could not go out on the boat that day.  (And FYI, the batteries normally stay in the boat. They are only here in the truck because we were taking them home to see if they could be charged.)

  BUT, I must add, better to find them dead when we arrived and hadn't put the boat in the water  than to be dead  while out on the water.👍


   My husband was very bummed out. As was I, but not as much as he was. 


  Since we couldn't be on the water, we might as well enjoy some time near the water. At the marina there is a little seasonal restaurant (not run by the marina but rented out) called Lexi's Landing. Lexi's is a small local chain in our area that specializes in burgers, fish sandwiches, tacos, grilled cheese, etc.  We like to eat there, but hadn't been there this year, so I suggested we go have some lunch. That's what we did.

   You can see my drink which is a bottle of water, and you can see the boats that pay a huge fee to have a slip and keep their boats in the water. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of lunch. 😟

   After lunch we ran a few errands, and then, when we were almost home, I suggested we get an ice cream. There is an ice cream stand about 5 minutes away from my house. We hadn't gone for an ice cream in several weeks, and if there is any good reason to get an ice cream, today's disappointment was one.   How can you not be cheered up when eating ice cream?

  This place has 3 sizes. Kiddie, Small and Large. I ordered a kiddie in a cup. I ordered 2 flavors, cold brew chip and peanut butter pie.


   I think the girl who took my order misunderstood me. 😕 I didn't want 2 kiddies on top of each other. I just wanted 1 kiddie with 2 ice creams. (And she only charged me for 1.) Holy cow!!!! That was a whole lot of ice cream. It was humid and as you can see, there was some melt going on.

   Good thing it was later in the day because I didn't need dinner after that. 😏 But I have no complaints about having an occasional ice cream dinner. 

  That's it for me today. Wishing everyone a great start to September, a happy T day, and a super week ahead.





  

Sunday, August 30, 2026

Wrapping up August at AJJ

 Hi everyone. Happy Sunday. I hope you are having a nice weekend.

 Since tomorrow is the last day of the month, today I am going to wrap up my journal pages for Art Journal Journey. This has been my month to host, and my theme has been In The Good Old Summertime.  You still have until tomorrow to link up, as the theme runs through the end of the month. 

   Let me also thank everyone who joined in over at Art Journal Journey this past month. There was some wonderful summer journaling, and all of you who joined are journaling rock stars for certain! ❤👍😊

  I'll also be joining Nicole for her  Sunday in the Art Room (SITAR) and  Gillena for her  Sunday Smiles.

  Today I have 2 pages to share. I was experimenting when I made both, and they both have a "summer travel" theme. First, let's head to the beach.


  This first one started with me just feeling like scrubbing to make a background. From there I saw this partial sheet of paper sitting on my work table, and I thought, it could be water. I cut along the bottom of one of the dark blue zigzags.  I decided to go with an underwater image so I die cut the shells and seaweed piece. I colored it in and added a small 1/2 pearl to the center. It also needed a border, and this strip of blue both trim seemed to do the trick.

   The lighthouse and black cormorant bird were both sitting on my worktable since I thought they would work for another page but then never used them. I used a yellow marker to make the light and to color in bits of the lighthouse. Then I stamped the quote.


   This other page is a little too busy perhaps? It started with an arched window stencil and a pen. I only traced the inner parts of the windows. Then I colored them in.  The camera, the plants and the girl are various cut outs from the Ciao Bella Rivera book and some other papers. The sun is a metallic gold image that I added a bit of color too. The cat is a chipboard image that I colored several times. I'm not sure he is even needed at this point, but I didn't have an overall plan for either of these journal pages. They just evolved as I went. Finally I used a couple of word stamp sets from Paper Artsy to add all the writing and I used a blue paint pen and a pen to put an edge on my page.
 
  That's all for me. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend and start to the new week.