A Little of a Lot

Hi everyone. Hope your week is going well. It is already Thursday. Time seems to go especially fast when the weather gets nice, doesn't it? ( Or maybe it's just me being in the land where spring has taken forever to really get here.)

Today I have a little of a lot of things to share. I'll start with a journal page for Art Journal Journey and the In the Air/In the Sky challenge.  It's hard to believe that in just about another week the month will be over. So if you want to join in, you still have another week to do that but don't wait too long or June will arrive and this challenge will be over.

Of course I bet there will be a fantastic June challenge too.

Here's my page.

I decided  I wanted to try painting some spring trees. They came out ok, but I thought the view was kind of boring, so I decided to add this little dog running and then leaping to catch the red ball in the air. 

This stamped puppy is a riot.

And the other night we had the coolest colored sky. I didn't even touch this photo with photoshop.

And I have been reading up a storm lately, and since I haven't done a book post in a long time, thought I would share some of my favorites  ( not science though)  from the last 2 months.

(This helps me remember what I read and what I  liked when I look back, and I know some of you enjoy book reviews as much as me.)

You'll see my taste has been all over the place.

 I buzzed through the first 3 of these murder mysteries and have the 4th in the series ready to go. I like the main character, Dr. Ruth Galloway, who is a forensic archaeologist in Norfolk, England. I also like that these books have enough details to keep your brain happy but are not too much to plod through. The stories are good and I've learned some archeology too.

The school library has had the free book cart out a lot lately, and I've picked up some books, (Ok quite a few) including some Amy Tan books, all of which I read many years ago. I know I read this but I didn't remember much about it. Tan  is really good at mother -daughter relationships with Mom holding on to the Chinese traditions and the daughter being a modern American woman. I liked it the second time around, and now I remember what it was about too.

 An Easy Death is an alternative history thriller, and I believe it is the first in a trilogy. I wasn't sure I would like it as I hadn't read any alternative history stories, and the reviews said there was a bit of violence, but I did really enjoy it, even with the violence. I think it was just that the characters were that good.

My goal is to reread (well relisten) to all seven books in the Harry Potter series, and I just finished book 4. I love having the stories read to me! 

And here's another mystery series I really enjoy. Anne Hillerman picked up with  the Leaphorn, Chee, Manuelito characters that her Dad (Tony Hillerman) wrote about for many years. This is her 5th installment, and a really good continuation. These mysteries are set in the Southwest US and are fascinating how they get into Navajo culture.

Sofia Segovia is a Mexican author who has been translated into English. I liked this story set back in the early years of the 20th century Mexico. Her writing is really poetic. I listened to the book and enjoyed the poetry of her words and the way she used a lot of sounds in the story, as well as her great characters.

And this is my current read. Somehow I missed reading the Little House on the Prairie stories of Laura Ingalls Wilder as a kid, but I do remember the old TV show with Michael Landon. This book though is excellent and certainly does not make pioneer life seem romantic in any form. 

We have a long holiday weekend coming up and my daughter is coming home tonight for a couple of days. So have a great start to your weekend and I hope to be by again soon.