Friday, February 14, 2025

Happy Valentine's Day

    Hi everyone. It's Friday the 14th, which means it's Valentine's Day. Although I love the shape of  hearts,  I'm really not into celebrating this holiday. However, I'll still wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day because the world can definitely use a lot more love in it. ❤

     It's time for Friday Face Off over at Nicole's blog and also time for Friday Lunch Break over at Gillena's blog. Today I have a few more views from my snowy owl hunt/beach walk that I went on last Friday with a friend. Sadly we never saw any owls, but we still had a nice walk and saw a bit of wildlife. If you're interested in my other post about this walk, you can check out my post from Monday.

     Here's a few faces from that walk  for Friday Face off. 







     We walked at Salisbury Beach State Reservation in Massachusetts which is a birding hot spot. However, we didn't see a lot of birds that day, but we did see some other interesting things that were fun to photograph.






    That's it for me today. Just an FYI that I might not get to commenting on some of your blogs until later/ tomorrow (Saturday) as the hubby is taking today off from work. We have some fun between the snowstorm plans. Enjoy your Friday and the start of the weekend.




Thursday, February 13, 2025

A Song for Spring

 Hi everyone. Happy Thursday.

    We're back having some icky weather this morning, but luckily it is going to stop early because I have  some Harry Potter plans this afternoon. (More about that later.) Because winter isn't going away as fast as I now want it to go, here's a spring page for Vicki's music challenge at Art Journal Journey.


     The background is made with page out of an old Japanese book and some Paper Artsy Matt-tint glaze. I painted the tree and also used a Stabilo pencils on the trunk. The leaves are painted with green acrylic paint and then over inked with some liquid green ink.

     The birds were together in a larger stamp. Since there was also some other things in the stamp, I cut out the birds, colored them with markers and paint as well as a white pen. Then I added them to my page. The musical notes are die cut, and I used a scrap of that same paper to stamp my quote on. It comes from an old Technique Tuesday set that has a whole slew of music quotes on it.

     And unless you were clouded in, had blinds/curtains closed or were someplace with lots of light, you couldn't have missed the snow full moon. These are photos are from Tuesday evening, and boy was it bright that night.



    That's all for me for this post. Have a great rest of your day or evening or night, depending when you read this. 😏

    

    


Tuesday, February 11, 2025

More Romance

     Hi everyone. Happy Tuesday. It's NOT time for a new challenge at Try It On Tuesday yet, but I do have a mid-challenge journal page inspiration to share.

    Our current challenge is romance, and you still have week to join if you have romance in mind. ❤️ Or for our challenge, something creative being made on your art table. ðŸĪŠ


I'm also linking this up to Vicki's Music challenge at Art Journal Journey.

     For my background I used a sheet of Ciao Bella paper (from the Tango set). You can notice it is covered in sheets of music. I then used a Funky Fossil lots of hearts stamp I have and I stamped it a few times on the bottom corner. This romantic couple is an old Postmodern Design rubber stamp that I pull out every few years. I stamped this couple on white paper, colored them in, fussy cut them and then (although it doesn't show up well in the photo) I added some silver glitter glue to the woman's dress.

     To finish the page I added some die cut musical notes and cleft. I also took a die cut tag and stamped the words on it. After that I outlined the tag with black and red Sharpie. Finally I finished it off with some washi tape along the bottom.

That's all for me today. Have a great day!

 

Monday, February 10, 2025

T Stands for Another Beach Walk

 Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. It's time once again for T Day over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog.

    Last week we had some snowy days/nights, and the wind was back. The wind this winter has been tough. This photo shows the snow yesterday (Sunday) morning after our latest snowstorm. We got close to 10 inches/ 25 cm of light fluff on top of what we already had. And more is expected later this week. 😒


On Friday my friend Deb and I went out on a snowy owl search because we're both getting a little sick of being stuck inside. Even though it was windy, at least the temperature was around 32 degrees F/0 degrees C. 


     We went down to Salisbury State Reservation in Massachusetts  because it is not only a birding hot spot  but also a place where you can often see snowy owls.  Sadly we didn't see a single owl or even any hawks, but we still had a nice walk.


     We did see this very large headless bird dead in the snow. I'll spare you the ugly details but It was a large bird. Here's one of the feet which we had no way to measure but made me think of the size of a wild turkey.  It was also banded with a number.




     We walked in the salt marsh and bay area. The wind wasn't bad there, unlike where I parked the car which was around the corner and up the trail  from the view below. 


      The seals were out though. Sometimes when I've visited they are romping and having fun in the water, but this time it was mid-day nap time.


     It's hard to get a close up view of them because they are just far enough off the shore for my  lens to capture. But their shapes are unmistakable. 



  And when we were exploring this old fence, we spotted this bird tucked in behind a rock.



     One of their wings was not tucked up into the body making me think it was injured. I'm not exactly certain though. I'm guessing the other lone goose we saw in the water was its mate since they were not very far from each other.


    We had a great walk, and I have a few other photos to share another day. But it is T day, and I need to share my drink related photo.


      You'll have to excuse the shadows in my photo as I was sitting with the sun to my back. 

     My friend Deb had heard of this soup restaurant in North Hampson, so we decided to try it. It was a good sign when we arrived and the parking lot was full. But luckily a car was leaving just as I pulled in.

     We didn't realize you could bring in your own drinks, so we left ours in the car. We were able to get a small glass of water at the counter instead of having to buy something. That glass of water is my ticket to T this week.

      For my lunch I  had a bowl of beef stew (it was delicious and full of big chunks of beef that you can't see) and some of their home made cornbread.  Since this restaurant's main menu item is soup they had a soup bar with a variety of soups you could pick from that included vegan, gluten free and dairy free choices. I wish they had had a sampler you could have like breweries do with beer flights because I would have enjoyed tasting them all. They said they change out their soups daily. 

    That's all for me today. I hope everyone has a great T day and week ahead. 

   































Sunday, February 9, 2025

Happy Birthday Dad

      Hi everyone. It's Super Bowl Sunday if you like (American) football, and it also would be my Dad's 101st birthday today. It's funny, my brother always thinks about my parents on the day they died, and I think more about them on their birthdays. Happier moments for me I guess.

      My Dad's favorite cake was a plain pound cake with chopped maraschino cherries and walnuts added to it. When I was old enough to play around in the kitchen, I used to make this cake for my Dad's birthday. Now most years around his birthday I get the urge to make this cake, and you may have read me writing about making it before. I made this year's cake a little early, but that's OK.



     He didn't like frosting, and the beauty with a buttery pound cake is that it doesn't need any. Happy Birthday Dad!

And since birthdays often are accompanied by a song, I made a journal page to go with this post. 


     I made this page's background  with my dotty stencil and some paints and inks. The cake is from an old die  I have.  I cut it from white paper, and I used paint and glitter glue on it. The candles are stamped on acetate and colored with  Sharpies. I then sort of fussy cut them and glued them down. The table under the cake is made with a Stabilo water-color pencil and also a lace die cut to make the covering/edge. The quote is an old Impression Obsession stamp. To add  the music, I stamped  a musical score image in blue on some lighter blue paper. I die cut the balloons, and then I used an old Penny Black stamp set and black ink to stamp the words.

    I'm linking up today's post to Vicki's Music challenge at Art Journal Journey, and since it's Sunday, I'm also linking up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles

    At my house we're in the midst of another snow dumping which means I'll be out shoveling again later today. They say February is the snowiest month in New Hampshire, and that is definitely true so far this winter. ❄❄❄ 

     That's all for me today. I hope you have a great rest of your weekend and start to the new week. 












Friday, February 7, 2025

Friday Is Here Again-And It's Winter-Still

   Hi everyone. Happy Friday. We had more snow yesterday (Thursday), and there's more coming tomorrow (Saturday) night into Sunday. Yup, it's still winter, isn't it?

    This past Wednesday it wasn't exactly warm (8 degrees F/ -13 degrees C) when I got up, but the sky was blue and the sun was shining.  Since I knew we had a nasty storm coming in on Thursday, and since the dogs and I were all a bit restless, we got into the car and headed down to the beach for a walk.


      Even though I live 30- 45-ish minutes away from the beach, often there's no snow at the coast. However it's been cold enough that there's snow everywhere local to me right now, even at the beach. Well not right on the beach, but you can see it by my feet and off by the houses in the above photo.


    And it was chilly.My car thermometer said it was 19 degrees F (-7 degrees C) when we arrived and when we left. There were only a couple of other people with dogs way down the opposite end of the beach. But the water was calm. The sun was shining.

      It was cold enough that some of the stranded surf was even frozen on the sand.


      Now if only there wasn't the wind blowing.  Actually, I was pretty bundled up in my mid-weight parka with a hat, neck/chin warmer and gloves, but what parts of my face that weren't covered were cold. 


Here's my face for Nicole's Friday Face Off. I'm also linking up to Gillena's Friday Lunch Break.


   Maddie would have  liked more sniffing time, but Pete had had enough. The good thing was we had some exercise and got some fresh air. And maybe even more so, we could enjoy the sunshine. 🌞

    With the snow yesterday I had an art day, and I made a tag for Pinky's  In The Pink challenge at Tag Tuesday.


    Today I'm off on a snowy owl hunt with a friend so hopefully we'll see one. Keep your fingers crossed we have  success. ðŸĪž    Have a great weekend.





      


 

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

January Reading

     Hi everyone. It's already time for my January book list. This past month I only listened to one very long book. And to make up for that long book listen, I read a few short ones. It was a good month for reading since it wasn't a big outdoor month. It was also a good month to visit  many different places in the world through my book selection. 😏


     My first listen for 2025 was this classic by James Michener. I actually have my mother's copy of this book (since Michener was one of her favorite authors), but it is very large, so I decided to keep the paper copy on my shelf and get an Audible  edition to listen to. This book was originally published in 1959 just as Hawaii was becoming a new US state, and for a bit of useless trivia, was the book my mother read while she was pregnant with me. She always said it was her favorite book of all time. Because of that I've been wanting to read this novel for a long time, and January seemed like a good time to  tackle all 51+ hours of listening. 

     Wow, what a book! As is typical in many of the author's other novels, he starts with the geology and the  forming the Hawaiian Islands. He then moves onto stories about the people who first arrived to the Islands from Bora-Bora, one about a rather obnoxious New England missionary from the early 1800's, the arrival of the Chinese and then Japanese populations, the leper colony and the sugar plantations, the introduction of pineapples, and many more moments in the island's history. I also liked how he approached the events of Pearl Harbor in 1941, making it more of a Hawaii population event rather than only the military event.

     The author creates some novels within the huge novel, each long enough to be a book on its own, each with some fictional and nonfictional  characters living in each time frame in the island's history. To make it even more cohesive, the characters carry over so in many cases, you follow people through their lives and then onto their children's and grandchildren's lives. Those stories were fascinating.  My one  complaint about Michener in general is that his women were often portrayed through the eyes of a 1950's man and at times are a bit stereotypical of that era.  It's not a negative view because he does create some strong women, but is a bit dated. Of course, to change any of that now would be to take away from this book which was, as I mentioned, published in 1959. You just have to go with it or not read the book.

    Michener's chapters tend to be long which is good if you like the characters or too long if you don't. That was particularly true of the missionary one I mentioned earlier. That particular character had me rolling my eyes and commenting so many times I couldn't wait to finish that story, but in the big scheme of things, it was  a strong part of the overall novel. However, as much as I couldn't stand this small minded character, Michener did make his point. 

     I'm  not certain if all the historical information in this book is up to date, although it is based on actual recorded history. Michener did research his subjects, but since this book was published 66 years ago, and since it had to take the author some time to write the stories before that, those theories/histories might have have been modified or revamped. 

    This book was excellent, and even though I was ready to be done with this volume within a few hours of finishing it, I'm glad I took the 50+ hours to listen to it. There was an introduction by author Steve Berry that talked a bit about Michener's life and how he hooked a teenage Steve Berry to become a reader. That was partially true for me too, as I've read several of the author's novels when I was young after snagging them off my mother's bookshelf. In this intro, Steve Berry also mentioned how today people don't want to be taken on such long reading journeys, and I agree with him that its sad because this book, although very very long, was definitely a fantastic adventure.



      I read a few actual books while listening to Hawaii, and since that was such a LONG book, I chose shorter books to actually read. The first one was the latest Inspector Galileo mystery from Keigo Higashino. Higashino is a Japanese author who writes several mysteries series, but this one is a police procedural set in Tokyo where a physics professor helps on the case.  Chief Inspector Kusanagi is friends with  the professor who is  referred to as Inspector Galileo but is actually named Manabu Yukawa. Time has passed since this series began, (which the author does a great job subtly showing) and in this particular story, a man has been found shot and floating in the sea while his girlfriend has gone missing.

     The missing girlfriend seems to have disappeared with a friend of  her mother's, but since the story also begins with a baby being dropped off at an orphanage, there's lots of questions about who this friend of the mother's actually is. In fact the mother's friend is a  children's author who writes science books, and she communicated with the professor before one of her books was published. This is the link that brings Yukawa into this story.

     I thought this was one of the better books in this series. Maybe it was the biologist in me and the DNA connections.  Maybe it was also that I didn't have to be convinced of an unusual but concocted  way to commit murder (however much I loved those concoctions 👍). The story may not have as many unusual twists as the other books in this series, but it did have some twists and a few surprises too. I also like how the story has some non-linear segments too.  Although this is book 5, I think you might be able to follow this story even if you haven't read the others in the series.


    My next read was this easy to read little novel that had been sitting in a pile  of books next to my bed for too long. It was a magical story that I thoroughly enjoyed. (Thank you whoever mentioned it a few years back; perhaps it was Jeanie or Mae.)

     Suppose you were walking through a French vineyard one night back in 1954. The wine you've drunk is particularly good, and you're taking a bottle home with you. While you're walking you see a space ship in the sky. They've been reports of them all over France, and you decide not to drink that bottle of wine you were carrying. Perhaps it's your souvenir of that  night in the vineyard when the skies were so busy.

    The bottle sits unopened until your children take you to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind in a theater in 1977, and you recognize the space ship. When you get home, you'd decide it is time to share the bottle because obviously there is someone else who knows what you saw in the vineyard that night. This movie supports your story, or at least some of it. Then, a short time later, you and your dog  disappear off the face of the earth.

     This is how this novel begins, The story then jumps to 2017 to a building in Paris, where the grandson of the UFO seeing man has just bought a tiny apartment. He's quite taken by the woman who lives in the building and runs a repair shop on the ground floor. Plus there's the man who has spent his whole life living in the building his family built back around 1888, and there's an American who happens to be staying in one of the apartments that's an Air B&B type place. These 4 people become connected through a chance evening event, and they all share a bottle of this 1954 vintage that one of them discovered in the  basement, the same vintage that the man was carrying and saved from the night of the UFO sighting.  And the next morning, the 4 of these people find that everything has changed in so  many ways.

   I love that this book has romance, time travel, aliens, famous people and France all in just over 200 pages. It was an enjoyable read.


    Natalie Goldberg has written many books, many (but not all) of them about the writing process.  This book is one of those writing books that she wrote, and it was an enjoyable  200-ish  page read that had me thinking. And yes, a writing process book can be an enjoyable read.

      Goldberg sets up this book with short chapters, each on a topic about discovering yourself through writing. It is very auto-biographical and her writing style is flowing, loose and I'm guessing, quite honest. She talks about events in her life. Some are writing events and some are not, but those later events lead her to self discovery. Here and there she throws in something you could try to make your writing more authentic. 

     I didn't read this book with the purpose of improving my writing, but of course, I learned things by reading this book that I hope will add something.  

     This is NOT a textbook style book, but more about the journey. Goldberg adds her Buddhist views, her writing and painting  knowledge as well as her travels to put together a good read. I've read a few other books  by this author that I enjoyed, including her art book, Living in Color. I should really give that book a reread as it would be a good way to inject a little novelty in my art journaling. 



    Until Thy Wrath Be Past is book 4 in Rebecka Martinsson mystery series. This series is set in far northern Sweden. Rebecka is a lawyer/district prosecutor who in this book, works closely with the police, especially with the head inspector Anna-Marie Mella. Both characters were in the other 3 earlier books of this series.

    This book starts off with a frightening intro to the story. You meet the victims and read through their eyes how they died. Then one victim becomes a ghost, visiting characters throughout the book. When I write that it sounds like it could be a cute addition, but there is nothing cute about this book. This book is dark and at times bluntly frightening. 

    One thing I found very interesting about this mystery is the story of a WW2 German plane that crashed into a  lake and how that ties into the neutrality of Sweden during that war. I didn't realize there was so much German activity happening in (at least) northern Sweden, and this information plays an important part in this book's story and deaths. 

     I had to take a break before going onto book 5 in this series as this book could be intense, but it was a very good story. And if you’re interested  I think it would be better  read the first 3 stories in this series  before this one although this is a  recommended mystery.


     Mozart's Starling by Lyanda Kynn Haupt is a relatively short read that combines history, bird lore and research along with the story of Carmen, a starling that the author pulled out of a nest as a tiny infant to raise. The nest was due to be destroyed because starlings are often considered a major invasive pest in many cities.  

    Besides describing Carmen's life and growth, the author tells us about the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a pet starling he had called Star. I didn't know starlings were such fantastic mimics, nor did I know much about starling behavior. I enjoyed that part of the book. I also enjoyed the connection to Mozart, since I didn't know much about his life either. 

    Not living in a highly populated area, I wasn't familiar with the problems huge flocks of starlings create in the US. They are not native species, and many consider them pests that should be destroyed without discretion. What merit is in this belief I don't know, but  the author does include some information to dispute that statement, as well as including some information to support it. It's interesting that adding trees and woodland to the environment seems to keep starling numbers down, which is what I see in my yard. I only get a couple of these birds every now and again. And after reading this volume, I do have more appreciation for what kind of birds they are.

    I enjoyed this book. There were parts I found more interesting than others and parts I wish were longer, but the overall length of the book  was just enough  on the subject without turning it into a scientific treatise. I loved that it included photos, and it is indexed.
  


     My next book, Overland Before the Hippie Trail, was a great little treasure that came up in my Amazon recommendations.  I'm glad I took a chance on it. (I mean, who could resist that title?)

     The author was a new bride in 1965. She and her husband had decided to head to Europe where hopefully he could pick up some teaching jobs so they could live and travel around the continent. During their time overseas she kept journals, which were later packed away in a box. In the 2010's she was cleaning and pulled them out, deciding that she should write something for her family to have. Then came 2020 and COVID. With time on her hands, Sullivan decided to take her family book and rewrite it for general publication.

     You can tell by the title that their journey became more than just visiting Europe. They ended up headed east right through much of central and southern Asia before ending up in Japan. 

     And if you’re looking for travel tips, I doubt this book would do you much good since politically and even geographically places have changed. As the author states, when she was in Jordan the West Bank was part of that country and now we know it is a part of Israel. However, if you enjoy vintage travel tales and visions of what the world was in 1965 and 1966 (a much bigger place than today) then you might enjoy this read. I found it fascinating, and wow, what a journey Patricia and her husband Mick went on. 

      I also like how the author gives us quick glimpses  into this couples life after the big trip, including some of their later travels. I wondered through much of the book  what they did with the rest of their lives after completing such an immense and fascinating journey while in their 20’s, and the author satisfied that question with a postscript. 


     For my last book of the month I went back to another Rebecka Martinsson mystery.  This volume is book 5 out of the 6 in this series. Like book 4 which I mentioned earlier in this post, this book starts with another scary scene, this time a large and angry bear. And this book is also set in far Northern Sweden, above the Arctic Circle. 

     In this story an older woman is murdered. The story also ties back to this woman's grandmother who came north to the "new community of Kiruna back just before the First World War.  The Kiruna area is where this series is mostly set, and I learned how this city was built in the early part of the 20th century because of a large iron ore mine. I also learned how even to this day, because of the mine, the city is being moved.  

    Prosecutor Rebecka Martinsson has been taken off this murder case, but all of the police detectives and other people you meet in the earlier books are here. Martinsson is also here, and even though she's off the case, she's still involved unofficially.  Like the last book, I like how this one is not only the modern story but the historical murder too. And like the last book, it is NOT a cozy mystery. I didn't figure out who the murderer ended up being either, and the twist towards the end of the book pulled of the both stories together. 

      

 As you can see, January was a good book month, especially with the cold and being inside so much. And since I wasn't going many places, I'm glad my reading took me away. As always, if you have any recommendations, I'd love them, and thanks (in advance) for telling me about them.






     


Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Romance

 Hi everyone. It's time for another new challenge at Try It on Tuesday 

     Before I get to that, thank you everyone who joined our Oh What A Night challenge. Those of you who joined in shared some fantastic night art. ❤

     With Valentine's Day not too far off, our newest challenge is ROMANCE.


     I made a journal page using some  cut out images from a Ciao Bella paper pad (Tango), a punch out piano from Stamperia's Music themed release, as well as some bit of printed tissue, a scrap of red ric-rac trim and a white paper frame. The background is a sheet of printed paper also from Ciao Bell'as Tango set that I added a few gesso painted dots to. Finally I used some old clear stamps to stamp the word and the XOXO, and I added some half pearls. 

     I'm not sure a piano  would be the main instrument for a tango or tango type of dance, but I like how this one looked. Plus it works with the bit of keyboard in the bottom right image. 

     Be sure to check out the design teams art pieces too. There are so many ways you can go with this challenge. 👍❤ As always, it will be fun to see what people come up with.

       I am also linking this page up to Vicki's "music" theme challenge at Art Journal Journey.

Monday, February 3, 2025

T Stands for No Drink Photos Last Week?

     Hi everyone. It's the first week of February and time for T once again over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blogFebruary in my area started off with a little bit of snow. And cold, and then a little more snow.





     But the weather people are saying milder temperatures  as this week moves on. I'm hoping we have some days in the 20's (degree  F) with no wind which to me is perfect winter temperatures. 👍

     Last week wasn't a bad week with one very cold day. I went to the movies  that day with some friends to see the  Bob Dylan film The Complete Unknown starring Timothy Chalamet. I really liked it. 


     I had a small bag of popcorn  and water for lunch while at the movie, but did I remember to take a photo? Ha ha, no. 


     I also went into  Boston one day with my husband as he had to have some tests done at Mass General Hospital (all results were good 👍). It was a quick trip. We went in, he had his tests, and we left. We stopped for lunch on the way home, and I had this fried fish sandwich as well as some onion rings for lunch. BUT I noticed I didn't get my drink into the photo I took before I ate. Oh boy.


I also made another Lego, and my drink didn't make it into those photos either. 



     You would think, with all the drinks one has in a week, I would remember to take a photo. 😏 Well finally Saturday I did. My husband and I went out to run some errands, and we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at a local chain called the 99. 


      I had this fajita bowl, with some carne asada (steak) on it. It's like a hot salad with beans, rice, roasted corn, lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, peppers and onions. They served Pepsi products, so I had a Diet Pepsi which you can see in this photo. All this food is making me hungry.

     And other than a couple of other appointments, some art time, and a bit of snow shoveling, and of course reading time, that was my week. I hope yours was great, and that you always have a super T day and week ahead.