Reading and Raking

One of my all time favourite photos is this one of my youngest son, Preston, raking in the spring of '76. He loved being outside and helping mommy.
It is the time of year when the grown up Preston and his family came to the farm and helped with the spring raking and clean up. And while they may miss the annual ritual, I'm content with having a smaller bit of raking to do where we live now.
Ki and Dominique visited us last Friday. And while they did not come to rake, as they were leaving I discovered our neighbor on the north had cleaned my flower beds on that side of our house. She did not want me to be doing it with my recent shoulder surgery. And while I appreciated her thoughtfulness, it made me feel like I was sloughing off.
So Sunday afternoon, I went out and raked a bit on the south side of the house. I was taking it easy - the shoulder was working fine - when suddenly, pain. I quit immediately. By evening I was able to do my exercises, but the arm still hurt some. Luckily, when I went to therapy yesterday I learned I hadn't done anything major. Lesson learned; take it easy for awhile longer. Good thing I have still have some books from the library to read!


I was happy to find a new Rhys Bowen Molly Murphy mystery at the library. Even though In Dublin's Fair City came out in 2007, our library just got it in February of this year. That gives me hope that they may be getting some of the other older books in the series as they have the newer ones. Even reading them out of order does not lessen the pleasure of following Miss Molly as she makes her living as a private investigator in New York.
It is with some trepidation that Molly accepts an assignment to travel back to Ireland to try and find the long lost sister of a theatre impresario. Things start to go wrong when she is persuaded to change cabins with a famous actress and the actress's maid is found murdered.
Molly is able to convince investigators she had nothing to do with the murder, but once she is in Ireland, she becomes involved in the freedom movement and a dangerous mission of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
I put Rhys Bowen's Molly Murphy mysteries in a similar category as M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin's, though they are set in different time periods and locales. They are quick reads with interesting female characters. The two Beaton novels I've read the past week are: There Goes The Bride and Busy Body.
Lady Killer by Lisa Scottoline was another book I finished reading last week. It was a paperback I had had on my bookshelf for some time - a garage sale purchase, no doubt. I may have read some Scottoline's before. She seems to be a prolific and admired author. However, I find her writing style a bit too 'cute' for me. Or maybe I just didn't care for the Italian mob and the South Philly locale she was writing about.
I'll stick with Anne Perry and Ruth Rendell mysteries for awhile - and definitely stick to reading rather than raking!