Books Read In April 2022

Only six books read this month, but the one on the bottom of this first stack is the size of three or four regular books! 

Promise Me by Harlan Coben is, I believe, the first book I've read of his. I was looking for a new author and based upon other books I've read in this genre, he was supposed to be a match. I wan't overly impressed.

A Noble Radiance by Donna Leon is the first book I've read by this author and the only one my library has. I don't remember where/how I heard of her but it was something positive so I decided to try one of her books. This is #7 in her Commissario Brunetti series set in Italy. Even if my library had more of her books I doubt I would read them.

Into The Black Nowhere is by Meg Gardiner, another new author for me. This one was a little more to my liking. The protaganist is an FBI profiler trying to help catch a serial killer in Texas. My library has several of her books which I will most likely read.

Fall Of Giants by Ken Follet is the first of his Century Trilogy and my favorite read this month. This one follows five interrelated families through the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the fight for women's suffrage in Great Britain. 

I know a lot of people wouldn't consider reading one book of this size let alone three, but I couldn't put it down. Follet is such an amazing author and a diligent researcher. I learned more about this time period from this book than all the history classes I ever took.

 

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller is her first novel and a Reese's Book Club pick. I don't try to read all of Reese's picks, but I do usually like them.

Memory Man by David Baldacci is book #1 in his Amos Decker series and the first I've read by this author. I will absolutely be reading many, many more. I'm hooked! I'll read the others in this series and then begin one of his other series!

In A Green April

 

A Blackbird Singing (R.S. Thomas)

It seems wrong that out of this bird,
Black, bold, a suggestion of dark
Places about it, there yet should come
Such rich music, as though the notes'
Ore were changed to a rare metal
At one touch of that bright bill.

You have heard it often, alone at your desk
In a green April, your mind drawn
Away from its work by sweet disturbance
Of the mild evening outside your room.

A slow singer, but loading each phrase
With history's overtones, love, joy
And grief learned by his dark tribe
In other orchards and passed on
Instinctively as they are now,
But fresh always with new tears.

Dandelions

 

The First Dandelion (Walt Whitman)

Simple and fresh and fair from winter's close emerging,

As if no artifice of fashion, business, politics, had ever been,

Forth from its sunny nook of shelter'd grass—innocent, golden,
calm as the dawn,

The spring's first dandelion shows its trustful face.

To A Dandelion (Helen M. Johnson)

Blessings on thy sunny face,
In my heart thou hast a place,
Humble Dandelion!
Forms more lovely are around thee,
Purple violets surround thee,—
But I know thy honest heart
Never felt a moment's smart
At another's good or beauty,—
Ever at thy post of duty,
Smiling on the great and small,
Rich and poor, and wishing all
Health, and happiness, and pleasure,
Oh, thou art a golden treasure!

It is that time of year - when the pure yellow of dandelions dot the yards, roadsides, verges and all areas between. I did not bring in any dandelions. I did, however, bring in a bouquet of those violets; always a favorite of mine.

Do you see that little curled leaf at the bottom of the photo? Does it make you think "Gnome"? It did me. 

Finally some spring weather to go along with the dandelions. 🌞 💛

An April Night

 

An April Night (Lucy Maud Montgomery)

The moon comes up o'er the deeps of the woods,
And the long, low dingles that hide in the hills,
Where the ancient beeches are moist with buds
Over the pools and the whimpering rills;

And with her the mists, like dryads that creep
From their oaks, or the spirits of pine-hid springs,
Who hold, while the eyes of the world are asleep,
With the wind on the hills their gay revellings.

Down on the marshlands with flicker and glow
Wanders Will-o'-the-Wisp through the night,
Seeking for witch-gold lost long ago
By the glimmer of goblin lantern-light.

The night is a sorceress, dusk-eyed and dear,
Akin to all eerie and elfin things,
Who weaves about us in meadow and mere
The spell of a hundred vanished Springs.

When I posted this photo of the March full moon to Nature Lovers last month one of the comments was "Do I spy Will o' the wisp?" which is why I used it instead of one of my April full moon pics. 😘

Mother Goose, Easter and the Bird Flu

 

This photo of mama goose was taken Sunday. She was doing a lot of stirring around, I hoped readying to bring out her babies. But we had torrential rain the day before so maybe she was just tidying her nest. 

Hopefully none of the goslings drowned.

And this photo of her was taken this morning after a cold night of below freezing temps. She was all huddled down keeping the little ones warm. I expect to see them out in the next day or so. The new base under the nest is much larger which should help getting the goslings out. 

We took down the bird feeders after the bird flu here in Iowa got so bad. I hadn't even thought of it helping spread the disease until the DNR posted about it. I really miss seeing all the different species arriving. A few still show up, look around and leave. I've seen a Brown Thrasher and this morning a little wren, but no Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting or Orioles yet, though that might be due to the winter weather staying around too long. I saw one weather prediction that we would have snow during the end of May!

We went to Polk City to Granddaughter Katrina's for an Easter egg hunt and lunch this year. I don't think the little ones even noticed how chilly it was. Jack, Maverick and Brynley are in this photo. It was so nice to see everyone - the first time since last July.

I was especially glad to meet my great-great-granddaughter, Catalina, for the first time. What a sweet, happy little doll she is. I also met her mom, Mariah, for the first time. She is grandson Brock's step-daughter. So technically Catalina is my step-great-great-granddaughter. 

Here I am with Lily and Brynley, the only two great granddaughters, so far - one of the reasons I'm happy to have a great-great granddaughter to add to the girls among eight great-grandsons.

When the egg hunt and lunch were over and everyone was sitting around visiting, I noticed Maverick quietly taking eggs out of the storage container they'd gone back into after the hunt.

I was intrigued by the way he was sorting them into colors. It made me wonder about how his mind was working and what he will grow up to be - something analytical I think.

How quickly it seems, that the grandchildren grew up. I was there at the hospital shortly after all four of them were born. These are Doug's four kids with me in the middle - Katrina, Zachary, Alyssa and Brock. I am one fortunate grandma, great-grandma, great-great-grandmother.

Perhaps my favorite photo of the day was this one of Great-grandpa Bud down on the floor playing Barbie dolls with Lily and Brynley. He was providing the story lines of the dolls which was causing much laughter from the girls.

He is also the one who got this photo of Katrina, Brynley and Catalina.

Katrina had been holding Catalina for quite awhile when Brynley said she wanted to hold the baby. When Katrina tried to take her back Brynley said to Catalina: "Who do you love more? Her or me?" Bud and I both got a big kick out that.

We knew rain and snow showers were in the forecast for the day but we figured by afternoon they would be over. Wrong. We drove most of the way home in near white-out conditions.

Ahh, Iowa in April. 

April, the Month of Violets and Poetry

Here we are in the last week of April, aka Poetry Month, and I haven't shared one single poem. Today is also the birthday of one of my favorite poets, Ted Kooser. So to celebrate the month and the day, here is one of his poems:

(A grassland bunting, the Dickcissel)

The Hidden Singer

The gods are less for their love of praise.
Above and below them all is a spirit that needs nothing
but its own wholeness, its health and ours.
It has made all things by dividing itself.
It will be whole again.
To its joy we come together --
the seer and the seen, the eater and the eaten,
the lover and the loved.
In our joining it knows itself. It is with us then,
not as the gods whose names crest in unearthly fire,
but as a little bird hidden in the leaves
who sings quietly and waits, and sings.

(Violets - one of my favorite flowers)