Books Read In June 2022

Ten books read this month beginning with two from the Corning Library. The first one because the Creston Library didn't have the latest Cork O'Connor book and the second because there was such a long wait list for it.

Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger is listed as 0 in the Cork O'Connor series because it is a prequel to all the others in the series. I really liked this flashback to Cork's youth and how he helped his father, Sheriff Liam O'Connor, find justice.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah takes place during the Great Depression. It begins in Texas during the dust bowl and follows a family on to the hope of finding work in California. Interesting read.

The Fallen, Redemption and Walk The Wire are the last three novels in David Baldacci's Amos Decker series. I enjoyed these books and the characters so much; hated to see it end. But there are many more Baldacci series and characters yet to discover.

Where The Road Bends by Rachel Fordham is a book I picked because a) it is set in Iowa in the 1880's and b) I wanted a paperback for bedtime reading.

Split Second is the first book in the King and Maxwell series by David Baldacci. I already know I'm going to love this series, too.

The Good Son by Jacquelyn Mitchard is the story of how an upstanding, respectable family copes with the fallout when their only son is convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of his girlfriend. 

the collective by alison gaylin is sort of the other side of the story to the above book. In this one a woman, whose daughter dies due to the actions of her date who doesn't face any consequences, joins a group on the dark web whose members have also lost children and act as vigilantes to avenge their deaths. Interesting, but also disturbing.

Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner is about a recovering woman who trades her addiction for alcohol to an addiction to finding missing persons. 

Another Black Bear Sighting!!

 

Remember last August when I was so certain there was a black bear next to the fenceline up on the hill across the pond? And then realized, when I got the photo transferred and enlarged it was just a shadow? Well, it has happened again.

This time it was closer and it was moving! I know they are rare, but there are black bear sightings in Iowa.

This was a small one; maybe a cub? Was the mother back there in the trees?

"Oh, come on, Ramona! That's some smaller animal," I told myself. But what? A wolverine? Also rare in Iowa.

Then its head came up and I saw those ears. "That has to be a bear! 

I yell at Bud to come see it.

By then it had moved again. Still a black something, at least its head, but it had some rust color, too.

Bud's is saying, "That isn't a bear."

Okay, he was right. But what is almost all rust with a black head?

Fooled by a trick of light again. The head wasn't black, it was just in shadow.

My black bear was a healthy looking fox.

"Black bear symbolism is about having patience, confidence, and knowing who you are and what you want."

I must really want to see a black bear! Or maybe I've been influenced by the post of  a New Hampshire woman I follow in Instagram. She does have black bears in her yard, with the most recent photo of one on her deck. 

That actually makes me feel better about my black bear sightings being tricks of my eyesight - and wild imagination. 😎

A Walk In The Woods Is Never Boring

A morning walk around the same old neighborhood gets boring. So when the forecast was for beautiful weather, I told HD I thought it would be a good day to get back out to Green Valley. It has been more than a month since our last walk there.

I have been wanting to do the grass trail on the west side of the lake starting at the southwest end, so that is where we headed this morning.

That is also the reason the title of this post was going to be: "Almost Heaven, West Virgin Trail", but I decided that was too cutesy even for me. Ha!

I also thought the little bridge we found last year when we started from the north end would be only a half mile or so away. But after 7/10's of a mile I decided that was enough for me as it was 7/10's of a mile back to the car, too. I believe if I keep doing my mile or so a day, I'll be ready to go back and finish the whole distance yet this year - maybe in the fall when the leaves are turning colors - or maybe sooner. We'll see.

This is where we started and we had the trail all to ourselves out and back. Lots of bird song, but no bird photos. 😞

But I did get a picture of a butterfly.

I believe this is a Question Mark butterfly. (Even though that is a statement, I feel as though I should end that sentence with a question mark.)

A mass of meadow daisies in the sun.

There had been a recent murder on the trail.

The spotlight shone on this lone feather, but there was another about the same size nearby.

And a step or two further - clumps of smaller feathers. 

The star of this scene was meant to be the white morning glory.

But I think the entire composition is appealing.

What caught my eye here was the chartreuse of the sumac blooms.

But instead of using one of the close up photos I took, this one wins out - again because of the overall composition.

Woods always smell so good to me anytime, but this morning's walk was perfumed all along the way by the creamy white clusters of Elderberries.

Is there a perfume or cologne that has elderberry blossoms in its distillation? I'd buy it.

Yellow Prairie Grass dancing in the lakeside breeze.

At the start of our walk, I could hear the serene splashing of water.

But I was disappointed when I saw where it was coming from. I was envisioning a pretty little stream not some water running through a culvert.

But I took a closer look on the way back and decided there was more to the scene. Like the shimmer of the water flowing through the tube, the sparkling where it hit below and the milky refraction of the patches of sunlight on the pool.

I realized it had a certain allure all its own.

The raspberries aren't ripe yet, but when they are, the birds will have a feast.

These were at the beginning of the trail but I didn't take a picture until we got back.

This smiling monkey face was in the parking lot. I didn't notice it until we got back to the car. (And I didn't touch it to see if it was an eraser or what?)

I thought it was a good representation of how I felt after a 1.4 mile walk in the woods. 

Happy. Very happy. 

Postscript: From Bud's walk at McKinley Park earlier this morning, he brought me this owl feather he found.

I put the two gray feathers I picked up from 'murder on the trail' and added them for a photo.

I can't help but think it may have been an owl that killed the bird of the gray feathers.

A full circle representation of the day? 

These June Days Are Slipping By

Learning the new computer I bought months ago was so frustrating. I finally got all my photos transferred to the new one, learned how to import and post new ones and moved the new computer to my desk last week. For that reason, and because I've been sharing photos on other platforms, I haven't blogged much. Consider this post a 'photo dump' of some favorite pictures the past ten days.

Thursday morning, the 15th, I saw what I thought was a mama deer and her fawn. It looked like she hid the fawn in the deep grasses and then took off at a run up to the trees at the top of the meadow.

It wasn't until I had the pictures on the computer that I realized the fawn was actually a fox that the doe had been chasing off. 

Later in the morning a Redwing Blackbird serenaded from this back of a chair at pond's edge.

Their presence is always welcome in my world.

Hamburger stew - it's what's for lunch. In the book I was reading, they talked about making hamburger stew for a large gathering. The ingredients were listed, but no recipe. So I guessed on amounts and came up enough for the two of us to eat a couple of different days.

I used one pound of ground beef fried with some onion, two cans of stewed tomatoes, one can each of green beans and corn, one and a half to two cups of instant brown rice, salt and pepper and some spices. It was so-o good! A nice change from chili.

They had been working for several days to get the fountain working again. After a few fits and starts, it remained operational.

Thursday evening the setting sun lit up the top like a burning candle.

The strength and spray are higher now with the new pump. The sights and sounds of the fountain once again are most welcome. It last worked in 2016.

Thursday morning, the 16th, I went up to McKinley Park to walk on the trails there.

I parked at the campground and walked up the hill and down and up to the Historical Village.

They've done a lot of work around the village and one of the new things I spotted was the old pedal-powered grindstone outside the blacksmith shop. We didn't have one on our farm but Grandpa Joe did. It fascinated me. 

The pretty magenta-pink ground cover is a new one for me - Bloody Cranes-bill (Geranium Sanguineum), a spreading rhizomatous perennial. I wouldn't mind having some of this around my house.

By the door of the pioneer cabin is an antique iron wash tub with some purple verbena.

Mom had one like this that maybe I should have saved, but didn't. It was so heavy even when not full of dirt. 

Ferns grow on the north side of the old cabin.

I cannot resist the play of sunlight and shadows - especially with such a background of stone and timbers.

While waiting for the library to open, I drove around the east side of town where I happened across this old buggy. It looks very much like the one we had that my sister and I hooked old Queenie to. Our's had a top that got broken off when a reign broke and caused the buggy to go into the ditch while my brother and two of his friends were going down the road.  

5:47 a.m Friday and it looked like we might get some rain.

Even at 8:30 on my morning walk around the neighborhood it still looked like we might get some rain. 

We didn't get any rain.

6:20 a.m. on Saturday - a bit different looking sunrise without the reds and pinks - but I took this shot because of that light blue on the middle right of the photo.

It reminds me of how I was always looking for blue hole pools when we were still doing more extensive traveling.

Another 'new one' for me - something called "slime mold".

It was growing on the maple tree stump next door. Until I looked it up I assumed it was some kind of fungus. Such a bright yellow!

Somehow I skipped picture taking on Father's Day.

And I only have one to show from Monday.

Sunshine and shadows on the hay bales up on the hill.

And only one taken on Tuesday, the first day of summer. 

I heard a little wren singing on the deck. By the time I grabbed the camera, stood up to sight the camera through the window, the wren had hopped up on the flower pot, ducked under the flowers and come out with a three inch piece of stem or some other suitable nest-building substance and flew away.

So, again, a light and shadow photo.

I was up early enough Wednesday morning to see that the sunrise was going to be spectacular.

It was necessary to drive to the nearest high ground to get a less obstructed photo - 5:43 a.m., just off Cottonwood Road.

Around eight a.m. during my morning walk through the neighborhood, I found this little feather - my first feather gift for some time.

The best way to take a picture of it was by placing it in this flower saucer alongside the, I believe, petrified plastron (understide of a turtle) I found when rock hunting on an old dirt road in Adams County last August.

I have some photos I refer to as my Moná pictures. 

They are slightly out of focus and remind me of a Claude Monet painting. 😍

This is the latest - sunrise reflecting on clouds Thursday a.m.

I don't know why some years the Yarrow is faded in color and some years it is bright peachy-pink.

This is a bright year. 

This morning's walk was rain delayed which was just fine because we needed the rain.

The bright purple of a neighbor's Clematis got my attention. At first I took a close-up of it, then I noticed the beautiful proportions of the tree behind it and had to include it, too. 

A bit farther down the street was the first Yucca in bloom that I've noticed this year.

I had some of these on when we lived in West Des Moines and also on the farm. 

I really like them. I don't know why I didn't bring some when we moved here.

This grouping is on the same property. I don't know what all the little flowers are.

I took the photo because of the milkweed plants. I'm glad more people are introducing this weed into their flower beds.

Closer to home, much larger and already blooming are these milkweed plants.

I asked the neighbor if she planted them and she said they self seeded. I didn't see any monarch caterpillars on them but I'm sure there will be.

Lastly, one of the plants I mentioned on the 15th that hadn't bloomed yet was this geranium.

Now I know what color it is. 

And this concludes my ten day round up. 💞

Finally All The Plants Are Potted

Or should I say "All the pots are planted?" Either way, after a later than usual start, I am done adding color to the deck, patio and yard for this year. There are a couple that aren't in bloom yet that I will work into a post once they do bloom. Here are what they look like this year.

Beginning with the last pot planted, just yesterday morning.

These are the volunteer Snapdragons I mentioned in the last post.

The pot was my Great-grandmother Matilda (Tillie) Means' - one she cooked meals in.

The old mail box from the farm. Most years this stays on the patio with herbs planted in it. But where it is next to the sundial is a bare spot once the daffodil plants die down. I can't plant anything in the ground here because it would disturb the bulbs, so I set the mailbox down and plant in it.

Patio pots - petunias in another iron pot. And because there is no drainage, it needs to be kept away from too much rain. 

Extra impatiens went into my Celtic pot. They bloom nicely here in the shade.

This is the bird bath base we found discarded back in the trees a few years ago. 

I couldn't find a matching bird bath bowl for it, but this pot comes close.

This year, geraniums and a vinca vine brighten the corner.

 

I bought this large deck rail planter to grow radishes, with somewhat less than satisfactory results.

This year I tried spinach with even worse results.

So, once again, it contains flowers. I got a deal on these little Periwinkles - two six-packs for $3.00 - by waiting so late to plant.

Every year it seems there is a new color of verbena. Peachy Keen is still my favorite, but unavailable locally, so I went with this year's new ones. I think they were Midnight Blue or something like that. I actually like them alot.

The rocks are to keep the squirrels from digging in the pots. Both pots on either side of the steps are planted the same.

I love this tall Guy Wolff Pottery planter. I've had it many years and it is beginning to show its age.

I love the color of the Pinks I put in it this year. And I feel the vinca vine adds that extra touch.

Of course the first really bright spot of flowers on the deck were my Mother's Day flowers from Doug and Shelly.

They usually hang, but the last couple days have been so windy I thought it safer to set them out of the gusts.

This is always the pot and the corner of the deck for  geraniums - almost always my favorite salmon colored ones.

But the salmon ones were already all gone, so I ended up with these pink ones which are equally gorgeous.

Again, the rocks are to discourage the squirrels!

More of those pink Periwinkles...

I think they'll do well here in the sun in the planter my grandson made for me.

I refer to it as "Brock's Box". 

Again, not the colors I usually plant, but I got the ones that were mostly salmon and worked with that. I guess I was meant to branch out of my routine. 

The lavender I had here the last couple of years died out over the winter so I bought a new perennial and one that is new to me - Delphinium. 

Of course I'm referring to it as "Delphia's Delphinium" as my maternal grandmother's name was Delphia - which was pronounced as Delfie, not Delfee-ah.

Delphia's Delphinium grows very near Tillie's iron pot of  snaps - appropriate, I  think, as they were mother and daughter. 

That's it for this year's planting - well, unless I see some more of those bargain plants and just can't resist. 😍