November '25 Books

 

Twelve books read in November --

Out Of Nowhere by Sandra Brown was at the tail end of my October reads and may be the last of her's that I read. There are still a few at the library that I haven't read but they are some of her older novels and those don't seem to be as well written as her newer books.

The Sands Of Sea Blue Beach is by Rachel Hauck a new author for me. It reminded me of our trip to Dauphin Island, Alabama and our stay at the Gulf Breeze Motel.

The Proving Ground is Michael Connelly's latest book in his Lincoln Lawyer series.

Forget Me Not is by Stacy Willingham another new author. It is about a young woman trying to discover what happened to her sister after she disappeared eighteen years ago.

These Summer Storms is by Sara MacLean yet another new author for me. It is about a wealthy family whose father pits his children against one another to see who inherits his estate.

The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel, was also on the new author shelf at the library. It was one my favorite new author reads* - a historical drama set during and after WWII.  

The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris by Evie Woods, a new author introduced to me by a friend. I really loved this magical story and its beautiful prose.

Something to Look Forward To by Fannie Flagg is a book of warm-hearted, interconnected, short stories.

She Didn't See It Coming is by Shari Lapena, is a well-written whodunnit about the disappearance of a young wife/mother and the first book I've read by this author, though I have a second one waiting on my December reads stack.

The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian is a book I previously read in 2013, long enough ago that it was the same as reading it for the first time. It is a story of love, war and revenge set in Tuscany in WWII. 

The Story Collector and The Lost Bookshop both by Evie Woods and sent to me by the same friend who told me about this author. I really do enjoy magical realism novels. 

With the eight inches of snow we got yesterday, the only thing that would make me happier about this reading weather would be if I had a fireplace or a wood-burning stove.  😊

(*The others were the Evie Woods books.)

November - A Full and Changing Month

November is a full month for us - always with the anniversaries, birthdays and Thanksgiving and this year a wedding. For most of the month, the temperatures were above average.

 

On the 19th we quietly celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary - an achievement I was most grateful for.

This photo of us is from 2000. Just a few changes in twenty-five years. 

Also, without fanfare, we celebrated Bud's 80th birthday and my 82nd.

I should amend that, we did receive lots of birthday and anniversary cards and phone calls.

And my e-Pal, Leslie, spoiled me with a "variety pack" including Mabel the hen, a cute little pig, a watercolor of evergreens, books and other items.

My favorite is the picture which reads: To my dear Irish ePal "who loses herself between the pages and finds her soul in stories. Because sometimes, her heart belongs to worlds you cannot see knowing the greatest adventures begin when you turn a page."

Yesterday we went to Winterset for Thanksgiving at Preston and Shalea's. It was a smaller gathering this year with some of the kids working and because of the forecast for lots of snow.

First we stopped at grandson Devin's and had a nice visit with him, Jessica, Oakley and great-granddaughter Everly. She has really grown since we last saw her - now walking and talking and just being cute in general - those curls!

Somehow I managed not taking a single photo at Preston & Shalea's. Ayden and Greyson were playing a game of Go Fish. I joined in after being reminded how to play. Greyson won, Ayden came in second and I lost. (No surprise there.)  

After turkey and all the trimmings (including shrimp), there was pie. M-m-m-m, pie. And there were still all those warnings about the snow coming and hazardous driving. In order to get out ahead of it we all left around 2p.m. We didn't have snow on the way home but when we got to Creston there was some snow on the streets but none coming down.

A small flock of geese landed on the pond around 4:30 p.m.

They did not stay long - either continuing on south or going back out to Green Valley Lake.

I was awakened at 3:30 a.m. by the sound of a pickup with a blade attached going back and forth clearing snow off the street. It was so bright out with all the snow.

This was the view out my window around 10 a.m. - snow still coming down. It was about 2-3 inches on the deck railing then. Looking out now I would guess about 6-7 inches and still snowing.

That is the reason for my "changing month" line in this blog's title - after a perfectly lovely November - a big change. I'm not crazy about the snow and cold but after a lifetime in Iowa, I'm accepting of it. If nothing else it is beautiful.

Gaining A Grandson

Only 'a little' late posting this, but two weeks ago today we added another grandson to our family when granddaughter Deise and her fiancé Zachary got married. 

Deise's sisters, Dominique and Kathryn were part of the wedding party.

As was her brother, Ki - pictured here with his mother Shalea on the left and cousin Katrina.

My son Preston and Deise doing the obligatory Father/Daughter dance. 

Even Deise's 90-year-old Grandpa Pete got on the dance floor.

I love this photo of Dominique's husband Ian with Ki's two boys Ayden, left and Greyson, right.

It's like they are there as enforcers in case anything goes wrong.  😎

Mothers of the bride and groom.

My daughter-in-law Shalea on the left and Zach's mother Mary Beth on the right.

    

I especially like this photo of  Kathryn and her husband Travis and their two boys Louis on the right and Henri on his dad's lap.

I 'borrowed' this photo from Zach's FB page of them honeymooning in Cancun.

I was surprised when this photo of Deise showed up on my FB page via her place of work.

"Our Deise, is fresh off a honeymoon and back to work! But she chose to spend her special day with us here at the office. We got to celebrate her birthday with her."

Deise and Zach have been together for several years so he has been part of the family for awhile.

But I am glad to recognize him officially as one of my grandsons.

Welcome to the family, Zach!  😘

October '25 Books

Eleven books read during the month of October:

At the end of last month I had read all of my library books so I went back to my own collection for something to read. Robert James Waller's The Bridges of Madison County was the first one I put my hands on. I thought it had been years and years since I last read it, but a search told me I had reread it just five years ago. Slow Waltz In Cedar Bend is another of his books I reread - not as good as Bridges IMO.

Still with the Sandra Brown books - Crush, White Hot and Tough Customer.

Earth's the Right Place for Love is Elizabeth Berg's latest offering. She has been a favorite author of mine since I was introduced by my friend Kristina to her third novel Talk Before Sleep. Earth's the right place continues with her character Arthur Trulove. This is such an inviting book with warmth, humor and insight into people.

Buckeye is the first book I've read by author Patrick Ryan. Covering about sixty years of two small-town midwestern families between WWII and the end of the 20th century, Ryan captures the human desire for love and goodness.

Circle of Gold by Karen Harper is another dip into my own books. I read it long enough ago that I had no recollection of it whatsoever.

Two more Sandra Brown books - Thursday's Child (chosen because I am a Thursday's child) and Smoke Screen. There is a big difference between Brown's early books and her later ones. You can see how much her writing evolved over the years.

Adriana Trigiani is another of my favorite authors whose newest novel is The View From Lake Como - no not that Lake Como - the one in New Jersey. Jess is the overlooked daughter who dutifully stays home, takes care of her parents and cooks Sunday dinner for everyone - until she takes her life into her own hands and escapes to her ancestral home in Carrara, Italy. If you've never read Trigiani, I suggest you give her a try. I don't think you will be disappointed. 

Until next month, enjoyable reading.  😊

October - Turning Late in the Year

 

"This October restlessness was worse than any April's or May's. In the Spring the wish to wander is partly composed of an unnamable irritation, born of long inactivity; ...

...in the Fall the impulse is more pure, more inexplicable, and more urgent."  (Annie Dillard - Pilgrim at Tinker Creek)

"It was one of the October days when to breathe the air is like drinking wine, and every touch of the wind against one's face is a caress." (Sarah Orne Jewett)

So much of October this year has been warmer than usual with the leaves later to change color. Still, it is one of my favorite months of the year.   

Bridal Shower and Royalty

 

Yesterday was my granddaughter Deise's bridal shower in Winterset held in her childhood home.

She has been living in Davenport for five years so many of her friends have also moved away.

Consequently attendance was small but that allowed for more conversation and catching up with the ones who were there.

One of the games played was 'He said, She said' -  guessing which of the two said something or did something first. Surprisingly I got 11 out of 14 correct. 

These gorgeous cookies were served instead of cake.

This weekend was also the Covered Bridge Festival in Winterset so while I was at the shower my driver (hubby dearest) walked downtown where he just happend to be where this year's festival King & Queen were arriving. 

Neither of Deise's sisters were able to be at the shower, but her brother Ki and his boys were in town. I think he and Bud were talking about Ki's chickens.

I was surprised to see this from across the room, a sign that once hung on a post at the end of the lane at Dad & Mom's* farm home. Ki found it in the garage there when we had the farm sale and saved it. A memory from my past as new memories from Deise's shower were being made. 

(* Yesterday was the anniversary of my parents' marriage, 88 years ago.)

September '25 Books

 Eight books read this month.

The Unraveling of Julia is by Lisa Scottoline one of my favorite authors. (Think of her Rizzoli and Isles series.) This novel is about a young widow from America who inherits a Tuscan villa and vineyard in Italy. It is a psychological thriller with many twists.

The Fate Of The Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777 to 1780 by Rick Atkinson is volume two of The Revolution Trilogy. I love history. I enjoy reading about the American Revolution and this book covered many battles I had never heard of. Interesting, but I could not make myself read the entire book. The author described each battle in extreme detail. I did not need all the minutiae to get the idea. I finally gave up.

The Perfect Marriage and Home Is Where The Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose are the other two books the library has by this author. I read the other one in April. 

Seeing Red and Tailspin are two more of the Sandra Brown books I've been reading my way through. 

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert is my favorite read of the month. Spanning much of the 18th and 19th centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the Whittakers - a family of botanical explorers. The daughter, Alma, becomes a brilliant and insatiable botanist driven by an unquenchable sense of wonder. I've already put Gilbert's newest book on my list to read.

The Burning by Linda Castillo is the first book of her's that I've read. I see that the library has a number of her books. I may or may not read any more of them.

A Reunion of Sorts

Some of my fondest memories are of the family reunions of my youth.  Great-grandpa and grandma Ridnour had three children who lived to adulthood. (Their eldest, Freddie, died at age six.) Next in line was my grandfather Joseph, then Florence and lastly, Lottie. 

My Grandpa Joe and Grandpa Delphia Ridnour had three daughters and sixteen grandchildren - my first cousins. Great Aunt Florence and Great Uncle Tom Haley had nine children and 26 grandchildren. Great Aunt Lottie and Great Uncle Guy Inman had five children and 10 grandchildren - 36 second cousins for me to know and grow up with (on that side of my family). And when we all got together for a Ridnour Family Reunion it was a blast, i.e. wild fun.

Families took turns hosting the annual reunions. The farthest I remember going was to Parnell, MO to Fern and Edwin Mitchell's home. 

In 1957 my family hosted the reunion on our farm south of Corning.

Pictures of each family grouping were taken that day. This one is of my Mom's older sister Evelyn and her family.

Left to right: Glen, Janet, Uncle Howard, Lila, Glenna, Larry, Mary Lou and Aunt Evelyn. 

As first cousins we spent a lot of time together.

Pictured here at the same 1957 reunion is the family of Mom's first cousin Esther and her husband Lloyd and their children Shirley, Jenice, Russ and Ron. (The little girl in front was photobombing before that was a term known to photographers.)

Travis's were our neighbors - lived the closest to us and went to the same church we did. Mom was probably closest to Esther as any of her girl cousins.

As we grew up, married, moved away, had families of our own and the elders were no longer around, we didn't see our first cousins as often as we once did and saw our second cousins hardly at all - usually only at a funeral. But I never forgot the good times we had together.

I've been sorting through pictures and trying to return them to family members. Some I've scanned and sent via e-mail or FB messenger. In cases where there were many photos I've taken them to cousins nearby or invited them to pick them up.

Yesterday afternoon one of my 2nd cousins did just that.

I hadn't seen Julie in ages, probably not since her mother died in 2012 and I attended the visitation.

So it was a real delight for me to see her again and spend time catching up with one another. 

There is a French word for how I felt: Retrouvailles - the happiness of meeting someone very dear to you after a long time.

I wish that my children, and grandchildren, could experience the pleasure of being close to their cousins like I was - and some of them are. Maybe they will look back years from now with the same nostalgic feelings I have.

Happy 80th Sis

 

Betty, do you remember how Grandpa Joe used to call you and me and all his other six granddaughters Sis? 

I always thought it was a term of endearment but maybe he just couldn't remember all our names. 

I wish you could be celebrating your 80th birthday with a big family gathering as I did mine.

Instead you only lived another ten years after your high school senior picture was taken.

The Autumnal Equinox occured on the 22nd this year though often it fell on your birthday. Blue was your favorite color because your birthstone was a blue sapphire.

I wish I could remember what we were dressed up for when this photo was taken. I bet you would remember. It must have been the last one taken of the two of us - at least it is the last photo I have of us together.

I will never forget the details surrounding your death. Mom's call telling me you had a cerebral hemmorhage and that you were in the hospital in Omaha. Being there with other family members, being so scared. Taking turns every hour when we were only allowed five minutes in your room. Having to go back to work then hearing that you were getting better, making the trip back to Omaha only to be told when I got there that you had died. Three weeks after your birthday. Two days after your daughter's 5th birthday.

I haven't talked to Kristi in quite awhile. Last I knew your granddaughter Jesse was going to school to become a lawyer. So when I went to her FB page this morning a saw that she now lives in Louisiana I was surprised.

But they were back for Balloon Days this past weekend because I saw this photo of your granddaughter Jesse and great-grandson Boston.

Here's another of him celebrating his 4th birthday which was the 21st, just two days before your's.

I'll always wonder what your life - our lives - would have been like if you had gotten another fifty-two or more years.

Would we still be jealous of one another? Sibling rivalries or best friends? 

I'd like to think we would be enjoying being in one another's lives - living in the same town.

And bragging about our great-grands.  😊

Looking for Autumn

The Autumnal Equinox occured an hour ago. It is officially Fall even if it doesn't feel like it. 

Where are the all the lovely yellows, oranges, golds, crimsons and rusts of autumn? They're not here yet, but it won't be long and I'm ready. Fall is my season.

I did spend a little time this morning driving around looking for any sign of color. About the only I found were the buffs of bean and corn fields and the whites of fall grasses.

The dredging continues at Lake McKinley. Much progress has been made but they are still only about half done.

You can see the 'bluff' in the background. That is how deep the lake is being lowered. I guess I did find some color after all - in the abundant, dying, weeds.  

"Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells."
-   John Keats - To Autumn

A Tea Pet for National Chai Day

If not for my e-pal Leslie, I would not have known about tea pets. From the website of TEASENZ: "A tea pet is a traditional craft from China which is usually made from yixing clay (also known as zisha) and ceramic. It's a tea lover's practice in China to nourish the tea pets by rinsing them with tea liquor."

They advise regularly pouring tea over your pet and in time your tea pet will absorb the scent of the tea that you drink. If I do as they suggest, mine will smell like bergamot from my favorite tea - Ahmad Earl Grey. Below is a photo from their website of what I consider the cutest of the tea pets.

I also like the Toad and the Faceless Buddha tea pets.

And I know my daughter Kari would absolutely love this one - the Octopus.

Another thing she loves is Chai Tea which she may be drinking on this National Chai Day.

And just as I would not have known about tea pets, I most likely would have missed National Chai day without Leslie's gift of this tea pet and tea bags.

I don't drink much chai tea but I always have it on hand. If I feel a cold coming on it is my remedy for warding off the illness before it takes hold. 

Today I'm drinking this English Tea Shop chai from the tea bowl I got at the Mad Potter Studio in Weston, MO.

The National Chai Day Calendar recommended adding milk and sugar to the tea.

I tried it both ways and much prefer it plain.  The additions diluted the chai flavor too much. 

Happy National Chai Day and thank you Leslie for my cute, as yet unnamed, piggies. 

A Golden Hour

 

I recently saw this painting by Florence Fuller online and immediately was drawn to the romance of it - a couple strolling together during evening's golden hour. A Golden Hour is the name of the painting done by Fuller in 1905. The location was in the Darling Ranges of Western Australia. Fuller was born in South Africa in 1867 and migrated with her family as a child to Melbourne Australia.

A golden hour reminded me of when I used to refer to something perfect happening as one of my golden moments. It could be a feeling of accomplishment, making a real connection with someone, having fun with my children, enjoying a glass of wine with a best friend, or knowing something I had done had helped someone else. I've been reading one of my journals from the early 80's looking for some golden moments I had written about then. I did find a quote from my therapist as we concluded my last session. He reminded me to "Enjoy the moment." After that I wrote "And my Golden Moments."

Later....I still haven't found any golden moments in my old journals. If I do I'll add them later.