No Longer MIA, I'm Back in Town, Pink Petals and More

 

Pink Petals is ready to be joined.  Squares are all sized, and edged and the squares are tied together.  I had to put this away as we prepared to leave for a tour of Sicily.  Then after return the massive job of fall clean up of all the flower beds awaited.  So, am finally pulling this back out in hopes of crocheting it together in the coming week.

Sicily was fantastic.  I'm blogging about our tour, HERE.

Because we don't want to go crazy we need humor.

Saw this the other day during one of my walks, and couldn't resist not taking a picture.

While this is humorous, his rant about Arnold Palmer was pretty disgusting.

The Orphan Collector takes place in the slums of Philly in 1918.  This German immigrant faces anti-immigrant sentiment alone, as her father is off to war (to prove his allegiance to his new country), the Spanish flu hits.  One day she's a young girl, the next she is charged with caring for her baby brother.  So much turmoil, so much growing up to do over night.  Her spirit is truly amazing. 

The Phoenix Crown takes place in San Francisco.  The paths of two unlikely subjects, Gemma a soprano and Suling a Chinatown embroideress amid the confusion and destruction of the San Francisco Earthquake.  Toss in some romance with a railroad magnet and you have lots of excitement and intrigue.

Another fun Elin Hilderbrand book.  I'm soon going to have non left to read which makes me sad.  But, summer has come to an end so perhaps the timing is right.  You might recognize this title, as there was a movie with Nicole Kidman.  I read/listened to the book long before watching the movie and I thought the movie left out some very good background.  A wedding, expensive beach front venue......but a body is discovered.  So many suspects, and who's sleeping with who exactly?

Writers block, bills piling up, overly friendly landscaper, Fast Eddie with money problems, rumors and gossip galore.  Sides drawn in friendships and families.  A lot to unpack here.

Yes, really 6th wedding for him....doesn't that intrigue you enough without knowing anything else?  Short read.

Read this before you read the Matchmaker.  It wasn't listed that way when I got my copy of all her books, so I read them out of order...which wasn't a big deal; but I think less enjoyable than it could have been.  Young college kids, two different schools...sparks or not?

To the best of my knowledge that's the end of her books.  My understanding is her next one due out shortly will not be about Nantucket and all the familiar places and people.  I don't know if that's going to work or not.  You get these places and people in your brain.  We'll see how it goes.

With all the changes I've mentioned on fitbit, I'm not able to list things as I did in the past.  I know I did more walking than normal when we were in Sicily, because many of our tours were walking tours.  I can tell I had several days over 14.000 steps and it looks like most of those days were 11-12K.  I can tell thus far this year it says my daily average number of steps is 8,412, with February being the highest at 10,597 and August being the lowest at 6,908 (4.39miles and 2.81 miles).  So far this month I'm at 3.4 miles and September was 3.5.  So, ups and downs.  These past 2 weeks, I've mowed a few times, took a walk a few times, but mostly it's been yard work which though exhausting doesn't give you many steps.

And with that, I'm going to put on my walking shoes and take myself out for a spin, lol.  Then I'll start catching up with you all by blog walking.

Filling My Summer Days with Crocheting, Audio Books, and Walking

 

Fire cracker in the works.  I'm over half done with sizing the squares, so it's coming alone.

One twin lives on Nantucket, one on Martha's Vineyard.  These two take sibling rivalry to a whole new level.  Does a family emergency bring them together...or not?

The wild night life associated with fast money in the restaurant/bar business.  Love vs friendship.  The gamesmanship of who sits where and why, money talks.

The year I graduated from high school, so naturally I had to read this one.  The story of the chaos of the times experienced through one family.  Oldest granddaughter pregnant with twins stranded in Boston, 2nd granddaughter in the midst of civil rights demonstrations, the only grandson fighting in Vietnam, and the youngest grandchild at age 13 lonely and angry and coming of age.  Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick.  Perhaps no other year in history experienced so much.

Recommend all 3 of these Elin Hilderbrand books.

You're not in Kansas anymore Todo.  Failed marriage...maybe?  Corruption and lust in a small town, government only for a few.  Who's having an affair with who?  Lots of action.  I rated this book a 3 out of 5.  It's a summer read, as it takes place at the beach.  I wouldn't put it tops on your list; but if you're running out of summer books for fun.

Super disappointed in this book.  It received The Good Reads Choice Award, but I don't know why.  As I read the reviews, people either gave it a 5 or a 1.  I gave it a 1 because I couldn't give it a zero.  James McBride sees love in this book and the people in the neighborhood.  I saw deceit, lies, violence and all around shameful behavior on almost everyone's part.  I forced myself to finish the book, even though I didn't want to.  I kept thinking it was rated well, won awards, perhaps it will get better.  From my perspective, it did NOT!.

I thought this was a powerful meme.  

During one of my walks through the neighborhood to a park, I spotted this hideous Pepto Bismol pink car.  I've never seen anything like it and wonder why anyone would buy and drive it.  I've seen some pink Mary Kay cars, but they weren't like this.

Speaking about walking, July's average miles per day is 3.73 which is down slightly from June at 3.85.  My best day was July 4th with 8.20 miles.  I mentioned Fitbit has ruined the webpage by removing the dashboard and the backlash is huge.  The number of complaints in the forum grows daily.  It remains to be seen if they will make their people happy but bringing it back, or sending the people to other platforms like Garman, Apple Watch, and or Samsung Watch.  Many have said they will leave Fitbit if it's not reinstated.

I've been removing some folks from my blog list.  Some that don't seem active any longer, and others who don't return blog visit.  But, I happily have added some new bloggers to the list as well.  I find it fun to meet new bloggers.

Purple Haze in Stages, Falling Leaves, Exercise and Books!

 

Purple Haze.  Hubby mentioned this name, so I went with it .  Does it remind you of Jimmy Hendrix?  Here it's laid out to dry.

Here it is in stage 2, I've edged the squares to even up sizes, and tied the squares together to begin joining them.

Here it is before anything was done.  It changed quite a bit, and I did move a few squares around after edging.

Waiting in the wings is Falling Leaves.  This is most unusual in that I had enough donated squares to make a pattern.  The green squares aren't quite the same size of the orange and variegated, and the yellow aren't granny squares; but this one should require less work to size things up to join.

February was a pretty good month in terms of activity.  My mileage went from 115.48 miles in January to 127.83.  I went for 10 actual purposeful walks in January and 15 in February.  Hubby fixed up the bike from Goodwill so I managed to get 6 bike rides in afterwards.  Planks are both up and down.  They're up in that I increased from 45 seconds x 4 to 50 seconds x 4 partway through the month; but my total repeats are less.  I did planks 17 days in January and 15 days in February.  Sadly I neglected to document 2 days in February...so don't know what I did those days.

Help Me to Find My People.  I returned this to the library only partially read.  I tried several times to get into it; but found it bland, and very repetitive.  Lots of stats and references to other books and authors exploring how slaves felt being sold, being separated from the families.  They felt bad.......I don't think you need stats to know that.  They felt fearful, they felt useless.  It's not rocket science.  Everything about slavery was horrible.  Most people know that, except for White Supremists. 

Hush Harbor was frightening, thought provoking and difficult.  An uprising because cops killed a Black American who was un-armed.  Sadly, we've witness this is the news far too often.  This book shows a group of people fed up and fighting back.  I found it chilling, but highly recommend this book.

Kinfolk........small town life in Alabama, a dysfunctional family. An un-educated girl finds a family can be more than blood.  It's a heartwarming story with some dark undertones of what people live with.  It's read by the author which made it even more enjoyable.  Highly recommend this book.

Another Finish, Ta Dah, and Starts, Jimmy Carter AND.....

 

School Days/Daze is being blocked here at it's drying.  The rectangles with the mixed colors were a bit of a challenge size wise.  Had to edge them differently.  ANd as you can see some are turned horizontally and others vertically. in order to fit right.  In part, because they were very stretchy.  Not sure what stitch was used when they were made, but in some cases I needed to mix stitches when edging to not leave holes, as the side stitches were fairly loose; but am pleased with the end result.  It measures 51 x 61, and was made with 30 squares.

Here's the before picture, though it's not oriented the same way as the finished picture above.  I had to stand on the side to get the best shot for the completed picture.  This is the 3rd afghan I've made while we're here on the island from pieces parts.

And this is the next one I'm working on.  I've begun edging some of the squares, but this picture is before I started edging.  These are all crocheted squares and rectangles.  This one is called Purple Haze..

I finally got around to grabbing my calendar and adding things up for January and added stats to my exercise tab across the top of the blog.  In Jan I did 35 second planks with 10 seconds rest x 4 repeats and did that 4 days, then upped the time again to 40 seconds and did that 4 times, then upped again to 45 seconds and did that 9 days, so in total did 17 planks during January which is an increase I'm happy to say.  

My mileage is up by 6 miles over December, at 115.48 miles.  I did 10 purposeful walks which is also up a bit from December.  I started doing leg lifts to a count of 40 (occasionally 50) and did that 9 times in January..

February is coming along, and since I got my Goodwill bike (see previous blog post), I'm adding some bike rides to my exercise.

A very good read, thought provoking about being Black through the history of one primary family in the south, Jim Crow laws and more.  Add this to your list.

If you've been a frequent visitor to my blog, you know how many WWII historical books I've read/listened to.  So, I consider myself fairly well versed on The War, and how vastly different horrors there were; but I did not know about the plot to kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill.  All these years later after documents have been unsealed, much is still being learned.

History might not show Jimmy Carter to be one of our best Presidents, but, it will show him to be a great man.  A truly involved and caring man.  The work he did after his Presidency is incredible, even without his work with Habitat for Humanity.  He worked so hard for peace in the middle east, and had such a profound understanding of the needs and wants of people.  I found this to be an important read given the sad situation we're in today.  Please read this book.

Another round of beautiful roses, this time gorgeous yellow which is my personal favorite over red..  I always consider yellow to be such a happy color.

A Finish Ta Dah! More Starts, Audio Books, and TV Series

 

Initial Design of Wee Bit Irish (the before pictures)

Step 2, The edging begins, and it already look less Irish to me, thought maybe Irish Mint would be a good name.

Ta Dah, finished, been laundered and is now being blocked/drying.  I've renamed this afghan to Mint Julip.  Irish just doesn't fit anymore.  I'm happy with the finished project and a bit surprised how much it changed.  That happens sometimes, sometimes it doesn't.

Meet Green Acres, the next project.  Same number of squares 25.  Again you can see the varying sizes of the squares.  A few more in this design are knitted then Mint Julip, but still the bulk of the squares are crocheted.

Step 2,, edging with sage green has begun.  7 of the 25 squares are edged, as I work to get squares sized the same.

Connie Britton, as Rayna Jaymes in the TV series Nashville that hubby and I have been enjoying.  Lots of good music in it, especially if you like country.  We're in season 3, never watched this back when it came out in 2012.  Love, sex, and rocknroll as they say.

 What's better than a love story, beachy book to take your mind of the cold ugly winter!  This fun book has romance, friendship, and adjustments to daily life...sometimes up and sometimes down.  

Women making their hard road in the CIA during the Cold War for starters.  Family Affairs and secrets, and an assignation.  Very intriquing.

War changes people.  Secrets and murder in a small town.  Mystery and Prejudice.  Everyone knows your business, or do they?

The month isn't over, so I have some time to add to my mileage.  I've walked 85.11 miles thus far in January.  Hoping to catch up or at least get close to 109.15 which was December.  I've done 15 sets of planks so far this month, just 1 shy of the 16 I did in December, so feeling encouraged there.  Stay tuned.

New Years, Stash Busting, Exercising and Books!

 

Happy New Year to you all.  This was a LONG time ago, neither hubby or I had gray.  Plus, we no longer party out over New Years.  We were skiing in Holiday Valley back in the day, had party hats, noise makers etc.  Hope you all had an enjoyable and safe New Years.  We had a nice meal, toasted in the New Year with some bubbly, then called it a night.  I'm feeling tired today, not used to staying up that late.

Sherbet Baby Blanket is finally done!!  It's drying and being slightly blocked.  I edged with a small crocheted ruffle.  Need to get it in the mail for my great niece.

Haven't recorded exercise in a while.  October I knew was well down, but hadn't recorded the stats.  81.05 miles (average of 2.6 daily), November was better 99.4 miles (average of 3.31 daily).  December was up at 109.15miles (average 3.5 daily).  My high for December was 23,341 steps (10 miles with a low of 4,019 just 2 miles.  I'm pleased that steps/mileage is up...AND Starting Dec 1st I was able to start doing planks again...my elbow no longer a problem.  Before the injury I was doing 55 second planks with 14 seconds of rest x 4.  When I restarted I started with 30 second planks with 10 second rest x 4 and managed to do that 10 times in December and then upped to 35 seconds x 4 and did that 6 times.  So 16 planks throughout the month.  I also restarted doing knee lifts a count of 50 and did that 12 times in Dec, along with a fast count of 100 walking in place 9 times in the month.  Let's see what January brings.  

This is what 41.5 pounds of yarn looks like!  This is a drop in the bucket of my yarn stash.  My daughter convinced me to do some sorting.  I had lots of baby yarn, variegated knitting worsted, and tons of white and off white yarn that was left from projects, and a good deal of yarn that was donated throughout my 14 years of running a charity that benefited Homeless.  The 41.5 pounds is being donated in multiple places where it can be used.  This is all yarn that wasn't suited to my particular charity.  It took multiple days to roll the yarn in balls after doing lots of detangling.  My daughter will distribute this once back from the holidays in St. Louis.

An interesting historical fiction about a woman, a Black Woman passing as White and being a part of Old Hollywood with all it's glamour.  Very insightful.  I enjoyed the story.

Another historical fiction post World War II.  A story about a rather dysfunctional family, their lives from being rather poor to becoming rich.  Lots of entanglements between family members.  Extremely enjoyable with Tom Hanks being the moderator.  

Classified as historical fiction.  This book takes place in Georgia in 1958 during the horrible Jim Crow period.  10 children, different fathers, and a horrible mean spirited and aggressive controlling mother.  A story about survival.

Another historical fiction.  A lot going on in this book, betrayal, love, isolation, and adapting as one comes of age.  The Marsh Girl is a naturalist...self taught.  You root for her throughout the whole book.

Still blogging about my tour of The UK, The Military Tattoo