These is my Words by Nancy E Turner

These is my Words by Nancy E Turner

I found this a fascinating book and you will too if you enjoy a saga of an American family set in  1881 to 1901. This is story of a frontier  pioneering family that starts in Colorado, travels back to Texas and then decides to return but only gets as far as Arizona and eventually settles close to Tucson. It shows the hardships of the wagon train, Indian wars, the problems and courage of  the early pioneers as they sort to make a life in the new world they had come to live in.

Now that could be very dreary book but the style that it is written in, appeals to me very much. The subtitle of the book is the diary of Sarah Agnes Prine . It is written in diary format. Now this would be a very long book if it was actually written as a day to day diary form but it is written as events happen that are of any interest to Sarah.( facebook wasn't around then !!)

She starts out as a very motivated and feisty young adolescent just becoming a teenager and we follow her throughout her trials until she gets married,gets very disillusioned with her life, gets educated, falls in love with a Calvary officer and starts a family of her own. She is one of the many characters in this book and by the end of the book you know her and her family very well.

This was one of the first books written by Nancy Turner. After I read her book My name is Resolute,which I enjoyed very much, I checked the other books she had written and I am very glad I did.This book was based in part on the author's great grandmother Sarah Prine.
A most enjoyable read! 

The Turks Cap

The Turks Cap

Turks cap close up

This plant is usually found growing in shady areas o woodlands but you have to look closely to see the turk's cap on it.
We are very lucky to have one growing in a very sunny area by our garage and it does well as long as it gets well watered.
I love the bright color red of the flowers against the green leaves.
Unfortunately so do the grasshoppers !! 
                 

Turks cap full size.

The Baker's wife by Erin Healy

The Baker's wife by Erin Healy

This is a complicated mystery novel and the baker's wife is Audrey. Before she was the baker's wife, she was the pastor's wife but due to complications in their church,  the pastor  lost his job. The family, the pastor/baker, his wife and teenage son  stayed in the same town and opened a bread and pastry shop.

One morning when it is very foggy driving to work, Audrey hits a motor scooter and there is a crash. There is nobody on the ground, but there is a pool of blood just no body to be found. The police are called and the detective who takes the case is called Jack. Jack is the same man that caused the baker to lose his job as pastor . The motor scooter  turns out to  belongs to Jack's wife, Julie. But where is she?She has disappeared and can't be found.

 Jack suspects Audrey of having killed Julie and has with her husband hidden the body.The  story continues and with each day that Julie is not found, Jack gets more delusional and accusatory of Audrey and her husband. A hostage situation develops and Audrey is tasked  by Jack with finding Julie in a short time or Jack will shoot the baker and his son.

The story is quite complicated but it does hold your interest and makes for good reading. I didn't figure out how it would end until almost the last page so it was a good mystery.

Challenge painting for July

Sunset in Cuba- July Challenge painting

'Cuban Sunset" acrylic on canvas 16"x20"

I've painted sunsets before and they are interesting to do as the colors are often a challenge. The original photo was quite dark and when I had finished painting I felt I should have made the right side of the painting darker to give it more effect.

Original challenge photo

I did find the painting lacking a bit in composition but overall was quite pleased with the result. I had one big problem when painting. I usually mix paint colors actually on the canvas but it was so warm in the room, the paint was drying before I could get that to happen. So I had to switch to a glazing medium to mix the acrylic paints. That made it easier and gave a little shine to the water.So not all was lost and it did give it a different effect.

What Changes Everything

What Changes Everything by Marsha Hamilton

This was not an easy book to read as it concerned the current war in Afghanistan and the troubles and misfortune that is occurring not only in Afghanistan and to the people living there, but also to people in America.

At the start of  the book we read about the last political Afghan leader and how he was deposed before all these wars were started. His wife and family were exiled and for many years he lived in the virtual prison in Afghanistan and wrote letters to his family always expecting to come to them. The letters are placed throughout the book. It shows political problems and trouble are not new to Afghanistan.

But the book is not a historical book about times past as it dwells in the present time. It concerns many separate people and families that are all touched by the current war. The first is a fairly newly married wife and her husband who works for a charitable organization and loves his job and loves the people of Afghanistan. He is taken hostage by unknown forces and his wife and family have to worry of how they will deal with this and if he will be killed or returned.

The second person is an immigrant mother who has two sons. One of her son, a gentle soul, for some reason becomes a soldier and goes to fight in Afghanistan and is killed. The other son has never been able to understand why his brother went to Afghanistan and is very angry not only at his brother but at his mother too. He isolates himself from her.

The second son tries to understand his anger by becoming a street artist. He goes out every night and paints antiwar sign in graffiti style on walls around the city. One night the wife of the hostage meets him as he is painting and they form a relationship and by doing so manage to  help and support each other.

A common bond is met between all these people and shows the  political aspects and the conflict  that spreads everywhere during war.
Not an easy book to read but it does gives some understanding to present conditions that many people are facing.

An Unusual Day in Texas

An Unusual Day in Texas

our yard today- not very Summery

July in Texas is not a place to be if you don't like hot weather. The usual low-temperature is about 78° and the high can easily reach 99° to even over 100°. The blue skies look lovely and occasionally you have little white fluffy clouds fluttering by but not a drop of rain comes from them. The sun shines from early in the morning until fairly late in the evening. People who live here get used to it and wear shorts and T-shirts and do their shopping in sandals , adapt to the steamy hot weather and don't think much about it.

This year the weather has been most peculiar. We had a warm spring followed by heavy frost and then very little rain. Summer started with hotter temperatures about mid-June but the weather did not really warm up. We have yet to reach a 100° day. Most unusual!

I don't think we need to worry about flooding

Now today something really strange happened. We had a raging downpour in our part of North Texas. Some parts got 11 inches of rain in a very short time and one of the major highways was completely flooded and had to shut down. At our house we got close to 3 inches of rain and a river ran through the yard. Not really a river just a constant stream through our drainage ditch and our famous Bridge to Nowhere actually had water flowing underneath.
Yes it was a strange day for July Texas.

Look how it has bloomed!!

You might remember the lovely  bougainvillea that I was given as a present in the Spring. Such a beautiful plant and it has done so well that I just couldn't believe it.
I read that they love the hot weather and the sun and so just ignore them and they will do well until the frost.
Well I have done mostly that but I have kept it well watered as anything will dry out in the weather in Texas in the summer. We are just now hitting the high heat so I hope  the lovely plant continues to thrive.

My name is Resolute

My name is resolute by Nancy E Turner

This is a this is an historical novel set in the 18th and 19th century, written by a very good author.
The story opens in 1729 and tells  the life of Resolute Talbert who is  pre-adolescent when the story starts. Resolute and her family are of noble class that have been sent by the King of England to manage a slave plantation in Jamaica. Their life is easy and carefree until one day they are raided by pirates. Their grand house is burnt, their parents are killed and Resolute and her sister Patience and brother are taken captive.

After a dreadful and cruel sea voyage to New England the girls are sold into slavery and the brother pressed into being a pirate. Resolute and Patience are treated very poorly and made to work befitting servants. They are given little to eat but deliverance comes when a raid by Indians captures the girls and transports them to Québec.   They are passed on to a convent, and treated like indentureded servants. Work at the convent includes working in the flax fields, spinning and weaving. Their work is  hard but they still  yearn for freedom and for Resolute it is a matter of finding her way back home to Jamaica. Her elder sister Patience realizes that this is a just a wild dream.

Escape comes when the girls make a  run for it and Patience decides to go to join and marry the Indian who helps them escape but Resolute is determined to go back to find a way to Jamaica. Resolute  then makes her own way and finds herself eventually in Lexington in Massachusetts. She is befriended by a crazy  and old, out- cast, village woman. Gradually she learns to fit into the village.

She becomes friendly with some higher class people who think she is a noblewoman from Jamaica.She becomes engaged to a nobleman who says he will take her to Jamaica. Unfortunately before this can happen, papers come through that prove that her parents have died and the King of England has given the plantation and land to another nobleman and she has no title to it so she becomes destitute again. The old village woman helps her  by giving her an old dilapidated cottage and suggests that she can become a spinner and weaver by trade. This she does very successfully and later on marries a woodworker, becoming successful at her trade and then she has her own family.

The last part of the book deals with the American colonies breaking away from the British Crown. Resolute and her family are very much involved in the struggle.
This is the part of the book that really intrigued me as I did not realize completely the heavy taxation burdens that were put on the colonials at that time without any representation in Parliament. I can now see why they wanted to break from English rule.
This is indeed a long saga to read but very readable and if you enjoy history and a good story line, you should enjoy it.

Cocktail Mix Hibiscus

Cocktail Mix Hibiscus

This is the other hibiscus that I bought to liven up the front garden.I loved the color on this one and it had lots of blossoms when I bought it and strangely enough, I see that blossoms have fallen off , but  it still seems like the same amount on the plant.I say that but I should say so far for now as the temperatures are getting really high all over 97 this week and even though these plants get a little shade at some time during the day, I wonder just how much they can stand.
I also wonder if this is a perennial  but I guess not unless I overwinter it inside.
I know I can't stand much more heat. It's inside living for a while!
As usual great photo by Mike.

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

This was a very interesting mystery murder novel set in modern times. A middle age single mother, a hard-working corporate lawyer, gets called to her daughter's upscale school in the middle of the day. Kate, the mother wonders what can be wrong? Her daughter Amelia who is a sophomore in high school  is a good all round student, very independent and has never been in trouble.

When Kate arrives at school she finds the police there investigating her daughters death! The police investigation believes that Amelia has committed suicide by jumping off the roof of the school and Kate is devastated.
After  the funeral and a while later as Kate comes out of her shock, doubts set in especially when Kate gets a blocked message in the text "Amelia did not jump". The novel continues from there as Kate reconstructs  Amelia's life in the days before she died to find out what really happened.Was it a suicide or was it murder?

The story is told partially in Kate words in the present time and also in Amelia's words through her past emails , her text messages and descriptions of her life up to the point of her death. It takes a while for the story to develop and sometimes reading through the texts and emails does get a bit tedious but the further the story develops, the more intriguing it gets until you  find out at the end of the book what really happened to Amelia.
Was it a suicide or was it murder?
That's for you to read to find out!!

The Beautiful Hibiscus

The Beautiful Hibiscus

I have always admired this beautiful flower and my friend in California has a huge bush which I think is hibiscus that grows just outside her door. Last year I bought a hardy hibiscus, the type that is supposed to grow in Texas throughout the year. I planted it outside in a sunny flower bed. Well it did survive the very heavy frosts we had in the spring but then it just sat there and hardly any new leaves  have been produced, let alone flowers. I suppose I should be thankful that it did not die altogether.

So this year, a couple of weeks ago, I bought another hibiscus.This is one that grows in a large pot. I believe this is a tropical hibiscus with the large flowers that only last a day or so and so far we have had only a couple of blooms but I can see others forming on the plant.  I hope soon there will be others. If this plants survives I know I will have to take it  in doors during the winter.

The photo that Mike took is the original bloom on the plant and is truly magnificent.. I'm hoping there will be other flowers to follow. If it happens I'll post
 the photos.

Accused by Lisa Scottoline

Accused by Lisa Scottoline

This was the book that I read last week. Not altogether successful although when I picked it up in the library I thought it would be just fine. I should have known better because it was a "lawyer type" book. I used to like those kinds of books and read many of the John Grisham books which I have enjoyed but since then have found that many of the newer novels about different lawyers who actually become far too involved in solving cases, are  just not my favorite kind of book.

I found when I was reading this book that it was one  in a series of books about  a firm of lawyers that were all women. One of the characters, Mary D' Nuncio has just been made a partner, has just become engaged to be married and is having difficulty managing her new place in the firm and her one-time sidekick, Judy. Add to that her family is a typical Italian American family, noisy, gregarious and humorous so all these complication has to be sorted out in your mind before the story gets going.
The plot of the story centers on the way Mary deals with a 12-year-old genius child who employs Mary to solve the mystery of her older sister's murder. The murder has already been solved by the police and the murderer is in jail. The young girl's parents who are wealthy people, are extremely upset with this outcome and the way their younger daughter is hiring a lawyer and getting involved and are determined to stop Mary taking the case.
 But Mary decides that she will take the case and gets involved.
Once the mystery starts to be solved the book gets more interesting
This is not book that I would recommend if  you want a  good gripping  mystery.