Book Pages

Got the perfect spring read, and it brings back memories of our daughter's pre-college preparations, those whirlwind college visits, filing applications, writing essays and poems, all the nail biting on which way to go for the next four years of her life. It is Admission, written by Jean Hanff Korelitz. This book tells the story of Portia, a Princeton admissions officer. She begins a tour of New England private schools, after moving her post from the West coast, and stumbles into a new and small crunchy granola sort of school in the outback of New Hampshire. There she finds a teacher she falls in love with, and her adopted out son she had 17 years earlier, and never shared news of with her mother or her partner at Princeton. When she returns from her journey, her partner leaves her, to be with a lover who is now pregnant with his child. Portia continues on with her job, but spirals into depression, barely functioning. The teacher from Quest, the New Hampshire private school, comes into town with her son and other students in tow, to tour Princeton. She is reunited with him, he "rescues" her from her depression, enough to realize that she has to come to grips (her personal admission) with her son's future. She performs a dishonestly moral act of changing transcripts to get her son accepted into Princeton, loses her job, and moves back to Vermont to reconcile with her mother, but is on the road to admitting her needs for love and reconnections. I learned so much about the processes of student applications, interviews, essays, and tests, and how they are judged by readers and admissions personnel, not just at Princeton, but all over the U.S. And of course this all brought a BIG sigh of relief, that we don't have to face THAT all over again.

Garden Trek Log--Day 5

Got our seraphim statue in place, in the lily bed. She may look small, but she stands (kneels) almost four feet tall. Got the madonna and asian lilies planted in the same bed too. Mulch really works on keeping down the weeds out there. I have been fighting that weed problem ever since I started it 25 years ago. Just took FOREVER in the spring to pull out the weeds, then FOREVER in the summer to re-pull. Finally decided a few years ago, that's it. I am sticking all kinds of lilies in out there, and mulching between after they come up. It is working! Yes we still have giant fescue coming up in batches, which I work on keeping down, and yes we still have giant dandelions coming up, which I also dig out. But basically it looks a whole lot better than it used to. Hubby is planting flower seeds out in the garden, in the empty spaces. Got some 12 foot high giant sunflower seeds last night. We shall see. Otherwise, zinnias and cosmos and smaller sunflowers are going to be the flowers of choice this year. Rain is predicted for this afternoon and the next few days, so perfect timing on planting the seeds I hope. Gardening now consists mainly in weeding and trimming, oh and don't forget the mowing. Keeping up with what we have done so far.

Book Pages

Remember that famous movie, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"? Remember singing along and later humming "Raindrops keep falling on my head"? Well, a book I just finished brought me back to that movie, and song, which kept playing as background music to the book as I read. It is Etta, by Gerald Kolpan. Mr. Kolpan weaves the story behind the woman behind the romantic history of Harry Longbaugh, a.k.a. the Sundance Kid. I always wondered about her, what caused her to take up with a criminal, even if he did resemble Robert Redford. As did Mr. Kolpan, fleshing out a marvelous story of a young woman, daughter of a financier in Philadelphia, a debutante who becomes a girl on the run from the Black Hand, killer of her father. Etta is transfigured into a Harvey Girl, moving to Colorado to work in one of their restaurants. There she kills a man who tries to savagely beat and rape her, and finds herself at the Hole in the Wall for refuge. She falls in love with Sundance, and they begin a series of sophisticated robberies, alongside Butch Cassidy. At one point Etta has to travel back East, where she meets a young Eleanor Roosevelt, and they become fast friends. This is a great "what-if" tale, bringing history alive, and the author has done a great job of convincing the reader that anything in the days of Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show is more than entertainment--it's the real deal!

Garden Trek Log--Day 4

Returned from the Lake, after a "mom check", and a little outlet mall shopping during a dreary rainy day. Found a verdigris garden angel for our front flower bed, which I am so proud to say, is amazingly short of weeds this spring (mulch works!). I highly recommend a trip to Tuesday Morning at the Red Roof Outlet, for all you bargain hunters out there. Anyway, when we returned, our tulips were finished with their blooms, losing petals here and there. But the cutest little baby tree frog had bloomed on one of our tulips by the fireplace flower bed, so hubby captured its picture!

Garden Trek Log--Day 3

It's come down to this, what do you do with the tchotchkes you find at garage sales once you get them home? And that is what the lilac bush in full bloom is there to address--a perfect spring picture! Bargain vase from the last garage sale I visited yesterday (actually a really cute chicken pitcher) and the full blown lilacs.

Garden Trek Log--Day 2

Drove out to Alma and beyond, on a gravel road to the neatest greenhouse/nursery--Garden Cart. They sell Amish raised flowers and vegggie plants, perennials, herbs, just the most beautiful little pots of color, you want one of each! And the prices are reasonable, so worth the trip. Stocked up, and even got a free bonus--a friendly "hello" from a yellow lab who wanted a tummy rub--now that made the trip even more worthwhile!

Garden Trek Log--Day 1

Spring is bursting out all over, in our back, front and side yards. Dogwood, redbud, lilac, wild delphinium, and LOADS of dandelions. Must be the state flower gone wild! Serviceberry on the edges of the woods, oh look can it be, MORE dandelions? That's all right, the tulips, and late crops of daffodils more than make up for it. And those gold finches seem to enjoy sitting in between the yellow flowers. So at least they are making some birdies happy.