Random photo: Last of the bleeding hearts



Last bleeding heart of the season * May 30, 2012



Random Photo: Baby Robins

All of the baby robins have hatched since last Friday. Talk about a nestful!

The parental units were not at all thrilled with this photo shoot.

Random Photo: Shoe No. 1



This shoe has been lying along my walking route for several weeks now.



Thursday Thirteen 252: Spelling Bee/Time Machine

This week is the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC. There were 278 spellers who qualified this year, including the youngest speller ever to appear at the event at age 6 (she went out in round two on Wednesday). The preliminaries were held Wednesday morning, with semifinals being held Thursday morning on ESPN2, and finals Thursday night on ESPN. Check your local listings for times if interested in watching the event.

Since I am currently reading The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, I thought I would get you in the spelling bee mood with a few vocabulary words from this classic science fiction novel. These are taken from the first half of the book.

precipitous [pri-sip-i-tuhs] adjective

extremely or impassably steep: precipitous mountain trails.

precocious [pri-koh-shuhs] adjective

unusually advanced or mature in development, especially mental development: a precocious child.

expound [ik-spound] verb (used with object)

1. to set forth or state in detail: to expound theories.

2. to explain; interpret.

recondite [rek-uhn-dahyt, ri-kon-dahyt] adjective

1. dealing with very profound, difficult, or abstruse subject matter: a recondite treatise.

2. beyond ordinary knowledge or understanding; esoteric: recondite principles.

3. little known; obscure: a recondite fact.

connubial [kuh-noo-bee-uhl, -nyoo-] adjective

of marriage or wedlock; matrimonial; conjugal: connubial love.

etiolate [ee-tee-uh-leyt] etiolated, etiolating. verb (used with object)

1. to cause (a plant) to whiten or grow pale by excluding light: to etiolate celery.

2. to cause to become weakened or sickly; drain of color or vigor.

halitus [hal-i-tuhs] noun, plural: halituses. 

breath; exhalation; vapor.

monomania [mon-uh-mey-nee-uh, -meyn-yuh] noun

1. (no longer in technical use) a psychosis characterized by thoughts confined to one idea or group of ideas.

2. an inordinate or obsessive zeal for or interest in a single thing, idea, subject, or the like.

cicerone [sis-uh-roh-nee, chich-uh-; It. chee-che-raw-ne] noun, plural: cicerones

a person who conducts sightseers; guide.

stolid [stol-id] adjective

not easily stirred or moved mentally; unemotional; impassive.

stanch [stawnch, stanch, stahnch] verb (used with object)

1. to stop the flow of (a liquid, especially blood).

2. to stop the flow of blood or other liquid from (a wound, leak, etc.).

3. Archaic. to check, allay, or extinguish.

putrefaction [pyoo-truh-fak-shuhn] noun  

1. the act or process of putrefying; the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter by bacteria and fungi that results in obnoxiously odorous products; rotting.

2. the state of being putrefied; decay.

frugivorous [frü-jiv-ə-rəs] adjective

feeding on fruit; a frugivorous people. 

 

Read a Teaser Tuesday excerpt HERE.

Find more Thursday Thirteen participants HERE.




 

Wordless Wednesday 50: Irises



Irises ~ May 2012



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Teaser Tuesday 133: The Time Machine

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few "teaser" sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


One of the June group reads for TNBBC is the short sci-fi classic The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Though I have seen the 1960 movie a couple times, I have never actually read it. Since I have an ereader version and it is indeed short (just over 100 pages), I figured I would get a head start on it. Here is an actual two-sentence teaser from near the end of chapter one.

I remember vividly the flickering light, his queer, broad head in silhouette, the dance of the shadows, how we all followed him, puzzled but incredulous, and how there in the laboratory we beheld a larger edition of the little mechanism which we had seen vanish from before our eyes. Parts were of nickel, parts of ivory, parts had certainly been filed or sawn out of rock crystal.

ABOUT THE BOOK (from GoodReads):

"I’ve had a most amazing time...."

So begins the Time Traveller’s astonishing firsthand account of his journey 800,000 years beyond his own era—and the story that launched H.G. Wells’s successful career and earned him the reputation as the father of science fiction. With a speculative leap that still fires the imagination, Wells sends his brave explorer to face a future burdened with our greatest hopes...and our darkest fears. A pull of the Time Machine’s lever propels him to the age of a slowly dying Earth. There he discovers two bizarre races—the ethereal Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks—who not only symbolize the duality of human nature, but offer a terrifying portrait of the men of tomorrow as well.

Published in 1895, this masterpiece of invention captivated readers on the threshold of a new century. Thanks to Wells’s expert storytelling and provocative insight, The Time Machine will continue to enthrall readers for generations to come.

New Project, Update 4

Project updates from the past two weeks.

WEEK 8: Finished almost all of the cross-stitching and did more of the backstitching.

Closeup of the girl and throne:

WEEK 9: All cross-stitching is finished. Now to finish the backstitching, straight stitches and about one million and one french knots...

Another closeup of girl and throne so you can see the differences between the previous week's work (photo above) and this week's work. I stil have some work to do around her face and hair.

And here's another. All the grain of the wood (the darker brown stitches on taupe) and outlining of chair arm were done while watching a movie last night.

Random Photo: Around the Bend

Sometimes the best map will not guide you

You can't see what's round the bend.

Sometimes the road leads through dark places

Sometimes the darkness is your friend.

~Pacing the Cage

Jimmy Buffet

Random Photo: Baby Bird!

Just checked the bird's nest at work and look—we have a baby bird! Will have to check it again before I leave tonight.

Thursday Thirteen 251: Local Music

It’s Memorial weekend, and here in Madison that can only mean one thing: it’s time for Brat Fest! If you don't know what Brat Fest is, check out this Thursday Thirteen post I wrote in 2008. In addition to marathons, tons of good food, rides and games, there are also four entertainment stages. I always get a kick out of the names of some of the local groups. Here are a few playing Brat Fest this year:

1. Voodoo Fix
2. Awesome Sauce
3. Killer Cars
4. Brair Rabbit
5. Tiger Clutch
6. Twang Dragons
7. Sexy Ester
8. Red Hot Horn Dawgs
9. Lords of Trident
10. Hunting Charo
11. Stop the Clock
12. A Torrid Affair
13. We Shall Be Bandits


I don’t know what kind of music any of these groups play, or how good they are (or aren’t, lol) as I have never even heard of them before, but you have to at least give credit for creativity.


More Thursday Thirteen posts

Wordless Wednesday 49: Cheerful

More Wordless Wednesday

Teaser Tuesday 132: Cry Wolf

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few "teaser" sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


I started another book by Patricia Briggs Sunday night, Cry Wolf, the first in her "Alpha and Omega" series. Since I am only a few chapters into it, here is how the prologue ends (and yes, more than two sentences):

The wind picked up, and he thought the temperature dropped a few degrees—but that might have just have been blood loss and shock. He closed his eyes and waited patiently for death, his old enemy, to claim him at long last. The knife was still in his right hand, just in case the pain was too much. Belly wounds weren’t the easiest way to die.

But it wasn’t death that came during the heart of the first blizzard of the season.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Cry Wolf (Alpha and Omega #1)
By Patricia Briggs

[It is recommended that one read this series in order and, if you are interested in this book, try to read "Alpha and Omega: A Companion Novella to Cry Wolf" first.]

Anna never knew werewolves existed, until the night she survived a violent attack. . . and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the pack, she'd learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males. Then Charles Cornick, the enforcer—and son—of the leader of the North American werewolves, came into her life.


Charles insists that not only is Anna his mate, but she is also a rare and valued Omega wolf. And it is Anna's inner strength and calming presence that will prove invaluable as she and Charles go on the hunt in search of a rogue werewolf—a creature bound in magic so dark that it could threaten all of the pack.

Kim's Birds

My friend Kim has some new houseguests this spring. This first nest is was built in the arbor leading from her patio to the backyard. Yes, was. When I talked to her Friday night she told me the eggs had hatched. Saturday afternoon she called again. "The nest is gone! Not just the birds, the entire nest!" We suspect a raccoon made off with it.

As you can see, someone thought Mama Bird would make a good surrogate. Those large, brown-speckled ones are cowbird eggs. Cowbirds do not build their own nests. They are a nomadic species that typically followed herds of bison or cattle (or so it is believed by some naturalists), living off of the parasites drawn to the bovine species. Since they followed the herds, they couldn't set their own nests, so laid their eggs in the nests of other birds. Some species of birds will kick the eggs out of their nests, others will simply abandon the nest and lay new eggs. Robins usually reject cowbird eggs, but even if the egg is allowed to hatch, the chick rarely survives. Chicks that do survive can bully and kill the smaller birds.

~*~*~*~

This is the nest from the front, built on one of the roof supports of the porch--actually between that and the house. We are not sure what kind of bird laid these white eggs (maybe a finch or sparrow?), as it is difficult to get a look at Mama. She flees anytime someone comes near--even when a car pulls into the driveway! Definitely not a robin, though, based on the pale-colored eggs. Again, a cowbird has laid an egg in someone else's nest.

Random Photo: Robin's nest

Bird nest built in the shrubs outside work. When I first found the nest last Monday morning, there were only two eggs in it.

When I showed a coworker where it was later that afternoon, there were three.

Random Photo: Yellow Roses

Random Photo: Dahlias

Dahlias

Thursday Thirteen 250: Recently Read

Time for another edition of Recently Read!

Mid-way and I am almost halfway to my 2012 goal of reading 100 books. I have been fluctuating between three and seven books ahead of my goal. I like building a cushion with a few fast, fun, easy reads before tackling a book that might take a bit longer to read. Longer doesn't necessarily mean a book isn't as good as any other, just that it reads a bit slower, or that "real life" intruded during its reading. As always, click on the cover for more information of any book featured below.

BOOK NOTES:
Many of these have been featured for Teaser Tuesday. You can read my excerpts of them here.


* Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford was an April group read for TNBBC at GoodReads. Highly recommend it for those who enjoy fiction set during WWII.

* The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings is an April group read for TNBBC. I have not yet seen the movie, though I would like to.

* Heather Webber was the Cozy Mysteries featured author for April. I had read the first book in her "Lucy Valentine" series when it came out, and was glad to catch up on the last two print novels (a fourth is due out in ebook form this month.

* Lorna Barrett is the Cozy Mysteries featured author for May. I read book one of the "Booktown" series ages ago, and had the second and third books in Mount TBR. Did not like book two as much as hoped, still need to read book three before end of month.

* The Lincoln Lawyer is another book-to-movie, and was on loan from my sister. It was my first Michael Connelly, but certainly not the last. Though I have not yet seen the movie, Matthew McConaughey seems well-suited for the role of Mickey, just based on the fact I could hear his voice in my head as I read this. NOT necessarily a bad thing, believe me. ;-)

* I received Deeper Than the Dead in the mail from Alice Audrey. I loved this book and am now on a mission to hunt down the second and third books in the "Oak Knoll" series.

* Patricia Briggs is another new-to-me author recently discovered. Have read the first two "Mercy Thompson" books, Moon Called and Blood Bound, and have the next four on loan from a friend, plus the first two in her "Alpha & Omega" series.

* Marshall Cook is a local author and former English professor at the UW. I read the first two books in his "Monona Quinn" series years ago, and had Twin Killing in the TBR pile almost as long. Still have book four somewhere in Mount TBR, too. Really must get to that some day...


YOUR TURN!

Have you read anything good recently that you would recommend to people? Have you seen either The Descendants or The Lincoln Lawyer--and if so, what did you think of them?


Find more Thursday Thirteen participants here.

Wordless Wednesday 48: Wild Raspberry Blossom



UW Arboretum * Madison, WI



More Wordless Wednesday

Teaser Tuesday 131: The Descendants

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!

I am just starting The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings for a GoodReads group read. The book is the basis for the recent movie starring George Clooney, which I have not yet seen. Here's a bit of a teaser from the first page:

Joanie has been in a coma for twenty-three days, and in the next few days I’ll have to make some decisions based on our doctor’s final verdict. Actually, I’ll just have to find out what the doctor has to say about Joanie’s condition. I don’t have any decisions to make, since Joanie has a living will. She, as always, makes her own decisions.

FROM THE BACK COVER:

Fortunes have changed for the King family, descendants of Hawaiian royalty and one of the state’s largest landowners. Matthew King’s daughters—Scottie, a feisty ten-year-old, and Alex, a seventeen-year-old recovering drug addict—are out of control, and their charismatic, thrill-seeking mother, Joanie, lies in a coma after a boat-racing accident. She will soon be taken off life support. As Matt gathers his wife’s friends and family to say their final goodbyes, a difficult situation is made worse by the sudden discovery that there’s one person who hasn’t been told: the man with whom Joanie had been having an affair. Forced to examine what they owe not only to the living but to the dead, Matt, Scottie, and Alex take to the road to find Joanie’s lover, on a memorable journey that leads to unforeseen humor, growth, and profound revelations.

SC384

It's been a while, so thought I would share a few of the 20 cards I've been working on during the past week. These all fit SC384, last week's SCS sketch challenge. They each use two sheets coordinating patterned paper. Most of these will be used as birthday cards, though a couple may be set aside for sympathy or anniversary.

While watching Season Two of True Blood at a friend's a few weeks ago, I borrowed one of her retired stamp sets from Stampin' Up, Exotic Birds, and stamped up a bunch of the images for later use. They were perfect for some of these cards.

For a few of the cards I dug out some leftover inchies (Inkadinkado) stamped eons ago, which I have been trying to use up. Double matted with scalloped squares, they also worked well with these large florals.

A close-up of one of the burgandy bird cards.

MATERIALS:

Stamps: Exotic Birds (Stampin' Up, retired); Butterflies & Birds (Inkadinkado)
Paper: Joy's Vintage Papers (Hot Off the Press), Wausau Paper (white), DCWV (solid colors)
Ink: Basic Black (SU)
Accessories: Square punchs (Marvy)