I do love books,

One of my goals this year was to read more and

get thru some of the many books I have bought

at book sales.  I just prefer paper books.

  It's always nice to find a good book at a

mark down sale. This is just a few of them

and I have cut myself off from buying any more

until I read some.

 

Sadly I haven't had the time to read like I'd like. 
Too many things to do outside in the garden,
plus my animals and art end up taking my priority after work. 
  My thought was a couple nights a week read before going to sleep.
 The problem is by the time I lay down to do this
I end up reading 2 pages and my eyes are so tired I can't focus.
  I don't seem to be making any progress on my many book piles.
  Maybe come winter... 

 

What I have been doing instead is

I use the Overdrive app and check out audio library books

to my phone and I can listen to them while I

drive or when I take my lunch walks.

 This way I can listen to a book while I do something else.
Multi-tasking....plus

it calms my road rage in hectic traffic and it's FREE.
 

So these are the books  I have listened to:
 

 

Nell is twenty-six and has never been to Paris. She's never even been on a romantic weekend away—to anywhere—before. Traveling abroad isn't really her thing. But when Nell's boyfriend fails to show up for their mini-vacation, she has the opportunity to prove everyone—including herself—wrong.  Alone in Paris, Nell finds a version of herself she never knew existed: independent and intrepid. Could this turn out to be the most adventurous weekend of her life? Funny, charming, and irresistible, Paris for One is quintessential Jojo Moyes—as are the other stories that round out the collection.

 

At the time I hadn't seen the movie Me Before You so

I had no idea about the author's style.

Previews just looked so sad and depressing I opted out of seeing it

at the movies.  I did see it later as a rental.

It totally won me over and she

is now one of my new favorite authors,   I love her

British humor and  she has me laughing out

loud for real.  So after watching Me Before You I got this one.

 

 

How do you move on after losing the person you loved?

How do you build a life worth living?

Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.

Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .

For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.

 

I liked it, and was glad to find out what happened to her.

I like when good stories continue on.

 

Then on to this one.  Like I said she is my new

favorite author.....

 

 

Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied, and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight in shining armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the

Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages . . . maybe ever.

One Plus One is Jojo Moyes at her astounding best. You’ll laugh, you’ll weep, and when you flip the last page, you’ll want to start all over again.

 

The women in her books seem to be hard working,

down on their luck and I enjoyed seeing their pleasant endings.

This one had parts that made be laugh and I did

well up.  I loved it.

 

and lastly....

 

 

2009: When Julia Conley hears that she has inherited a house outside London from an unknown great-aunt, she assumes it's a joke. She hasn't been back to England since the car crash that killed her mother when she was six, an event she remembers only in her nightmares. But when she arrives at Herne Hill to sort through the house―with the help of her cousin Natasha and sexy antiques dealer Nicholas―bits of memory start coming back. And then she discovers a pre-Raphaelite painting, hidden behind the false back of an old wardrobe, and a window onto the house's shrouded history begins to open...

1849: Imogen Grantham has spent nearly a decade trapped in a loveless marriage to a much older man, Arthur. The one bright spot in her life is her step-daughter, Evie, a high-spirited sixteen year old who is the closest thing to a child Imogen hopes to have. But everything changes when three young painters come to see Arthur's collection of medieval artifacts, including Gavin Thorne, a quiet man with the unsettling ability to read Imogen better than anyone ever has. When Arthur hires Gavin to paint her portrait, none of them can guess what the hands of fate have set in motion.

 

This book kept me going the ending was satisfying.  I just wish it would have went a bit further.

 I can't really say without giving it away, but all in all I was happy with it.

 

I am on to another audio book at the moment and we'll see if it's a good one.

 

So even if you don't have time to read, go online to your local library's site and see

if they have downloads.  You never have to leave your chair to check it out, down load and return books all with a click.  Can't get any easier than that!

Natascha

 

 

 

 

Growing Pretty Things

Thought I would share some of my July garden.
This year we have been plagued by tree diseases
and had them treated but a few trees still look sick.
They say next year it will be better.
My roses have a funguses and my veggie

garden isn't doing too great.  My raspberries also didn't

produce their normal quantity.  I don't know. 

I gave them good soil and fertilizer.

Just must not be a good year weather wise.

I was happy to find the red pillows

on clearance and added them to my chairs.

Can you tell my favorite color is RED??

Cartuu really loved sitting out on

the deck while visiting

with us.

I like the red & purple combo, but I am not a fan of these super

purple almost black petunias  above and won't be planting them

again in my boxes. 

This is my favorite flower box on my kitchen window.

I love the wildness of it.

The vines in the planters on the posts didn't do

what I thought they would but the flowers made up for it,

so they still look pretty.

My most favorite thing in the garden is my green house.  Love it!

A lot of the plants around my seating area
 on the deck are for privacy

and the annuals in the pots to attract

humming birds. I have a couple of feeders hanging up on the
post in the middle of the picture.

I was kind of disappointed because I only saw one,
once coming up to the deck.

The other day though, I was weeding and spotted not one,

but two buzzing in and out of my flowers.  They were flying around

each other like they were playing I was excited

to be able to get this pic.

Veggies and flowers are all mixed together in here

This year I did impatients in front of perennials for

the first time and they seem to be doing great.

 The gold fish pond is in there.  I like that the plants

are large they shade the water which makes it

not grow algae and also disguises it from predator's.

My really big pots out front with 3 yr old geraniums that

I winter indoors.  When in full boom they are as big

as a shrub and have well over 50 blooms on them.

That's the benefit of saving them.  They

get bigger and better. 

I love having a yard to grow pretty things.

I had a nightmare this week that my husband decided we

were moving to a condo.  I

was so upset.  I was like, but I won't have room

for my animals and I won't have my garden!!!

and then thankfully I woke up and it wasn't real. 

Have a great day!

Little by Little it will add up...

I glazed this tile.  I am hopeful the mixed glazed will turn out the way I want.

Unlike paint- glazes don't appear the colors they will

be once fired, so it's kind of like a guessing

game on the end result until you have

tried them out.  These pics will help

me to see the before and after.

At times I get frustrated because I wish

I had more time to make things and

work on my art.

I will keep plugging ahead

doing what I can each day and eventually

I think it will all add up

to something.

Oops!

Sometimes things don't go as planned! 

Back to the drawing board!