Up all night on the porch...

I started The Silver Lining's Playbook by Matthew Quick  and could not stop reading. Powerful writing that punched me in the gut. I felt what this man felt. It really hurt. Thank God for silver linings...

I am in the spare room bed with my two giggly youngest of the grand girls. They are sleeping head to toe. All night they laughed at eachother. The six year old would cross her eyes to make the three year giggle. The baby kept saying "Hide, a bugler is coming" so  they could dive under the covers in giggly fear. Life is good for this grandmother...

First Chapter-First Paragraph...

The girl was the first to hear the loud pounding on the door. Her room was the closest to the entrance of the apartment. At first, dazed with sleep,she thought it was her father, coming up from his hiding place in the cellar. He'd forgotten his keys, and was impatient because nobody had heard his first timid knock. But then came the voices, strong and brutal in the silence of the night. Nothing to do with her father. "Police! Open up! Now!"

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Would you keep reading? I'm not sure. It could be so painful, I am afraid...

Spring cleaning on the porch...

This is exactly what I do not want to do with the rest of my life. Vacuuming on my hands and knees, with a mini- shop vac. Trying to remove dog hair, piles of it, from under my bed, from the corners of the room and from the stairs.

Reading and listening on the porch...

Two books just blew me away this week on my porch. My book club book, Me Before You, from the library. Large print edition. Started out slowly. Louisa's ordinary life. She loses the job that is supporting her struggling extended family. She accepts a new job as a companion for a quad, Will. He turns her expectations of what her life can be upside down. He sees so much more for her than she saw for herself. He is in a mortal struggle to find a way to get out of a life he cannot bear to live. I finished it in a day...
The second book this week, The Fault in Our Stars. I listened while I laughed, marveled and cried. Oh this story broke my heart but was so sassy, alive and smart that I loved experiencing it. The story of two teens with cancer and the adults in their lives. Coping with treatments and pain and living your best life anyway...

Listening on the porch...

 

Lily and tulips
 

Tulips
 

 

I have to talk about this photo I took on a warm, sandy Lake Superior beach. The grands and I were in shirt sleeves walking in the sand. The view was astounding to me. The brown mounds are piles of ice that blew in toward shore. The water is open and blue on the horizon but the water on the shoreline is frozen. A mist floated over it all because of the clash between the cold lake and the warm air.

There is more today to talk about from this old porch. I finished listening to The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kinsolver. I just can't get over the stories this woman tells. I find her description of the  lives of these women in Africa incredible. Her writing a revelation. I am on my way to the library to find more books of hers to devour.

Pics to go with birthday post...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday on the porch...

It does go on and on. My birthday celebration, that is. Sunday tea with old friends. Today, my actual birthday, dinner with my MQT bunch and on May 6 a luncheon with my retired work friends. The TX kids have all called to deliver good wishes. A phone message," Clay, Happy Birthday, Granny!" I am so 62. Signed, sealed, delivered...
I have been listening to a radio station called 60's on 6. You guessed it, the songs of my youth. Memories and reminders of how quickly the days of my life fly by.  Good days...