Saturdays in the Garden - The Terrifying Squirrels of Halloween

October 31, 2015

OUTSIDE:

Happy Halloween! I have long since given up on costumes and parties but I do still have a mighty liking this holiday.  Maybe it's all the candy.  That said I just bought a pumpkin about an hour ago (noonish) and it has yet to be transformed into a Jack-O-Lantern.  I better get on that with a quickness since trick or treating is a little less then 3 hours away!

I am happy to report that the while my yard is a death trap for rabbits, it is a paradise for squirrels.  Having grown up with petite little gray squirrels back in Virginia, I am always a little jolted, even after living here for 10 years, with the ginormousness of the Fox Squirrels here in Iowa.  And the grandaddy of them all may be living in my yard - he's huge and obviously not inclined to take any of my or Rudy's guff.  What do they say?  Familiarity breeds contempt?  This fellow (or gal) has oodles of contempt radiating from his bushy orange tail.

You filthy big red dog! I spit at you! (Said in an over the top french accent. Cause all fox squirrels are french.)

So you can't really tell how large this squirrel is but trust me, he's a monster.

LIFE

It feels so ridiculously fantastic to have a crazy week of work behind me although I do wonder at the wisdom of wishing away time.  I can't help it though.  I contemplate the several days of stress and hard work to come and just want it behind me already.  I wish I could learn the knack of valuing all of life's moments, even the hard ones.  However, even better than having the crazy week behind me is looking forward to a week that is almost completely open.  No meetings, no deadlines, only a few difficult tasks.  Sigh.... Sounds like heaven but of course that's an illusion because days where everything goes wrong?  Happen whenever and not just in the middle of stress.  Meanwhile, I am trying to do as little as absolutely possible this weekend.

WATCHING, READING, and BLOGGING

Watching 
The Murdoch Mysteries watching still continues and I just last night moved into a new season that I hadn't yet seen before.  Seriously, if you like cozy historical mysteries, you will love this show.  It's adorable.  And has 7 seasons available on Netflix.

Reading
So I think I can officially declare that I am in a massive reading slump.  I finished only 3 books in the month of October. Ugh!  Lots of books sound good but I am just not making any time for reading.

Finished Last Week:

• Murder on Mulberry Bend by Victoria Thompson:  Book 5 in the Gaslight Mystery series. This one was good though I need to take a little break from the series as I was having too many moments of wanting to hit the characters over the head for missing obvious clues.  I knew who the murderer almost as soon as we met them so it's frustrating when the characters are clueless.

Currently Reading:

• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: So maybe some day I'll pick this up again?  Until then it will sit here on the currently read and look encouraging.
• The Founding (The Morland Dynasty #1) by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles: This is the first book in a series that follows a single British family through numerous generations into modern times.  This first book takes place in the early 15th century.  This is such a fascinating idea and I have high hopes but I have to say the characters in this first book are shallow and are doing nothing for me.
• Of Noble Birth by Brenda Novak:  Despite the presence of pirates it is not making me happy mostly because of deficient humor and boring main characters. 
• Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey: Space Opera!
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling:  Continuing my re-read of the series! I am very close to being done with this one.  The "unfortunate event" just took place.
• The Providence Rider by Robert McCammon: This is another favorite historical mystery series that is definitely NOT cozy and is set in colonial era New York.
• Beastly Bones by William Ritter: The follow up to Jackaby which I read and loved earlier this year!  

 

Added to the TBR:

This is kind of a new thing I may try, listing books that get added to my Goodreads TBR list each week.  Maybe it will help burn them into my mind a little bit better, get them on some other folks TBRs and it will give me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

• The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James:  A recommendation on Audible.com. A historical paranormal story about a woman in the 1920s assisting a ghost hunter. 
• Winterwood by Jacey Bedford:  I learned of this book from a cover reveal post on Fantasy Cafe.  Historical fantasy with pirates and a romance and a lady-dressed-as-a-man protagonist. Sign. Me. Up.  Looks like a blast and Fantasy Cafe is also hosting a giveaway.  Not out until 2016.
• Black Hat Jack by Joe R. Lansdale:   This is a western novella that got a five star review from Patrick Rothfuss on Goodreads this week even though it is not an SFF title. I love Westerns and if Pat says it's good, I'm guessing it's pretty good.  What's up with all the novellas lately?

Blogging 

So I am also in a bit of a blogging funk.  As I mentioned above it was a crazy week at work with a couple of 15 hour days so I just didn't really have the energy.  Hopefully, I'll be more inspired this week.

On the BLOG LAST WEEK:

Nada.

On the BLOG NEXT WEEK:

SUNDAY:  A book review hopefully.
TUESDAY:  This week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is featuring debut authors whose second books we are looking forward to the most or whose second books we really enjoyed.  This is an interesting topic but not sure I have ten since I'm not always a very up to date reader.   
THURSDAY: A book review TBD, hopefully.

 “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.”
― Allen Saunders