Saturday, January 30, 2016

Saturday in the Garden | The Already Grouchy 2016

OUTSIDE

I got a bunch gardening books out of the library to jump-start my garden planning a bit.  My weekends seem to be packed with tasks, which has resulted in any thinking about the garden falling by the wayside.  I haven't even put in my seed order yet, or even cracked open a seed catalog.  The situation is getting critical as there are a few plants (like onions) that I should really start in February.

This was a week of gorgeous skies.  The configuration of the clouds and other atmospheric conditions I suppose helped put on a show that was fantastic to catch although I didn't always get great pictures. The world is beautiful, even in winter.

This is the worst pic but hard to capture when traveling 70 mph down the highway. The sky was tangerine
 

The Narcissus bloomed!

LIFE

I'm in a pretty wicked reading slump at the moment and perhaps it is a topic for the "Watching, Reading and Blogging" segment, but it is quite tied up with life so it's going here.  I think it is the result of a few things: 1) I'm not reading anything that is really knocking my socks off, 2) I am really stressed and overwhelmed by work currently, and 3) I've stumbled upon a pretty good run of TV shows lately.  It's a disheartening way to begin the reading year.

I think the major factor is work stress.  I have so much on my plate right now that I have to do some work on the weekends and I still feel like I am behind on everything.  This is pretty standard this time of year but it seems particularly bad this year. I thought I was handling it relatively well until I realized that all I want to do when I'm home is lay on the couch and watch The IT Crowd reruns.  I also tend to handle my stress by becoming a grouchy pants and every time I snap at someone for just being...you know...there, I hate myself a little more.  It's partially why I committed to the 365 grateful project; to exercise being a little more mindful and in the moment so that my stress wouldn't just boil over me unawares and turn me into a mega bitch.  It is obviously not working very well at the moment and I need to focus a little bit better.


WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching 

As I mentioned above, leisure wise, I've been doing more watching than anything else.
  • The X Files:  We got two new episodes of The X Files, which prompted me to watch "live" TV for the first time in forever.  If I'm being honest the episodes, especially the first one, were very disappointing.  Seriously, with a 14 year break you think they might have had some interesting, original ideas but no dice.  I give it a pass though, simply because I love this show and these characters so much.  
  • When Calls The Heart, Season 2:  This is a show on The Hallmark Channel that is so hokie, sickly sentimental and cliched that I am heartily ashamed to admit that I watch it and even more so that despite it all I kind of love it.  I think it is a sign that my heart so yearns for a Anne of Green Gables/Little House on the Prairie type show that I risk severe eye injury from the number of times they get rolled per episode.  The good news is that the CBC has announced that they will be producing a new Anne of Green Gables mini-series to air in 2017 which I am both nervous and excited about.  Excited for obvious reasons, nervous because who will they find to play Anne and Gilbert who will not pale in comparison to Megan Follows and Jonathan Crombie?
  • The 100: This show got on my radar screen because of the recent publicity for the start of season 3.  I was getting it mixed up with The 4400, which I had tried to watch and couldn't get into.  When I realized it was different and the premise sounded cool (Dystopia, Human kind living in a space station above a radioactive Earth, in desperation send 100 teenage prisoners down to the ground to see if the atmosphere is still toxic), I started it on netflix and was kind of blown away.  For a CW show aimed at teens, it is pretty dark, doesn't pull it's bunches and features some very complex characters and relationships.  It's so heavy in fact that I had to kind of back off for the moment with work craziness but I'll definitely be diving back in.  It has also made me question whether I am really happy with influence that George R.R. has had on storytelling but that's a topic for a full post, methinks.

 Reading

Finished Last Week: 

  • The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson #1) by Rick Riordan:  I've been wanting to read this for a long while.  I love Greek mythology and obviously this series is extremely popular.

Currently Reading:

  • Steal the Sky by Megan O'Keefe:  An ARC and the first in a new science fiction series that sounds Firefly-esque.  Publication: January 5th, 2016.
  • A World Without Princes (The School for Good and Evil #2) by Soman Chainani: This is a super fun middle-grade series and is one of the series I identified as one I'd like to put in the finished column.  
  • One Magic Square by Lolo Houbein: A gardening book about maximize food production in a small space.  An ARC from Netgalley (though I think it's an older title).   

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week.  It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

 Blogging 

On the BLOG LAST WEEK:

On the BLOG NEXT WEEK:

  • SUNDAY: Review of The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater.
  • TUESDAY: TOP TEN TUESDAY hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. The topic this week is pretty cool - it's all about favorite time periods for books to be set in, whether that be historical or futuristic.  I have lots of feels about this topic!
  • WEDNESDAY: Review of Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare or Uprooted by Naomi Novik. Or maybe something else:0).  
  • THURSDAY: Parent of Virtues - Week 5

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