Don't Be Afraid of the Dork: SATURDAY in the GARDEN | That Moment Before it All Goes to Hell

OUTSIDE

My one irritation with this week is that the forecast was for rain everyday, and while it did rain part of each day, it ended up being quite beautiful if a little humid all the times it wasn't raining. Because of the forecast I dismissed any plans for doing some gardening this week and consequently had a moment during every day where I exclaimed "dammit - I should be doing gardening type things". If by the end of my time off I can at least have a sketchy plan for adding some plants to/cleaning certain areas of my yard I will be pleased.

Lots of developments in the garden of course even (especially?) without my intereference. The green beans and lima beans emerged, my sugar snaps have flowers, my lilac bush bloomed for the first time since I planted it three years ago, the garlic is SO tall and the irises are having a great year. Things are on the cusp of going horribly wrong, as they start to do each year in the garden but for now it's all good.

Spiderwort blooming through the rain

Monster Garlic

First salad from this year's garden

Irises

Lilac

GAK

Last Saturday I rhapsodized while at the same time felt a little bad about having the week off work. Despite my mixed empotions, it has been completely amazing and just what I needed. The house is cleaner than it's been in 4 months, I had my first salad from the garden, I got a new pair of glasses, my car is all maintenanced up and by the time I go back to work on Tuesday the freezer will be full of healthy meals to get me through the the next few months. I feel organized and content. Hopefully, by Tuesday I'll even be ready to go back to work:0). It's weird how I never had a dull moment and do think I could keep myself busy and entertained for another week or two before starting to get bored. I am a ridiculous homebody.

I've also started to feel the need for an awesome goodreads type online service to track my TV shows and came across Trakt.TV. I've just started playing with it but it seems pretty cool. Anybody else use this or have another program they like to use? Basically I wanted to keep track of shows I'd like to check out in the future, shows that are still going and I'm in the middle of so I know which seasons I've watched and haven't as well as a place to rate what I have watched. It seems to be able to do all those things at numerous levels (by episode, by season or by show) as well as much more.

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching
This week I didn't spend too much time in front of a screen but I did catch up with a few movies that I was behind on. I rewatched the original Avengers movie in preparation of then watching Avengers: Age of Ultron. Verdict on Age of Ultron? Meh. It was okay, not as good as the first. I also caught up with The Martian and will be probably tonight with Captain America: Winter Soldier. The Martian was good but (say it with me now) not as good as the book.

I also just started a re-watch of the first two seasons of Hell on Wheels, so that I can catch up with seasons 3 and 4. If you like brutal shows, chock full of shady characters set in the historic American West, I highly recommend this show. The end of season two did break my heart first time around so I'm wondering if/how they will repair that with season 3. I think it is a show that does not embrace hope or happiness so it may just continue to break my heart.

Random Other Character: "What's the world coming to, Sir?"
Cullen Bohannon: "The world ain't coming to nothin' son. Same as it ever was."

Reading
Five of the last six books I've read I've rated 4 out of 5 stars! It's been a nice run of reading. They are: Lord of Scoundrels (Loretta Chase), The Last Olympian (Rick Riordan), The Scorpio Races (Maggie Stiefvater), The Battle of the Labyrinth (Rick Riordan), and The Raven King (Maggie Stiefvater). The lesson here? Rick Riordan and Maggie Stiefevater are the bomb. Yes I still say "the bomb", what of it?

Finished Last Week:

Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase: Apparently a "classic" Regency Romance and I see why - it's fantastic and is a master class on how to write an Alpha Male hero. LOVED it!
Murder in Chinatown by Victoria Thompson (Gaslight Mystery #9): A favorite standby historical mystery series set in turn-of-the-last-century New York.

Currently Reading:

One Magic Square by Lolo Houbein: A gardening book about maximizing food production in a small space. An ARC from Netgalley (though I think it's an older title).
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood: I'm surprised I had not read it before. This audio version is read by Claire Danes who has a really pleasing voice. Is the cover above badass or what!?
A Quiet Life in the Country (Lady Hardcastle Mysteries #1) by T.E. Kinsey: Set in the early 1900s in rural England - mysteries investigated by a Lady and her maid.
The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires #1) by Jim Butcher: The first in a new series by Jim Butcher. There are sailing-type ships that fly. 'Nuf said. A little over a 100 pages in and I just want to never stop reading. So good!
Lord Peter Views the Body (Peter Wimsey #4) by Dorothy L. Sayers: A collection of short stories in the Lord Peter Wimsey series.

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!

SO MANY THIS WEEK!
A bunch were from listening to the Get Booked Podcast Hosted by Book Riot. I did not do a good job of recording the episode number so you'll just have to listen to the whole run of podcasts which are very fun!

Mongrel by Stephen Graham Jones: Native American werewolf story. I can't remember which episode this was from - Sorry!
A Spy in the House (The Agency #1) by Y.S. Lee: Historical YA mystery/spy seceret society British. All those words good.
The Nutmeg Tree , The Eye of Love, and The Flowering Thorn by Margery Sharp: Sharp is best known for writing The Rescuers series but she also apparently wrote a number of adult books. She's one of those British women writers from the first half of the 20th century that folks have kind of forgotten about. I love these writers (Barbara Pym, Georgette Heyer, Dodie Smith, Dorothy Gilman). I learned about this from a sponsorship on the show. Definitely want to check her out!
Redemption in In digo by Karen Lord: Fantasy inspired by a Senegalese folk tale.
A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain: I think this one actually came from one of Get Booked's sister podcasts, All The Books. A time travel novel featuring a woman police detective and lots of murder!

From Other Sources...

Arabella of Mars by David Levine: I don't know where I stumbled across this one but it is a alt-history/sci-fi mash-up that takes place on Mars.
Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal: I've seen this talked about a lot lately but The Bibliosanctum was the final prompt I need to add it. World War I and spiritualism.
The Voodoo Killings by Kristi Charish: This one was also recommended by Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum - she called it one of the most fun urban fantasy novels she's read of late!