Around here lately photoblog & links

Chewy-barka boo boo

A few weeks ago,
it was 84F,
almost too hot 
and we joked about turning the ac on in Feb.
My husband could NOT wait.
He was hot. He was hot. He was toooo hot.
He jumped into his summer shorts,
and began to strut around
thinking he was in Jamaica or something 
hahahahaha
and then…

MORE snow
and a drop to -17F overnight!!!

Talk about a change in weather. Luckily it melted fairly quickly, but I haven’t seen my husband’s shorts since then. hahahaha That’ll teach him. My Momma always said in her New England accent, “You can’t rush the weathahh or you’ll be sorry” and she was so right.
 

I hope you’re coping well with the time change. My body is waking up at the usual time, which means between 5 and 6 now, instead of 6 or 7 am. I don’t mind because it gives me more time to write every morning – journal, emails, and blog posts. Hiii! 🙂 

Aww..
these little snuggle bugs

Two big Xs were in the sky early in the morning a few weeks ago. 
It felt very sci-fi like. 

What I’ve been watching – 

Started watching the Andy Warhol Diaries on Netflix last week, and I woke up the next morning feeling so inspired. FINALLY Netflix has something worth watching. I’m looking forward to the rest of the series, and I definitely need to buy the book now. I’m a HUGE fan of all the NYC artists from the 70s & 80s. Ray Johnson, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy are my top favs. I’ve been obsessed with them for years..watching & reading anything I can get my hands on about them. How did I not know about this book?? 

What I’ve been reading – 

I’m listening to The Authenticity Project while painting. It’s one of those books I’m trying to force myself to listen to so I can add another completed book to my reading challenge list. It’s boring, and predictable. I borrowed it on my library app, so it didn’t cost me anything, thankfully. 

I tried listening I Sing The Body Electric by Ray Bradbury several times, but just couldn’t get into it. I love some of his other books, but this one I didn’t connect with at all. It seemed more of a book for men. Another library read, so it doesn’t bother me to return it without finishing it. I might try it again over the summer. 

I finished Dopamine Nation. It was okay. I didn’t relate to the case studies or the author herself, so I wouldn’t bother reading it again. I kept waiting to make a connection, but it just wasn’t there. I’m glad this was a library read, and I didn’t spend any money on it. 

I absolutely LOVED Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment, and have listened to it 3 times now in less than 2 weeks. I’m going to have to send it back to the library soon, and that makes me sad. I need to buy this one to have on my phone. 

I finished All My Friends Are Invisible. I’m still processing how I feel about this book, and have delayed rating it on Goodreads. I’m torn between giving a rating on the writing or the story itself. I’ll just quickly say the writing pulled me in, at first, but before I was about halfway through, I started to dread having to read the rest. Did I love the book? No. Did I hate it? No. Am I glad I read it? Meh. I think it was brave of Jonathan to write it, which I’ve said before, and I’ll stop there.

I recently bought The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer, but I haven’t gotten that far with it yet. What little I’ve read, I like. I’m sure I’ll swallow it whole in a sitting or two soon. I’ve always loved how Amanda writes. I’m just not quite there yet. 

Those Barren Leaves – I saved the best for last. Published in 1925, this book is so delightful, smart, and hilariously funny at times. The lady of the mansion, Mrs. Aldwinkle reminds of the lady from the British comedy Keeping Up Appearances, Mrs Bucket..I mean, Bouquet, of course. lol

It’s a slow read for me because of how and when it was written, and because I want to savor it. A few paragraphs I’ve had to read over again to understand them. I also don’t know a lot about Italy, but I’m DDGing, and learning as I go. I keep having to pause to look up words I don’t know the meaning of, but that makes it all the more worth reading, imo. The language is rich, funny (I’ve shrieked a few times, esp when it caught me off guard), and it’s so refreshing compared to the new “literary” books coming out these days, which are mostly dumb, meaningless beach reads. I absolutely adore this book, highly recommend it. If you want to read it along with me, it’s free public domain. LMK what you think of it.  

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Slight change in how I will be blogging going forward. I plan on making these long-ish, more personal blog posts more often, as in every Monday. The posts will include photoblogs/books/Netflix/linky love. The rest of the week will be 2 or 3 shorter posts, perhaps heavier on photos, but way less writing. It might not look like much, but it takes hours, days even, to do one of these posts with all the gathering of links, and blah blah blah I do. I can only manage one a week. I hope you stay tuned.

Have a lovely Monday. xo

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