Sunday, April 06, 2008

Things I see on a normal day, and a finished book!!!

I had some fun, this weekend (!!!!). First, I went for a drive in the countryside and took a trip to Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Refuge on Saturday afternoon. I took loads of photos. Sunday, I was able to get away to my in-laws' house to upload a handful. Yippee! I've separated them so that I can stretch recent photos out for a bit, to make the blog a bit less dull. Today, a few photos of things outside my sister's house. Huge thanks to the in-laws for the food, company and internet time!

Here's one of my favorite photos of my sister's dog, Buddy, giving me the sweet, "Please-please-please walk me or play with me or chase me or anything" look. Buddy is part dachsund and part something . . . not sure what . . . and 100% loveable. Note how he's holding himself as if he can't quite sit all the way down and is poised to leap forward. He's an eager little fellow.



Buddy has been ignoring the squirrels, which I definitely appreciate. Apparently, he does sometimes hunt them, but they're so entertaining that it's a relief to see the pupster ignoring their antics. Squirrels in Bartlesville are very different from our Southern fox squirrels. Here, they have little gray squirrels, which are quite cute.

My brother-in-law told me they had a family with three baby squirrels in their yard, last year, and that the babies provided a great deal of entertainment. "They play like kittens," he informed me, "chasing each other and jumping over each other, tussling. Such fun to watch." I felt a little envious. But, even the individual squirrels have been amusing, so there will be a few more squirrel photos in upcoming posts. The photo above looks practically posed, like he's graduating from Squirrel High School, but I liked the lighting, so there you go.

Not far from the driveway is a lovely forsythia bush. This isn't a very good photo, but the backdrop of that dark blue sky against sunny lemon blooms is so pretty.

While I've been immersed in caregiving, I've had a bit of trouble with losing track of time. So, pardon the huge delay posting a link to Estella's Revenge. The latest issue has been up for days. I managed to read a few articles and, of course, they were all superb. Is "superb" an uppity word? Anyway, I enjoyed them. Since I took the time to read and went back to fetch a link, Estella has gotten a spiffy new header. Cool.

You can find my review of Pat Barker's Life Class, here. It was not a favorite read, but I did like Barker's voice and plan to read more of her work.

Last night, I finished my first read for the month of April! Wahoo! It's The Olive Season by Carol Drinkwater. The Olive Season is the second of two memoirs by Drinkwater which tell of her experiences on the olive farm in Provence that she and her husband purchased and tend to between film jobs. I was surprised to see that the author's face is familiar. For some reason, I envision her dressed in period clothing from WWII, although I haven't looked up her filmography to find out what films or television shows in which I might have seen her perform. Drinkwater's writing is lovely and welcoming. You feel as if you've been allowed to peek into her charming country life and it's mostly quite uplifting as she has a love of nature and life that truly leaps off the page. The latter half is quite emotional, due to a terrible loss that occurred during the time period covered in this particular memoir, and yet it ends on a positive note.

I'm hoping to finish A Fraction of the Whole, tonight or tomorrow. Also reading:

It Happened in Oklahoma by Robert L. Dorman and

Loose Ends: Short Stories and Poems by Les Combs. The first short story in this book made me smile and was nicely unexpected, so I'm really looking forward to reading the rest.

Hope everyone had a terrific weekend!

Bookfool on the Prairie

18 comments:

  1. Glad to see you got out and had some fun this weekend!! It was a beautiful day here yesterday! I'm so glad Spring has finally arrived.

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  2. Love those pics! Buddy is freakin' adorable. I'd love to set he and Daisy loose together. She's been so bored with almost a week of nasty weather and more ahead.

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  3. Stephanie,

    It was soooo nice to feel the sun on my shoulders. I'm glad spring has finally arrived farther north! I know how anxious you were to see signs of spring. :)

    Andi,

    Buddy is definitely adorable. You'd love him. And, I know he'd have a rolicking fine time with Daisy. He seems to have one particular favorite dog on the neighborhood walking path. They sniff each other and wag, wag, wag, but they both look just a touch dismal about the fact that she can't come out of her fenced area to play. It's been over a week since I walked him, though. Yep, that nasty weather. And, more to come. Yuck.

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  4. Good to hear from you :) That is the cutest little dog. I know I've said that before, but he's just cute...Sounds like you and him get along fine! I'm having a really slow start to my April reading. Though I think I'll finish my first book of the month tonight. I don't know what's going on this year, but I've been in a non-stop reading slum! Yet the TBR pile continues to grow...Hope things are going well for you over there.

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  5. Chris,

    Thanks, it's good to "see" you. I'm missing everyone. Isn't Buddy darling? He's an energetic little guy, and sociable. This morning I noticed he was sitting beside the fence, watching the neighbor work on his garden, again. He just loves people and wants to be as close to anyone as he can get.

    I know how you feel. I've been reading, but only sporadically, so it's been a slumpy month. By the end of the day, I'm often so tired I'm literally staggering. You don't read much when you can't see straight. But, like you, I keep piling up more acquisitions. I decided to let the book diet go until life eases up.

    Hope your reading picks up, soon. :)

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  6. Our Mac chases squirrels and rabbits and has done so for years without ever catching one. They eat my flowers and vegetables, and my dog just thinks they are there to entertain him. :) On the up side, I never have to walk him as he gets plenty of exercise.

    The Olive Season sounds very appealing. I may have to look for that one.

    Good to see you posting and with pictures, too!

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  7. I like how the lighting shows off that squirrel's tail so well. I'd love to look out my back window and watch baby squirrels at play. Sounds delightful. We had snow today - not quite a blizzard, but bad for April. Oh, how I long for spring.

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  8. I am glad you had a nice weekend, Nancy. The photos are beautiful. It's good that Buddy lets you squirrel watch. :-) I"m not sure my dog would be so nice about it--unless you are playing fetch with him. Then he ignores everything but the ball.

    I hope you have a good week, Nancy.

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  9. Glad that you were able to take a little time out on the weekend. I like the lighting on the squirrel too and Buddy looks like a bundle of energy! :)

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  10. Jenclair,

    I missed witnessing the excitement, but Buddy chased a rabbit out of the yard, this morning, and then the neighbor patted him and told him he was a good boy (protecting that all-important garden). It's probably a good thing he got to chase a rabbit, since we had storms all night and nobody wants to go out and play with the dog when it's muddy. I tossed Buddy's toy for a while, yesterday, and actually managed to wear him out a little. Shocking! LOL

    I really enjoyed The Olive Season. I hope you like the book as much as I did, if you do read it.

    Thanks. It was nice to finally just get out long enough to take photos. Hopefully, I'll have plenty of time to fill in the blank spots in some of the other posts, this week.

    Booklogged,

    I liked the lighting on the squirrel's tail, too, thanks. Wow, it's hard to believe you're still getting snow. We've had lots of vicious storms. I'm getting spoiled on the cool temps in OK. Back home, the humidity level is 100% and it's supposed to hit the 80's. Yurgh. It's just 50 degrees, here. I'm in a sweatshirt! Weird!

    Wendy,

    Thanks; it was so nice to get out.

    You know, I think Buddy is just so eager for someone to come out and play with him that he spends most of his time pacing around, peeking in to see if anyone's ready to play, and wishing. LOL He did chase a rabbit, this morning. I missed seeing that. Maybe that's a good thing. I'd probably end up worrying about the rabbit.

    I threw Buddy's toy for quite a while, yesterday -- long enough that he actually got to the point he wasn't sure he wanted to fetch. My sister was so surprised. She said, "Hey, he actually looks kind of tired," when I walked in. LOL

    Nat,

    Thank you. I had such fun. You'd probably love the current background image on my laptop -- a close up of some buds on a redbud tree. They're all pink and pretty.

    Buddy is definitely a bundle of energy. I don't care for the muddy paw-prints on my pants and the dog-slobber smell, but I like playing with him. When I told my sister I smelled like dog slobber, yesterday, she said, "Well, that makes you part of the family." Hahaha. I like the lack of stink on a cat. ;)

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  11. Italy doesn't have any squirrels. Isn't that weird? When I first moved here I really missed the little guys. And when I went home for Christmas I had a freak-out-excitement-attack when I saw my first one. My mom thought that was hilarious.

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  12. Nikki,

    No squirrels in Italy? Horrors! Where do you find your entertainment? Please tell me you at least have lizards!!

    I wish I could have peeked in on that scene. Too fun.

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  13. So nice to see a post from you today. I love the pics of Buddy & the squirrel, but oh my goodness, that forsythia is absolutely gorgeous against the blue sky!! Ours are just beginning to bloom. Of course, we haven't seen the last of winter yet. We're supposed to get snow on Friday. :(

    Take care!

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  14. Hi Les!

    I love that contrast of forsythia against sky, too, thanks.

    It's really starting to seem like everyone should be in the midst of spring, by now, but man . . . it's freaking cold in this state! I can't believe I'm still wearing sweats and we've got the heater on. I love it, but I'm afraid that once I go home I'll have a terrible adjustment time. I've never been good with heat and humidity, so I usually try to keep active outdoors to acclimate myself as the heat descends.

    Am I complaining? Sorry. I know you're sick of snow -- I'd heard it was coming. Hang in there. :)

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  15. The Carol Drinkwater series is perfect for me! I've ordered the first and am looking forward to beginning a series new to me!

    Thanks!

    :)

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  16. Pooch,

    I'm always happy to recommend a great book. Hope you love The Olive Farm. I need to acquire a copy of that one, now that I know how much I love the author's writing. :)

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  17. I fall in love with just about every dog I see and Buddy is no exception. He is so adorable! Please give him a kiss from me when you see him next time!

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  18. Teddy Rose,

    Buddy's adorable, but he smells too awful to kiss. I waved to him, for you. :)

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