Sunday Salon, April 6

The bike spokes in the foreground are actually a big bike rack.

Weather: rainy. What is it they say about April showers?

End of Spring break: today is the last day of Spring Break. Back to work tomorrow. It was a good week, though, visiting my sister and parents in Eugene, and taking a short trip to the Washington Coast with the hubby earlier in the week. The photo (above) was taken in front of a restaurant in Eugene where my sister and I shared a yummy black bean burger and I pondered the question, does Eugene attract hippies or create them?

Day of reading was a success: read my update here. I spent most of yesterday just reading (or listening to books being read aloud.) Don was at National Guard and it rained all day. Why not stay in and read?

National Poetry Month: April is poetry month. These lines come from the poem A PRAYER by Max Ehrmann. The poet seems to be looking at his life gratefully and thanking God for His many blessings. This verse, from the end of the poem, really struck me because it does seem that we chase after "the castle of my dreams" not often finding it.

And though age and infirmity overtake me,

and I come not within

sight of the castle of my dreams, teach me

still to be thankful for

life, and for time's olden memories that are good

and sweet; and

may the evening's twilight find me gentle still.

By the way: Max Ehrmann (1872-1945), author of the above poem, was the poet who wrote "Desiderata", a poem which was widely distributed back in the 1960s/70s and was mistakenly attributed to a work from the 17th century. If you haven't read that poem recently it is worth a good reread. (The link is to the SNOPES description about the mistaken attribution of the poem.)

Here is a rather cheesy YouTube video of Desiderata set to music:

Books read this week (remember, it is Spring Break):

• Wild by Cheryl Strayed. Don and I listened to the last two discs of the audiobook en route to Pacific Beach, then talked over the whole book as we ate a delicious salmon dinner at Lake Quinault.
• Your Food is Fooling You by David Kessler, MD. A YA version of his popular and helpful book, The End of Overeating, which I haven't read but should.
• Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple. The last fifty pages tipped my opinion into the positive column but just barely.
• Relish by Lucy Knisley. A graphic memoir by an artist about her very foodie family and life. It was a strange juxtaposition to read this right after Your Food is Fooling You. Knisley is a very talented artist and I enjoyed the book and recipes very much.
• A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley. The #3 Flavia de Luce mystery. This was my audiobook selection for my trip to Oregon and back.
• Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn. This was the Morris Award winner this year for debut author. I hope to write a review of it soon.
• The Jane Austen Companion to Life. With illustrations by C.E. Brock. This shouldn't count since it is just short sayings with an illustration per page.

Books currently reading:

• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Described as a love story to literature.
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. This is my read-along book, two more weeks and I'll be done.
• 100 Poems to Lift Your Spirits, edited by Leslie Pockell. My favorite way of reading poetry with the help of an editor that makes good selections and comments on them.

There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it.                      ― Gustave Flaubert

50 Quotes about poetry: Check out the website.