"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Sunday Salon, April 5th. Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!
Weather: lovely!

Easter: Today is a celebration in church, the holiest of all holidays in the Christian church. Afterwards we are hosting a dinner for family and friends here. Our meal will be very unconventional: salmon, potatoes, asparagus, pineapple, and carrot cake. Do you celebrate Easter? What do you usually eat?

Spring Break: It was a short but relaxing week. The highlight was the trip to the northern part of the start for a few nights stay at Birch Bay and  a visit to the tulip fields in full bloom. Amazingly, we live less than two hours from this part of our state but the last time we visited the tulip festival was in 2001. I don't think we will wait so long to visit it again.

Photo by Don Bennett, all rights reserved.

40-Bags-in-40-days: Mission accomplished. We bagged up 42 bags during the forty days of Lent! This week we attacked the linen closet and bagged up five bags of old sheets (mostly top sheets), towels, and old pillows. I also sorted through my old t-shirts and Carly bagged up some old jeans. Wow. I can't tell you how good it feels to be done with that old junk. I recommend it.

Books completed this week:
  • All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
  • Strong is Your Hold by Galway Kinnell
  • Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan
  • The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Books I'm reading:
  • The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley (55% completed)
  • The Martian by Andy Weir (60% complete audiobook)
  • The Neverending Story  by Michael Ende (20% complete audiobook)
Movies watched this week:
  • Unbroken---About Louis Zamperini a true American hero (2014)
  • The Theory of Everything---about the life of Stephen Hawking (2014)
  • Mrs. Henderson Presents---based on a true story (2005)
  • Extract---a quirky film starring Jason Bateman (2009)
  • My Old Lady---starring Kevin Kline (2014)
From the kitchen: Apple Carrot Cake. I'll give you an update later as to how it is received.

Prayers for: our neighbor who is in the hospital with an infection. He has a very weak heart and any infection can be deadly. For Sheila at Book Journey, a blogging friend, who lost her son to a car accident on Saturday. Also for a gal in our church, Marie, who lost her mother this past week.

In the garden: we dug up a lilac bush which was barely alive and planted a purple azalea in its place. It felt good to be outdoors working in the dirt.

Have a lovely day! Blessings on you and your family today.