Sunday Salon -- Spring!?

Lake Crescent, Olympic National Park, Washington State. Photo by A.Bennett

Weather: right this moment we have a blue sky with white puffy clouds dotting it. Earlier today, the skies were grey and overcast. Earlier this week, it snowed and hailed. Who knows what to expect? Spring in the northwest.

Hacked: Last week I didn't post my weekly update Sunday Salon. Why? Because my Facebook account was hacked. Really hacked...the email address was changed and everything. Once I went through the steps to recover it and prove to Facebook I was me, they locked my account for 24-hours as a precaution and then that time frame extended to 5 days. But I'm back on. I'm not a huge fan of Facebook but it is one of the only ways that I communicate with old friends and some family members so I didn't want to lose it. I was pretty bummed out. Now I am cautious to post anything and wonder what I did to draw attention to the hacker. Sigh.

Olympic National Park, Hoh Rain Forest. The only temperate rain forest in the continental US.

Olympic National Park: Earlier this month some friends from New Jersey, my husband, and I spent a few days exploring the Olympic National Park. We hiked the Hoh River rain forest trail which takes you into another world, one dominated by moss. Then we hiked another trail to see the beautiful Marymere waterfall. The photo above I took on my little cell phone of Lake Crescent. Isn't the mirror vision of it beautiful, if I do say so myself. The road to Hurricane Ridge, the high point of the park, was closed due to snow. They only plow it on weekends and now they are closing it until the end of May for repairs and updates. So we will have to wait until summer to attempt the summit again.

Mom and her four children on her 94th birthday.

94: I just returned from Eugene where I joined my siblings in helping my mother celebrate her 94th birthday. It was so good to be all together, though two of our spouses were missing. We shared old family stories and two of us even told stories we haven't dared to tell each other until now. I guess that 50-year statutes of limitations has passed. 😁 Mom is a marvel and I bet we will all gather together next year to celebrate her 95th.

Reading/Books (since my last update):

• Currently reading:
• The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams -- A future book club selection. I chose it because, of course, I am always reading someone's reading list, usually my own. The first book on the list is To Kill a Mockingbird. Print. 26%.
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas. The end is in sight. I have 150 pages to go and all the bad stuff is happening to all the bad people. Ha! I am determined to finish this book this week! Print and audio. 86%.
• Necessary Christianity by Alexander. My extra study for Lent. Lots of thoughtful insights. Print. 67%.
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon. Don and I started this audiobook on our trip to the Olypic National Park and back. Likely we won't continue it until we take a trip to Southern Oregon in late April. Audio. 26%.
   
• Completed books:
• The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie. I liked this Poirot mystery quite a lot. It was different than the others I'd read, which kept me interested. E-book. 4 out of 5 stars.
• Solito by Javier Zamora. A memoir of Javier's experience as a nine-year-old making the journey from El Salvador to the US without any other family members. The tale was so harrowing. I spent half the book infuriated by his parents for a. leaving him in the first place and b. for sending for him and expecting him to make the journey alone. Audio. Egads. 4.5 stars.
• Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. Another future book club selection. I started and set aside this book over a year ago and remembered why I didn't finish the first time. But was glad that I pushed through my discomfort because the ending was very satisfying. Audio. 3.75 stars.
   
• 
  Favorite books: Last week a fellow book blogger, Deb Nance at Reader Buzz, posted a list of her 250+ favorite books. That list was a revelation to me. Why hadn't I thought of it, too. Why not put together a list of my favorite books that take into consideration time? What were my favortie books as a child, a teenager, a young mother, and so forth. My list of favorites is always changing as my memory dims or as I read new books, but why not give credit to those past favorites alongside the new ones? So here it is -- my living document of favorite books. It is likely to change quite frequently. But here is my list of my 150+ favorite books of all time: My Favorite Books Master list.
  
  

 Yay. This sounds like more nature and less man-made problems:

Prayers for: 

• C--a past colleague who lost her husband, also a past colleague, this week to cancer.
• R--a friend who had surgery for ovarian cancer this past week.
• K--a friend who had surgery for lung cancer this week.
  

At the bird feeder this week we saw:

• A flock of tiny bushtits
• Dark-eyed juncos and black-capped chickadees (they live here)
• Anna's hummingbird (a year-round resident)
• Spotted Towhee
• Pacific wren (in the Olympic National park)
• Downy woodpecker (at the feeder in my mom's yard)
• Yellow-rumped warbler
  
• and we can hear an owl when we take the dog out at night, but haven't seen it.
  

And for laughs:

                                                                     A Redneck Liberal

This would be my dog. He is one of those irritating dogs who is always trying to drum-up business with other dogs. Always late at night, too.

-Anne