Sunday Salon -- May!

Weather: It is a glorious afternoon. The temperature is a bit cold but the sun is shining and it is so pretty outside.

Planting: Every year for Mother's Day (which is next Sunday, I know) my husband gives me a day of labor. We go to our favorite plant nurseries, buy some combination of flower starts for the pots in the yard. When we get home he goes to work preparing the potting soil -- a combination of compost from our worm bed, coconut coir, and bagged potting soil -- to go into the pots. Then he helps me place the plants into the different pots and place them around the yard and the deck. It is a lot of work and Don does the lion's share of it. I am so grateful for his loving gift of time and energy. While he was at it this year, he also rototilled our little garden spot and planted two tomato plants, three zucchini starts, basil, and thyme. We're set for summer! Now grow plants, grow.

Parade: Our daughter took Don and I to see a Broadway Touring Group's Production of PARADE in Seattle this past week. It is based on a real story of injustice and antisemitism in the 1910s in Georgia. Did I like the play? It was very well done but a very, very depressing topic.

Marshmallows: Here's a little funny tip which actually works. If you ever get that pesky cough, the one that seems to be originating in your throat, not your bronchial tubes or lungs, eat a marshmallow, a big one (or a few small ones.) According to a friend's doctor, the little bit of gelatin in the candy will coat your throat and should hold off the cough long enough for you to get to sleep or for the coughing reflex to go away. Try it. It works for me.

Books:

• Completed the last two weeks
• Make Me Rain: Poems and Prose by Nikki Giovanni -- This is my first deep dive into the poetry of this famous poet. Print. 4 stars.
• When I Was Puerto Rican: a Memoir by Esmeralda Santiago -- Written in the 1990s, this is a memoir about the author's early years, growing up in Puerto Rico. E-book. 3 stars.
• Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie -- four African women and their experiences in America and with cultural expectations. Audio. 5 stars.
• 44 Poems On Being With Each Other: A Poetry Unbound Collection by Padraig O Tuama. Print. 5 stars.
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. This is the first book I've read using the 12-page/day limit. It made the reading experience very stress free. Reread, reading the exact same book I read the first time out, an abridged version of Dickens's classic (it was still over 500 pages long.) Print. 4 stars.
• White Pine: Poems and Prose by Mary Oliver. Another poetry collection I didn't have time to stuff into April for National Poetry Month. Print. 4 stars.
• Currently reading
• Thirst by Mary Oliver. See note above. Print. 16% complete.
• All Fours by Miranda July. A Women's Prize nominee. Audio. 23% complete.
• What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World's Most Familiar Bird by Sy Montgomery. A nonfiction, short book. I like Montgomery's writing style. Print. 8% complete.
• The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington. A classic published in 1918 and a Pulitzer Prize winner. I am using my new 12-page a day method but it is hard to figure out since I am reading it on my e-reader and the pages don't match the print book edition, so I've decided to try and read 5% a day t make my goal. E-book. 10% complete.

Blog Posts written in the same time frame, click the links to read more:

• TTT: Surprised by How Much I liked These Books
• Review: Martyr! (+Book Club Discussion Questions)
• Poetry Review: Make Me Rain
• TTT: A Strange Collection of Books -- All with WORLD in the title
• Poetry Review: 44 Poems On Being With Each Other
• Review: Dream Count
• Predicting the 2025 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction
• Having a Little Bookish Fun on a Saturday

Have a lovely week!

-Anne