The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts

The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America by Elizabeth Letts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - My first thought about this book is that I wish my father-in-law was still alive because I think he (and my dad) would both have enjoyed this very much. I wish I could ask them whether they remember hearing about the journey that Annie Wilkins took across America, from Maine to California, in the mid-1950s. They both grew up around horses, and were young men at the time. I think they would have been fascinated by this, as many of the people of America were, at the time.
Annie is 63, when she is given just a few years to live, after being hospitalized for what might have been thought to be TB. She remembers a dream of her mother's, to see the Pacific Ocean, and decides that she has nothing to lose (she knows she can no longer hold on to the farm in Maine, by herself), and manages to save enough money to buy a horse and sets out in November, 1954 to ride across the country with her dog, trusting that strangers will let her sleep in their barns, etc. along the way.
A newspaper gets word of the story and she becomes something of a celebrity, people in the towns she travels through often put her up for a night, or longer, and her horse(s) are always given a place in a stable. The police act as escorts through towns and offer her a place to sleep in the jail, when needed. Overall, people are very kind to her and her animals. In Tennessee, a town gives her a second horse, a Tennessee Walker, to help her along the way.
This was an interesting book, in a simpler time, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys animals, travel or history.

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The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a wonderful book. Covering a little over 5 years (from Sept. 2017 - Dec. 2022), author Amy Tan shares a selection from nine natural journals with sketches, reminiscences and observations gathered during hundreds of hours studying the birds in her backyard. In the beginning, she could only identify three birds, but over time and through keen observation, she eventually identified over sixty-three species.
From the beautiful pencil sketches to full color drawings, each offering is a gift and a labor of love. She wrote of the effects of various wildfires on the local ecosystem, birds that normally wouldn't appear in her area were driven south by the smoke, as well as of the comfort of watching the birds go about their normal lives during COVID, when the world seemed turned upside down for many humans.
I highly recommend this book!

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Chocolat by Joanne Harris

Chocolat by Joanne Harris
3.5 stars - I read this book as a pick from the list - Books that are better than the movie and then watched the movie, itself. The book, written in 1999, takes place in a small French village in the early 1960s. Vianne and her daughter, Anouk, arrive on a north wind at the very beginning of Lent and open a chocolatier, or chocolate shop. This immediately causes friction with the church, for whom Lent is a season of denial. But Vianne is a generous, giving, intuitive woman, who befriends all, and even treats her would-be enemies with kindness and compassion.
I enjoyed reading the book, but it clearly was written as the beginning of a series. It hints at back stories, creates more questions than it answers. The movie, on the other hand, keeps the same characters and setting, but tells the story in a different way, giving the viewers a neat ending. I appreciated that about the movie, and enjoyed it for both the acting (Dame Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, and Juliette Binoche) and the ending.
I feel I would be remiss if I didn't mention the parallels between this book and Lessons in Chemistry, which I recently finished. The time period in both is mid-twentieth century, and the protagonists are very similar. Each woman is a single mother to a precocious young daughter, who are running from their pasts, while trying to create a loving home for their child. While they may love a man, they are not dependent upon them. Vianne creates her living changing people's lives through chocolat, Elizabeth has a television show called "Supper at Six," that touches and changes lives in much the same way. They are both compassionate, funny, and smart. The books make good companion reads.

2023 Holiday letter

Happy holiday, friends!
2023 was a wonderful year at our house. We joined the East Tennesee Gleaners Co-op where we taught a few classes, took a few more and enjoyed the company of like-minded people. Of course we planted a garden, focusing on tomatoes, peppers, okra, and garlic, as well as some squash and gourds, with great results. This was the first year we were able to break even on the garlic, selling about 10 pounds for seed. We also planted (with the help of a few grandsons!) 50 or so lavender for the bees.
We hosted family and friends a bunch, including friends from Texas, and most of the children and grandchildren, as well as my sister and brother-in-law. In addition to that, we did a bunch of traveling, Texas in January; Charleston in March; a quick trip to NY in April; Missouri in May, where we got to visit Alden, see where my grandmother was born and some ancestral graves, and start our Route 66 journey; Arizona in September, where I met my cousin Carl and his wife Patty for the first time, saw the Grand Canyon, and enjoyed more of Route 66!; and finally a trip to Colorado last week to see Cirque du Soleil in Denver. This was the reason I retired!
Now we are home, enjoying our Christmas decorations and the quiet until we sojourn to Hawai'i next February to see our new granddaughter, November, and her older sister, August, as well as Matt and Niah.
I'll close this letter with a few photos, and wishes for all the blessings of this holiday season for you and your loved ones.

Health, part I

The thing about this blog is that it's safe. No one reads it. So all the fears, anger and other emotions that I don't know what to do with, I can put here. The last six weeks... It started in early August when I felt something weird happening on my back. I asked John to look at it, he told me it looked like a mole and we should get it looked at. We took a photo, and I called the dermatologist.

By the time I got into see him, a week later, it looked like this:

I was floored when the dermatologist said - "oh, that's a tick" and then removed it. Because of the irritation around it, he prescribed Doxycycline, a powerful antibiotic that I took twice a day for two weeks. Two weeks of throwing up, staying out of the sun, and halfway through the treatment, getting thrush. He also did a complete body scan, to look at any moles or skin conditions that might be a problem in the future. I specifically asked about something that had recently - I think sometime in the spring, shown up on my breast. It was skin colored with a hard brown core. He told me it was a cyst, and I shouldn't worry about it. So, about a week after finishing the tick treatment, around Labor Day, I noticed what looked like a pimple there. It quickly turned into an abscess. So I called the dermatologist office to try to get seen, but it was going to be two weeks. I made the appointment, and started putting drawing salve on it, and a lot of pus came out. I was able to get into see my PCP, on 9/11, a few days later. She was on maternity leave, and the elderly doctor (started practicing in 1971) said he thought it might have been a bug bite that got infected.He prescribed Bactrim, a sulfa-based antibiotic, and Nystatin to have on hand, should my thrush return.

So here I am 5 days later, trying to figure out what to do about the upcoming trip to Arizona and the Grand Canyon.

Day 3 - Geocaching, Adventure Labs, and Rte 66

Day 3 - We spent much of the day on Rte. 66, doing two adventure labs, and eating at an authentic diner. The first lab was focused on Uranus, a kitschy themed tourist attraction whose motto is "It's not a town, it's a destination." There's a fudge factory, a rocket, the world biggest belt buckle, a sideshow - you get the idea.

The afternoon adventure was honoring the soldiers - Fort Leonard Wood is located here. We went to two cemeteries, and four memorials.

Finally, no trip to Rte. 66 would be complete without a diner experience.

Genealogy, and a grandson

Day 1: (Weds. May 10, 2023) Leftthe house around 9 A.M., planning to drive 6 hours or so, towards our ultimate destination of Saint Robert, MO. By 4PM, we were close enough that it didn't make any sense to stop, so we drove through. Highlights of the day, seeing an eagle outside the Mark Twain National Forest, and BBQ for dinner.

Day 2: Well, my plan to meet up with a distant cousin and do genealogy didn't quite work out. She wasn't able to make it, due to stormy weather, and the genealogy room wasn't open, either. No matter, there were some nearby cemeteries to check out. The first one, Bolles Cemetery, had four ancestors. Really old ancestors with disintegrating headstones.

Although it's difficult to tell, these are my 3rd great grandparents, Calvin J. Agee, his wife, Minerva Thrailkill Agee; and John and Mary Pierce Hughes. They died (respectively) in 1876, 1903, 1877, and 1882.We attempted to go to the Vernon cemetery, where my 4th great grandparents, Joseph Thrailkill and Ziporah Atchley, are buried, but it is literally in the middle of some farmer's field, and we couldn't figure out how to access it. We ended up going to the Lebanon - Lacelede County library, which has both a Missouri History room and a Rte. 66 museum. Very cool.

The final highlight of the day, was running into Alden at Walmart, and then having dinner with him and Julia.