Purple Clover

Teaser Tuesday 41: Cut to the Corpse

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab a current or recent read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


I read this book in MAY. This is book two in the Decoupage Mystery series.

She hunkered down beside the bed, and using both hands pushed his shoulder up and over... With a grunt, she gave him a shove and he flopped over.

(pg 46)


"That's it?" she asked. "You bartered dinner for that? That's not even worth a Hot Pocket on the T into Boston."

(pg 159)

Cut to the Corpse by Lucy Lawrence

Genre: Cozy Mystery

A sticky situation in the second Decoupage mystery.

Decoupage teacher Brenna Miller is in over her head when she finds bride-to-be Tara with her fiancé's dead best friend-and Tara holding the murder weapon. It's up to Brenna to get to the truth before Tara's future turns to shreds.

Dragonfly

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky.
~Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Daisies

Nature is Ever Working

Nature is ever at work building and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing, allowing no rest but in rhythmical motion, chasing everything in endless song out of one beautiful form into another.
~John Muir

Black & White

Playing with your photo program can be so much fun. After Wednesday's post of the spooky tree, I pulled up my program and decided to see what a couple of pics looked like converted to grayscale (black and white). I think you'll agree it gived you a pretty good idea what Monday and Wednesday's photos would look like, had they been shot at night.

Thursday Thirteen 159: New-to-Me Authors

Thirteen new-to-me authors I have encountered so far this year. Some are relative newcomers to the published world, while others have been around a few decades.


01. Suzanne Collins (YA fantasy)

02. Benjamin Hoff (Nonfiction)

03. Heather Webber (Mystery)

04. Susan Stephens (Romance)

05. Dennis Lehane (Mystery/Thriller)

06. Marina Fiorato (Historical Fiction)

07. Rebecca Hale (Mystery)

08. Christy Evans (Mystery)

09. Dick Francis (Mystery)

10. Kate Collins (Mystery)

11. Sandra Cisneros (Fiction)

12. Annette Blair (Mystery)

13. Aaron Elkins (Mystery)

For the most part I enjoyed all of these authors and either have or will read them again. A couple were a little iffy, but I will probably read at least one more book by them before making a final decision. Benefit of the doubt, you know? *grin*

Have you encountered any new-to-you authors this year?

LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:
(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)

Alice Audrey * Robin Rotham * Adelle Laudan
Shelley Munro * BrendaND * Jamie Babette * Colleen
Elise Logan * Darla M Sands * Kristen * Paige Tyler
Inez Kelley * Janice Seagraves * David Bridger
Felicia Lind * Alexia Reed * Jennifer McKenzie Sasha Devlin * Tatiana Caldwell * A Catherine Noon


More Thursday Thirteen participants

Silhouette

I'm betting this tree really looks spooky on a cloudy night with a full moon. We'll just have to imagine it since I am not going in the Arboretum alone at night. Nuh-uh...not gonna happen!

Teaser Tuesday 40: The Devil Who Tamed Her

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab a current or recent read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


Read in May for the 2010 Year of the Historical Challenge. Only eight more Lindseys to catch up on! This is the sequel to The Heir, featured last week.

"Patience is a virtue. Since you don't possess any—patience or any other virtues for that matter—we'll let this one be the first you learn. Practice, m'dear, beginning now."

(pg 48)

About the book:
Genre: Historical Romance

A passionate Regency-era novel in which in which a beautiful but ruthless gossip meets her match in a dashing rake who sets out to change her wicked ways. Featuring two enthralling characters from the unforgettable bestseller The Heir, The Devil Who Tamed Her is a spirited new tale about the transforming power of true love.

Ophelia Reid is an incomparable beauty with a reputation for starting rumors and spreading them. The heir to a dukedom, Raphael Locke, Viscount Lynnfield is—in spite of his disinterest in marriage—the most sought-after young lord in England. He instantly disliked Ophelia when she caused a scandal to avoid marriage to his friend MacTavish, but having comforted her in a tearful moment, he begins to wonder if she's not all bad. So when MacTavish claims that Ophelia will never be anything but a spiteful beauty, Rafe bets his friend that he can turn her into a kindhearted lady who will one day make a good match, just not with him.

When Rafe champions the new and improved Ophelia's re-entry to London society, marriage proposals pour in. Only then does Rafe start to wonder whether he hasn't gone and fallen in love with Ophelia himself. Wondrously romantic, passionate, and delightfully humorous.

Evening Sky Before Dusk

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SUMMER!

Deer Me!

Saturday evening after dinner, there were still hours of daylight left and, it being a bit cooler than earlier in the day, I decided to walk up towards the Arboretum. The blood-suckers—er, mosquitoes—being out in full force, and not being armed with an entire can of insect spray, I avoided the prairie and stuck to the woods. For the most part, it wasn't too bad unless I stopped moving. Any time I stopped moving, they moved in.

Pretty peaceful evening walk. The squirrels were especially playfully, and I saw numerous butterflies dancing on the breeze. I spied the head of a wild turkey as he moved through the scrub, as well as a gorgeous bluejay. Have seen no sign of the fox since a couple weeks ago. However, I did spy another denizen of the Arboretum as I walked back up a path towards the exit. Rounding a bend in the path I saw a rather noble, yet young creature...









Definitely made feeding the mosquitoes worth it!

Quiet Oasis

I wish there were more benches like this scattered throughout the Arboretum, a quiet place to escape reality for a bit, to just sit and contemplate the life around you, or nothing at all.

Balcony Seat

Seen on one of my walks. Doesn't that balcony seem an enticing place to sit and relax? Of course, I'd want a good book and an ice cold glass of lemonade to go with it...

Thursday Thirteen 158: Prairie Plants

Last week I promised pictures of some of the prairie plants I learned to identify on a recent guided walk through Greene Prairie, a part of the UW Arboretum here in Madison. It is a 50-acre restored prairie planted primarily by one person, Henry Greene, during the 1940s and 1950s. Many of the plants I am going to talk about are pictured in the photo I used for this week's header. All photos were taken by me—click on any one of them for a larger view.


Spiderwort. This is one of the prettiest and most easily recognizable of wildflowers, and one of my favorites. With 71 species, these plants are native to the New World from southern Canada south to northern Argentina, and grow in wooded areas and fields. The flowers can be white, pink or purple but are most commonly bright blue. Some species flower in the morning and then close up in the afternoon when the sun is shining, but flowers can remain open on cloudy days until evening. Though sometimes considered a weed, it is often cultivated for containers. Click here to see my Spiderwort and Bee, posted last weekend.


Golden Alexander is a hardy member of the carrot family. The leaves and fruit of this plant turn purple in the fall. Though it prefers wet habitats, it is sturdy enough to survive dry summers.


False White Indigo or Baptisia is another pretty flower I like. While it can be seen on both restored prairies of the Arboretum, it seems more abundant at Curtis Prairie, located along the southern edge of the main part of the Arboretum. Curtis Prairie is the oldest restored prairie in the United States.


Prairie Phlox is another pretty flower that grows in both woodlands and prairies, as well as alpine tundra. There are 67 different species found primarily in North America. Flowers can be white, pink, purple, blue or red.


Puccoon. I know, what an awful name for such a pretty flower, right? The word 'puccoon' denotes the plant as a source of a dye–a reddish color that was used by Amerindians for pottery, basketry, and personal ornament in various ceremonies.


Equisetum or Horsetail. This is one of the oldest plants in the world, dating back one hundred million years. It is considered a "living fossil," and some Equisetopsida in the Paleozoic era grew as large as trees. This plant is found on every continent except Antarctica, in wooded areas as well as prairies.


This itty bitty flower is a Bluet, or Quaker Lady, and only grows in one spot of Greene Prairie, preferring well-drained sandy loam and full sun. They are ideal for rock gardens.


Compass Plant. This plant earned its name as they tend to align their foliage East-West to present the minimum surface area to the hot noon sunshine. A mature plant ranges from 6-12 feet tall, with 6-30 large yellow flowers of 3-4 inch diameter (they are not yet in bloom at Greene Prairie). It is usually found in tandem with...


Prairie Dock. Its big green leaves are easily recognizable when gazing out at any prairie, as they are up to 18" long and 12" wide. Stalks up to 10 feet tall will sprout from the center, topped with yellow flowers.


These small, daisy-looking plants are known as Prairie Fleabane, and they are a 'lesser' daisy. They grow in both woodlands and prairies, as well as ditches. In fact, there are some growing behind my apartment complex. They are 1-3 feet tall, with 50-100 white flowers, often with several flower heads on a single stalk. Prairie fleabane can be found in almost every state of the continental US.


Penstemon. Also sometimes known as Beard-tongue, penstemon are most common across North America and Europe. There are 63 known species, and flowers are mostly purple, but can also come in red, white and orange. Native Americans used penstemon roots to relieve toothache.


Rattlesnake Master. Common in eastern and central North America, from Minnesota east to Ohio, and south to Texas across to Florida, some Native Americans used its root as an antidote for rattlesnake venom (hence the name). They have bristly or spiny leaves with a sharp tip, and will eventually be topped with greenish-white or bluish-white flowers.


Yellow Star Grass is actually not a flower, but an ornamental grass, and is also one you might see along roadways.




LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:
(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)

Adelle Laudan * Shelley Munro * Kimberly Menozzi
Hootin' Anni * David Bridger * Harriet * Kristen
Darla M Sands * Janet * Jill Conyers * Paige Tyler
Robin Rotham * Tatiana Caldwell * CountryDew
Alice Audrey * Janice Seagraves * Inez Kelley
Jennifer McKenzie * Alexia Reed * Elise Logan
Colleen * Felicia Lind


More Thursday Thirteen participants

Wet

Teaser Tuesday 39: The Heir

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!



Another Johanna Lindsey read in May. I have enjoyed catching up on some of her books this year. Only eight more to go... I know this is a bit longer this week, but this exchange was too good not to share.

"Well, one, because he's so amusing when he gets annoyed with me. And two, because I like him. And three, because someone has to teach him how to roll with the punches, as it were, and I've elected myself to educate him on the intricacies of English humor."

"Goodness, and here I thought you were just being facetious," she replied, tongue in cheek.

(pg 104)

About the book:
Genre: Historical Romance

Has anyone in London ever taken part in the coming-out season with less enthusiasm than Sabrina? She is young, lovely, and possesses a sparkling wit, yet she knows she is but a simple orphaned country girl—whose grandfather just happened to have been a nobleman—and therefore feels dreadfully out of place.

Even less keen to be in London is Duncan MacTavish. Having lived twenty-one deliriously contented years in the Scottish Highlands, he has recently learned he is the sole heir of an English Marquis and is now required to assume his grandfather's title and estates. Worse still, a betrothal has already been arranged without his consent to the ravishing, viper-tongued Ophelia —who has been heard to make scathing statements in public about her Scottish barbarian groom-to-be.

Bad circumstance, however, can sometimes have distinctly pleasurable advantages—especially when his unwanted intended's sudden desire to repent brings the dashing highlander into close proximity with the enchanting Sabrina. Now this is a woman for whom Duncan would willingly abandon his beloved Scotland: a kindred spirit whose wit delights him...and whose essence is the exquisite stuff of dreams. But duty and station forbid Sabrina's and Duncan's desired union. And a secret dwells in the lady's past, and it threatens their romance. Under such adverse conditions a match that should be, a passion that must be, cannot possibly be—unless true love can somehow, miraculously find a way.

Flag Day

Proudly may it wave...

It was on this day in 1777 that the government officially adopted the Stars and Stripes as our national flag.

Chipmunk

Spiderwort and Bee

(Click image for larger view)

Thursday Thirteen 157: On My Mind

01. Why do people COMMENT on posts they HAVE NOT READ? I love comments, I really do, but please take the time to actually read a post so that you can comment on it intelligently.

02. I seem to run into this irritation most on Teaser Tuesday posts. I always write a short one or two sentence blurb in LARGE BOLD FONT above my excerpt as to when I read a book and what I thought of it. Is it really that hard to read two whole sentences??

03. I went on a guided walking tour of Greene Prairie, part of the UW Arboretum's smaller Grady tract, Sunday afternoon. As expected with a small group, I did not see the fox as we wound through the woods to get to the prairie. However, one of the ladies in the group picked up a "hitchhiker" on the return trip—a cute little inch worm.

04. Out of the 25-30 names thrown at us, I can now positively identify at least a dozen wild flowers and grasses on my own. Expect more in a future post!

05. Why do people going on a walk through woods and prairie wear open-toe shoes, as three women did in our group Sunday? Part of the narrow path in the prairie was muddy or under 1-2 inches of water due to recent rains. People: you need to wear socks and good walking shoes or boots when hiking through any wild area. You never know what might slither across your foot!

06. We finished the 2-hour walk just as (more) rain was coming in. I never walked the mile home so fast! I wasn't home five minutes before the thunderstorm broke around us.

07. I know we really need it, and the gardners and farmers are happy to get it, but I'm a little sick of rain now. It rained part of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Rained all day Tuesday. More rain is expected Friday through Sunday. Any more and I'll need an ark!

08. During Saturday's bout of rain, friends and I went to see Letters to Juliet. Excellent romantic comedy. Must add to Christmas wishlist.

09. Don't you hate it when an actor looks familiar, but you can't place face or previous work and it nags you the entire movie? I had that problem Saturday with actor Christopher Egan. Where I'd seen him? Eragon and the short-lived TV series Kings.

10. Am I the only one irked by hidden comment verification? Believe me, I understand the need for word ver (my own blog gets inundated with x-rated spam without it), but please don't hide the fact you use it. Do you realize how many comments you lose because people don't know there's a word verification after they hit post/send?

11. I found another new flavor of M&M's: Pretzel. In a word? Yum!

12. Another irritent? People who refer to any book as "fluff." No reading is fluff. All reading is worthwhile. Be proud of what you read, whether it's a classic, lit fic, sci-fi, romance, mystery...whatever!

13. To paraphrase Mark Twain, "The only thing worse than the man who cannot read, is the man who can and does not."

What's on YOUR mind this week?

LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:
(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)

Deb * Brenda * Alice Audrey * Kristen * CountryDew
Adelle Laudan * Joy Tamsin David * Colleen
Shelley Munro * JourneyWoman * Elise Logan
Kimberly Menozzi * Tatiana Caldwell * Darla M Sands
Harriet * Paige Tyler * Jana * Inez Kelley * Jehara
Janice Seagraves * Jennifer McKenzie * PM Rousseau
Sasha Devlin * A Catherine Noon

You can find more Thursday Thirteen participants HERE

Teaser Tuesday 38: Mum's the Word

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


Read in early May. This is the first in Kate Collins' Flower Shop mystery series, and a fast and an enjoyable read!

Steering the Vette over to the side of the road just before the bridge, I was digging in my purse for my phone when he hit me again, pushing my car forward at an angle, so that the front end was hanging off the narrow, sloping shoulder and I was staring down into muddy water. Fear prickled along my spine.

(pg 238)

About the book:
Genre: Cozy Mystery

I don't mean to meddle, honest! But can I help it if my nose for injustice is as keen as my green thumb? Now I, Abby Knight, law school dropout, am the proud new owner of Bloomers, my hometown flower shop. I'm devoted to making my business grow, but I'm no shrinking violet if someone needs my help to right a wrong -- even if that person is already dead....

So maybe Abby's life isn't the bed of roses she was hoping it would be. She adores her job, but a new low-cost competitor is killing her profits - and a black SUV just rammed her vintage Corvette in a hit and run. Determined to track down the driver, she accepts the help of hunky ex-cop Marco Salvare. But their budding relationship is threatened when the trail turns deadly. Now Abby is caught in a tangle of menacing phone calls, police corruption, and murderous road rage. If she's not careful, the next flower arrangement might be for her own funeral.

Treehouse

Doesn't that look like an ideal place to sit and read a book? Alice has also posted a treehouse on her blog. Be sure to pop over and check it out!

The TBR shelf

(Click photo to enlarge)

This is the TBR (to be read) shelf. It is by no means all of the books in my TBR pile, only those I hope to get to soonest. There are two rows per shelf, plus a few stacked sideways. Second shelf from top on the right is all Christmas-themed books. I did a good job clearing that out a bit last December. I'm thinking I might have to do a "Christmas in July" challenge and see if I can't reduce it by a few more. Second shelf from bottom left is all classics, with a few of those spilling over to the shelf below. The top left shelf are the books up next on my reading list, which include a few challenge or group read books. I read 14 books in May; let's see how well I do for June! Oh, and the string of beaded angels hanging down in the middle? That was a gift from my friend Nina a few years ago. *g*

Orange Petals

A close-up of some flowers posted yesterday...

They're protesting the Bee?!

A fellow Romance Diva just posted the link to the article below. Go ahead and read it, then come back. I'll wait.


In DC, even the Spelling Bee draws protesters


Done? Okay, here is my opinion.

What irritates me most about this protest is that it's educators who are doing it. Instead of dumbing down the language (or standards in general), they should be encouraging people to follow the example set by these kids to excel. I have grandparents and great-grandparents who came to this country from Norway, Germany and France. They did not expect the people in this country to speak their language. They did not expect people to give them a break because they did not know the language. They immediately started to learn English, the predominate language spoken in this country, so that they could understand what was going on around them and fit in.

Also, the protester seems to completely miss the fact that the way words are spelled has much to do with country (language) of origin. The English language, more than any other, has always absorbed words from other languages. Unlike countries such as France, there is no language police here, deciding whether to accept or refuse a word from another culture, or whether to accept a word but alter its spelling so as to make it appear more "English".

It's no wonder the stereotype of the "dumb American" exists. It's appalling, really, how much the education system in this country has changed over the past several decades, and not for the better. Look at what our parents and grandparents were learning in school—and in what grades—compared to kids today. A prime example? One of my favorite Christmas movies is A Christmas Story. During the film, the 4th grade class is shown reading the book Silas Marner. That was in the 1940s. By 1980 you were lucky if kids could handle that book in the 9th grade, and not many schools teach it at all now. (It is, by the way, a good book.)

And have you ever read old newspapers from the 1950s or—even better—earlier? I love browsing old articles in the online archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society and the like. I love the vocabulary and the way they used language. It is not uncommon to see great four or five-syllable words. Why? Because they did not assume that 90% of their readers would not know what a word meant if it had more than two syllables. They assumed that if a person didn't know the word, they would look it up. Isn't that what most of us were taught from an early age, if you don't know something, look it up?

If anything we need TOUGHER educational standards in this country, not more lenient ones. Lengthening the school year would be a good start. The US already has one of the shortest school years in the world. The summer break is so long that kids forget half of what they learned by start of the next semester. Let's get back to the days when a fourth grader could actually read and understand a book like Silas Marner.

As for me, I believe I will protest the protesters by watching the Scripps National Spelling Bee on TV tonight and cheering these young spellers on. The Bee airs on ABC at 8PM/7C.

Miniature Sunbursts

No idea what these are cdalled, but I love the sunburst of color. These are from a friend's garden, though she wasn't the one who planted them. They were a "gift" from nature.

Thursday Thirteen 156: Spelling Bee

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is taking place in Washington, DC this week. Finals air on ABC this Friday night (8 EDT/7 CDT). This year's event features 273 spellers ranging in age from 8 to 15. The youngest speller, Vanya Shivashankar, is sister to the 2009 champion, Kavya Shivashankar. You know what Spelling Bee week means—it's time to ramp up your vocabulary!

1. goad \GOHD\, verb:
To prick or drive with, or as if with, a goad; prod; incite. To goad into action.

2. oleaginous \oh-lee-AJ-uh-nuhs\, adjective:
a. Having the nature or qualities of oil.
b. Unctuous; fawning; smarmy.
She pulled away from the oleaginous politician.

3. omnific \om-NIF-ik\, adjective:
Creating all things; having unlimited powers of creation.
(Omnific also occurs as omnificent and ominificence, a noun.) An author is omnific, the master of his (or her) universe.

4. scarper \SKAHR-puhr\, verb intr.
To flee, especially without paying one's bills. To scarper off.

5. cerebrate \SER-uh-brayt\ verb tr., intr.
To use the mind: to think, reason.

6. vellicate \VEL-i-kayt\ verb tr., intr.
a. To twitch or to cause to twitch.
b. To pluck, nip, irritate, etc.

7. malapert \MAL-uh-purt\, adjective:
Unbecomingly bold or saucy.
Had it not been for the account of some malapert agent...

noun:
A malapert person.

8. suspire \suh-SPAHY-uhr\, verb:
To utter with long, sighing breaths.

9. habitué \huh-BICH-oo-ey\, noun:
One who frequents a particular place, especially a place offering a specific pleasurable activity.

10. susurration \sus ə rā'shən\, noun
A soft, whispering or rustling sound; a murmur. The susurration of leaves.

11. costive \kaw-stiv\, adjective
a. suffering from constipation; constipated.
b. slow in action or in expressing ideas, opinions, etc. (This was the sense used in the book in which I encountered this word)
c. Obsolete. stingy; tight-fisted.

12. qui vive \kee-VEEV\ noun
alert, lookout. Newspaper copy editors must always be on the qui vive for factual as well as grammatical errors.

13. poniard [pon-yerd], noun
1. a small, slender dagger.

–verb (used with object)
2. to stab with a poniard.





LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:
(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)

Alice Audrey * Shelley Munro * Janice Seagraves
Adelle Laudan * Kimberly Menozzi * CountryDew
Jennifer McKenzie * Angelika Devlyn * Jana * Darla Sands
Elise Logan * PM Rousseau * Tatiana Caldwell


More Thursday Thirteen participants

Purple Clematis

From a friend's garden

Teaser Tuesday 37: Second Wind

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!

I read this book first weekend of May. My first Dick Francis, and definitely not the last! How could you not be pulled in by these last lines from the prologue?

I'm drowning, I thought. The waves are bigger. The storm is worse. I'll go to sleep soon.

Delirium brings comfort at the end.

(pg 2)

About the book:
Second Wind by Dick Francis
Genre: Mystery

TV weatherman Perry Stuart takes a hurricane-chasing ride in a small airplane as a holiday diversion. But a frightening accident teaches him more secrets than wind speeds. And back home in England, he faces threats and danger as deadly as anything nature can dish out.