March 2021

Now that I'm fully vaccinated I've resumed some activities but I'm still sticking to essentials. Next month I'll have a dental check-up and resume my mahjong games. Also can do more as my housemate will also be vaccinated. I read plenty this week--lots of library books plus one off my "owned-but-unread" shelves. Once again I think I added more to the latter than I read...

Activities:

3/1   Library to pick up holds and browse! Yes, I went inside but only for about 5 minutes. 

3/4   Library (book drop only); JC Farms: Lyman Orchards 

3/10 Lab Work

3/11 CVS Cromwell

3/12 Eye Dr 

3/15 DR; Library; gas

3/16 Tree removal. I didn't leave home for this (other than moving the cars to neighbor's driveway) but I did have to interact with tree guy who was probably not vaccinated.

3/24  Library pick up & browse; Durham Dari-serv

3/24  Took E to Uconn (Munson) for 1st dose vaccine; Neil's Donuts

Reading:

 

Fiction (roughly in the order I liked them but The Rib King was the only real disappointment among the fiction):

Dear Child by Hausmann, Romy; translated from the German by Bulloch, Jamie
Lost Girls: Short Stories by Morris, Ellen Birkett 

 A fine collection which I won from The Debutante Ball which featured an Interview with Ellen Birkett Morris
Elemental International short stories by various authors and translators (my copy)
The Caretaker by Arbus, Doon
Indelicacy by Cain, Amina

Mona and Other Tales by Arenas, Reinaldo; translated from the Spanish bt Koch, Dolores M.
The Bass Rock by Wyld, Evie
Inheritance from Mother by Mizumura, Minae; translated from the Japanese by Carpenter, Juliet Winters
The Glorious Ones by Prose, Francine 

Archipelago by Roffey, Monique

The Last Garden in England by Kelly, Julia
The Rib King by Hubbard, Ladee

  Started out fine but bogged down...I admit to a bit of skimming...

 

Nonfiction (three good, one meh, and a bomb):

Finding Dora Maar: An Artist, an Address Book, a Life by Benkemoun, Brigitte; translated from the French by Gladding, Jody
The Chiffon Trenches by Talley, André Leon
A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team by Cooper, Arshay

The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move by Shah, Sonia 

  this was kind of disjointed and, not exactly to the point (of the title), wish I hadn't bothered..

Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park by Knighton, Conor 

  Too much "I" more a memoir than a travelogue, he tried to give a thematic presentation but ended up just wandering. His skipping all over the place made me want to do the same with his book.  Didn't make me want to visit any park I haven't already visited (and some that I have visited were barely recognizable). 

 

Online:

 I somehow stumbled onto to the site Olive Oil Times which has a lot of good stuff of interest to the industry and the consumer, see:  Remains of 2,500-Year-Old Mill Discovered in Italy  and Volunteers in Italy and Spain to Track Spittlebug Activity both by Paolo DeAndreis. In addition to news there are producer profiles, health info, and a bunch of recipes.

 

Paolo DeAndreis

Paolo DeAndreis

The Mystery of New England's Gray Corned Beef  by Anne Ewbank

 I was wondering about this as we ate our boxed take-out St Pat's dinner.

Yaupon: The rebirth of America's forgotten tea by Matt Stirn

 Humm..wonder is this stuff will grow in Connecticut...according to the USDA apparently not...see  Plant Guide: Yaupon and Plants profile: Ilex vomitoria Aiton yaupon and Willis Orchard Company: Yaupon Holly Tree

 

Iceburger No, not some crazy frozen dessert. This is an oddly compelling site that lets you create an iceberg an see how it floats. 

How Cats Walk In case you were wondering...

10 Incredible Women of Route 66 by Candacy Taylor (Moon Travel Guides). Interesting sidelights for a road-trip. A couple of the links are broken but easily found by Googling. The hotel in Winslow, AZ is where I want to stay if I ever go to the area again. (We stayed at a Holiday Inn in Williams on our cross country trip in 2001.)

Evolution of the House Plan in Europe: from the Industrial Revolution to the Interwar Period

 by Hana Abdel & Christele Harrouk

February 2021

More isolation, more (mostly good) reading, and a reaction to second covid shot. Such an exciting life!

 

Activities:

2/4    Gas; Neil's Donuts; Ace Hardware

2/11  Library (curbside pickup); Lyman Orchards (breakfast fruit & other essentials)

2/17  Library (curbside)

2/21  CVS

2/25  Nissan (key battery replacement); West Side Market (Rocky Hill); traffic check E.Berlin Rt 372

2/26  covid vaccine dose 2 (followed by two days of nothing but sleeping, mild aches, and light eating)

 

The reading was, as usual, all over the map both geographically and thematically.  The Passenger, set in Nazi Germany, and Pigeons on the Grass, set in Post War Munich, went nicely with Endpapers a family memoir that covers both periods and more.

 

Fiction: 

The Adventures and Misadventures of the Extraordinary and Admirable Joan Orpí, Conquistador   

 and Founder of New Catalonia by Besora, Max  (a fun romp)

The Passenger by Boschwitz, Ulrich Alexander
Pigeons on the Grass by Koeppen, Wolfgang

The Theory of Flight by Ndlovu, Siphiwe Gloria (Zimbabwe?)
The Cat and The City by Bradley, Nick (the city here is Tokyo)
The Mission House by Davies, Carys (India)
The Last Moon Before Home (Moon Trilogy, #2) by Dzikowski, Barbara J. (USA; nice, but not necessary, to have read the first of the trilogy)

At the Edge of the Haight by Seligman, Katherine (Post hippie Golden Gate Park, these are not flower children)

The Ancestry of Objects by Ryckman, Tatiana (meh)
White Ivy by Yang, Susie (My least favorite of the month)

Nonfiction:
Uprooted: A Gardener Reflects on Beginning Again by Dickey, Page (This was a nice read. In the past the garden (in northwestern Connecticut) has been open occasionally for tours. I hope they can do it again. It would make a good day trip)
Endpapers: A Family Story of Books, War, Escape, and Home by Wolff, Alexander   
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Nimura, Janice P.
 

Online:

I won't be trying this at home. I never even got past a simple paper airplane...

These impossibly detailed origami figures are made of a single piece of paper Thousands of folds. By Lilly Smith "Several months. One sheet of paper. Juho Könkkölä’s origami characters have to be seen to be believed."

 

Speaking of Neil's donuts...

Food & Wine magazine names Neil's Donuts as Connecticut's best

 

And still on the calorie laden treats theme...

I am impressed with once having a First Lady who behaves as a human (as opposed to a clueless mannequin) that I have been following Dr. Jill on Twitter. Sooo...when Dr. Jill visited a DC bakery. The Sweet Lobby I couldn't resist checking out their site. I was quite taken with their boozy Cocktail Cupcake Menu. I shared this find with my housemate and she countered with a local source of treats -- Nora Cupcake Company -- which offers several cupcakes featuring boozy additives. So we spent a pleasant few minutes at our laptops in a sort of Cupcake War, reading delicious descriptions to each other.

Best Places to Visit in Europe (according to USNews)

I love lists like this one. They open up memories of places I've been to and dreams of places I'd like to go. It's a good list of 25 places, 16 of which I've visited.