Book Review: The Sunrise Lands by S.M. Stirling

The Sunrise Lands by S.M. Stirling

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this continuing saga of the human race after the great "Change". Stirling does a fine job of transitioning the focus of the novel from the old generation who had lived through the tumultuous times immediately following the Change to the younger generation who have never known things like electricity and gunpowder. He continues to explore other nations that were established after the Change in the old USA.

His descriptions of combats, battles and weapons are interesting although I can't comment on their accuracy.

The main characters are a bit unbelievable at times in terms of their skills and luck in escaping death. That said, I believe that is somewhat deliberate. The author in fact draws specific analogies between the questors in this work and those in Tolkien's "Fellowship of the Ring". Somehow it works, though.

If you haven't read this series, I would recommend starting at the beginning with "Dies the Fire: A Novel of the Change". The series builds on itself and is much more enjoyable with the background information provided in each prior novel.


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Book Review: Another Thing to Fall by Laura Lippman

Another Thing to Fall: A Tess Monaghan Novel by Laura Lippman

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This wasn't my favorite Tess book, but it was a fun read, if a bit predictable. The mystery this time included a television show crew and it was interesting to read about some of the technical aspects of how that is done.


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Spring is Here

We got the first harvest from the garden last night! Spinach, arugula and romaine lettuce to make a really nice salad!

Contrast that picture to the following, which was taken at BJs this past weekend, where we stocked up on paper goods with a free BJs card.

No, we didn't buy the cheese balls...

All About the Vegetables

A $25 trip to Russo's looks like this:

• 1 bunch of kale
• 1 bag carrots
• 1 bag baby bok choy
• 1 package cherry tomatoes
• 1 fennel bulb
• 1 leek
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 2 turnips
• 1 bunch parsley
• small bag Shitake mushrooms
• 1 spanish onion
• 1 bunch beets
• 2 pears
• 1 avocado
• 1 package strawberries
  

Saturday evening I made 'Braised Cabbage, Fennel and Leek' from Halé Sofia Schatz's book If the Buddha Came to Dinner. I'd never cooked either fennel or leek before! I had no idea that fennel looked like this:




and, like this:




Sauteeing the fennel, leek, and some cabbage in some olive oil with some salt and lemon juice gave a really nice, tangy side for our dinner. I was expecting the fennel to have more of a licorice taste than it did - instead it rounded out the blandness of the cabbage very nicely.

The final dish looked like this:




And we ate it with some home-made blackened catfish, which tasted as good as anything from the Border Cafe and was a lot cheaper!




So, y'all can see I'm doing something productive with my time off.

J doesn't think I can use the rest of those vegetables this week, so I'll be taking that challenge.. with more help from this:

Joys of Homeownership: Leaky Pipes

I certainly wasn't anticipating replacing ceiling drywall as a major home project at this time. To see descriptions on the pictures below, click on the "notes" link.

Areas of Creativity Meme

From Bella Knitting, as linked to from Grumperina, this is a meme going around the craft blogs asking what you would like to do. I'd add one more section to this, section 0.


0. What the heck is this?

• Shibori

1. I have no interest; omplete lack of creativity in this area.

• Scrap Booking
• Stamping
• Painting or Drawing
• Cartooning
• Doll or Toy Making
• Gift Wrapping
• Poetry
• Graphic Design

2. Would love to try it.

• Spinning
• Calligraphy
• Paper Making
• Candle Making
• Flower Arranging
• Dyeing

3. I do or have dabbled in it.

• Story Telling, Acting, Stage work
• Video / Film Making
• Music
• Photography
• Decorating
• Cross-stitch
• Needlepoint
• Macramé
• Quilting
• Beading
• Jewelry Making

4. Love it! This is my thing.

• Knitting
• Crochet
• Sewing
• Cooking
• Gardening
• Writing

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

Went a little overboard at Mahoney's today. We went there to find some plants to fill our new upside-down planters. We ended up with much more than we planned.

1) Cherry tomato plant in the new Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter. I read about this on Jane Dough's blog last year; she seemed to have great success with it and I've never had good luck with tomatoes, so worth a try!



2) A Roma Tomato plant and Red Pepper. Doubt they will survive, but we placed them in the sunniest corner of the porch and will hope for the best.


3) Another upside-down planter from the Topsy-Turvy company. This one is called
"Plug 'N Gro". You can plant up to 12 plants in the holes along the sides. We opted for lots and lots of basil (having recently almost destroyed our basil plant trying to pick enough leaves for pesto) -- sweet basil, African blue basil, and Lemon Basil. Also threw in some parsley and cilantro.


4) Scallions (J planted these from some leftover supermarket ones and we've been using them for several months now!) , our destructed basil plant (any tips for nursing basil back to health?), rosemary, oregano (didn't realize that was a perennial bush!), sage and a new one to me -- lemon verdana, which smells gorgeously like -- lemons!


5) To complete the trip, we threw in some thyme, a bay tree, and marigolds.



Garden stores are dangerous for your wallet!

Oh My Darling Clementine

With the warmer weather upon us, a woman's thoughts turn to Lace.

As a reward after a particularly crazy week at worked, I picked up some Handmaiden Sea Silk, which I've been aware of since I first read about Grumperina using it, and obsessing about since I felt it in person at Windsor Button.

The Spring issue of Interweave Knits has this lovely:



It looked fairly simple for my first real lace project and it has been knitting up very quickly!



(If you aren't familiar with lace knitting, lace doesn't look done-done until you block it.)











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