Review: Finding Dorothy

Elizabeth Letts is a great writer, and I really enjoyed this book, even more than her other book The 50-Dollar Champion.  But I can't help feeling a little weirded out knowing that great huge sections of what I read--and now believe in--are not real.  It's the whole fictionalized history dilemma--is it right for an author to take real people and events from history and make up the missing details in order to tell a great story?

(fyi, it's about the widow of the author of The Wizard of Oz and it flashes back and forth between their life history and the current time, when she is trying to give unsolicited direction to the crew making the movie.)

How many people of my son's generation are going to think "Zombie Hunter" every time they hear the name "Abraham Lincoln"?  Probably a lot, but I hope they get over it. But in this case, the author writes such a believable story, such a might-have-happened alternate reality, that it will stick in my head for a long time, until finally, I'll have forgotten that some of what I know isn't really true at all.

And that is scary to me. But it's still a very good book, and I won't deny her the right to write it.  at least, at the end, she explains what is fact and what is imagination. Thanks!

Gardening: First garden flower of spring

 

Hyacincth

 

Review: Lost on the Appalachian Trail

Lost on the Appalachian Trail (Triple Crown Trilogy)

by Kyle Rohrig

Something wonderful happened in this book--I don't even know what, or how, but it thrilled me. I only know that a guy walked a trail, pushing himself beyond endurance (unnecessarily sometimes, but who am I to say?), and ended up a changed being.  I'd read his Florida Trail book already, so I expected to enjoy his writing and his attitude toward life, but I didn't know just how much I was going to enjoy this one.  Which is a lot.

He does some stuff I wouldn't do, but this being his first trip I'll forgive him the youthful exuberance. Jumping off rocks into lakes of unknown depths?  In the wilderness? No way! Picking up snakes. Well, maybe, but not my thing. Sleeping in a hammock? Ick!

First flower of spring?

 

Can't identify it for sure, but the plant app thinks it's probably called Crow Poison aka False Garlic. I'll need to see a flower more closely to verify the description below.

This early spring flower is one of the first to appear on lawns, meadows, or roadsides throughout the state. Often it blooms sporadically in summer and again in the fall. It grows from a bulb and looks much like the wild onion, but has fewer and larger flowers on long stems and lacks the onion odor. The leaves are all at the base of the plant, about 1/8 inch wide, but often quite long, 4-15 inches. The white flowers have 6 tepals with a green to brown stripe, and 6 stamens. Individual flowers are 1/2 inch across and grow in loose clusters on stalks 8-16 inches tall.

Review: Confessions of a Middle-Aged Runaway

 An RV Travel Adventure

by Heidi Eliason

I don't know what she meant to confess in this memoir. Probably her inability to find a good title. But I do know what I have to confess:  as much as I wanted to like this book, I just didn't.

 Very sorry. She went all kind of places (where I'd love to go), and saw all kind of things (that I'd love to see), but her approach to it all lacked the kind of insight and understanding that makes me enjoy reading a memoir.  About halfway through, I started reading faster in hopes that she'd eventually get to something deep and thoughtful and insightful--and it just started reading like a to-do list. Grand Canyon?  Done that. Manatees? Saw the tops of 'em. Friends? Made some. Etc.

The early part of the memoir and her trip to Baja was my favorite.  After that, nada. And her romantic interlude just gave me the heebie-jeebies.

Again, sorry not to be able to recommend this.  The RV repairs and mishaps were amusing but not really funny; the approach to life and living, shallow.

Couple more birds of the year

Bluebirds are all over right now, but I had trouble getting a good picture of one. They seem to be noisily advertising for mates or staking out territory.

Also noisy right how--Red-shouldered Hawk--but this one sat quietly on the power line for a long time.  I wanted to go out and dump the compost, but I didn't want to interrupt his musings. So I waited--that's how I know it was a long time.

Gardening: begin February

Lettuce is still growing, but awfully slowly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, here's the weird one. Years ago, I planted cilantro and arugula.  And every year, it replants itself.  But not in the same place--at least the cilantro confines itself to the garden (mostly) but the arugula is sprouting all over the yard.

Cilantro

Arugula

And these stupid daffodils!  Two years ago, I dug them all up and moved them about six inches away from the sidewalk.  And the ones I moved are still where I put them.  But, lining the sideway, are hundred of thousands more!  Did I really miss that many?