Contest & Garden News

Hook news:
Mary Maxim Contest
I’ve now finished all 30 squares, and yesterday my entry tag from Mary Maxim arrived. Yippee! Plus I saw Dr. Nick and got my spine and shoulders adjusted—so I'm more than ready to finish this ghan and get it mailed in. Then it’s a matter of patiently waiting—something that has always eluded me.

Crook news:
How does your garden grow?
Mine is struggling along. Last year I planted 12 sweet pea plants. I let them go to seed in the hopes that this year I would have more sweet peas. This past winter has been a wet one, and one day during a lovely storm I watched as most of my seeds floated down the sidewalk and down to the drain. I held out hope that somehow some of the seeds had survived, and I was right. Apparently 3 did. Of those 3, only 2 plants have survived and so far I’ve had 2 blooms off one plant and none off the other.

In desperation, I dragged Mr. Retired to the nursery yesterday and came home with 2 geranium plants and one pot of carnations. The carnations are the smaller flower on stalks that are less than 12-inches and are the color of smoked salmon and smell like fresh cinnamon. Yumm!

My 2 houseplants are growing great guns and I’m most pleased. The one I call “Joyce” is in need of a trim, and I’ll have to screw up the courage to tackle that job, but otherwise “Joyce” and “Ethel” are doing well and seem to be happy.

From the Bookshelf:
Sandstorm
In the wee hours this morning, I finished reading Sandstorm, a novel by James Rollins. Whoo-HOO! The book did not disappoint, and it was worth losing sleep to finish it (even if we never do find out what they did with the basket—hehehe). The action level kept building until we crashed into the finale, then a slightly calm wrap-up that left me eager for the next SIGMA book. Great read, and I loved that there was a news article yesterday that tied in with this book (I won’t say anything about it because it would give away a major plot issue).

On a scale of 1-10, I’d rate this book a 9.75.

My current read:
I’m now reading a “calm” book while I wait to climb up the list at the library for “Map of Bones” (sitting at #9 and holding—one copy for the entire county system!)

The “calm” book I chose is Mystery Mile from Margery Allingham. My copy came to me as a gift from Mr. Retired. He paid a nickel for it at a garage sale. Published in 1930, it sold for a whopping 25-cents and was part of the “Mercury Mystery” series. The pages are somewhat brittle, so I’m careful as I read—and I have to read with a light on because of the coloration (quite yellow-brown) of the pages.

Still, it’s an interesting read and will give me a Rollins break before I tackle either “Map of Bones” or the first of the “Wit’ch” series.

Personal:
How patient are you?
As I said earlier, I'm not always a patient person. As I begin to fret over things, and wonder “when”, the desire to push the button and have things in my time rather than the Lord’s surfaces and I usually remember this verse:

Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him – Psalms 37:1

As a “work in progress” I don’t always listen as my brain tells my heart to wait, but sometimes I do. Perhaps someday I’ll actually learn to relax and wait before my brain has to talk to my heart.