MOSAIC MONDAY

Mary over at Little Red House is the host for Mosaic Monday. Go check out all the folks that are participating this week.

SCENES OF AUTUMN

STRAIGHT OUT OF THE CAMERA

Jan over at Murrieta 365 is the host for Straight Out of The Camera.

What are the rules? On any Sunday you can post any photo you like (it must be one of your own) that hasn’t been tweaked or altered in any way (cropping is OK). In other words Straight Out Of the Camera.
Also, please link back to Murrieta365. Thanks, Jan.

This is Garfield, which you probably already know. He is dressed as a doctor, why you might ask, he's standing in front of our local hospital. It is a project that was started here a few years ago. Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield was born in my home town of Marion, Indiana. So they gotten permission from him , he is taking nothing from this, to put Garfield around the county. There are several of them already up. You can hop over to Wikipedia to find out more about this. This picture is kind of funky looking as I took it through my car window, which happens to be dirty. The only alteration I have made is to make is larger. So just click on the picture if you want to see Garfield up close and personal.

LIBRARY BOOK CLUB

My Library Book Club was this past Thursday. The book we are reading for December is "March" by Geraldine Brooks.

# Paperback: 304 pages
# Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 31, 2006)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0143036661
# ISBN-13: 978-0143036661



Product Description(Amazon.Com)
From Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story "filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man" (Sue Monk Kidd). With "pitch-perfect writing" (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs. A lushly written, wholly original tale steeped in the details of another time, March secures Geraldine Brooks’s place as a renowned author of historical fiction.

I have read Little Women. Great book! Loved it! Don't know about this one. Haven't even opened it yet. I'll keep you updated. Anyone else read this book?

AN AWARD

Melissa over at Coffee, Books and Laundry has given me an award. It is called Superior Scribblers Award. Melissa's blog is awesome to visit. She has all kinds of stuff to look at and she has lots of books. Her reviews are really good. You should read one!

Now for the rules:


•Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

•Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

•Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.

•Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

•Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.


I'm passing the award to these five Superior Scribblers

Heather over at Books and Quilts
Margaret over at Books Please
Jean over at DogEar Diary
Margot over at Joyfully Retired
Mary over at Work of the Poet

SEPIA SCENES

Mary is the host for Sepia Scenes. Hop over and check this out, it's lots of fun turning your pictures into sepia.

I did a mosaic of the bell in our back yard earlier this week. So I thought I would give that same mosaic done in sepia.

SEPIA



And this is the color version.............



Which one do you like?

REVIEW - AESOP'S FABLES

Melissa over at Coffee, Books and Laundry is hosting this reading challenge. This is from the list of 1001 Books To Read Before You Die List. I was going to put the link here for the list, but it's have some technical problems. Can't get to the list. Put it's on my sidebar if you want to see the list of books.




"Aesop's Fables"
[Illustrated by Arthur Rackham]


MY THOUGHTS: It's really hard to explain Aesop's Fables. It's lots of stories about animals, trees, flowers and the planets. So I went to Wikipedia for some info. This is one of the fables in the book.

THE FOX AND THE GRAPES

A Hungry Fox saw some fine bunches of Grapes hanging from a vine that was trained along a high trellis, and did his best to reach them by jumping as high as he could into the air. But it was all in vain, for they were just out of reach; so he gave up trying, and walked away with an air of dignity and unconcern, remarking, "I thought those Grapes were ripe, but I see now they are quite sour."

There are also some beautiful illustrations in this book.

MY RATING: 5

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Heather is the host for Wordless Wednesday. Go check it out. She has an announcement that you need to see.

SOMEONE'S TRASH IS MY GARDEN TREASURE!!

TEMPT MY TUMMY TUESDAY

Lisa over at Blessed With Grace is the host for Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Go check out her recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies. YUMMY!!

My recipe this week is something I love to eat. I found it on the back of a Campbell's Soup can a few years ago. It's easy, good for you and yummy.



Chicken and Rice Bake

1 Can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 C. of water
3/4 C. Uncooked White Rice
1/4 tsp. Paprika
1/4 tsp. Pepper
4 Skinless Chicken Breast Halves
OPTIONAL: Shredded Cheddar Cheese

In 2 Quart shallow baking dish, mix soup, water, rice, paprika and pepper. Mix these ingredients well. Place chicken breast on top of mixture. Sprinkle with paprika and pepper. Cover and bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until done. A few minutes before taking it out of the oven remove cover. OPTIONAL: You can sprinkle some cheese on the top just before removing from the oven.

MOSAIC MONDAY

Mary over at Little Red House is hosting Mosaic Monday. What the requirements of this meme:

1. Publish your Mosaic Monday post.
2. Once it is published, click on the title of the post. This will lead you to the static link for your post. The static link is the page with only that post on it. Copy the url from your browser at the top of the page.
3. Paste the url into the appropriate Mr. Linky box in this post.
4. Type your name in the appropriate Mr. Linky box in this post.
5. Click on "Enter."
6. Please link back to this Mosaic Monday post so that your readers can find other wonderful mosaics.

We have this bell in our back yard. It's mostly for decoration. I have such a fascination for this bell, I keep taking pictures of it for some reason. So I thought I would put it in a mosaic this week.



Those pictures of the clapper at the top look like some planet in outer space! Don't you think so?

STRAIGHT OUT OF THE CAMERA

Jan over at Murrieta 365 is the host for Straight Out of The Camera. What are the rules for this meme.

What are the rules? On any Sunday you can post any photo you like (it must be one of your own) that hasn’t been tweaked or altered in any way (cropping is OK). In other words Straight Out Of the Camera.

Also, please link back to Murrieta365. Thanks, Jan.

These are some pictures of the frost. It's been kind of chilly around here the last few weeks. Down into the 50's and 40's. But one night last week it got down to the 30's and frost is what you get.

BOOK OF THE MONTH

Melissa over at Coffee, Books, and Laundry is doing this once a month. I am joining her in list my books of the month. All of the books are linked to my review at my book blog, Just Books. Just click on the name of the book and you will go right to the review. My book for October is The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. This is a beautifully written book about a boy that is mute. His family raised dogs to sale. Although this book is pretty thick, 901 pages, I read it in 3 days. I just couldn't put it down.



JANUARY - The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - John Boyne
FEBRUARY - The Pagan Stone - Nora Roberts
MARCH - Julie & Julia - Julie Powell
APRIL - World Without End - Ken Follett
MAY - Uglies - Scott Westerfeld
JUNE - Riders of the Purple Sage - Zane Grey
JULY - Velva Jean Learns to Drive - Jennifer Niven
AUGUST - Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen
SEPTEMBER - The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingslover
OCTOBER - The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - David Wroblewski


So do you have a favorite book for October? Let me know I'll come visit you.

POSTCARD FRIENDSHIP FRIDAYS

It time for another postcard. It's been so long since I sent one or received one. It's been really crazy around here the last few months. All of our appliances have to decided to quit. First the Kitchen Stove, then the fridge and two weeks ago the washing machine went. Had a major flood in the laundry room. Anyway I got a new postcard yesterday in the mail. It's very pretty. It is from Demitry in the Republic of Belarus. I don't even know where that is. I had to google to find it. That took me to Wikipedia. Want to know more just hop over to Wikipedia and read the article they have. Very interesting stuff! This postcard is of the view of Minsk City Hall. Minsk is the capitol of Belarus.



Hop on over to Marie's place The French Factrice and check out all the Postcard Friendship Fridays Participants. There are some very pretty postcards to see.

REVIEW - THE HELP - KATHRYN STOCKETT

This book is for the Random Reading Challenge.

"The Help" - Kathryn Stockett
(from back cover)
Twenty-tow-year-old Skeeter has just returned home with a degree from Ole Miss, but her mother won't be happy until she has a ring on her finger. Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman rising her seventeenth white child. Minny, Aibileen's best friend, can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue so she can't keep a job. It's 1962, and these three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step that forever changes a town and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another.

MY THOUGHTS: I have fallen in love with this book and all the characters. I can see all their faces and hear them talking. This would make a GREAT movie!! Someone in Hollywood should sit up and take notice!! This book is the perfect example of the changing times of my life. I can say I saw this happening. All the ladies in this book, Skeeter, Aibileen, Minny, Elizabeth, Hillay and all the others are done beautifully and with care. Ms. Stockett done a wonderful job telling this wonderful story of life in the 1960's in Mississippi. When Aibileen has to say goodbye to Mae Mobley I cried. And when Minny leaves her abusive husband I cheer her on. Most of all when Skeeter leaves town and goes to New York for her job I say GOOD FOR HER!! Wonderful, wonderful book. You should read this book!!

MY RATING: 5

SEPIA SCENES

Mary is the host for Sepia Scenes. Go check out all the folks participating this week.

Every September, the last weekend, they have the James Dean Festival in Fairmount. That is the town where James Dean lived as a young man. And every year The Ducktail Run is held here in my town. They start coming into town the week before the festival even starts. RV's, vendors, old cars and lots of people. So I thought I would show you a couple of the cars that I saw. I have used Picasa 3 for the Sepia. And before you ask, I don't know what year these cars are. But they are pretty, don't you think?

CAR 1
SEPIA VERSION


COLOR VERSION


CAR 2
SEPIA VERSION


COLOR VERSION


So hop over to Mary's and see all the Sepia pictures, come on, you know you want to.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Heather over at Simply Heather's Blog is hosting Wordless Wednesday. Go over and check out all the folks participating this week.

SUNSHINE

YEAR OF THE HISTORICAL - 2010 READING CHALLENGE

I was over at Teddy Rose's place A Novel Challenge and she has posted about a reading challenge for 2010. So I went to check it out over at Lurv a al Mode's place. The name of the challenge is Year of the Historical: A 2010 Reading Challenge. Here are the particulars.

Basic Rules/Guidelines
* Sign up here if you plan to participate, pretty please.
* You may read any historical fiction book for this challenge: straight historical fiction set in the English Regency, or in Asia, or in Europe, or in Africa, or in Prehistoric times etc. You may read young adult, romances, historical paranormal romances (i.e. Kim Lenox’s Shadow Guard series), historical fantasy – as long as it takes place in a historical time that at least originated with a real historic time period or event (therefore YES, steampunk is an option!) and it is fiction, it is game. Please, no nonfiction, biographies, or the like.
* Please label your reviews in a way that associates them with this challenge. I’ll be using “YotH: (Book Title)” format for my review headers AND linking the original challenge notice/sign up post in each review so that interested readers can see why/what challenge it’s associated with.
* I will do a post every month during the last week – this is where you need to link, in the comments section, your monthly review. I will then edit into the body of the post links for everyone’s reviews.
* There is no limit to how many reviews you can do per month, but I am only requiring one review for a total of 12 books.
* Have fun!

This challenge will start in January 2010 and run through December 2010. I haven't got a list of books yet, still working on that one. When I get them listed I will put them in my sidebar, it's easier for me to keep track of them there. I'll also put the link to the challenge so I won't have to go looking for this post.

MOSAIC MONDAY

Mary over at Little Red House is the host for Mosaic Monday. Go check out all the Mosaic's everyone is posting about.

This is a Mosaic of me. Starting at the upper let corner and going across.

1. Me when I was pregnant for our son
2. My graduation from college, 1995, I was 40 years old
3. Me with my head phones on in front of the computer
4. My hubby and me, I was 16 at the time and went to meet his family

Bottom left corner across

5. Me in 2nd or 3rd grade
6. Me in my purple dress, taken this past spring
7. The large baby picture is me, I was about 4 or 5 months old

REVIEW - THE SEA OF MONSTERS - RICK RIORDAN

This book is for my reading challenge, DogEar Reading Challenge over at Jean's place. This is also my wrap-up for this challenge. This was the last book for this challenge.

"The Sea Monsters" by Rick Riordan
(from back of book)
Percy Jackson's seventh-grade year has been surprisingly quiet. Not a single monster has set foot on his New York prep-school campus. But when an innocent game of dodge ball among Percy and his classmates turns into a death match against and ugly gang of cannibal giants, things get.....well, ugly. And the unexpected arrival of Percy's friend Annabeth brings more bad news: the magical borders that protect Camp Half-Blood have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and unless a cure is found, the only safe haven for demigods will be destroyed.

MY THOUGHTS: This is book 2 of a series about Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. Grover has been captured by a Cyclops and Percy keeps having dreams about him. Thaila the tree has been poisoned and Chiron, the activies director at Camp Half-Blood has been booted out for having something to do with the poisoning. So Percy and Annabeth are off on another quest. To get the Golden Fleece and bring it back to save Thaila the tree and Camp Half-Blood and to save Grover from the Cyclops. But they have a few obstetricals to get through of course. Great book!! On to Book 3!

MY RATING: 5



The list of books I read for this challenge:

1. (A book featuring an animal)- Dewey - Vicki Myron
2. (An adult fantasy book)- Faefever – Karen Marie Moning
3. ( Young Adult or Juvenile Fiction book)- The Sea of Monsters - Rick Riordan
4.(A non-fiction book on an obscure topic (or something you don't usually read about) Rashi’s Daughters – Maggie Anton
5. (A book about plants, gardening, or food) Indiana Gardener's Guide - Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp

Thanks Jean for hosting this reading challenge. It was lots of fun looking for the books to fit the categories. I have linked my list of books to my reviews, just click on and book title and you will go right to that review.

POSTCARD FRIENDSHIP FRIDAYS

Marie over at The French Factrice is hosting Postcard Friendship Fridays. Have some postcards you want to show off? Hop over to Marie's and check out all the folks sharing this week.

I got this postcard from a fellow book blogger. I have a blog just for the review of the books I read. If you want to take a hop over to Just Books, just click on the name Just Books and you will be on your way. Anyway, J. Kaye sent this postcard to me for my birthday. It isn't old, it just looks like it. I love this card as it brings lots of memories back from when I was a child.

SEPIA SCENES

Mare is the host for Sepia Scenes. Hop over and see all the folks that have Sepia Pictures to show off.

When I made a trip to the cemetery I took some photos of the some of the head stones. This is the oldest cemetery in our town. There are soilders from the Civil War buried there.

This Mausoleum sits a top a hill with a wall of a green hedge all around it. It's like a fence.



This is a headstone for a grave. It's a gentleman dressed as a Civil War Solider.



This Cannon sits as a memorial to all the WW2 Veterans.



Got some photos you want to show off in Sepia. Go check the others out!