From My Reading

63°f/17.2°C,gradually clearing after heavy rain and storms yesterday evening. More rain. We're drowning around here!

So hard to believe that some places are in drought right now, while here the rain keeps coming. Crazy weather. 

I continue to read my two daily books, in addition to my current book, Brave the Wild River: the untold story of two women who mapped the botany if the Grand Canyon, by Melissa L. Sevigny. It's a fascinating read. 

I was intrigued to learn that the first woman to attempt to go down the Colorado, Bessie Hyde, was from Parkersburg,  West Virginia.  She and her husband built a boat for the journey, but both of them disappeared, and their fate is the subject of ongoing investigations and legend. But Lois Trotter and Elzada Clover were undeterred by warnings of certain death, and made the voyage in 1938 with a few male companions, with the goal to collect, identify and possibly find hitherto unknown plant specimens. 

Anyway, I started out to share a few things from my daily reads, The Assassin's Cloak and The Book of Days. For example, in Assassin's Cloak,  William Allingham wrote on this date in 1865 that he made a trip in a steamer to Bath, in England. On the boat was a blind man singing along with a harmonium being played by a woman. To quote the entry: " 'Became blind at fifteen.' 'Those feel it less who are born blind.' 'Perhaps,' he said, 'but I am glad to have seen the world.'" 

Another entry on this date in 1938 is from Chips Channon: "Neville [Chamberlain] by his imagination and practical good sense has saved the world. I am staggered." This was in reference to Chamberlain traveling to Germany to meet with Hitler. Well, we know what good that did!

In The Book of Days comes this advice for yesterday:

"Fruit gathered too timely will taste of the wood,

will shrink and be bitter and seldom prove good.

So fruit that is shaken, or beat off a tree,

with bruising in falling, soon faultie will be."

 

Image from the book:

Also, on this date, "Daredevil Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls in 1860 walking on stilts along a rope. Young Edward, Prince of Wales, watches."

Can you imagine!

Today is the birthday of granddaughter Cassie, and Saturday was her sister Kate's birthday. They are just one year and two days apart! And both beautiful successful women. We seldom see them these days, but have such good memories of time together when they were children.

Here at home, my oldest son, George, is visiting this weekend. It is so good to see him as it has been several months. He is easing into retirement, working fewer days a week as his replacement as bank president starts taking over. Today he is golfing with Derek; yesterday we just visited and enjoyed the apple pie I made, then we went to Derek's for grilled chicken, grilled bread, a potatoes/green/beans/onion dish Derek created (very good!), salad, and roasted cabbage. 

I must get busy. I have ebay to pack and laundry to do. Life slowly returns to the everyday mundane.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.