The Road by Cormac McCarthy Book Review

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a post apocalyptic novel about survival and love. This is the first book that I read by McCarthy, though I recognize some of his other titles.

The prose is different from most novels, using minimal punctuation and attributes. At first this is difficult to follow, but becomes easier to understand as the novel progresses. The prose supplements the vivid picture painted by McCarthy.

I highly recommend this book.

Christmas Memories

Christmas Lights on the River (in San Antonio).

Driving 8 hours from one Grandparents’ house to the other on Christmas Day.

Opening one carefully selected gift on Christmas Eve.

Opening my presents early and re-wrapping them. (Only once or twice. Sorry Santa.)

Tamales.

Waking up while it was still dark to open presents but having to wait until the adults were ready.

Candlelight Service.

The living tree that was supposed to be planted but didn’t live through Christmas.

Christmas sweaters from Grandma, even though I hated them.

Gingerbread.

Ballet Lessons. The most memorable Christmas gift.

The Nutcracker Ballet.

Christmas carols on the radio.

Evergreens and Snow. It doesn’t feel like Christmas without them even though most of my Christmases were spent in Nevada or Texas.

Unwrapping 15 nested boxes to find a ring. Yes, the engaging kind.

What are your memories?

Blind Side Review

My husband (PC) and I saw this awesome movie.

I don’t watch TV at all any more because I’m too busy with Cotton Costumes, Ltd., the holidays, church, and work. I did not know what this movie was about going into it. My husband said let’s go see a movie, and I grabbed my purse. We don’t see movies that often, and he has impeccable taste in movies.

As we were headed into the theatre, PC suggested that perhaps this was a football movie.

What?  I don’t really like sports movies.

This was not a sports movie, sure sports played into it, but the real story was about the rescue of Michael Oher from a life that would have otherwise ended in tragedy. I give it two thumbs up.

Please, go see this movie and support positive family entertainment instead of that wildly popular vampire movie.

Raspberry Picture

Raspberry

 

Just a fun picture to brighten your Monday. I took this in October when we stayed at Mt. Charleston for the night. This is across the street from the aspens I featured earlier.

Cobalt Blue Tea Apron Giveaway

Please visit the Costume Blog to enter.

Big Bad Wolf Costume

Come to my Costume Blog to see what I did with this costume.

Wolf Costume

Plainview Sunset Pictures

Sunset in Plainview

Sunset in Plainview

 

Sunset in Plainview

Downtown Lockney Pictures

Downtown Lockney, Main Street, Hearts Desire

Hearts Desire is a lovely gift shop full of unique treasures. It is owned by Cynthia Bybee whom I was fortunate to meet. 

Downtown Lockney, Main Street, Coca Cola Ad.

Most of the stores on this stretch are now empty. I do love the Coca Cola advertisement painted on the side of the building. Much better to have a stylized advertisement painted on the building instead of graffiti. Not that I didn’t see any graffiti.

Downtown Lockney, Main Street, Open Grassy Building

This is a wonderful empty building that is grassy with benches inside. I do not know the story of the building or why it is open. If anyone knows, please share.

Lockney Water Tower

All the little towns in this part of the world have their own water tower printed with the population, except Aiken, whose water tower blew down a few years ago during a tornado.

Downtown Lockney, Main Street

 More buildings along main street. The second building is the empty grassy building, and the Coca Cola advertisement is at the end of this block.

Downtown Lockney, Main Street

Heart’s desire is just visible, the second building from the end. The cross shape on the brick part of the blue building contains a Masonic symbol. The masons were very big in this area (West Texas) and many of the buildings have the dedications with the Masonic symbol.

Downtown Lockney, Main Street

This is an abandoned warehouse. It’s across the street from the blue building.

The Daily Coyote Book Review

The Daily Coyote by Shreve Stockton is Ms. Stockton’s inspirational story about her first year raising an orphaned coyote. Along the way, Charlie also teachers her important lessons about herself.

Ms. Stockton also blogs at The Daily Coyote where you may find daily pictures of Charlie and her other pets, including Chloe, Eli, Daisy and Baby. If you don’t know who they are, check out her blog.

The Penderwicks Book Reviews

I recently finished The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy and The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall. I highly recommend these books, especially as read aloud stories for children. It is refreshing to find children’s literature that is pure fun instead of mischief and witchcraft.

The Penderwicks are four sisters, aged 4-12, a hound, and their adoring father (whom they adore). They have all sorts of child sized adventures. The author does an excellent job capturing the children’s spirits on paper and the reader is carried along with the Penderwicks on their adventures. Additionally, the children in the story are well-behaved and choose to do right, even when it’s embarrassing, and apologise when they make mistakes.