Book Lust, yes that is a book title

You know I love to read, and I share here a great source for ideas of wonderful books to read.

Nancy Pearl is a librarian who reads widely and in her book "Book Lust" suggests books in 175 clever topic lists for us to consider reading. Pearl has a sense of humor which shows in some of her list titles.
The full title of her book is "Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason."
Here are just of few of the lists she has written with reading suggestions:
Do Clothes Make the Man (Or Woman) ?
Shrinks and Shrinkees
Kitchen-Sink Poetry
Texas: A Lone Star State of Mind
Brothers and Sisters
Babies: A Reader's Guide
Australian Fiction
Iris Murdoch: Too Good to Miss
Passage to India
I Love a Mystery
Great Dogs in Fiction.

The one shortcoming I find in this book is that I hoped to find some lists of books written by Christian writers, with Christian themes, both novels and nonfiction and Pearl does not include these.
Two authors I read because of her are Van Reid and his funny "Cordelia Underwood: Or, The Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League" and Barbara Pym's witty stylish novels.
I hope some of these lists inspire you to get this book, probably most libraries have it. Of course, I bought my very own copy.

Skunk Visitor and Festive Easter Table

This skunk enjoyed a meal of cat food yesterday at about 7 p.m. while it was still light outside. Not a great photo since I did NOT open the patio sliding door. Heh heh. This skunk looks young and is very pretty. I like how they fluff up their tails so they look a lot bigger than they are, to deter being attacked.

This is our Easter table before it was fully set up and before our sons arrived.
We had a glorious Easter feast, my husband and our adult sons.

We had wonderful food brought by our sons including the first course involving prosciuto, tomato, polenta, pesto and eggs baked in the oven, wild rice and mushrooms made by me, lamb chops cooked on the grill outdoors, and cioppino made by my hubby. I am the hunter gatherer, i.e. I do all the food shopping and he often does the cooking.

Easter Joy

Easter
Sing, soul of mine, this day of days.
The Lord is risen.
Toward the sunrising set thy face.
The Lord is risen.
Behold he giveth strength and grace;
For darkness, light; for mourning, praise;
For sin, his holiness; for conflict, peace.
Arise, O soul, this Easter day!
Forget the tomb of yesterday,
For thou from bondage art set free;
Thou sharest in His victory
And life eternal is for thee,
Because the Lord is risen.
                       Author unknown, from book "1,000 Quotable Poems".

Easter egg photo, experimenting with photo size

Easter will be here soon.
I am experimenting with photo size so here is a pretty egg photo.
This photo size may be too tiny; please bear with me.

A Peek in Our Garden

Taken on March 23, this photo shows a promise of nasturtium flowers, jasmine in bloom, and our cute gnome peeking out from his underground home.
To the left, out of sight, are two Canterbury Bells plants I have nurtured for two years, so this is their year to bloom. I wonder what color their flowers will be?
On the right, barely visible are two mystery bulb plants (planted in green wire gopher cages). My husband brought them home when a neighbor gave them away. I think they may be what we call Naked Ladies. Time will tell, there are just small green leaves emerging.

Do you like the watering can plant stake? I bought quite a few as I think they are cute. Above is a closer photo of our happy jasmine blooming near the gnome.
I planted our first tomato plant of the year this week, an elongated cherry tomato called "Juliet", which is new to us. Someone told me "you only need one Juliet", so they must be heavy bearers.
Are you planting vegetables now?

Handsome bird from Bali

Here is a handsome bird from our collection of art objects, bought here in town in shops that import them. Lots of the art we buy is from areas like Bali. We also have five puppets and a flying mermaid and more that I will show you in future.