Audio Books and Miscellany in Everyday Ramblings

This is a late hollyhock in another garden. They bloom and fade so fast! The light is changing, the trees are starting, just starting to turn and this morning we had a soaking rain. Not enough and in the right areas to keep the raging wildfires at bay but wonderful for the gardens locally and the birds.

My birdbath, which I emptied last night, was about half full when I got up. Speaking of birds I was so excited to see a female Black-throated Gray Warbler yesterday afternoon when coming back all sweaty from the track in the trees just outside my place. The only reason I know what it was is because we spent a lot of time looking up the warblers we get here in Oregon we were on vacation last month.

And I knew I had never seen one. Or at least not recognized it. They could be mistaken for Black-capped Chickadees if you are just glancing at them. Small birds and the females don’t have any yellow so in a flash the coloring looks the same.

I oh so enjoyed my quiet weekend. Time is this huge luxury for me and not having to go over to the studio and teach, that is over five hours back. And on top of that, the Weight Watchers store across town where I go to a meeting, or have gone, canceled it. Poof! A few weeks ago I went and the doors were locked. They only have one evening meeting a week now there.

So last week I went to the meeting at work. It is a little odd, well, actually it is a lot odd, but it saves me hours and I get what I need. So I’ll keep doing that for now. With those two things this last week I ended up having something like eight extra hours! It is like a get out of jail free card.

I finished the audio book I was listening too. By Louise Penny How the Light Gets In. It is number nine I believe in the Canadian series that features Armand Gamache. I am enjoying these books enormously.

One of her characters Jean-Guy Beauvoir is struggling with an addiction to prescription drugs after being shot and the trajectory of his story has grabbed me by the throat and not let go. I burst into tears at the end of this audio book. Luckily I was home and not out and about listening to it.

The books are getting better each time and the actor who narrates the audio version says he doesn’t read ahead so what you hear is him discovering things at the same time as the characters.

There is a new one out next month. The fact that Kes has also been listening/reading them has been fun.

After I teach Caregivers tonight the rest of the week is looking wonderfully relaxed and low key.

I have a brand new 22-inch high definition monitor and disc one of season one of Game of Thrones. Hmmm… I wonder what I’ll be doing.

Not.