Saturday, 28 June 2025

Reading and Baking


Thank you for all the comments on my collage.  I was surprised that I managed to create it because I am just not technologically gifted :)   For those who wondered if those were all flowers from my garden, the answer is yes.  Now, in an effort to post something other than flowers I thought I'd mention what I've been reading. The first book, Appalachian Song , I found through Elizabethd's blog Small Moments.  I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.



 Bertie Jenkins has spent forty years serving as a midwife for her community in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. Out of all the mothers she’s tended, none affects her more than the young teenager who shows up on her doorstep, injured, afraid, and expecting, one warm June day in 1943. As Bertie and her four sisters tenderly nurture Songbird back to health, the bond between the childless midwife and the motherless teen grows strong. But soon Songbird is forced to make a heartbreaking decision that will tear this little family apart.

                                          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

Moonlight and Linoleum is a true story.  This is a heartbreaking memoir and I hope there's at least  some happiness in store  for the author.( I haven't finished reading it).

 

 The captivating memoir of a young girl forced by her mother’s instability to care for her siblings.

Besides reading I have done some baking. We've had some lovely cool days and I even cleaned my oven. A job I only do once a year and I try to clean it on a day when it's cool but not too cool since it's nice to be able to open doors and windows as the oven does its 4 hour clean.
 I baked 2 strawberry/rhubarb pies ( I'm glad I thought to bake them on a cookie sheet so they wouldn't dirty my newly cleaned oven when they bubbled over). I also made lemon scones for the freezer. Once the heat arrives I won't want to bake.

So that's what I've been keeping busy with.  Let me know in the comments what you've been doing.

 


 Thanks for visiting.

 

17 comments:


  1. Appalachian Song sounds like a good one.
    Today we went to a garden club outing and then to lunch with the group. The garden was beautiful and interesting , a public garden in Tacoma. I got very tired. Now I am home resting and catching up.
    Little bits of yard work, blogging, reading, and resting filled my day once we got the email and hacking problem worked out.

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  2. Baking when it's cool out is such a good idea. I'm hoping to get something baked yet this afternoon before the heat arrives tomorrow. The books both sound interesting.

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  3. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on these books! Glad you got some baking done and your oven cleaned. I love the Flintstone illustration, too!

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  4. Your strawberry-rhubarb pie sounds good....we just finished one! and also would enjoy your lemon scones! I read pretty light fiction. If I read something sad or horrific, it stays with me a long time so I've discovered it's better for me to stay with lighter reading, like the Mitford books or Miss Read, etc.

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  5. diane in northern wis28 June 2025 at 16:52

    sorry Granny, that last comment about lighter reading was from me! :)

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  6. I read the review of that book but I wasn't sure i wanted to read it. Some books either romanticize Appalachia, or go to the other extreme. And if an author doesn't or hasn't lived here, then to me their writing is suspect. We tend to be a bit touchy like that around here, lol. Apparently this author has never actually lived here. Guess i should read her and see before judging though! The Midwife's Tale by Gretchen Laska is a really good story on the topic of midwifery in these mountains, written by someone actually from here. It might be an interesting read in comparison with the oe you are reading now.

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  7. I'm listening to Rev Richard Coles reading his whodunit, 'Murder in the Monastery' and reading a sort of thriller - whatever happened to Martha's sister who disappeared 10 years ago? - 'Guilty by Definition ' by Susie Dent. THis book is set in the offices of a dictionary compiler and is full of interesting words (and their definitions).

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  8. Work goes on im my garden. It's a time when weeds suddenly appear and multiply within a few minutes!

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  9. I put Appalachian Song on my list to read but the library didn't have it.
    Like what Fred Flintstone said. :)

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  10. Yummy pies and I agree with Fred! lol

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  11. The books look really good and your baking sounds delicious. I wish I llived closer. Dennis would love a piece of that pie. I'm not too fond of strawberry rhubarb.
    Blessings and hugs,
    Betsy

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  12. The books do sound good. I didn't bake last week with our heat, but you are making me think I need to do some this week!

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  13. Oh: Strawberry-rhubarb pie! I love it!! I think you oven will soon be as before, because too clean an good baking are not really good friends :)
    Now I read a famous book of Selma Lagerlöff, Nills Holgerson. It tells about a great long flight on the back of a white goose of a very little boy- flying over Sweden to the North.

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  14. It’s time for reading here as we have very very hot weather. All your pies and scones sound delicious I must start freezing before my grandsons arrival!

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  15. Barb made some rhubarb bars the other day, so delicious!

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  16. The books sound like such good reads. Thank you for the reviews. And the pies sound delicious!

    And I love Fred Flintstone's wisdom! It would be wonderful if all three of those things were to come back in style.

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  17. The books both sound interesting. No baking happening here, I made scalloped potatoes and ham so I can have that for lunch for a few days!

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