Afternoon Sighting: Vigilant Llama
The less-than-rich soil and shorter growing season along Nova Scotia’s North Shore means that most of the farmland around is used in woodlot, wild blueberries, hayfields, beef & dairy herds, and sheep – lots and lots of sheep. While many of the area farmers still use dogs to herd and protect their flocks–border collies and Bernese mountain dogs being a couple of the favorites–more and more are turning to the use of llamas.
Llamas are relatively friendly, curious and a great asset in keeping the local sheep from the local coyotes. You can read about their guard qualities here.
Yesterday afternoon, we passed a large flock of baa-ing ewes and lambs (what a marvelous sound!) and caught their protector in the middle of a grassy mouthful.
I thought you’d enjoy seeing this, too.
by May Sarton
Sarton published over a score of novels and nearly four dozen collections of poems between 1938 and her death in 1995, including The Magnificent Spinster in 1985. I found the premise of a “novel within a novel” intriguing and enjoyed reading this for a while. But at about page 200, the exploits of Jane Reid began to feel mundane. At page 220, just over half-way through this book, I quit.
by Ellen Meister
Quinn Braverman has “two lives that run in parallel lines, like highways on either side of a mountain. On one side, the Quinn who stayed with [an ex-boyfriend] is speeding through her high-drama, childless life in Manhattan. On the other, the Quinn who married Lewis lives in the suburbs, drives a Volvo, and has an adorable young son and another baby on the way.”
starring Gwyneth Paltrow, I was intrigued by the premise of this book.
antique ironing board in her basement, and at the bottom of the green beans bin in her local supermarket (!) – and who knows where else in the pages I didn’t read, and the choice seems to be hers to make. A ‘high-anxiety’ day for Quinn, one that might cause her to make the decision to ‘slip away’ into her other life is one in which her toddler has a runny nose (which her husband offers to take care of), and she can’t find a comfortable shirt to wear without resorting to ironing or wearing maternity clothes (which she’ll probably be doing in a couple of weeks anyway). Get a life – (pun perhaps intended)!
by Elle Newmark
I love letters, and books that are based on, or include letters. I’ve been intrigued lately books about India. I love reading about the middle decades of the twentieth century. And I love mysteries. So what could go wrong with a book that promises “A sweeping novel that brings to life two love stories, ninety years apart, set against the rich backdrop of war-torn India…In 1947… Martin and Evie find themselves stranded in a colonial bungalow in the Himalayas due to violence surrounding the partition of India between Hindus and Muslims. In that house, hidden behind a brick wall, Evie discovers a packet of old letters, which tell a strange and compelling story of love and war involving two young Englishwomen who lived in the same house in 1857.”
by Shawna M. Quinn
Agnes Warner of Saint John, New Brunswick served as a nurse in WWI in France & Belgium. She sent letters home, which her friends there bound into a small book to sell to raise funds for Warner to carry out further relief work. That booklet forms the core of this well-researched book about Agnes Warner, her work, and the role of nurses, particularly Canadian ones, in the War (that was supposed) to End All Wars.
by Lisa Napoli
by Vicki Delaney
by Nancy Mitford
by Nancy Mitford
by L.P. Hartley
Published in 1952 and set in the summer of 1900. The jacket says: “While visiting the country estate of a classmate, Leo becomes the charmed and innocent carrier of messages between the beautiful daughter of the house and her lover, a handsome tenant farmer. It is a secret known only by the three, the deeper meaning of which is not perceived by the youngster. Then one terrible night, a sudden and agonizing glimpse into adulthood seals forever Leo’s blighted fate.”
by Lola Shoneyin
by Pete Hamill
