Really Random Tuesday #80: Gardening Fun, Yellow Flowers, and a Book Winner

Tiny milkweed plants

Cherry tomato sprouts

Strawberry plants ready to be potted

Now that Easter is past, I hope the spring weather has arrived for everyone, and that the warmer days will inspire gardeners to get outdoors and spend time in the garden.  We're lucky in Southern California as the weather is usually mild, and even though we have a lack of water, it's easy to have a garden year-round.  Much to my surprise, I've been able to grow many herbs outdoors, including oregano, sage, mint, rosemary, and basil, which have been thriving in my garden.  Even my lavender plant looks healthy!  Currently, I'm thrilled that my cherry tomato seeds have sprouted, as well as the milkweed seeds I planted.  There's something especially wonderful about growing plants from seeds.  I'll leave the cherry tomatoes in pots, but hope to be able to transplant at least some of the milkweed to the milkweed section of my garden, when the plant are larger and stronger.  Some of my mature milkweed plants have disappeared, mysteriously, but at least I have two healthy looking plants left, to attract the monarchs.  I suspect one of the outdoor feral cats removed the milkweed plants, although I'm not certain.  (This sounds like it could be a storyline in a cat cozy mystery: The Case of the Missing Milkweed: A Meow Mystery.)  I'll plant the strawberry plants in the planter after I drill some drainage holes in the bottom of it.  I haven't had much luck growing strawberries in the past, but I can't resist trying again (hope springs eternal).  If you enjoy gardening, what do you like to plant in the springtime?

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Yellow flowers are supposed to make you feel happy (or happier).  At the very least, they signify spring.  I photographed these cheerful yellow roses with my phone at the California State Capitol in Sacramento, during the recent Key Club convention (I went along as a chaperone).  The tulips are a lovely Easter hostess gift from my sister-in-law's parents.  I love the color!  I'll plant the bulbs outside after the blooms are gone, to enjoy them next year.

  
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Traveler is the randomly chosen winner of The Idea of Him by Holly Peterson.  Congratulations!  I hope you'll enjoy the author's new novel.

If you didn't win this book, please take a look at the other book giveaways listed on the right side of my blog.  I update this list frequently as a courtesy to my readers.

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Appearing on random Tuesdays, Really Random Tuesday is a way to post odds and ends--announcements, musings, quotes, photos--any blogging and book-related things you can think of. I often announce my book giveaway winners in these posts. If you have miscellaneous book news to gather up and are inspired by this idea, "grab" the button for use on your own blog, and add your link to the "master" Mister Linky on the Really Random Tuesday page.

Thanks for reading!  Your comments are welcomed.

Really Random Tuesday #68: Book Winner, Baguettes, and Butterflies

Et la gagnante est... 

Karenk is the winner of an ebook edition of The Summer of France by Paulita Kincer.  Félicitations!  Please help me to congratulate the randomly chosen winner of this novel.  Descriptions in the book brought to mind the wonderful aroma and taste of freshly baked French bread.  While some baguettes take longer than 7 hours to make, I found an "easy" French bread recipe on Carpé Season, to try baking à la maison. 

If you didn't win this book, don't despair!  For other giveaways and reviews of French-themed books, please visit France Book Tours.  And scroll down to take a look at the terrific book giveaways listed here, on the right side of my blog.

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Inspired by Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, and my sister-in-law's family's monarch farm, I planted six milkweed plants to attract monarch butterflies.  I shared this experience on Facebook, but since I reviewed the book last month during the TLC tour, and mentioned my desire to find milkweed plants, I decided to include it here as well.  I was thrilled when monarchs discovered the milkweed almost immediately, and overjoyed that the plants have developed numerous seed pods, which form if the flower blossoms are pollinated.  The third photo shows an open seed pod; these seeds will fly away to create new milkweed plants for the monarchs. (Click on photos to make them larger.)

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Appearing on random Tuesdays, Really Random Tuesday is a way to post odds and ends--announcements, musings, quotes, photos--any blogging and book-related matters you can think of.  I often announce my book giveaway winners in these posts.  If you have miscellaneous book news to gather up and are inspired by this idea, "grab" the button for use on your own blog, then add your link to the "master" Mister Linky on the Really Random Tuesday page. 

Happy Tuesday!  Your comments are welcomed, as always. 
(Photo of baguettes courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Flight Behavior

"Unearthly beauty had appeared to her, a vision of glory to stop her in the road."
~Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver

Sometimes, seeing is not believing.

Published in 2012, Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver is the story of Dellarobia Turnbow, a farm wife who lives in Appalachia with her husband, Cub, and their two small children, Cordelia and Preston.  Dellarobia married young--at the age of seventeen--because she got pregnant, which marked the end of her formal education.  One day, as Dellarobia hikes up a mountain to meet someone, she encounters a "forested valley filled with what looks like a lake of fire".  Dazzled by this vision, and not sure what she's seeing, this remarkable sight affects Dellarobia in a profound way, and marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter in her life.

Male Monarch, courtesy of Wikipedia

There is a lot I could say about Flight Behavior--certainly more than I could ever articulate in a short review on my blog.  It's a book about complex subjects, including marriage and family, and the "magic" of science and nature.  Quite simply, though, I relished every page in this exquisite book.  The author has a background in biology, and the science surrounding the monarch butterflies presented in this story, through the work Dr. Ovid Byron and other characters, adds a realistic and fascinating dimension to it.  I learned many things about monarch butterflies in Flight Behavior.  For example, male monarchs have two black spots on their hind wings (click on photo to enlarge).

Flight Behavior is suffused with humanity, humor, and grace.  I love the way that Barbara Kingsolver writes, the way she thinks. She brought me to a place I knew little about, rural Appalachia.  Through her descriptions, I was in the mountains and wet woods, which burst to life through the people, butterflies, and farm animals.  The protagonist, Dellarobia, is real and flawed, but also very likable.    Both sharp and feisty, Dellarobia and her mother-in-law, Hester, are competitive with each other and butt heads quite often.  I wanted Dellarobia to be happier and to reach (at least some of) the potential she relinquished when she got married (I also wanted to extinguish her cigarette cravings).  Dellarobia and her husband shop at second-hand shops not because it's fashionable but because that's all they can afford; they're struggling to make ends meet, and have few possessions (they do not even own Christmas tree ornaments).  But Dellarobia's life is rich in a different sense.  She's a dedicated and caring mother, who awakens the budding scientist in her son, Preston (and will hopefully do the same for her daughter, Cordie, when she's a bit older).
 

Female Monarch, courtesy of Wikipedia

Although this beautifully written novel centers around a family, it focuses as well on larger, controversial, and contemporary issues, the impact of global warming and climate change on the environment.  I do think we need to think more about the long-term effects of our choices and actions, and care for the earth today.  Flight Behavior is a thought-provoking book that I enjoyed very much, one that I'll continue to think about for a long time.  Interestingly, while I was reading this novel, my sister-in-law, Kristine, was posting on Facebook about monarch butterflies and her milkweed plants.  I want some of these plants for my own garden--I adore monarchs!

Special thanks to Trish from TLC for sending me this book.  For more reviews, please visit the other stops on TLC's book tour for Flight Behavior.  This was my first book by Barbara Kingsolver, and I'm now very interested in reading The Lacuna, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and other works by this no-longer-new-to-me author.

Your comments are welcomed.