Whew! These books are long. But good. This review is for the Audible version. After you get used to her, Davina Porter, narrator, you will find her voice versatile and natural for this story. One of my reasons for using this method to read these books is pronunciation. There are words in Gaelic or French and a couple of other languages that I wouldn’t know how to say, and text-to-speech would garble.
I don’t usually like to read a book after watching the show. I like to form my ideas of the characters before I see a director’s point of view. But so far this series translates nearly directly. It makes me proud of the show and the author of the book. It seems each of the scenes in the show was in the books. The only difference in this one is Gilly (not sure of the spelling–Audible doesn’t have written word.) I won’t spoil it for you. I actually like the book version over the show. But both work.
I can’t wait to listen to book four. And I’m looking forward to the next season of the show.
I can’t believe we are already at this silly, fun holiday. I try to enjoy it every year. No, I don’t believe in the prediction of a fat little rodent. But even science can’t get right with all their dopplers and storm wranglers. That they say the furry beast didn’t see his shadow and that it means an early spring, doesn’t surprise me. And yet how they came to that conclusion does.
First of all, it seems to me that if the sun is shining then there can be a shadow. I think that should mean early spring rather than the other way around. But what do I know? They rarely ask for my predictions! Just for the record, I do believe it will be an early spring. Winter has just not pulled it’s weight this year. It has been cold and there has been snow–like today. But it melts and gets warm too soon. I just hope that it doesn’t mean a bad, smoky summer. Some say a mild winter brings a mild summer. I hope they are right.
Mostly I hope that I can get to the beach and get to swim somehow this year.
Speaking of swimming, yesterday’s streaming entertainment seemed to be dedicated to mermaids. We needed some very lightweight shows. It started with Scales the movies. It was very lightweight but fun.
Then most of the day we let Disjointed make the background noise. It’s pure silliness. By the way, I do take the CBD tincture for pain relief and sleep. With all the bad news about vaping, I’m glad I never got into smoking weed. I don’t think my lungs could handle it. I hope the law, insurance, medical teams don’t ruin this medicine and make it cost far more. Anyway, if you need the laugh:
We were able to watch start to finish in one day. To tell you the truth I was ready for it to end by the end of the second season. But I liked how they wrapped it all up at the end of season three.
We had a bit more time before we would be ready for bed so we went back into the water with H2O Just Add Water. We only watched a bit before the drowsy started so we’ll probably finish it tomorrow.
I like the concept that these girls each get their own abilities. I can’t wait to see where this show goes.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is โchoices.โ Base your post on the subject of making small, uneventful choices. Enjoy!
Come on! Decide already!
I can’t tell you how often people have yelled that at me. Small decisions are the hardest of choices. It is easy to do some of those big ones. Taking care of the planet, giving people fresh air and water. Being kind to everyone and all animals. Easy peasy.
But which color? Which rice? Which T-shirt?
This is a life long problem. When I was a girl my mom would take us to the library. I could check out ten books. That was lucky because I wouldn’t be able to make up my mind which books would grab me within three weeks. Should I go for the joke books, or more Mary Poppins or the guy with the penguins? Oh, maybe this horse book? Nancy Drew, I think I’m on book nine. Artbooks are fun. I must get at least one book from the adult section because I can read them!
So an hour or so later and mom and brothers yelling, in whispers, ‘Come on!’
The errand started out looking like this:
No, I wasn’t that cute. Though this could have been my daughter (with a similar affliction). But this is from Pixabay.comย
But I would leave weighed down like this with ten books, ALWAYS!
No, this isn’t me. This might be the pile I took to the table to sort through to get my ten. And I don’t like a couple of these books. It was the closest to what I wanted to use as an example of my inability to make simple choices. Again, this is from Pixabay.com
Don’t ask me how Snoopy photo-bombed. I felt him feeling left out so included him in the sock picture. So anyway, I finished these today. I can’t give them to just anyone so I had to write on the donation card that they are a wool mix.
That is the CinDWood fine-gauge 1/4″, 56 peg loom. I love this loom! These are toe-up that start out looking like this with the Kitchener Cast-on.
Doesn’t that look like fun? It is! So you start out wrapping the pegs until you have this loom. Then on one side of the loom, you work the toe with a few wraps and turns. Then take it all the way around making the foot part of the sock. When you have enough rows done you can get the knitted sides to meet up. That’s when you get the fun-total chaos! See what I did there? ๐ Anyway, you start at the opposite side of the start string. You pick up the beginning stitches. pretty soon you have a bit of yarn. Picking, pulling one side and then the other before long you have a few inches of yarn. Keep it going and soon you have a foot. Then you have a yarn. By the time you reach the beginning string, you have a few yards of yarn. By that point, I am moving a nest of yarn from one shoulder to another. Then I am using my knees to keep this mass of yarn open and straightened out so as not to make a bigger mess. Keep pulling, keep pulling! It is so much fun I can’t wait until I make the next sock. By the time the toe is closed up you have a little ball to use later. Here’s my favorite YouTube of this Kitchener Chaos:
Oh. I have several socks in the process right now. But the latest project is because of GoodKnitStitches. She put out this YouTube.
I didn’t have any T-shirt yarn but I have tons of plastic bags and balls of plarn adding to the chaos of my house. I thought maybe this would make a good roll-up padding for the homeless. It is going well. Here is what it looks like so far:
If it doesn’t feel good for me to lay on, it may end up being a pet bed or foot massager for the shower, or doormat. At any rate, I am enjoying this pattern with the plarn. I used to crochet with it but crochet seemed to hurt my hands. This doesn’t hurt and whips up fast. Now I dream that when I finish this mat I will find T-shirt material as that bath mat looks so cozy!
So sorry to see this January Jotting over. I always love it! The worst of it is as of Sunday the chaos of coming up with prompts for my blog!
Todayโs prompt comes to us compliments ofย Lauren. Thank you, Lauren! Please be sure to visit her blog to read her post and say hello. And follow her while youโre there if youโre not already!
Your prompt for JusJoJan January 30th,ย 2020,ย is โfinished.โ Use the word โfinishedโ any way youโd like. Enjoy!
I just finished bingeing AJ and the Queen. It was cute. There’s only one season. But I hope there will be more.
And I’m caught up on Grace and Frankie. Yes, you see a theme, I needed something light to laugh with.
I have finished the third book of Outlander but that will be a separate post. None of the socks or other projects are finished. Maybe by tomorrow.
Todayโs prompt comes to us courtesy ofย Barbara. Thank you so much, Barbara! Please be sure to visit her blog to read her post and say hello. And follow her while youโre there if youโre not already!
Your prompt for JusJoJan January 28th,ย 2020,ย is โtelevision.โ Use the word โtelevisionโ any way youโd like. Enjoy!
This is a bit meandering, but I guess you’re used to my wandering s by now.
In the 1950s when we got our first Television, black and white, it was a huge box with buttons to turn to get the few stations, a small screen, and shows like Buck Rogers, Howdy Doody, various cartoons, wrestling, and roller derby. The news was on one station and everyone watched it.
Our generation was the first raised with the fifteen-minute interval for commercials. Some shows like Sheriff John sold stuff during the show, like Maggio Carrots. I could have sworn I could see the bright orange of the carrot and the crispy green of the ends.
I don’t know if the commercial is to blame for the short attention-spans. Nowhere else in our lives did we get those breaks. Sunday School lasted the hour. Church another hour. School breaks every few hours for recess. I know this.
My grandmother taught Sunday School. It taught me to read as she had the 23rd Psalms and the Lord’s Prayer on the wall as big as the door. Each week she would point to the words and the class would recite. When she was teaching a lesson she made sure we had crayons and paper to color. She believed busy hands kept our minds open to learning.ย If we grandkids sat next to her in church, a lifesaver and a pencil and paper was her go-to. She did carry those plastic number puzzles that I learned weren’t impossible if you pulled a number or two out and then rearranged the order. At any rate, being in the adult talking room was boring, but Grandma was smart!
And now I still see her genius. While bingeing television shows, fast-forwarding the commercials, or watching where you don’t have any of that nonsense, I keep my hands busy. I can remember what I was watching last time the next time I pick up the project. I thank Grandma. It is my drawing during lectures in school or college that helped me get good grades. I remembered my notes for tests because of the doodles on the page.
But back to commercials and attention-span and television. Fast-forward to the bingeing without commercials. My concentration is able to do hours of watching. And I have ADD. Maybe the proof is in the hyperfocus I can put into what I do every day. I think television has a lot to offer. So much to learn about writing, good and bad, news, the arts, especially acting (good and bad), not to mention pain relief as a distraction. In my position, a good book wouldn’t work, like it used to a few years ago. Now I get most of my stories on screen. The books are text-to-speech or Audible. But I do love watching the story acted out. How the score behind a show can add or subtract, how a side-eye or nod can do wonders and writes up well when used. Television is inspiring for me. Even at its worst.
Everwood was my newest binge Just finished yesterday. As I told a friend, it is Hallmarky but it kept our interest. My husband had to watch with me and loved it enough that we couldn’t go it alone. You know those kinds of shows! Anyway, here’s another trailer. They are taking it off Hulu soon so binge away.
Todayโs prompt comes to us compliments ofย Debbie. Thank you so much, Debbie! Please be sure to visit her blog to read her post and say hello. And follow her while youโre there!
Your prompt for JusJoJan January 27th,ย 2020,ย is โdazzle.โ Use the word โdazzleโ any way youโd like. Have fun!
Bedazzling had never been my style. Maybe I’m of the wrong generation to get it. I get excited about new inventions. I was in love with my Palm Pilot way back when. I love our phones and computers and huge TVs. I like a nice dress or a pair of pants. I wear very little jewelry. Mostly because I found I’m allergic to most metals against my skin. Now I don’t find the lack of a necklace or three pairs of earrings nude. It’s just me. I can’t imagine why all the glitter or sequins make some happy. But they would probably find my life boring.
But I love the jewels of the water. I had hoped I’d find something like the above picture on Pixabay.com! Plain flat blue water is beautiful. But a bit of chop on the sea is dazzling!
I used to be busy. In my head, it felt like the buzzing busy signal we used to get before call waiting. When we were officially retired our busy looked like the above phone screenshot. It was fun to connect with family and friends and make new friends. It was fun to learn new things. Heck, I learn a lot about loom-knitting, felting, polymer clay molding, chair yoga. Gosh, there is no end to what you can learn on the internet.
But body issues crept in and brain issues. Yes, I am afraid that after losing both of my grandmothers from Alzheimer’s, my brain may be getting more than old. Eye-tracking makes a lot of reading, even on the internet, nearly impossible. It makes playing the piano nearly impossible. But I’m finding ways to do the things, all the things, differently. (Kindle text-to-speech, Audible, for instance).
I start to feel guilty about how I spend my time. How I don’t do the things everyone else is doing. I, especially, feel the guilt while playing games.
Okay, maybe not that game. More like slower, calmer versions of Tetris-like games or wordy games, or hidden objects. Mixed in with bingeing shows, writing/editing my books, reading books, knitting. Still, it felt I should be busy doing other things, that my body can’t.
Today I read this:
9 Ways to Keep Aging Brain Smart Check out #3! So these are helping my brain stay alive. Yay! Not worthless playing for no reason.
And since watching Everwood, I am looking forward to more of this:
I figure if I don’t try to start where I left off but go back to the bigger staves and letting my memory of the easier pieces help me relax and enjoy the stuff again.
Per Linda:
Todayโs prompt comes to us compliments ofย Saumya. Thank you so much, Saumya! Please be sure to visit her blog to read her post and say hello. And follow her while youโre there!
Your prompt for JusJoJan January 26th,ย 2020,ย is โbusy.โ Use the word โbusyโ any way youโd like. Enjoy!
Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: โlast call.โ Talk about the enterprise (sales or service) conducted by the last phone call you received from a business youโre not associated with (i.e. your workplace), or talk about that phone conversation itself.ย Have fun!
Okay. I can’t fully join in the prompt. I hate the phone. I think I have said this elsewhere on the blog. If it comes to calling someone, even people I love, I get shaky and sweaty. I don’t understand it. I was the teen that had a mile-long wire attached to my phone, and an even longer coiled wire attached to the receiver. I could wander anywhere in the house and out on the porches outside.ย I could be on the phone for hours. We could chatter on and on.
Fast forward half a century and I can’t make service calls. If it is an important call I have my husband do the talking. He has one of those deep in-charge voices that gets the job done and doesn’t seem to have the throw-the-phone-across-the-room syndrome.
On the other hand, I love meeting with people I love on FaceBook IMs or Skype. Especially now that you can talk to a couple people at a time. I love seeing the faces and the environment my loved-ones are in. It is the next best thing to being there. That being impossible due to weather and finances.
My last video call was with my friends. Before one of them had a heart attack and went to the hospital. Stents were inserted and my friend is home, thank all that is good. Gosh, if I lived there I would have been able to be moral support. I remember seeing my friends’ faces on that last call and feeling my eyes well up with love for both of them. I love our calls.
When my friend got home from the hospital, she found a key from one of her sisters. It was a key to the TARDIS. Gosh, do I wish we had one to go back and forth in time and space and seeing who you want when you want and when you need to.
Anyone want to join on a flight with me on this ‘last call’ phone booth?
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
Hi! my name is Sebastian (You can call me Seb!) ...welcome to my Blog. I'm a photographer from Worcester, Worcestershire, England. Thanks for dropping by! I hope you enjoy my work.
Books, games, music, and life โ filtered through the mind of a writer, drummer, and philosopher who thinks too deeply about all of it. If it moves something in your chest, I'm interested.
Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
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