OMG!!

OMG, it's still snowing.  Apparently we have broken a record for the most snow at this time of the year since 1914!  Enough already!  It is no longer the light and fluffy stuff, it is wet and heavy.  Yuck.  There was a lot more snow to shovel today than yesterday.  Probably another 10 inches. The forecast says snow until Sunday!  We will have to go out tomorrow for groceries.  So glad we have a vehicle with winter tires and 4WD.  From the tv news reports the roads are really bad.

Jam & Bread

It was snowing when we got up this morning and it hasn't stopped all day.  We have been out shovelling twice already today.  Fortunately it's the light fluffy stuff.  We've had about 6 inches so far today and we are supposed to get up to another foot by tomorrow night!!  I'm so glad I'm retired now and don't have to drive anywhere in this weather. 

This is what I've been doing instead of going out in the snow.

I made 8 pints raspberry/blackberry jam
             8 pints raspberry/blueberry jam
         & 8 pints of marmalade
and a loaf of cinnamon, raisin bread.  Delish.

Wreaths

It would appear that all I ever write about are the books I read. Just to show what else I've been doing, here a few of the wreaths I've been making getting ready for a Christmas craft sale in November.

The top four have lights in them and look really pretty when plugged in.

Finally!

 I have finally read the Twilight Saga.  I made the mistake of lending someone the first book and never got it back.  I finally gave up and bought 'Twilight' at a book sale and had all four books read in no time.
I enjoyed reading them, although I found parts dragged on a bit.  I prefer reading a series all at once as I find I forget what happened in the previous book if there is too big a time lapse in between.
I'm glad I read them, and for the most part, really enjoyed all four books.  I don't think I have to give a blow by blow of each book because, by now, I think just about every man and his dog has read them, or seen the movies.

 Love in a Nutshell by Janet Evanovich & Dorien Kelly
This was a bit of light summer reading.  Very predictable but fun. 
Kate Appleton needs a job.  Her husband has left her, she's been fired as a magazine editor, and she's got nothing left but the Nutshell-her parents summer house in Keene's Harbor, Michigan. Kate hopes to turn the Nutshell into a bed and breakfast.  Problem is, she needs cash, and the only job she can find involves beer and espionage.  Matt Culhane wants Kate to spy on his brewery employees.  Someone has been sabotaging his company, and if Kate finds the culprit, Matt will pay her a $20,000 bonus.  Unfortunately, Kate despises beer, her co-workers don't trust her-and she's falling hard for her boss.  Can these two smoke out a saboteur, save Kate's B&B, and keep a killer from closing in-all while resisting their undeniable attraction to one another?

Judgement in Death by J.D. Robb
In an uptown strip joint, a cop is found bludgeoned to death. The weapon's a baseball bat. The motive's a mystery. It's a case of serious overkill that pushed Eve Dallas straight into overdrive. Her investigation uncovers a private club that's more than a hot spot. Purgatory's a last chance for atonement where everyone is judged, Where your ultimate fate depends on your most intimate sins. And where one cop's hidden secrets are about to plunge innocent souls into vice-ridden damnation...

The Italian Wedding by Nick Pellegino

Settled in London with their own taste of home in the form of their restaurant, Little Italy, the Martinellis are a typical Italian family: fighting, eating and loving in equal measure.

Now Pieta's sister is getting married, and Pieta will make the wedding gown.  But she is distracted by a series of mysteries.  Why is her father feuding with another Italian family?  Why is her mother so troubled?  And could the man she's always held a torch for really be getting married to someone else?

As the wedding draws nearer, Pieta uncovers the secrets that have made her family what it is-and may stand between her and happiness...

Few more Books

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hoeesini

I had heard about this book for a long time but only just got around to reading it.

Amir is the son of a walthy Kabul merchant, a member of the ruling caste of Pashtuns.  Hassan, his servant and constant companion, is a Hazara, a despised and impoverished caste.  Their uncommon bond is torn by Amir's choice to abondon his griend amist the increasing ethnic, religious, and political tensions of the dying years of the Afghan monarchy, and apparently dissolved when Amir and his father flee to California to escape the Soviet invasion, leaving Hassan and his own gentle father to a terrible fate.

But years later, an old family friend calls Amir from Pakistan and reminds him:  "There is a way to be good again."  And Amir jouneys back to a distant world, to right past wrongs against the only true friend he ever had. 

The House on Hope Street by Danielle Steele

In 18 years of marriage, Liz and Jack Sutherland had built a family, a successful law pracrice, and a happy home near San Francisco on Hope Street.  Then, in an instant, it all fell apart.  It began like any other Christmas morning.  But for Jack Sutherland, a five-minute errand ends in tragedy.  And suddenly, Liz is alone, in the wake of an unbearable loss.

Powered by her children's love, Liz finds the strength to return to work, to become both mother, and father.  One by one the holidays come and go, until a devastating accident sends her oldest son to the hospital-and brings Dr. Bill Webster into her life.  Bill becomes a friend to Liz as he slowly heals her shattered son.

With the first anniversary of Jack's death approaching, and with it another Christmas in the house on Hope Street, a new relationship offers new hope, and Liz reflects on the little blessings that give strength when nothing else is left.  But she will face one more crisis before she can look ahead to the beginning of a new life.

The Pact by Jodi Picoult

Until the phone calls came at three o'closk on a November morning, the Golds and their neighbours, the Hartes, had been inseparable.  It was no surprise to anyone when their teenage children, Chris and Emily, began showing signs that their relationship was moving beyond that of lifelong friends.  But now seventeen year old Emily is dead-shot with a gun her beloved and devoted Chris pilfered from his father's cabinet as part of an apparent suicide pact-leaving two devasted families stranded in the dark and dense predawn, desparate for answers about an unthinkable act and the children they never really knew.

Dancing in the Dark by Maureen Lee

When Millie Cameron is asked to sort through the belongings of her Aunt Flo, who recently died, she is not at all happy.  She hardly knew here aunt, and besides, Millie has a busy life and her own career to think of.  She certainly wants nothing to do with the seemingly sull, spinster aunt the family refuse to talk about.

However, Millie seems to have little choice but to go to Flo's basement flat and begin the tedious task.  But as dusk falls and Millie sorts through her aunt's collection of photographs, letters and newspaper cuttings, her interest is surprisingly awakened.  Millie finds herself embarking on a journey-a journey to a past which includes a lost lover and a secret child.  And Millie makes the startling discovery that all the threads lead to a shocking conclusion.

I'll Walk Alone by Mary Higgins Clark

Alexandra "Zan" Moreland, a gifted interior designer, is  haunted by the disappearance of her son two years ago from Central Park.  Now, on what would be Matthew's fifth birthday, she is terrified to discover that not only is somebody using her credit cards and manipulating her financial accounts but photos have surfaced that seem to implicate her in the kidnapping.

Hounded by the press, under investigation by the police, attacked by both her angry ex-husband and a vindictive business rival, Zan sets out to find the mastermind behind the cruel hoax.  What she does not realize is that every step she takes towards the truth is putting her-and those she loves most-in mortal danger.  Zan is beginning to doublt her own sanity when, in the kind of fast paced ending the pieces of the puzzle fall into place with an unexpected and shocking revelation.

2012 Books

The Shack by William P. Young

I just couldn't get into this book. I gave up on it a few chapters in.

Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs

One of my favourite authors. 

It's race week, a body is found in a metal drum near Charlotte Motor Speedway-a discovery that has NASCAR crewman Wayne Gamble urgently seeking out Tempe at the Mecklenburg County ME's office.  Twelve years ago, his sister, Cindi, then a high school senior and aspiring professional race car driver , disappears along with her boyfriend, Cale Lovette, who was linked to a group of right-wing extremists.  The FBI joined the investigation but it was soon terminated.  Is the body Cindi's?  Or Cales's?  Test reveal that a toxic substance was in the drum with the body-just as another disappearance occurs. 

Vanish by Tess Gerritsen

A nameless woman appears to be just another body at the morgue-until Boston medical examiner Maura Isles sees the corpse open its eyes.  The now frantic Jane Doe is rushed to the hospital, where with cool precision she shoots a security guard and seizes hostages, one of whom is pregnant homicide detective Jane Rizzoli.  As the tense hours tick by, Maura joins forces with Jane's husband, FBI agent Gabriel Den, to track down the killer's identity.  But this case goes far deeper than just an ordinary hostage crisis, and Jane, trapped with the armed madwoman, is the only one who holds the key to the mystery.

Angels Cry Sometimes by Josephine Cox.

The marriage of Marcia and Curt Ratheter seemes idyllically happy.   But one fateful day in 1931 brought Marcia's world tumbling about her ears and left her and her two daughters bereft.

 Barty Bendell had always loved her, he said; and the girls needed a father.  Marcia moved to Blackburn with him, where she tried to forget the past.  Barty, though, sank into bad ways, tyrannizing the family.  In particular he would vent his aggression on Polly.  Curt and Marcia's first born, blond as an angel but afflicted at birth with an ominous shadow ever her health.

Even in troubled times, lovely Marcia was a fighter.  But news that Curt Ratheter had reappeared would render her helpless prey to wild conflicting emotions.

All My Sisters by Judith Lennox

Iris, Marianne, Eva and Clemency are the daughters of Sheffield manufacturer, Joshua Maclise.  In the tumultous years before the First World War, the sisters seek to fulfil their ambitions.

Pretty, self-centered Iris dreams of a grand marriage, quiet Marianne meets the love of her life, and passionate Eva longs for independence.  Only Clemency, caring for her invalid mother, remains tied to the family home.  Years pass and her hopes of marriage dashed, Iris becomes a nurse in a London hospital.  Marianne, living on a tea estate in Ceylon, finds first her happiness and then her life threatened by a cruel and ruthless man.  When Eva falls in love with the Bohemian, Gabriel Bellamy, her dreams of a career as an artist falter.

As the clouds darken and war changes the lives of all the sisters, Clemency fights to free herself from the bonds that confine her and to discover love at last.

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

Meet Delores Price.  She's thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye.  Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with candy, potatos chips and Pepsi her mother supplies.  When she finally rolls into womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder.  But this time she is determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly up.

Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts

In 1972, windswept DeClare, Oklahoma, was consumed by a terrifying crime: the murder of a young mother, Gaylene Harjo, and the disappearance of her baby, Nicky Jack.  When the child's pajama bottoms were discovered on the banks of Willow Creek, everyone feared that he, too, had been killed, although his body was never found.

Now, nearly thirty years later, Nicky Jack mysteriously returns to DeClare, shocking the town with his sudden reappearance and stirring up long-buried memories.  But what he discovers about the night he vanished is far more than he, or anyone, bargains for.

Accidental Mother by Rowan Coleman

Sophie and Carrie were childhood best friends, but in the last few years they've lost touch.  While Carrie chose motherhood in a small town, Sophie is powering up the London career track.  She's a corporate manager poised for her next promotion.

And then Sophie is tole that Carrie has died, with nobody left to care for her two daughters, Bella and Izzy, aged six and three.  Their father, who left before Carrie's death, is nowhere to be found; their grandmother is moving into assisted living.  Sophie once promised Carrie she would take care of her children if the worst ever happened.....and now that day has come.

That's all for now.

8-10 inches

This started about supper time and continued up to midnight. Huge snowflakes, we could hardly see across the street at times.
This was last Thursday.

By suppertime the next day it all gone.
That's springtime in the foothills of the Rockies!