Friday, May 22, 2015

The Drying Out Weekly Link Round-Up




Another storm came rumbling through Phoenix, and once again we're drying out. I appreciate every drop of rain we've received, and I'm certainly glad that our big cactus got straightened out beforehand!

Papa Verdin keeping busy.
It's been a quiet week, except for Monday when I hot-footed it over to The Poisoned Pen to see Craig Johnson. As many appearances as that man makes I wonder how he finds time to write! 

Other than that, I've been doing a bit of garden taming-- pruning back hedges that are going wild over all the water, pulling weeds. You know... all that fun stuff. The first round of baby birds have grown up, and I would imagine that new batches of eggs will be hatching in the weeks to come. We're going through oranges like there's no tomorrow.

In the evenings I'm knitting up a storm. I've just finished watching all 25 episodes of "Foyle's War" that are available on Netflix, and I see that a new season of "Murdoch Mysteries" is waiting for me via the Acorn channel. Somehow Agatha Christie knew that knitting and mysteries go hand in hand!

Now let's round up these links!



►Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits◄
  • How does history influence George R.R. Martin?
  • The World War II diaries of Astrid Lindgren (think Pippi Longstocking) have just been published in Sweden.
  • One man's hunt for Shakespeare's first editions.
  • After the success of Wolf Hall, the BBC will be adapting another Hillary Mantel novel.
  • I love Kathleen Taylor's Tory Bauer mysteries. Just thinking about certain scenes in them can make me laugh. (When I first read them, I laughed so hard that I cried.) I don't recommend them often because they can be difficult to find. Now they're available on Kindle, $2.99 each! Yippee!
  • Lionsgate has landed the U.S. rights to Genius, a film about famed literary editor Maxwell Perkins (Colin Firth).
  • Have you ever wondered what is considered to be a suitable gift for a queen
  • Having loved Season One of True Detective, I couldn't resist taking a look at the trailer for Season Two.
  • I'll bet you didn't know that there were influential female philosophers in the 17th century. Some people are trying to make it much better known. 
  • One of my favorite crime fiction writers, Ann Cleeves, talks about the inspiration she finds from Shetland.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

►The Happy Wanderer
  • If you're in Montana, that old caboose you're thinking of climbing aboard may not be abandoned. 
  • The world's most amazing remote islands where you can escape civilization. 
  • A brand new island forming off the coast of Japan is giving scientists the rare opportunity to study how life begins to colonize barren land.



►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

►I  ♥  Lists◄



That's all for this week. Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Have a great weekend, and-- read something fabulous!


8 comments:

  1. I just enjoy the news about the birds, the babies and all. It's such a sign of life to see the birds producing offspring who are then doing the same. And it's wonderful that you and Denis are giving them fruit all of the time.

    All I have to say is that the top 10 British series leaves out a lot of my favorites, including newer series. I agree with you: Foyle's War is a favorite of mine: I adore Michael Kitchen and Honeysuckle Weeks, who has the greatest name in TV history.

    I like Inspector Lynley with the dreamy Nathaniel Parker and the smart Sharon Small.

    But I'd add on Vera, Hinterland, Smith and Bailey, and Broadchurch. The Escape Artist, a two-parter. was excellent in all things required by a mystery fan.

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    1. This is what my list would look like, Kathy:

      1) Inspector Morse
      2) Inspector Lynley
      3) Inspector Lewis
      4) Endeavour
      5) Dalziel and Pascoe
      6) Hamish Macbeth
      7) Foyle's War
      8) Vera
      9) New Tricks
      10) Sherlock

      Alternate: Happy Valley

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  2. We've had some rain too, Cathy, and I am grateful as well. And I think there's something very healing about working in a garden and pulling weeds. That connection with the environment is so important I think. And now on to read about that shipwreck!

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    1. What is it about shipwrecks that fascinates me so?

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  3. Just time for a quick glance right now, but I do recognize "renthouse" as local for a house that is rented out. Some of the other words on that list were very difficult to guess what they meant.

    Back after a while.

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    Replies
    1. I love colloquialisms, obsolete words... anything like that!

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  4. https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/11/1363847/-The-oldest-man-in-Australia-knits-sweaters-for-injured-penguins-and-it-is-amazing?detail=emailclassic

    This is an amazing story and it combines your love of birds with your knitting hobby. I love this story.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I love this story, too, Kathy, and I seem to remember sharing it both on here and on my Facebook page. I might have to do it again!

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