Citizen Beta

Nothing but sky…

Some pretty cool things are happening in my back yard.  The garden is doing great mostly thanks to warm days and rainy nights.  Pumpkins are starting to put out big leaves, beans are vining, and we have had a crazy bumper crop of brocoli–in July, I know! The tomato plants are getting unruly with  new little green orbs discovered daily.  Our only failure so far are the (numerous) pepper plants. L and A have their own raised bed now and though I think the birds made off with the seedling flowers, the transplanted petunias are looking lovely and the lavander smells divine.  

Thanks to the chickens we are composting again.  Speaking of chickens, the girls are getting huge and quite chickeny.  I don’t think I mentioned before that they are a type of chicken called Easter Eggers.  This is because they generally lay blue or green eggs.  They are a hybrid of Ameracauna chickens and so have really cool “muffs” and “beards.”  Here is Evie:

Because our yard is (slowly, slowly) transforming from a small lot filled with dirt, weeds and dog poop into a much more pleasant place to be I told D I wanted a backyard swing or glider for my upcoming birthday.  I wanted a place to swing, sip a drink, read a book, snuggle with the girls, and watch the chickens and plants grow.  We looked at some at the store a couple of weeks ago and they were much more expensive than I thought they would be.  I said, maybe next year…Then, at my aunt and uncles house a week ago my aunt showed me an old swing that she was planning on getting rid of; if it didn’t sell at her yardsale it was going to the dump.  I’ll take it, I told her.  So, it is the latest addition to my not-quite-yet-oasis. 

My grandfather built the swing out of an old bed frame which makes it cooler than anything ever.  Last night the girls and I sat and read in it after the heat of the day had passed.

I just couldn’t decide on a cityscape image so here are two shots of the same building: the downtown bus station.  Where are you traveling to this summer?

Hey there! What’s new? It has been a while since I wrote about books or linked to any reviews so today seems as good a day as any to do so.

First, though, I just finished The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold. This is one of those books I wouldn’t pick up on my own. But, it was lent to me and is good so there you go. I found it sad and creepy. Anyone read it?

Here are a couple of reviews of kids books:

The Piratetology Handbook—this is fun and my kids liked all the stickers and flaps a lot.

Ottoline and the Yellow Cat –L and I really enjoyed reading this odd chapter book. The illustrations are great.

Anyway, you can read more if you follow the links above.

I also reviewed the new Philip Pullman, Once Upon a Time in the North which is a prequel to the His Dark Materials trilogy. I recently saw the first film (“The Golden Compass”) and while it was beautiful and everything I found it pretty dull and dumbed down. Disappointing.

As for grown-up books, I reviewed Machine which is really a quirky little book. I have passed this one along to a bookish neighbor because I really wanted to see what someone else thought of it.  He didn’t like it.

One final recent review: Dear American Airlines.   I would tell you all about it, but, hey, you could just read the darn review!

In other publishing news I recently wrote this article about urban chickens, which, as you may know, is my most recent obsession.  I am pretty happy with the article except the “we kid you not” that was added after I submitted it, for some unknown reason.  While I love to publish things online there is just something about your work in actual print—another reason this made me happy.  

Now I am working on a review of a new bio of Golda Meir, a book of African short stories and something about Shakespeare.  Oh, and teaching, gardening, parenting, cooking and cleaning, daydreaming, drinking Guiness and enjoying our summer storm season.  And you?

Wow.  That is…well, ahem, bananas!