People who like to think

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Anybody else looking at freeze / frost warnings for the next couple of nights? I'll be covering my tomatoes, but should I cover my newly-planted roses that I rescued from bLowe's? (I couldn't resist, they were those roses-in-a-plastic-sack but were all very healthy looking, one even had little buds on it - Blaze and Pinata.)

Number of pages: 530

This book is an anthology of travel writing, which I've been slowly reading over the last few months.

Throughout the book are several excerpts from diaries of explorers (some famous, others more obscure) and other writing about them by fellow travellers.

At times, I found this book quite heavy going, although I liked the fact that there was a separate chapter for each continent in the world, and it was enjoyable to know what these peoples' thoughts were as they went on their journeys.

At times it felt a bit repetitive, with a lot of accounts of meetings with naked, or nearly-naked, natives, but some of the incidents recounted were very entertaining to read. Probably the most enjoyable, and emotional, was reading about Roald Amundsen's journey to the South Pole, followed by Captain Scott's own journey, and his discovery that he was not the first person to reach it.

This book was at times quite long-winded, and it was hard to read large amounts in one sitting, but it is definitely a recommended book for anyone interested in exploration.

Next book: The Teleportation Accident (Ned Beauman)

Current Location: My Flat
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Mica Paris & David Gilmour, "I Put a Spell on You"

Originally posted by audrey_e at 15 The Sense of an Ending

15 THE SENSE OF AN ENDING Julian Barnes (England, 2011)



The Sense of an Ending won the Man Booker Prize in 2011.

An old man reflects on his youth, and specifically his friendship with Adrian, and the latter's suicide.

What a wonderfully-crafted novel! Julian Barnes managed to gradually build a multi-layered plot that I would not want to spoil in anyway. All I can say is that Tony, the narrator, is one of the most memorable unreliable narrators I've ever read.
This is clearly a book that needs to be read a second time, and it is perfect for a group discussion as it is a puzzling and haunting story.
Since The Sense of an Ending is a reflection on memory and how we view the past, some have argued that it is better to read it when middle-aged or older. I'm 24, but an old soul, and I found this book very meaningful.

4,5/5

Current Location: Oak Park, Il
Current Mood: nostalgic

Does anybody grow cold-hardy cacti? Particularly in the midwest? How did yours do this winter? What did you do, if anything to keep them alive?

This winter was brutal, here in Wisconsin - alternating wet and really damn cold. I lost a few, but they were mostly new ones. I lost an echinocactus that had survived last winter, but last winter was mild. I had damage to two older cacti, but nothing too serious. And some new agaves died.

Here's one that is doing splendidly...


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Book # 30



Title: Doctor Who: A Big Hand for the Doctor

Author: Eoin Colfer

Pages: 41

Genre: Science Fiction, Time Travel, Doctor Who, Space Adventure

Rating: 2/5

Summary: Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter, and the children she’s trying to rescue get kidnapped by Soul Pirates. So of course it is up to the Doctor to mount a rescue.

Review: I was so excited when I first heard about the Doctor Who 50^th Anniversary E-Shorts, but when I read this one I couldn’t help but feel very disappointed. I feel like I’m repeating the reviews of a lot of others out there but… this is not the first Doctor. The Doctor here sounds too New Who-ish and not like the first Doctor presented in the old TV episodes (I’ve had the pleasure of watching a few of the them a couples of years ago at a convention-was surprised to hear him called Grandfather- and I am so glad I did because I enjoyed them immensely). As far as the story goes, it was just ok. It was too easy of a fix for it to really be interesting; I kept staring at my screen willing more chapters to appear since it seemed like there had to be more.

However, seeing as each Doctor Who short is written by a different author I’m not giving up on these yet. The next one is just sitting there in my Kindle taunting me but since I can only handle so much disappointment at a time it’ll have to wait for a bit.

Hi everyone! First off, thanks for everyone who sent in suggestions about the aphid infestation of my camellia plant. I took one advice and sprayed the plant under the tap and so far so good as far as aphids not returning is concerned. Now I come to you with a question about my orchid.

This plant was something a coworker gave me for my desk at the office about... two years ago. It's done fairly well--this is its third time producing flower and at one point had two flowering stalks with four or five blossoms a piece--but now the leaves are looking a little sickly.
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This happened once before when one of the original leaves dropped off and the plant spent half a year producing another leaf to replace it, so I don't know if this is just part of its natural cycle or whether there's something I can do to encourage more growth. I've stuck to the care instructions and only water it when the soil/moss feels dry to the touch, but I'm wondering if it needs to be repotted with some fertilizer. We keep the office fairly cool--around 68-72--but it gets warmer up front due to the windows. The plant gets some direct sun for a few hours in the afternoon for much of the year. However, because the windows are tinted, it's not as intense as it probably normally is.

In addition, the plant has a bunch of these weird root-like offshoots--can anyone tell me what those are? They creep out my coworkers, but I don't know if I can pinch them off or what their purpose are.

Any help anyone can give me would be great. I've become a bit attached to this little plant and I'd love to be able to keep it as long as possible. Thanks in advance!

Just transplanted my pepper plants into our garden and yesterday I noticed miniscule red bugs eating the primary and secondary leaves (the only leaves on the plants, dammit). I'm so frustrated by this. What do I do to get rid of these a$$holes?

Current Mood: frustrated

Number of pages: 378

Rock and roll gets the Discworld treatment in a book with a cover that appears to have been inspired by Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell.

At the start of the book, we are introduced by Susan, who is attending school when she is visited by the Death of Rats and a raven called Quoth (in a parody of Edgar Allen Poe, he refuses to say a particular word beginning with "n"). She is later taken to Death's domain where the manservant Albert explains that she is Death's grand-daughter, and that she was raised here when she was young.

However, Death has gone missing - in fact he's joined the Klatchian Foreign Legion - and soon Susan finds herself taking over her grandfather's duties, until she finds out that a young musician called Imp (who has just changed his name to Buddy) is due to die soon.

Imp has just formed a band with some other characters, having discovered a craze known as "music with rocks in it", which the whole of Discworld is becoming obsessed with. However, it seems that something wants to keep Imp/Buddy alive, and not just Susan, who feels sorry for him. It soon becomes apparent that the "music with rocks in" is something that's alive, and that it is in control of the singers.

On the surface, the whole concept of Susan taking over from Death sounds like a rewrite of the fourth novel, Mort, and it does feel like the handling of rock and roll is similar to the portrayal of movies in Moving Pictures; however, I really enjoyed this book, mostly because of the large number of references that the book is filled with. Various well-known songs are quoted (sort of) throughout, and characters have names that pay homage to famous rockers like Buddy Holly, Cliff Richard and Noddy Holder. I did wonder if the band featuring in this book was loosely based on The Beatles, although I might be reading too much into that. One of my favourite references was a sequence where the Dean of University starts acting like James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.

The book felt a bit weird at times, firstly since, although Death is on the cover, he isn't especially predominant within the storyline, and a lot of the recurring characters show up frequently, including the wizards, the librarian and some of the City Watch members, but overall I found it very enjoyable.

Next book: The Oxford Book of Exploration (Robin Hanbury-Tenison)

Current Location: My Flat
Current Mood: moody
Current Music: Ugly Kid Joe, "Everything About You"

The first corn I planted on May 2 only has spotty germination (the seed was from 2011 so I guess I shouldn't be surprised), so I'm going to just till that under when the ground has dried some and replant with the Miracle hybrid.

The REAL first corn I planted May 15, it's all up and looking pert and cute, about 1 inch tall! It's Miracle Hybrid se+, and it's so sweet you can eat it raw off the cob. Makes big 9 to 10" ears, usually 2 per plant, so it's a great producer. I'll have 3 total plantings of this variety. It says it takes 82 days, but last year we were harvesting at 66 and 72 days, so we'll see.... if it goes at 72 days, that means we'll have fresh corn around July 27.

The second corn will go in where the snowpeas have been -- I think they've got another week in them, then I'll pull them and plant. 2 weeks later I'll plant the third corn. That'll give me about 2 weeks between each planting, which will be good -- I won't get too sick of putting it up.

I planted the bush beans May 14, and they're up and looking good! They'll be big enough to thin in about a week.

The carrots are up, and they should be big enough to thin in a couple of weeks.

Tomatoes and peppers looking great.

I went out and cultivated the tomatoes and peppers, because The Grass That Will Not Die was coming up! I have one of those high wheel plow/cultivators, and it worked really well. So well, in fact, that I went and cultivated the corn just because I was in the mood to do it.

When the bush beans are done, I'll be putting watermelons in there, and when the second corn is done, I'll put in more beans.