Cougar Mountain #Hike - #SaturdaySnapshots

Another hike - this one in Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park near Newcastle, Washington. My FitBit says I walked 8.36 miles during that 24-hour period (which also includes walking the dog around our neighborhood), and my legs believe it! On this hike, the trail was lined with blooms - bleeding heart, trillium, and fern just starting to unfurl.
[Click on photos to enlarge.]

Western trillium (trillium ovatum)

Bleeding heart (Dicenta formosa)

Western sword fern (Polystichum munitum)

New spring leaves created a bright green canopy overhead. 

They really were that green! Trails are well-marked and 
maintained by volunteers.

Though most of the trails took us through forest, this one overlooked an open area that was once a clay pit.

We crossed this narrow plank over a creek in single file. 

Thank heavens for the sturdy railing!

Lunch break at Coal Creek Falls.

Here's our route.

Here's a little history of the park and a reminder of the Cold War years:

In the 1950s and early 60s, two active Nike missile sites were located within the park’s current boundaries, in order to protect the Puget Sound region from potential air attacks. Eventually, these sites were decommissioned, and in the late 1960s, King County took over ownership of the land that would later become Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park.

More info about this park (a colorful brochure) HERE

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, 

click HERE or on the box below.  

To participate in Saturday Snapshots: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) 

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Felicity's Power - Book Beginnings on Friday and The #Friday56

     They met in San Francisco, back in the days when hippies roamed Haight-Ashbury and free love and idealism ruled. But Felicity yearned to see the world, and Marek planned a future with more stability. Forty-three years later, is the spark still there?
     I enjoyed this book on many levels. The description was lovely, the characters were appealing, and I'm a sucker for second-chance love stories. It was also fun to read a book that features older characters who are still active, interesting, and sexy. I'll be looking for more books by this author.

Book Beginning:
     "You're right, of course. This dream is going to blow sky high, just the way Owen's did a hundred and fifty years ago."
     A woman's voice. Rich, throaty. Lazy. Marek Sumner looked up from the lecture notes he'd been shuffling together. Audacious, slanting brown eyes scrutinized him, taking his measure in a leisurely way.

The Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
     High above, the night sky was amazingly clear. Diamond stars winked cheerfully, and the moon sent a shiver of light across an ink sea. It was good being here.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Romance
Book Length: 226 Pages
Amazon Link: Felicity's Power
Author's Website: J. Arlene Culiner

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
     San Francisco, 1971: hippies in the streets, music and revolution in the air. The evening Marek Sumner opened his door to the wild-looking Felicity Powers, he knew nothing would ever be the same again. But even love and passion couldn’t keep them together.
     Forty-three years later, having lived in the world’s most dangerous places as a foreign aid worker, Felicity is back, still offering him love, passion, and adventure. But why would Marek risk having his heart broken a second time? Now a well-known author, he loves his calm, solitary life in an isolated farmhouse. He and Felicity are just too different; their relationship could never work.
     But Felicity is just as fascinating and joyful as ever, and that wonderful sexy magic is still there too. As for love, perhaps it’s even deeper and more delightful the second time around.
                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
Click HERE to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (sponsored by Rose City Reads) 
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Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

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Stella Bain - #TeaserTuesday and First Paragraph / First Chapter / Tuesday Intros

    Anita Shreve is such an excellent writer! I've just finished reading Stella Bain (published in 2013), and I loved the story. The plot takes place in Europe during World War I, before the United States became involved in the conflict. I don't want to include spoilers, so I'll just say that when the story opens, the main character has lost her memory.
    The author included vivid descriptions of the treatment of wounded soldiers during that war, and also gave me an appreciation of the way women were perceived. For example, a diagnosis of "shell shock" in men was deemed "hysteria" in women. Stella Bain's story unfolds slowly, as the protagonist recovers her memory, and the author goes deep inside her characters. My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is that I would have liked a little more time and attention given to the ending. But maybe that's because I didn't want the story to end! Otherwise, this is a fascinating book that I enjoyed immensely.

Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Length: 261 Pages (Hardback)
Amazon Link: Stella Bain
Author Website: Anita Shreve Books

First Paragraph(s):
Marne, March, 1916
    Sunrise glow through canvas panels. Foul smell of gas gangrene. Men moaning all around her. Pandemonium and chaos.
    She floats inside a cloud. Cottony, a little dingy. Pinpricks of light summon her to wakefulness. She drifts, and then she sleeps.
    Distinct sounds of metal on metal, used instruments tossed into a pan. She tries to remember why she lies on a cot, enclosed within panels of canvas, a place where men who die are prepared for burial away from the rest of the wounded, a task she has performed any number of times.
    She glances down and finds that she is wearing mauve men's pajamas. Why do her feet hurt?

Teaser (from Page 57 of my hardback copy - I cheated and included three sentences):
    Stella has a sudden and intense desire to flee, but she cannot run away from the man beside her. Instead, she freezes rigid on the spot, unable to move a limb, unable to make sense of anything happening around her. She reaches for the back of her neck, certain that someone or something is about to grab her.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
    When an American woman, Stella Bain, is found suffering from severe shell shock in an exclusive garden in London, surgeon August Bridge and his wife selflessly agree to take her in.
    A gesture of goodwill turns into something more as Bridge quickly develops a clinical interest in his houseguest. Stella had been working as a nurse's aide near the front, but she can't remember anything prior to four months earlier when she was found wounded on a French battlefield.
    In a narrative that takes us from London to America and back again, Shreve has created an engrossing and wrenching tale about love and the meaning of memory, set against the haunting backdrop of a war that destroyed an entire generation.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

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Capitol Hill - #Seattle Neighborhood Hike - Saturday Snapshots

Most of the hikes I've taken with the Auburn Senior Activity Center have been on paths through lush evergreen forests... and that would describe portions of my recent hike through a couple of Seattle's urban parks (link here). However, part of last week's trek took the group through an older, historic area of the city. Today I'm posting photos of some of the beautiful homes we saw along the way. [Click on photos to enlarge.]

Wisteria and pink dogwood in bloom.

Love that red door and trim around the beautiful windows.

A welcoming pathway. Looks like the pink rhododendron near the door is just starting to bloom.

Unusual pink trim along the eaves. This guard dog stayed at his post on the steps.

Each house we passed was unique, and almost every one featured plants in bloom.

No cookie-cutter homes in this neighborhood.

The grandest home of them all on Millionaires' Row. 

It was fun walking through this neighborhood, even though we did get a few curious stares and comments. 

A woman asked, "What are y'all doing?"
One hiker (an 80-year-old) answered, "We're hiking!"
Everybody laughed and the woman looked puzzled. I wonder what she was thinking.

The same thing happened at the Arboretum. A young man asked where we were going. Someone answered, “We’re walking from the Arboretum to Volunteer Park… and back.” He looked at us as if we were aliens from outer space.

I guess I can understand their reactions. After all, how often do you see a group of fifteen senior citizens, sporting backpacks and with trekking sticks, parading by?

Here's a link to the history of the area, along with more information:
 Seattle's Capitol Hill Neighborhood

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, 

click HERE or on the box below.  

To participate in Saturday Snapshots: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) 

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Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. 

A New Dawn in Deer Isle - The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings on Friday

    After George McLast's wife Lorna died, his life seemed to lose its purpose. He rarely left the trailer they'd bought in Florida, took afternoon naps to break the monotony, and worst of all, he'd started having a squeezing feeling in his chest. He'd  mourned for almost three years before deciding to take action in the form of a road trip in his van, something he and his wife had planned to do. A New Dawn in Deer Isle tells the story of George's adventure. With surprises along the way, he examines his life and his future.
     Readers who enjoy books with older characters (Baby Boomer age), road trips, and introspective narrative will definitely like this touching story. The author's voice is conversational, as if telling a story to a friend, and the book is an easy, engrossing, and true-to-life read. 
I'll look for more books by this author.

Genre: Fiction/Travel/OA (Older Adult)
Book Length: 181 Pages
Amazon Link: A New Dawn in Deer Isle
Author's Website: Tom Winton

Book Beginning:
     For thirty-five months my life had been a living hell. Every morning, noon, and night relentless flames ravaged my mind, my spirit, and my soul. You see, in 2011 my wife and I moved to that blazing-hot inferno they call Florida. And by the time we'd made it just halfway through the first nine-month summer in that overdeveloped, sub-tropical jungle, we absolutely hated the place. Then in September of the same year, with our hearts broken because we had made the move and couldn't afford to go back to Long Island, my Lorna began to weaken.

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
Through the glass I saw Sarah Poulin's face again. She was placing short stout glasses of water  in front of five family members who'd entered the diner minutes earlier. And her lovely face was all lit up with that warm smile of hers. 

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
     Every once in a while we read a book that profoundly affects the way we perceive our lives. A NEW DAWN IN DEER ISLE is one of those rare books. 
     A common man of modest means, world-weary George McLast decides to forget all his problems and take the trip him and his beloved wife had only dreamed about before she passed away three years earlier. Despite all the unnerving feelings he’s been getting in his chest, his son’s disapproval, and his precarious financial situation, he sets out across America following the same route John Steinbeck took in 1959 with his pet poodle, Charley. And as the legendary author wanted to do back then, George hopes to reacquaint himself with his country and its people. 
     But everything doesn’t work out as planned. Along the way George encounters far more than he had bargained for. And so will readers. During his many adventures and mishaps you’ll feel like you’re right alongside him, in the passenger seat of his old van. And you will not only read his words you’ll learn from them as well. 
                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
Click HERE to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (sponsored by Rose City Reads) 
Click HERE to join other Friday 56 bloggers (sponsored by Freda's Voice)

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

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"Are We There Yet?" - Smart Girls Read Romance

I'm over at Smart Girls Read Romance today for my once-a-month blog post. This time I'm writing about my self-publishing experience with Bluebonnets for Elly.

Stop by and say "hi." Here's the link:
"Are We There Yet?"

Saturday Snapshots - #Hiking Around the Montlake & Capitol Hill Neighborhoods, #Seattle

I've been on another hike with the Auburn Senior Center group! This time we ventured to the Washington Park Arboretum and then hiked to Volunteer Park (and back to the Arboretum) in the Montlake and Capitol Hill neighborhoods of Seattle. Both are beautiful urban parks, and the neighborhoods in between are charming. According to my FitBit, we walked over eight miles; and although my legs agree, I think it may have been exaggerating a little bit.
[Click on photos to enlarge.]

I know what goes up, must come down. But this hike seemed like it was all UP.

And UP some more!

And even UP a staircase between streets - one of many staircases in Seattle. This one has 100+ steps.

Some of us even climbed UP to the observation deck of the water tower in Volunteer Park - 107 steps to the top - and we were rewarded with amazing views of the city and surrounding areas.

Downtown Seattle

Next weekend I'll post photos of the beautiful azaleas and rhododendrons we saw at the Washington Arboretum. What a fun day we had!

Volunteer Park Info and History HERE.

[Click on map to zoom in or out.]

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, 

click HERE or on the box below.  

To participate in Saturday Snapshots: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) 

have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on the host blogsite. 

Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. 

Where Can I Get Your Book For FREE?

If you did not PAY for it, or if I did not GIVE it to you, you have STOLEN it. 

Jack Sparrow is a sexy pirate.

But there is nothing sexy about a book pirate. NOTHING.

Ravenna Tate posts on the Naughty Quills blog about this important subject HERE

Saturday Snapshots - #Hike on May Valley Trail

Tired of my hiking photos? Well, here are a few more, this time from the May Valley Trail in Squak Mountain State Park, Washington. I hiked this trail on March 19 with my son, daughter-in-law, and almost-five-year-old granddaughter. I'm proud to say that I was able to keep up.
[Click on photos to enlarge.]

Lots of trails interconnected, so we aren't sure how far we hiked; however, my FitBit says I walked 8.5 miles during that twenty-four hour period.

My granddaughter led the way, but we didn't let her get very far ahead. We made enough noise that we surely scared away any bears, but we didn't want to take any chances! 

Lots of moss - waving like tattered flags from the trees and 

encasing branches like a velvet coat.

Windfall.

If you stop and look closely, it's surprising what you might see.

This little guy was about two inches long.

Heading back to the car along a forest service road.

More info about the May Valley Trail HERE

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, 

click HERE or on the box below.  

To participate in Saturday Snapshots: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) 

have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on the host blogsite. 

Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you.