Tolmie & Nisqually #Hikes Revisited - #SaturdaySnapshots

In March of last year I went on my first hike with the senior center group. We visited Tolmie State Park and nearby Billy Frank, Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, and rain poured down on our heads. Last week, I joined the group in exploring both places again ... and again we had rain! But the weather didn't dampen anyone's enjoyment. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we don't let a little wet weather stop us.

[Click on photos to enlarge]

Because the Nisqually hike is so different from others I've been on, I'm just posting photos from that area, rather than include Tolmie too.

This whole area used to be farmland, protected from the encroachment of salt water from Puget Sound by a series of dikes. Those have been removed and the land is slowly returning to its natural state. However, the creators of the wildlife refuge decided to leave the barns as a reminder of the area's history.

This boardwalk stretches out into the estuary. After tromping through mud puddles at Tolmie State Park, the wet at Nisqually didn't bother us at all. The tide was out, and we saw quite a few birds - mostly ducks. Perfect weather for them!

According to the Washington Trails Association website, the walk from the visitor center to the end of the boardwalk and back is about five miles. At least it was flat! 

Here's the link to last year's blog post about both Tolmie and Nisqually:
2016 Tolmie/Nisqually Hike
Here are links to more info, if you're interested:
Tolmie State Park
Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

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The Pecan Man - #BookBeginnings on Friday and The #Friday56

If you enjoyed Driving Miss Daisy, The Help, or the Miss Julia series, then you'll definitely like The Pecan Man. Told in the voice of an 82-year-old woman, the author paints a vivid portrait of life in small-town Florida and the realities of race relations in parts of the South. The story is told with warmth and humor, and the author doesn't preach. 

The Pecan Man is beautifully written and free of grammatical and other errors, which I always appreciate. I'm delighted to feature Cassie Dandridge Selleck and other indie authors on my blog.

Book Beginning:
In the summer of 1976, the year of our Bicentennial, preparations for the Fourth of July were in full force. Flags hung from the eaves of every house along this stretch of Main Street. The neighborhood women were even busier than usual. I watched them come and go from a rocking chair on my own front porch.

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
The inside walls were covered with wood paneling. A large brown gas heater burned noisily at one end of the room and a picture of The Last Supper hung wearily over a deep red couch at the other end.

Genre: Literary Fiction
Book Length: 146 Pages
Amazon Link: The Pecan Man 
Author Website/Blog:  Cassie Dandridge Selleck

Read Chapter One from Selleck's latest book What Matters in Mayhew HERE. 

Synopsis from Goodreads:
The Pecan Man is a work of Southern fiction whose first chapter was the First Place winner of the 2006 CNW/FFWA Florida State Writing Competition in the Unpublished Novel category. In the summer of 1976, recently widowed and childless, Ora Lee Beckworth hires a homeless old black man to mow her lawn. The neighborhood children call him the Pee-can Man; their mothers call them inside whenever he appears. When the police chief's son is found stabbed to death near his camp, the man Ora knows as Eddie is arrested and charged with murder. Twenty-five years later, Ora sets out to tell the truth about the Pecan Man. In narrating her story, Ora discovers more truth about herself than she could ever have imagined. This novel has been described as To Kill a Mockingbird meets The Help.

                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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The Boys in the Boat - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

Anyone who enjoys stories of triumph over adversity will be enthralled by The Boys in the Boat. The author shows the incredibly hard work that goes into being part of a crew team and taught me more than I expected about events during the 1930s, leading up to World War II. I don't read much nonfiction, but this book kept me turning pages as if I were reading a thriller. I'd already seen the PBS special about this amazing team of rowers, but as is usually the case, the book went into much greater detail than the documentary and focused on the life of rower Joe Rantz. As a resident of the Seattle area, I was fascinated by the setting too.

I highly recommend reading this uplifting book.

Genre: Nonfiction
Book Length: 370 Pages (Trade Paperback from the library)
Amazon Link: The Boys in The Boat
Author Website: Daniel James Brown

Each chapter begins with a photo from the 1930s, as well as a quote from George Yeoman Pocock, the man who built the boats for the Washington team and most other teams, as well. 

First Paragraphs from Chapter One (instead of from the Prologue):
    Monday, October 9, 1933, began as a gray day in Seattle. A gray day in a gray time.
     Along the waterfront, seaplanes from the Gorst Air Transport company rose slowly from the surface of Puget Sound and droned westward, flying low under the cloud cover, beginning their short hops over to the naval shipyard at Bremerton. Ferries crawled away from Colman Dock on water as flat and dull as old pewter. Downtown, the Smith Tower pointed, like an upraised finger, toward somber skies. On the streets below the tower, men in fraying suit coats, worn-out shoes, and battered felt fedoras wheeled wooden carts toward the street corners where they would spend the day selling applies and oranges and packages of gum for a few pennies apiece. Around the corner, on the steep incline of Yesler Way, Seattle's old, original Skid Road, more men stood in long lines, heads bent, regarding the wet sidewalks and talking softly among themselves as they waited for the soup kitchens to open. Trucks from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer rattled along cobblestone streets, dropping off bundles of newspapers. Newsboys in woolen caps lugged the bundles to busy intersections, to trolley stops, and to hotel entrances, where they held the paper aloft, hawking them for two cents a copy, shouting out the day's headline: "15,000,000 to Get U.S. Relief."

Teaser (from Page 84):
    It rained, and they rowed. They rowed through cutting wind, bitter sleet, and occasional snow, well into the dark of night every evening. They rowed with cold rainwater running down their backs, pooling in the bottom of the boat, and sloshing back and forth under their sliding seats.

Synopsis (from Amazon):
    For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.
    It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.

Link up HERE

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.

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Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

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Poverty Bay #Wine Festival - #SaturdaySnapshots

My husband and I support Rotary Clubs and we like wine so, of course, we go to the DesMoines, Washington, Rotary Club's wine festival every year! Each attendee is given ten tokens to spend for tastes of a variety of wonderful Washington State wines. Here's the selection of wines available for tasting (and purchase) at their recent event. [Click on photos to enlarge.]

I especially liked Twisted Knickers (from Page Cellars) and Nauti Buoy and Land Ho! (from Hard Row to Hoe). I didn't taste Siegerrebe this year (from Whidbey Island Winery) because I've had it before and already know I like it. Don't you love the names of the wines?

The event had just started when we arrived so the tasting tables weren't crowded. By the time we left, the place was packed!

 

The caramel-flavored liqueurs from Zzaphoria Spirits were delicious! 

Snacks were offered, too. I had a small bowl of Ivar's clam chowder.

Between noon and 2:30 (when we left) quite a bit of money 
had already been raised for the Rotary Club's programs. 
The event lasted until 9:00 p.m.

FYI: Rotary is dedicated to six areas of focus to build international relationships, improve lives, and create a better world to support peace efforts and end polio forever. They are:

Promoting peace

Fighting disease

Providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene

Saving mothers and children

Supporting education

Growing local economics

More info on Rotary's website 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.  

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Blueprints - #BookBeginnings on Friday and #TheFriday56

    If I'm looking for a book with an engaging plot, believable characters, and an interesting setting, I know I can count on one written by Barbara Delinsky. Blueprints takes readers into the world of home renovation TV shows - just the thing for an HGTV addict like me! There's conflict between mother and daughter as major changes are planned for the show, and there's romance too. At age 56, is mom too old for love? I don't think so!
    Thank you, Sandra, for sending me this book for my birthday.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Romance
Book Length: 405 Pages (Trade Paperback)
Amazon Link: Blueprints
Author Website:  Barbara Delinsky

Book Beginning:
Prologue
     The rain let up just in time. The final day of taping for the spring season of Gut It! was about to begin, and though the sun hadn't yet appeared, Caroline MacAfee's hopes were high. Well behind the stream of work vehicles pulling up on the road, the western sky was giving way to scattered patches of blue, as the June breeze pushed gunmetal clouds east, toward Boston and the sea.

Friday 56 (from Page 56):
     She sat forward and called, "That place is in the middle of nowhere. It has water problems, zoning problems, access problems, and" - she raised her voice when he didn't stop - "It's so infested with carpenter ants that you'd be best burning the thing to the ground. You don't want that place, Dean!...."

Synopsis from the Author's Website:

     Set in suburban Boston in a world of reality tv and home design, Blueprints is the story of two strong women, Caroline and Jamie MacAfee, mother and daughter, best friends. The day after her 56th birthday, Caroline is told that she is too old to be the public face of Gut It!, a family-based home construction show, and that her 29-year-old daughter, Jamie, will replace her as its host. Daughter ousting mother from a job she loves? The resulting rift occurs at a time when each needs the other more than ever.

     For Jamie, an architect, life changes overnight when, soon after learning of the host shift, her father and his young third wife die in a freak accident that orphans their two-year-old son. Accustomed to neatness and planning, she is suddenly grappling with a toddler who misses his parents, a fiancé who doesn’t want the child, a staggering new attraction, and a work challenge that, if botched, could undermine the future of both MacAfee Homes and Gut It!

     For Caroline, a master carpenter, hosting Gut It! was an inadvertent sideline that has become part of her identity. Facing its loss, she feels betrayed by her daughter and old in the eyes of the world. Already raw, when her ex-husband dies, she is thrust into the role of giving emotional support to his aging father, who suddenly has other designs on her time. And then there’s Dean, her long-time friend, who sets out to show her that age is just a number. His efforts to seduce her awaken desires in her that have been dormant for so long that she feels foreign to herself.

     Who am I? Both women ask themselves this as their lives take dramatic twists. Their challenge is not only to find themselves but to find each other again.

           

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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A Thread of Truth (Cobbled Court Quilt #2) - #TeaserTuesday, First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros

A quilting friend recently gave me all seven books in Marie Bostwick's Cobbled Court Quilt Series. I finished Book #1 and today I'm featuring excerpts from Book #2, which I've barely started. So far, I'm enjoying the intertwined stories of the women of small-town New Bern, Connecticut, all of them connected by the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop. This story deals with domestic violence. Thanks for the books, Nan!

Genre: Women's Fiction
Book Length: 335 Pages
Amazon Link: A Thread of Truth
Author Website: Marie Bostwick

First Paragraph (from the Prologue):
     The counselor is young, blond, and pretty, and obviously nervous. She glances at her reflection in the wall mirror when she enters the waiting room, adjusts her collar, and clears her throat before extending her hand toward me with a wide, rehearsed smile and a request for me to follow her back to her office.

Teaser #1 (from Pages 15-16 in my trade paperback):
She wouldn't listen to any of my excuses about passing on the quilt class, just knocked them all down in that way she has, huffing and puffing out words like "Nonsense!" and "Rubbish!" like the big, bad wolf on a mission, not stopping until your little house of sticks is lying in a heap and there you stand with nothing left to hide behind. Next thing I knew, I was sitting in a room with six other students, listening to Evelyn Dixon explain the techniques for constructing our first project, a log cabin quilt.

Teaser #2 (from Page 90): 
There never was a moment when I could relax and be myself because I was always aware that he could walk through that door at any moment and if he didn't like what he saw, there would be consequences. Inevitable, unpredictable, irrational consequences. 

Synopsis:
At twenty-seven, having fled an abusive marriage with little more than her kids and the clothes on her back, Ivy Peterman figures she has nowhere to go but up. Quaint, historic New Bern, Connecticut, seems as good a place as any to start fresh. With a part-time job at the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop and budding friendships, Ivy feels hopeful for the first time in ages.

But when a popular quilting TV show is taped at the quilt shop, Ivy's unwitting appearance in an on-air promo alerts her ex-husband to her whereabouts. Suddenly, Ivy is facing the fight of her life--one that forces her to face her deepest fears as a woman and a mother. This time, however, she's got a sisterhood behind her: companions as complex, strong, and lasting as the quilts they stitch. . .

Just for fun, here's a photo of a log cabin quilt I made several years ago. I arranged the blocks in a diamond pattern, and it's one of my favorite creations.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.

Link up HERE

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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Mountains, River, Monte Cristo, & Emu - #SaturdaySnapshots

Thermal undies? Check
Wool socks? Check
Warm gloves? Check

Although the morning started with a dusting of snow, that didn't deter our hearty group of walkers! We're off to the Foothills Trail in Orting, Washington. This trail is shared by bicyclists, moms with baby strollers, roller-bladers, kids on tricycles, and walkers like us. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

This was an easy in-and-out walk. We followed the paved path for about 1.5 miles, then turned around and returned to where we started.

Recent heavy rain has resulted in landslides, including these two along the river. 

Part of the path veered away from the river and skirted farmland...

... and marshes.

Emu or ostrich? Opinions varied, but we were surprised to be greeted by this big bird.

Back in downtown Orting for lunch. I had a Monte Cristo sandwich and outrageously yummy fries.

Unfortunately, Mount Rainier hid behind clouds all day. If we'd come on a clear day, we would have seen this breath-taking view from the trail.

This flat, paved path allowed for conversation between walkers while getting a little exercise.  Fun!

More information about the entire 25-mile-long Foothills Trail HERE.
Click on + or - 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. 

The Other Daughter - #BookBeginnings on Friday and The #Friday56

     What if your past was a lie? How far would you go to confront the father who you believe had died but, in reality, had abandoned you and your mother? In The Other Daughter, the main character takes on a new identity and insinuates herself into London society with a goal of exposing her father. But as in so many good stories, things aren't always as they seem.
     I enjoyed this book. I loved the characters, enjoyed a glimpse into the lifestyle of the rich, and adored the descriptions of their clothes. The plot kept me engaged, too. I'll look for more books by this author.
     This is another book I came across at the library.

Genre: Historical Romance
Book Length: 310 Pages (trade paperback)
Amazon Link: The Other Daughter
Author Website: Lauren Willig

Book Beginning:
     "Can we go look, can we go look, can we go look?" Eight-year-old Amelie tugged at Rachel's hand, pulling her toward the stairs.
     "I don't see what the point is of looking at a party you can't go to," said thirteen-year-old Albertine crossly.
     "English, please," said Rachel automatically.
     The girls were meant to speak English when they were with her; the countess had been very clear about that. If it was a rule Rachel enforced somewhat selectively, that, she decided was a matter for her own conscience.

Friday 56 (from page 156 in trade paperback):
It had only been leased, not owned. As, apparently, had her father, and her name, and everything else she had believed to be hers. A feeling of raw panic subsumed her.

Synopsis (from Amazon):

Raised in a poor yet genteel household, Rachel Woodley is working in France as a governess when she receives news that her mother has died, suddenly. Grief-stricken, she returns to the small town in England where she was raised to clear out the cottage... and finds a cutting from a London society magazine, with a photograph of her supposedly deceased father dated all of three months before. He's an earl, respected and influential, and he is standing with another daughter--his legitimate daughter. Which makes Rachel...not legitimate. Everything she thought she knew about herself and her past--even her very name--is a lie.

Still reeling from the death of her mother, and furious at this betrayal, Rachel sets herself up in London under a new identity. There she insinuates herself into the party-going crowd of Bright Young Things, with a steely determination to unveil her father's perfidy and bring his--and her half-sister's--charmed world crashing down. Very soon, however, Rachel faces two unexpected snags: she finds she genuinely likes her half-sister, Olivia, whose situation isn't as simple as it appears; and she might just be falling for her sister's fiancé...

           

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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