Friday, February 23, 2018

Snowy Photos - #SaturdaySnapshots

Even though the Seattle area is located in the far northwest corner of the United States, our weather isn't as frigid as one would expect. However, we have had several snowfalls this winter. Here are a few photos from February 22nd. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

This snowfall was especially light and fluffy.
Flakes floated like feathers from the sky.

Lilacs outside my dining room window.
I'm looking forward to their blooms in spring.
I love the look of morning sunshine
on freshly fallen snow.





Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. 
To participate: 
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 West Metro Mommy Read's website (link: HERE) 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. Please don't post random photos that you find online.

Monday, February 19, 2018

All the Light We Cannot See - #TeaserTuesday and First Paragraph / First Chapter / Tuesday Intros

Marie-Laure Leblanc: A blind girl lives with her father in Paris, near the Museum of Natural History where he works.
Werner Pfennig: An orphan, enchanted by a makeshift radio, grows up in a mining town in Germany.
Anthony Doerr's fascinating novel about these two young people in Nazi Germany and France during World War II is unforgettable. From the blurb on the book's back cover: "Marie-Laure and Werner, from warring countries, both having lost many of the people they loved, come together in Saint-Malo, as Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another."



Here's the opening:

7 August 1944
Leaflets

At dusk they pour from the sky. They blow across the ramparts, turn cartwheels over rooftops, flutter into the ravines between houses. Entire streets swirl with them, flashing white against the cobbles. Urgent message to the inhabitants of this town, they say. Depart immediately to open country.

Teaser from Page 156 in trade paperback copy:

He pulls up a ring in the center of the floor. Beneath a hatch waits a square hole out of which washes a damp, frightening smell. "One step down, hurry now."

Synopsis:
From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.


Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

Genre:  Historical Fiction
Amazon Link: All The Light We Cannot See
Book Length: 545 Pages
Author Website: Anthony Doerr
NOTE: I downloaded this ebook from the library.

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 I'd Rather Be At The Beach. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger
Facebook: sandy.nachlinger

Friday, February 16, 2018

Not Just Trees and Rivers - #Hiking - #SaturdaySnapshots

Although much of the joy of hiking comes from walking among beautiful trees and along pristine rivers, I've also encountered interesting man-made delights along the way. Here are photos of a few of them.
(Click on pictures for a closer look.)

Chair made from skis at Wapiti Woolies,
a shop on the road to Mount Rainier
A playground for seniors, near the senior center
at Lake Sammamish 
"Hip Hop" by Georgia Gerber
Bronze sculpture at Ruston Way, Tacoma
Sidewalk along Ruston Way, Tacoma
"The Kiss" by Richard Beyer
Percival Landing, Olympia, WA

Rusting remains of a logging saw
Clear Creek Trail, Silverdale, WA


Reminder: Seattle is a busy port.





Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. 
To participate: 
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 West Metro Mommy Read's website (link: HERE) 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. Please don't post random photos that you find online.




Monday, February 12, 2018

Miller's Valley - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

I've almost finished reading Miller's Valley, and I'm loving it. Here's the opening:

First Paragraph:
It was a put-up job, and we all knew it by then. The government people had hearings all spring to solicit the views of residents on their plans. That's what they called it, soliciting views, but every last person in Miller's Valley knew that that just meant standing behind the microphones set up in the aisle of the middle school, and then finding out afterward that the government people would do what they planned to do anyhow. Everybody was just going through the motions. That's what people do. They decide what they want and then they try to make you believe you want it, too.

And here's a Teaser from Page 166:
I guess there are times in your life that tell you what you're made of, the weeks after you bring a colicky baby home from the hospital, the year when you lose your job and the number on your checking account just gets smaller and smaller until it looks like it's going to wink out like daylight on a January afternoon. This was my time.

Synopsis:
For generations the Millers have lived in Miller’s Valley. Mimi Miller tells about her life with intimacy and honesty. As Mimi eavesdrops on her parents and quietly observes the people around her, she discovers more and more about the toxicity of family secrets, the dangers of gossip, the flaws of marriage, the inequalities of friendship and the risks of passion, loyalty, and love. Home, as Mimi begins to realize, can be “a place where it’s just as easy to feel lost as it is to feel content.” 

Genre:  Women's Fiction / Family Saga
Amazon Link: Miller's Valley
Book Length: 257 Pages (Trade Paperback)
Author Website: Anna Quindlen
NOTE: I picked up this book at a book-swap shelf.

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 I'd Rather Be At The Beach. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger
Facebook: sandy.nachlinger

Friday, February 9, 2018

Hansville Greenway Hike, #Kitsap Peninsula - #SaturdaySnapshots

After days of rain, the hiking group was lucky to have a partly sunny Friday for our hike. Here are a few photos from Hansville Greenway, Kitsap Peninsula, Washington. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Much of the hike followed wide paths.
They were clearly marked and easy to follow.
Can you see the face in this
mossy stump?
Our hike led us to a viewing platform
where we ate our lunch...
overlooking this marsh.
A beaver lodge!

A closer look at the forest floor along
the trail revealed this bright red wood. 

Yes, it really was that red.

Back in the tiny town of Hansville, we stopped
for ice cream at a cafe overlooking Puget Sound.
The land in the distance is Whidbey Island.







Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. 
To participate: 
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 West Metro Mommy Read's website (link: HERE) 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. Please don't post random photos that you find online.

Friday, February 2, 2018

Banff Ski Trip - #SaturdaySnapshots

Recently, the subject of downhill skiing came up. That prompted me to look up some photos taken long ago when my husband, son, and I would go skiing during the Christmas holidays almost every year. One of our most memorable trips was to Banff, Alberta, Canada, in December, 1991. Here are a few photos from that adventure. This was before the time of digital cameras, and these pictures aren't very sharp. The panoramic photos were taken with a disposable camera. (Click on photos to enlarge.)


We stayed in the historic Banff Springs Hotel,
first opened in 1888.

View from our room. I had to take two photos and
splice them together to capture the whole scene.


Here's the same view, taken when the hotel
first opened. I copied it from the hotel's website.

The hotel was decorated beautifully for Christmas,
including this gingerbread replica.
Frozen waterfall behind the hotel.
We skied at nearby Sunshine Village

This was the coldest I've ever been in my life.
I'm pretty sure I was shivering in this photo.

I tried skiing several years ago at Snoqualmie Pass, Washington, and managed pretty well. However, I stayed on the beginner slopes. I'm not sure I'm up for a week in serious snow anymore!




More info about Banff Spring HotelHERE
More info about Sunshine Village Ski ResortHERE




Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. 
To participate: 
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 West Metro Mommy Read's website (link: HERE) 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. Please don't post random photos that you find online.