Category Archives: Books

Books, Hiking

Snowstorm

1 Comment

We had a nice ice/snowstorm last week. It started Tuesday night late with ice, then a bit of snow, then a break, and then it starting snowing early Thursday and snowed practically all day. I had off school for my early morning job, and then taught online Wednesday and Thursday. Friday I did go into the college to teach, though I borrowed Louie’s Subaru rather than drive a Corolla.

It was beautiful to watch, and I’m glad we got the snow, but I’ll be glad to see it gone. Today the high is in the 40’s so I’m hoping it makes things easier to get around in and that I can start driving my own car again without concerns.

This weekend has been mostly at home relaxing, but we’ve done some interesting things over the past few weeks. One day we hiked the Lewis and Clark trail–it was after a snow, and there were some icy bits but mostly it was a wonderful day of hiking, and the weather was perfect: sunny and in the 40’s. It’s nice hiking in St Louis in the winter when it’s warm enough, because there are no bugs, and if it’s a scenic hike you get more views.

Quite a lot of the hike was along the Missouri River. It had a lot of ice floes traveling along it.
The hike was about 8.5 miles. This was the map from Louie’s watch. You can make it a 5 miles hike, or shorter if you just do the out and back to the first river overlook (which is very nice) but I have to say, the whole hike is really nice! It isn’t terribly steep overall, and so much of it is along the river that it might be the most scenic hike in the St Louis area.

We also walked around Forest Park a few times and enjoyed the scenery there.

We often park near the World’s Fair Pavilion to start any walks in Forest Park. This was on a cold day after a bit of snow.

We haven’t been out much otherwise, lately. It’s cold and you know, omicron. We’ve eaten out a few times though, at Lily’s Mexican and a place near our house. And last night we got takeout from Himalayan Yeti, which we had almost forgotten about! There are some leftovers for lunch as well.

Cooking wise I’ve made a few delicious soups lately. I might have already told you about the Broccoli Cheddar soup, but I’m not sure. That one we ate with leftover rolls from Union Loafers: I had bought some things from them for Christmas, but froze the dinner rolls as we couldn’t eat it all at the time. I wish they sold them year round.

I also made the potato mushroom soup linked here. I made a few substitutions based on what I had, but I chose it because I had mushrooms and potatoes to use up and we wanted a soup. Highly recommend.

TV wise we’ve been watching 1883 and Euphoria as they come out, we just finished the latest season (or half season?) of Ozark. Last night we watched figure skating and other things on the Olympics.

Books: Non fiction I’m reading a book on the Marquis de Lafayette, Hero of Two Worlds by Mike Duncan and They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie Jones-Rogers. I am slowly working through my nonfiction book stacks.

I also read Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang which was a memoir showing a family of Chinese immigrants and their great difficulties living in NYC. Very thought provoking and well written.

Fiction wise: I recently read Mrs. Dalloway for my book club.

Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis, a cute romance

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang. I would have liked this book better if the main character hadn’t been a violinist as I found most of the violin parts to be pretty bad (poorly researched), but the rest of the book to be wonderful.

It’s another week ahead of me, and it looks to be a “normal” week, weather reports look fine, it should be back to work, teaching, getting the spring festival application done, and a few other things. I slept poorly last night worrying about stupid things, and had some weird dreams of trying to get to various gigs in Ohio, but otherwise, no complaints! We are preparing for a performance in late February at the school, which gives us a good direction for the next few weeks of classes.

What have you been up to? Read any good books lately? Goodness knows I don’t actually need any more on my lists, but I’m always up for me.

Books, Hiking

Bison Jam

It’s been a busy week, but we’ve made time for some fun as well.

Over the weekend I decided to do some baking to test out the new oven. Verdict: terrific!

I made pumpkin cranberry bread: I made it vegan to share, and at first I was doubtful, but by the second day it was fantastic. (It turned out my first bite may have been tainted by some expired crisco I’d used to grease the pan. The loaf we are giving away doesn’t have that issue.)

Then I made fruitcake to age for Christmas. I don’t know how it turned out, exactly, but I think it’ll be really good. You may say, fruitcake, that’s gross?! but you would be wrong. Some fruitcake may be gross, but some fruitcake is fantastic, as long as you like dried fruit, nuts, and really moist (yes, moist) cake.

We’ve been managing to get some weekday hikes in, and this past Tuesday was no exception. Louie and I went to Lone Elk Park to hike the White Bison Trail, advertised to be 3.2 miles. We’ve hiked it several times before, but never during this time of the year, which we highly recommend.

We saw several groups of elk along the way (give them space, they ARE wild animals–one group was fairly near the trail–10 to 30 yards away–and the male was standing in front defensively watching us hike by!) and then after our hike we went driving around. We saw another group of elk right near the roadway (in fact, we may have missed a “one way” sign and gone the wrong way down a road due to our excitement over the elk) and then we headed for the bison area.

A bunch of elk just hanging out. This was the women and children: the male elk was on the other side of the road keeping an eye out.

Bison, yes. If you aren’t aware, there is a bison herd at Lone Elk Park here in the St Louis area. They are in a fenced (electric) area and can’t get out, but they have room to wander.

We thought it was a bust at first, as we didn’t see any bison where we have in the past, and were able to leave disappointed, when lo and behold, we came up on a line of stopped cars, and there we were, in a good old-fashioned bison jam!

A bison jam!

We watched the bison from the car, taking pictures, admiring their strange large heads, slowing driving forward when possible.

We were probably “stuck” in the jam for about 15 minutes and it was glorious. If you haven’t been out to Lone Elk Park, I highly recommend it.

Anyway, other than that, teaching, etc, I’ve read a few books recently. I particularly enjoyed Emily Henry’s Beach Read, Tia Williams’ Seven Days in June, and Marie Benedict’s The Personal Librarian. Before that (not sure if I already recommended these books): Katherine Henry’s Early Morning Riser, and the Royal We series by Heather Cocks, Kristin Harmel’s The Forest of Vanishing Stars, V.E. Rue’s The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue, Kristin Hannah’s Magic Hour, Jennifer Weiner’s Mrs. Everything, and Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age. TV wise, I just finished watching “Only Murders in the Building” on Hulu and found it quite entertaining.

How is your fall going? Have you decorated for Halloween?

Books, Random thoughts, Teaching

Time Marches On

I thought I’d just pop in so you all knew I remembered I had a blog. I know blogging is dead and all, yet I still read blogs and have a blog, so it’s probably sort of like classical music in that sense.

College started up, and I have several wonderful new students as well as my returning students. I absolutely adore some of the students I teach and I’m looking forward to a great semester. I’m sorry I had to leave some students at the other school I’d taught at for 4 1/2 years, but my schedule is much more manageable without that job…it’s hard to quit things, isn’t it? In any case, it was super weird and a bit emotional returning to my studio there for the first time since before the pandemic: I distinctly remember leaving and being excited for Spring Break and visiting my friend April in Atlanta, and then…never returning.

My early morning school job officially starts up next week, and while I’m a little nervous about the early mornings, especially as the days get shorter (it’s so hard to wake up and drive to work in the dark, for instance), I’m excited to get back to it. My overall schedule is easier than it was last year, even with actually commuting to my college job, and I think it’ll be a good semester.

Wednesday night: My parents stopped by overnight on their way home from a road trip. They were here for about 12 hours total as they wanted to get back on the road and get home. They ended up having some car trouble along the way home and the part their car needed might have been a year long wait or more, so they ended up buying a new car, which seems a bit crazy, yet, they didn’t have any better options at that point. We were able to admire their new car and chat a bit.

The weekend was fun: pizza and wine with friends on Friday night, and then most of the day Saturday and Sunday I spent at a Suzuki Workshop (Suzuki Principles in Action) in person at SIUE (in Edwardsville). It was a good learning opportunity, a course about HOW to teach, not what to teach, and I learned quite a bit. I have a follow-up assignment to do over the next two months, which involves recording myself as well as answering some questions/short essays. I’ve spent most of the pandemic trying to further improve and educate myself as a teacher, and it’s been really fun, learning. The more I know, the more confidence I have that I’m doing the best I can for my students.

Sunday night I cooked this: Skillet Shrimp and Orzo. I really liked it! I had been getting tired of cooking before I made it, but I think sometimes when I’m tired I just don’t want to cook, not that cooking is in itself tiring. I made myself put together a meal plan for the next two weeks.

And then yesterday was off, Labor Day! We were going to go for a hike, but ended up getting lazy and just hanging out around the house more. I sort of regret that I didn’t get out and about, but it was a bit hotter than originally predicted and I’m just so ready for fall weather. I think I was run down from the workshop in addition to just not wanting to deal with people or hot weather. It was a nice relaxing day and I didn’t work at all, other than a couple tiny things.

I do belong to two unions, and have mixed feelings about my union membership (one union is great, has gotten me raises, the other…not so much) but firmly believe that collective bargaining is on average, a good thing, and that workers make the world work and deserve way more than they and we actually get.

I haven’t mentioned books in awhile, so let me end with some books I’ve read recently:

Books I’ve loved: The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi DarĂ©, People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand, The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley, The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward

Books I’ve liked: The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst, The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave , Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge, House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

Nonfiction I enjoyed/learned from: The Pandemic Century by Mark Honigsbaum, A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School by Carlotta Walls Lanier

Books, Random thoughts, Travel

Family Visit and such

1 Comment

I was so busy telling you about our Arkansas Trip that I haven’t told you about our trip to visit family in Chautauqua, New York. My sister Leslie and her family own a house in Sherman, New York, which is near the Chautauqua Music Festival where her husband works in the summers. This is the third year in a row we’ve gone out to visit, and it was lovely.

I won’t do a play by play, but instead share some pictures and tell you a few things we did.

Walked around the grounds of the Chautauqua Institute–this is near the belltower.
Hiked down to the Chautauqua Gorge but it was too watery to go further, so we went back up and hiked along the Cusamano Trail instead for a few miles.

I believe this was at Long Point State Park, where we walked around a little bit.

Not pictured: Southern Tier Brewery Company–great place to have some beer and some food, nice patio.

Luca driving a wooden car around.

We didn’t go on the Chautauqua Belle, but maybe another time. We walked along the Lake aways from here, and then got ice cream nearby. We eat more ice cream while in Chautauqua than we do all year long!

The grounds of the Institute again, you can see the Bell Tower on the left.

Luca wearing cool sunglasses for the Fourth of July.

We walked around the Audubon Community Nature Center in Jamestown, NY and saw lots of birds and chipmunks.

\

I taught Luca awhile back to show us his “bebo” or belly button and never tire of asking.

We also got ice cream at Bemus Point, had dinner at a place in Sherman called Pine Junction, lunch at Stedman Corners Cafe, and coffee and lunch at Crown Street Roasting Company. And we ate some delicious meals at “home” as well.

Leslie went above and beyond with this meal!

It was a week long trip, which was pretty long, but it was nice to spend time with the kids and just hang out and relax. There are always more things to do next time!

We stopped at Taco Johns on our way home!

Anyway, then we got back home to this…

What else have I been up to? We had our annual fireworks barbecue, which is a cookout we have the night of the Sublette Park/Hill fireworks. We weren’t sure if it was happening due to COVID, but it did, and it was small but fun. We’ve been eating out a bit more than before, though trying to keep cooking, so usually just once or twice a week. I’ve been keeping up on the garden and just pickled a whole bunch of green beans today, three jars from the garden! (I make dilly beans, which might be my favorite sort of pickle.)

I played an outdoor concert with Metropolitan Orchestra of St Louis, which was held in a parking lot…have I played a concert in a parking lot before? I want to say, yes, actually. I played a concert with my band as well, in a front yard as part of the Kingsbury Ensemble’s A Little Lawn Music.

That made for a busy weekend, so I was happy to have this weekend entirely off. I don’t have the energy I used to have…or the desire to run around as much. I have been trying to be mindful of that when accepting jobs for the fall, how much I teach now in addition to how much I do actually really enjoy having some downtime. I’m behind on gardening tasks anyway!

I’ve been doing a lot of reading of course, and thought I’d share some of what I’ve been reading lately for you to consider:

Books I really enjoyed: Caul Baby by Morgan Jerkins, Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner, American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins,, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian, These Tangled Vines by Julianne Maclean, Anxious People by Frederick Bachman, 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand, Nomadland by Jessica Bruder

Books I liked well enough: Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline, The Elephant of Belfast by S. Kirk Walsh, The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian, The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas, Milk Fed by Melissa Broder, We Love You Charlie Freeman by Kaitlyn Greenidge

Cozy Mysteries I enjoyed: The Bennett Sisters Series by Lise McClendon

Nonfiction I found interesting: The Body, A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson, How to be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman

I know I didn’t give you any information about the books, but you can read a bit of them online 🙂

Anyway, we have some interesting plans coming up: biking tomorrow on the Katy Trail (at least that’s the plan), a camping trip to Hawn State Park, various family members visiting. We also bought tickets for Jazz and for the Symphony for the fall so that’s going to be different than this year! Work wise things are still pretty busy these next two weeks because I’m doing another online seminar (I am obsessed with learning right now) and teaching as well. I am taking a whole week off in August though, just to relax, and we are getting away for one more weekend before school starts up again. I don’t want to think about summer ending, but I know that life moves on…and I do love fall weather. I am hoping to get a better life-work balance going forward, though I know that is unlikely to happen while I have my early morning school job.

What have you been up to? Read any interesting books to share? Done any interesting things that you recommend to others?

Books, Travel

Mallorca and Harry Potter

1 Comment

Does your brain ever make really random connection in your head?  Often I’ll hear or read something that will make a connection to something else I read in a book or perhaps, happened in real life, and then (here’s where the mistake comes in) try to explain it to somebody else.  You’ll get blank stares and possibly start worrying they are sending the men in little white coats for you.

Many of my connections like this come from books I’ve read many times.  I saw something on television the other day about Mallorca, for instance, and I immediately thought of Harry Potter AND other random British Chick-Lit books I’ve read.  This set off a bit of internet searching, as I realized I knew very little about Mallorca. 

Okay, first off, to explain the Harry Potter reference: if you are a bit of a Harry Potter nerd, you might already know, but there are two references to Mallorca (or Majorca) in the books (I cite the Harry Potter wiki here, but I already knew that.)  Evidently Mallorca is a “popular tourist destination for Europeans.” Unfortunately the Dursleys never made it to Mallorca but I’d like to think that Harry and his family might go for relaxing Mallorca holidays after ridding the world of Voldemort, don’t you think?  Then again, knowing that the Dursleys wanted to go there…hmm…it’s a tough call.  I suppose things ended on decent terms with Dudley, didn’t they.  Maybe they’d all meet up every couple of years and split a villa?

File:Spain mallorca cala agulla a.jpg

I’m over thinking this, don’t you?  But I think I’m obsessing over tropical or beach vacations since the weather here has finally gotten cold…it’s not like I’m in bikini shape right now (this is a lie, the advantage of a bikini is you have extra room around the middle so your stomach size doesn’t matter) but I can certainly imagine lying in the sun, listening to the ocean waves and perhaps drinking a pina colada.  Then again, when CAN’T I imagine that?

The thing is, who but the very wealthy would ever go to Europe from the US to go for a beach vacation?  We have the Caribbean much closer. 

st martin

If we are going to fly to Europe we’re going to (generally) do something much more standard—visit a great city with lots of culture and museums.  Not lie on the beach or go cycling (apparently another big thing to do in Mallorca).  I know that people DO these things from the US, but I guess I can’t imagine myself ever doing it.  This makes a place like this even more exotic (and speaking of random connections, it makes me think of that Matt Damon movie, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and the beach scenes there…European beaches just seem so far away and so…FOREIGN to me.  In a good way!)

What about you?  Ever been to Mallorca or another European beach destination? Is your brain full of totally random connections where one word sets off a whole bunch of random thoughts and ideas cobbled together from books, movies, conversations, and research?

Books

Genius Violin Teachers

1 Comment

I noticed today that somebody found my blog by searching for "genius violin teachers st louis."  I can say they definitely found what they were looking for!

I’ve also noticed that since I announced my 30 days of thanksgiving that lots of other bloggers have copied my idea and claimed it for their own.  I’m pretty sure that firstly, they didn’t copy me.  I’m also pretty sure that they didn’t come up with the idea on their own.  Using the month of November to think of things you are thankful for is a pretty old yet classic idea.  So let’s just stop pretending you thought of it…or at least give me credit for posting about it three days before anybody else?  Seriously though I got the idea the other year from a facebook friend who posted something in her status update every day for the month of November.  I thought it would make me feel more satisfied and happy with my life, and honestly it helps.  Though the formula, something every day, can get a little contrived. 

I finished Sarah’s Key last night.  Wow.  I can’t stop thinking about it.  I ask myself, if something like that were happening in my country, in my city, in my neighborhood, would I be brave enough to help people?  Or if it happened to me, would I be as brave as Sarah?  And then I ask myself, how, how, HOW could something like that ever happen?  People can be so awful. 

I also read The Marriage Plot recently.  I really enjoyed it, until the end.  I loved Middlesex (also by Jeffrey Eugenides) and though of course The Marriage Plot was very different, it had that same sort of really detailed writing that I love. 

I’m thankful for books.  All kinds of books, that entertain, inspire, and make us think about something bigger than ourselves.