I haven't posted in a few days but that's because we are enjoying our last few days in Maine before we head home Friday. We've had one friend visiting with us for a few days and some other friends just arrived in town so we are having a great time catching up with everyone. I'll be back Monday with my August summary and catch up post before I get back on schedule next week.

I've done lots of reading this month and several of the books have been read with my eyes! I have one audiobook and one hardback book almost done. Both should be done by tomorrow but I'll use those to start off the September list.

It was a very good book month. I don't think I hated any book and many of them were very good. I only had one DNF:
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, I just could not get into it

What was your favorite book in August?​

Tinseltown
By William J. Mann, Read By Christopher Lane

We know that Hollywood is full of corruption and depravity. Through this book we know it's always been that way.

This is the story of the unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor, head of the Motion Picture Association, in the 1920's. Mann explores everything that was going on in Hollywood at that time and profiles all of the key players in the industry and the many possible suspects for the crime.

​If you like true crime I think you will like this. If you like Hollywood history you will also like this. It's quite detailed and very well researched. 

The Crow Trap
By Ann Cleeves, Read By Anne Dover

I'm a fan of Cleeves' Shetland series (book and TV) so I was excited to find that there was another series that I could start. It's not a new series, just new to me.

Three women, all with some sort of baggage, are teamed up to perform and environmental assessment for a proposed mine. One of the team members soon finds her friend, Bella, has committed suicide. Shortly thereafter, one of the team members is murdered. Detective Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate.

Cleeves' books are so unique in the mystery genre. She keeps her "world" small and the stories focus on the local people, not politics or big issues. Everything is personal. I'm looking forward to diving into book 2. There are 9 books in the series so far.

​A History of the World in 6 Glasses
By Tom Standage, Read By Sean Runnette
 
We picked this book to listen to on our drive to Maine and it was a good choice. We both like history but you don’t want to be listening to dry history while driving. The premise of the book is that 6 drinks played pivotal roles on the history of civilization: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and cola. The story starts about 3000 BCE with the first recorded making of beer. I expect that this book came out of some sort of college course where a professor was trying his best to make history interesting. This was a good way to do it. I expect that it’s a weak book to the serious historian but for the rest of us it’s a lot of fun and very interesting. 

The Girl With the Louding Voice
By Abi Dare’ Read By Adjoa Andoh
 
Adunni is a poor young girl in Nigeria who loves school but after her mother dies the family falls on even more financial hardship. To financially recover, her father sells her to a local chieftan at the age of 14 to be his new wife. Adunni never gives up her desire to have a “louding voice” (be independent). The book is about her struggles to survive in unimaginable circumstances. Honestly, it’s a brutal read but Adunni’s spirit and hope keeps you interested and always rooting for her.

1. Bad Science

By Gary Taubes, read in hardback
 
I picked up this book for 2 reasons. First, I heard a podcast where Taubes was interviewed about another book, Good Calories, Bad Calories and during the interview he mentioned this book about Cold Fusion. He was an interesting interview so I wanted to get his books. (I also picked up Good Calories, Bad Calories and I'm almost done with it.) My second reason for getting this book, published in 1993, was that I vividly remember reading all the hoopla about Cold Fusion in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. I had just started reading the Wall Street Journal regularly and they covered this "miraculous" discovery heavily.  Coverage disappeared a few months later and I’ve always wondered what happened with that supposed miracle of free energy. What happened was that it was a fraud.
This is not the best written book I’ve ever read but it sure gives you are vivid picture into the politics and money focus of science. I’ve read enough of the detail studies on various modern science topics to view everything I read in the media regarding scientific research with a giant dose of skepticism. This book shows how science sausage is made and it’s not pretty. 

An American Marriage
By Tayari Jones, Narrated by Sean Crisden and Eisa Davis
 
Celeste and Roy are young newlyweds living the American Dream in Atlanta when Roy is wrongly accused and sentenced for rape. As his time behind bars extends longer than their marriage, the relationship is strained. The telling of the story starts and ends with the recitation of letters and everything in between comes across as diary entries with each character telling a chapter. I think the premise is very interesting. What happens to a couple or family when one of the members is in jail, falsely accused? This story is told through a black family but I felt that race was a non-factor to the telling. From that perspective I felt that the book was really successful. It can speak to any audience. But, that said, it did fall a little flat for me and I did not like the Celeste character. I felt that for someone who constantly professed herself to be a strong and independent woman, she had a very weak backbone and much of the trouble was actually caused by her own lack of action. The flatness I attribute to the structure being told through letters and monologues from individual characters. In the end, it had a ton of potential, is worth a read for something different but it misses some punch.

The Dance of Life – The New Science of How a Single Cell Becomes a Human Being
By Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz and Roger Highfield, read in hardback, I don't recommend audio for this one
 
This book is part autobiography and part science book. Dr. Zernicka-Goetz is super smart and is a developmental biologist studying embryo development. This book is her personal story as well as a lot of detail about the advances that have been made (by her and others) in embryonic research. Part of it creeps me out about what we might be able to do soon but part of it gives me some comfort that we aren’t as far along as people might think. I do think that we are headed for some serious contemplations about defining the beginning of life and that will have ethical consequences for research and women’s rights vs the rights of the unborn.  This book gave me lots of food for thought.
 
The personal stuff was OK but I don’t think knowing anything about her marriages really added anything to the book. While reading the book I noted the high percentage of women that she has hired in her labs. At the end of the book, she had a chapter on diversity and inclusion in science and I got the impression that she purposely favors female applicants to her labs. I don’t have an opinion about that, I just thought it was interesting. I also thought that the last chapter seemed a little forced as though an editor suggested that she add it to make the unavoidable ethical discussions about embryonic development more palatable. That may be totally unfair, it's jut my take on it. That last chapter seemed to be an unnecessary addition.
 
If you like science books you will like this one and you will appreciate reading about research done right. 

The Rose Code
By Kate Quinn, Read By Saskia Maarleveld
 
This is my third Quinn book. She weaves great stories about the hidden female heroes of WWII. This one tells the story of the women code breakers of Bletchley Park. Our heroines are Osla, a Canadian debutante who is dating Prince Philip; Mab, a self-made girl from the poverty of East London; and Beth, a local spinster with an overbearing mother who is brilliant at solving crossword puzzles. Beth becomes one of the few female cryptanalysts, Osla is a German translator, and Mab works on the codebreaking machines. We also meet Alan Turing and other legends of Bletchley Park.
 
Three years after the war, and no longer friends, Beth contacts them through code to ask for their help. The story switches back and forth in time smoothly. It was a fun read with a great ending. 

The Power Couple
By Alex Berenson, Read By Steven Weber and Marin Ireland
 
Alex Berenson is the author of the John Wells spy series that I like. This book isn’t John Wells.
Rebecca and Brian Unsworth have great jobs with the government. She’s with the FBI and he’s with NSA. They’ve been married 20 years and have had their problems but everything seems good now and they are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary with their two children on a trip to Europe. One night in Barcelona, their daughter, Kira, doesn’t return home. Over the weekend they try everything to find their daughter but discover that she's been kidnapped. They are trying to figure out why and where she is and, meanwhile, Kira tries everything to get away from her captors.
 
As I was reading the first half of the book I was focused on the kidnapping and was a little off balance with the telling of so much of Rebecca and Brian’s backstory. Then I realized what the story was really about and the second half really took off. It’s a different kind of book and I enjoyed it. 

Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea
By Gary Kinder, hardback
 
I think I discovered this book when I was reading a fiction novel that contained a storyline about the sinking of the SS Central America in 1857. Chris and I were living in Norfolk in the late 1980’s when a deep ocean explorer found the wreck and recovered millions in gold. I remember the news stories but wasn't all that interested. I found out about this book and decided to read about the effort to find the ship.
 
This is one of the most interesting books that I’ve read in a long time. I was completely riveted. It reads almost like a novel and tells the whole story about Tommy Thompson, his life, his genius, his fortitude and his total dedication to finding the SS Central America. The book is thoroughly researched and also tells the complete story of that last voyage. I remember reading the news accounts when the treasure was brought into Norfolk but I had no idea of the years of work, courage and ingenuity that went into the effort.
 
This book was published in 1998 so if you want a copy you will need to find it on the used market. By the way, Tommy Thompson is now in jail for contempt of court for not following through on an agreement to produce 500 gold coins from the ship. He claims that he doesn’t know where they are. The whole story is good for some research time on the internet, especially to see the underwater photos of the wreck.

The Summer Without You
By Karen Swan, Read By Katie Scarfe

Rowena Tipton has a great life in London with her boyfriend of 13 years. She expects that they will get engaged soon when he suddenly announces that he's going on a 6 month tour of Cambodia and expects the time away to make their love even stronger. (No modern woman would buy this drivel, IMHO)

It just so happens that Rowena has dual citizenship in the US and is invited to a wedding in NYC. That wedding leads to an invitation to spend the summer in The Hamptons on Long Island. (Yeah, that happens to someone every day!) She takes up the offer and is off on a summer of self discovery and sets up her "Family Media" business to cover her rent.

It was a fine summer read but Rowena is so annoyingly naïve and socially blind that you want to slap her periodically. For the first several weeks she only wears her boyfriend's clothing. In the Hamptons? Are you kidding me? Can you tell that this book annoyed me a little. It seems a perfect foundation for a Hallmark channel movie.

Vita Brevis
By Ruth Downie, Read By Simon Vance

This is book 7 in the Roman Empire series. The Medicus, Russo, and his wife, Tilla have been offered a medical position in Rome. It seems grand until he discovered that his predecessor, Doctor Kleitos, left town quickly and with everything and someone has left a dead body in a barrel outside his office.

He's also besieged by Kleitos' debt collectors and the sudden death of the local land owner (his sponsor). He and Tilla need to solve these mysteries before they also become victims.

I really enjoy this series set in Roman times. They can be read separately but I think they are best read in order.

The past couple of days the weather has been spectacular. I'm writing this post Thursday afternoon. Yesterday I kayaked while Chris went on a guided fishing trip and then our from from Boston arrived to hand out with us the rest of out stay. Today we took a hike on Beech Mountain as a warm up to an 8 mile hike up Cadillac Mountain (1500 feet) tomorrow. Beech Mountain is on the lake where we stay and the house we rent is right at the point of the yellow arrow.

You've got to love a park where they can create sections of trails with granite steps! There's lots and lots of granite around here.

This is just a photo that I took while I was out kayaking Wednesday. 
​I doubt if I'll post tomorrow. Our hike will likely take 5 -6 hours and I expect a long nap when we return.

I haven't gotten a lot done on the sewing front because we've been busy visiting and catching up. Next week we'll get to meet up with some other friends who will also be in the area. We haven't seen them in 3 years so I'm really looking forward to seeing them again.  I do have 2 more sets of blocks done and have started a third.

On the crochet front, I've finished off 1 skein of yarn for my baby blanket (no photo). Yesterday I snuck out for a couple of hours to shop in Southwest Harbor. There's a nice quilt/yarn shop there. I picked up 2 skeins of yarn to swatch up to see if I'd like them for a pocket shawl that I want tp make.

The Remix is nice but not particularly snuggly enough for a pocket scarf. I could see this for a very loose crochet summer cardigan or shawl or maybe tightly stitched for a tote.

I absolutely loved stitching the Cumulus yarn and loved the way it looks but I was concerned about this one pilling. A scarf gets a lot of wear and friction so I rubbed this swatch a bit and found my concerns validated. I'm glad I only bought one skein of each of these. I'm not sure what I might make with either of these but I certainly won't be buying more.

There are a few more quilt and yarn shops around here that I'll probably check out Tuesday when Chris and Dave are away on another fishing trip. 
If I don't die on the hike tomorrow! We did the steeper version of this hike last year for as my birthday goal so I expect we will be fine as long as we pace ourselves and take plenty of water. I know for sure that I'll hold the boys back and I'm fine with that.

This was yesterday (Monday) so that means it was sewing and crochet day. We squeezed in a 4 mile walk in the neighborhood between showers but that was the extend of our outdoor activities.

This is today! Today was hiking and floating in the lake day. This morning we headed out early for a 6 mile hike on a path called Aunt Betty Pond and the return path would be by Eagle Lake for a total of 6 miles. A good challenge but not a killer. We got about 2/3 way through the hike and found out the the return path was closed so we had to return the way we came for a total of 8.2 miles! That was a little more than we planned but it was doable. When we came back we got the floats out and tied up to the dock and floated in the lake for about an hour. It's possible that I napped a little. When we went out the lake was flat as glass and the wind only came in after we got out of the lake.

The coolest thing happened when we got out. A family of black ducks came around the dock and it was clear that they were expecting some food. I stuck my left hand in the water and all 3 of the ducklings (almost adult) came up for a nibble on my wedding band. That has happened to me once before when I was floating in the lake so it wasn't totally unexpected. I don't know why they are attracted to the gold band but it was really cool to be so close to them. Sadly, I disappointed them.

On the sewing front, I finished the 4th veteran's quilt top. I like this one a lot.

Then I geeked out when I reached the end of this 500 meter (547 yard) spool of thread. It was brand new when I arrived in Maine!

Next I'm going to work on a couple of blocks before I pull out another veterans quilt kit. I pulled out one block set yesterday and got it about 1/4 put together when I realized that I didn't cut out the right number of pieces. No surprise there.....

The crochet blanket is making big progress. This pattern is really easy and fast. I've made a couple of errors but they were easy to fix in the next row so I didn't have to frog too far. I've been anxious to see how far one ball of yarn would go to see if I'd have enough and now I know that I do. This will be about 39" wide and, based on where I am now, it should be at least 48" long using all 4 balls. That's perfect so I'll keep hooking. I'll crochet until I run out of yarn and that's how big it will be.
The gloves are helping so much. I can crochet for a couple of hours a day. I have overdone it a little today so I'll stop and rest my hands until tomorrow. But I'll say that the Copperfit gloves are still magic for me.

Now, on to a funny story that we still can't figure out. This is the dock that we kayak and float off of. We park the kayaks here on this bridge. When I took this photo Chris was out on the one that I used our first day here. 

These are my headphones that I wear all day every day to listen to books. I remember packing them somewhere when we left Greenville but I didn't remember where I packed them. When we arrived here I could not find them. I went through every bag twice and they were no where.
The first day Chris and I kayaked and I didn't take anything with me. No phone, no towel, no water.....nothing except the life vest. The next day Chris went out to fish and found these tangled in the seat of the kayak that I  used.

​Absolutely no idea. I don't even know how they stayed in the kayak since we store them on their sides. They should have fallen into the water. But I am so glad to have them back.

Yesterday was a rainy day here and we expect more of the same today. I expect we will be able to get out for a walk today but I'm perfectly happy to read and sew all day too.  Today's postcard is actually from last week. 

The day that we went to Moxie Falls near Moscow, Maine we cam upon this scene heading north on 201 toward Jackman and came upon this sight! 

Bird houses of all shapes and sizes on a random retaining wall. It was awesome! 
​I waited to share it until I had internet access and could research it. You can read all about it here. I absolutely love that it isn't' organized in any way and no one is trying to take it down.

According to the article, the smart people put theirs near the top so that they don't get damaged by the snow plows. Isn't that the coolest thing?

Yesterday I was itching to start a new crochet project. I must be a grown up now because I actually swatched it to decide on a hook size. The bottom rows are a K hook and the top rows are done with an L. I decided on the K.

​I'm 8 rows in and have been testing 2 brands of hooks. The lime green is Clover Armour and the ivory one is from Webs. I like both but I give an edge to the Clover. It's a tad less grabby.

Here's how things look this morning on Long Pond. We're expecting overcast, misty and rainy for the next couple of days while Henri does whatever Henri is going to do. We don't expect really bad weather here and after the storm passes the rest of the week is going to be gorgeous. If I have to spend 2 days listening to books and stitching then so be it. I'll get by.

I do have a finish to report! This is my car travel crochet project and it's the 3rd one that I've made in this pattern. It looks like I cast on 115 stitches for this blanket. The original post for this blanket with all the stitch info is here. The yarn is Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn. The body is 3 full skeins of Crushed Raspberry and the border is about half a skein of Hot Rose. The Hobby Lobby Yarn is so soft and just wonderful to work with. I buy it on the alternating weeks when it's 30% off. 
I started this one last October when we went to the Great Smokies for a hiking trip. I only worked on it in the car so I'll need another project for the ride home. I'm thinking that I will do another version of the shawl that I posted last week. The car project has to be easy and that shawl is really easy.

The border of this blanket gave me fits. I started it 3 times and it still ended up wavy. I'll block it at home but it's not horrible and would probably look misshapen after a few months of use anyway. I usually hate pink but I felt that this blanket needed a bold border and I like the look of the dark pink on this one. I do still hate pink though.

Here you can see just how simple this pattern is. It's all double crochet and chain stitches worked in rows of 3. it does make for a good car project but 3 of this pattern might be enough. If I don't do a shawl I might start some granny squares. That would be a great car project because they never get big enough to be unwieldy.  I'll see how my mood is by the end of next week.

For the border I worked one round of double crochet, one round of alternating double crochet and chains and a final row of double crochet. I'm calling it good and done because I'm ready to work on something else. I brought yarn and a pattern for a ripple blanket that will not have a border!

But today, if the weather stays dodgy, Ill be here at my sewing corner. We really miss not having our friends, Ian and Laura, here with us but I won't have to fight Laura for the sewing machine today and tomorrow.

Here's one of the last sunsets from our place in Greenville. It was really beautiful and peaceful there and we hope to go back next year. It's a lot less developed and more remote than Acadia, of course, and that's really appealing. 
Chris had some really good fishing there. One trip was a guided bass fishing trip on a lake and he caught at least 60 fish! He said is was the best day of freshwater fishing in his life. He's ready to go back for sure.

Out last hike was around Big Moose and Little Moose ponds. There weren't any moose but it was a really good hike with lots of varied terrain great views. My one note for next year is to double spray the bug spray. 

Since my last post I switched from my vintage blocks to work on veterans quilt tops. These 2 were cut as a set and I sewed them at the same time. Having pre-cut kits is so nice! I need a cutting genie for all of my sewing projects.

I suppose the Accuquilt is sort of a cutting genie because this one got cut fast using the Accuquilt and it sewed together really fast. I have another set of HST blocks and will work on that next now that my new space is set up.

Before we left Greenville I also finished these 3 hats. I'll sew on the toppers when I get home. They have elastic strings that you are supposed to just feed through and tie off but the heads are too floppy. I think a few stitches will make them better. I hope the boys (Ella's brother and cousins) like them.

I forgot to take a picture of my sewing set up here but I'll get one tomorrow. It's got the best view! All of my projects are on a guest bed that will not be used until our friend gets here later in the week. For now, this is my attempt at organization.

The first crochet thing I'll work on is getting the border on this baby quilt. This is my car crochet project and I finished the body of the blanket on the drive. The border required some trial and error and math so I couldn't do that in the car. I can get this wrapped up by the time Henri has passed through and then I can move on to something else. Of course, there's another project bag just waiting to be opened!

I'll leave you with moon rise over Long Pond last night. We are so lucky to be able to be here.

Yesterday's post was written Sunday and I haven't had a chance to get to the internet spot again until this afternoon (Tuesday). We are still having a wonderful time. I haven't seen any more moose but we have been on a couple of really good hikes.

This is Moxie Falls, a really beautiful little place. Generally I don't take a ton of photos on vacation is this photo is the reason why. It's impossible to show scale. There's no way to really convey the vastness of the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone or the grand scale of the Grand Canyon. Chris and I laughed when we looked at this photo because it looks like a little waterfall. But like everything in nature, it's better in person!

Yesterday we hiked Mount Kineo at the West end of Moosehead Lake. You take a little water shuttle to the island and then hike 900 feet up. This view was near the top. There's no view at the top unless you climb an old fire tower. Chris did and said the view was spectacular but you couldn't pay me to walk up open stairs that sway.

I have been dong some crafty things every day, mostly in the evenings and not as much sewing but the next few days should have more sewing time. On the loom knitting front I finished the scarf and hat that I worked on in the car on the way up. I'm finally learning this gadget and am happier with my results. Both of these were made on KB Looms and theses are my favorite things so far.

The hat was made on the Flexee loom that allows you to decrease the crown instead of gathering it. It takes a little longer but I like it much better.

I've got my next 2 project started. The hat will be like the blue one above except that there's a little purl pattern going through it. The other project will be a scarf. I saw a scarf with rib ends and thought I'd give it a try. This one is flat knit in a pattern of knits and purls. I've got plenty of yarn for it!

Here are all of the hats and scarves I've made so far: 5 hats and 3 scarves. I brought all of them with me to Maine hoping to find a place to donate them. They are much more useful here than in Virginia. I did find a place here in Greenville so these will be donated before we leave town.

Then I finished this shawl. I've been looking for a pattern for a shawl that would be good for donation to senior organizations. The organization I donate through likes horseshoe shaped shawls because they stay on the wearer better. I do not like the pattern that they have and have been looking for another. One of the Youtubers that I follow posted this pattern recently (search for Carrie Penny shawl on YouTube) and I thought it would be perfect. I had a single ball of Mandala yarn to test it out with. This worked up really fast and I love how it looks. This is a short shawl that will just cover the shoulders and that makes it perfect for someone in a wheelchair. The color changes in this particular yarn (I think it's called Chimera) is so pretty. I'll take this one home to donate. I think this basic pattern would be easy to add in patterning for some variety but I do like the speed of straight double crochet. This is TV work so I like for it to be simple.

Next on the crochet front I'm going to get these hats done. I bought the kits months ago but we were heading into summer and I wasn't motivated to make them yet. These should be done pretty quickly.

At my little sewing station I'm working on a pair of veterans quilt tops. These are going together quickly so I may have a photo to share tomorrow or Thursday.

For the rest of this week I may just post photos from my phone. Text in a blog post is a total pain on the phone. I'm not sure how much internet time we will have because we have lots of things we want to do before we leave Moosehead Lake. It's possible that I won't post again until Saturday when we are on Mount Desert Island and have internet at our house there.

We've finished up our first week in Maine, We are both having internet withdrawal so we went to the library yesterday to get our fix and I took the opportunity to schedule out this short post.

The Moosehead Lake region of Maine is absolutely beautiful. Much more rustic than the Acadia area but that also means fewer stores and organized things to do. That's perfectly fine with us. There's great hiking, boating and fishing opportunities. We found a lake for Chris to fish for some small mouth bass and the pond that we are on is perfect for floating and for kayaking.

This is also the best place for a chance to meet a moose! It's the only animal sighting that I had on my animal list. We took a moose safari and got to watch this cow eat for a long time. We were very close so we could hear her blowing bubbles in the water and slurping her feed. What a treat!

We've done some hiking too. There are lots of really good trails around here.

I've set up a little sewing space on one end of the table and I have a great view while I'm sewing.

I started my week by working on some of the blocks I cut for the 8 Flora's Star quilts. I had cut out 14 sets of blocks so far and while sewing these I discovered that I cut half of the blocks 9" and half at 12". Uh oh.
I will not go back and recut anything. I will figure out a layout that can use both and I guess I'll continue cutting blocks half and half as if I planned it that way.

On the crochet front I've been working on this shawl (Carrie Penny shawl on YouTube) using one ball of Mandala yarn. I just wanted to try the pattern and see if it would make a good donation shawl. So far I'm really pleased.

I finished a couple of loom knit items but got to the library and realized that I forgot to photograph them. I expect that you can imagine what a loom knit hat and scarf look like.

​I'll be back in a couple of days with another update.

Margaret Griffiths made this bed size quilt with a variety of Gradients and Stash Packs, confidently pieced with white.

For sharing, Margaret received a 20% coupon for the shop that's good for 3 months! If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery.  The only rule is that projects have to be complete. It doesn't have to be made totally from hand dyed fabric, just include a recognizable amount. ​

I believe that Glenn Pettaway set a record when she had this quilt made within a week of receiving her fabrics. Se used Sunset and Wildfire Shades Packs.

For sharing, Glenn received a 20% coupon for the shop that's good for 3 months! If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery.  The only rule is that projects have to be complete. It doesn't have to be made totally from hand dyed fabric, just include a recognizable amount. ​