NUMBERS OF THE WEEK
I didn’t keep track of my numbers this week either. That’s because I was both busy and lazy. I’m trying to take advantage of the dwindling summer days. Eventually I will get back on track
HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
BBQ with my Nanny (and Mom and Sissy)
A fond summer memory for me was having picnics at Grave’s Island with Nanny and Grampy Kelly. All the cousins would be there and we would play Queenie and eat picnic favorites like potato salad and fresh corn on the cob boiled in the aluminum pot on the green Coleman stove. The waterproof table cloths draped the picnic tables, held in place with clamps designed specifically for that purpose.
My Nanny is 96 now and even though she is slowing down, her vibrant nature and fighting spirit shines through. She may not have gotten to Grave’s Island or Bayswater Beach this year, but she did come to Novalea Drive and we had our own little picnic-complete with Potato Salad and Corn on the Cob.
BOOK OF THE WEEK
The Dead Alive by Wilkie Collins
Anyone who knows me knows I like a good whodunnit’, unsolved mysteries and true crime. I never miss an episode of Dateline and one of my Podcasts is My Favorite Murder.
Even as a kid, I voraciously read Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys and Trixie Belden. Every Sunday night Angela Lansbury demonstrated her unique and intuitive investigative skills in Murder She Wrote. But before Jack the Ripper and Jeckyl & Hyde there was Wilkie Collins, a prolific writer of novels, short stories and plays that were the first to detail police procedure. I have The Woman in White and The Moonstone on my To Be Read (TBR) list, but they are long, so I started with The Dead Alive: a short novella based on a true story that takes place in New England, narrated by a English Litigator, visiting an American relative who’s sons have been charged with murder. I’m hoping this is Amuse Bouche for his bigger works.