Weekend wrapup

Lichens

We went north for a short visit after I closed the shop on Saturday. Here are my usual photos of nature and stuff.

Chippy on a rock

Lichens

Trees just starting to turn colors

Dave and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary quietly, just sitting on the porch, watching Sunday float by.

Me and my shadow

We motored to the cabin in my new-to-me set of wheels. Getting a new car meant cleaning all the junk out of my 16 year old car.....I am such a pack rat, in the trunk of the old car I found some cotton yarn that I had forgotten. This weekend I turned it into a bag. Lots of different crochet stitches.

Here is the bag in progress. The bag is draped over a cool, vintage case that I got at a garage sale for a dollar.  Interested only in the case, I was surprised to find that it contained an old clarinet!..Anyone know something about clarinets? Should I keep it or toss it?

Here is the finished bag at home

Surprise! I lined it!

Linings are not my thing.

This has been a rambling post, but that was the way the weekend turned out....Rambling and disjointed,but very relaxing.

Driftless

The term "driftless" indicates a lack of glacial drift, the material left behind by retreating continental glaciers.


The Driftless Area or Paleozoic Plateau is a region in the American Midwest noted mainly for its deeply carved river valleys.

Viroqua, Wisconsin and the surrounding countryside is part of the greater "driftless area".  While In Viroqua last weekend, I bought a book here, Bramble Bookstore. Actually, I purchased several books.  At the top of the pile is Driftless, by David Rhodes, set in the driftless area of Wisconsin.

I did not simply read this book.  The book sucked me into a world so familiar yet new and exciting, I could not stop reading.   Driftless is, by far, the best book I have read in a very long time, and I read alot of books.
A synopsis from goodreads.com :

The few hundred souls who inhabit Words, Wisconsin, are an extraordinary cast of characters. The middle-aged couple who zealously guards their farm from a scheming milk cooperative. The lifelong invalid, crippled by conflicting emotions about her sister. A cantankerous retiree, haunted by childhood memories after discovering a cougar in his haymow. The former drifter who forever alters the ties that bind a community. In his first novel in 30 years, David Rhodes offers a vivid and unforgettable look at life in small-town America

These characters are people I know, with stories I know.  Stories I have lived, yet not so pedestrian to be predictable.  The author is masterful at surprise.  There are a few places in the book that I gasped audibly at the next lines, the turn of events.....
If that isn't enough, this book is funny.  And presents an opportunity to look at life's big questions.

Get this book. Read it. Let me know what you think.

Lynda-----in my opinion Driftless is head and shoulders above  The Tale of Edgar Sawtelle......