Peter Swanson books

Nicole (Reeding Between the Lines podcast and Sister’s Choice Quilt Blog) mentioned this series. 

I liked them very much! I thought the series was original and well written. 

Various sites use these genres to describe the series: psychology suspense, thriller, mystery, fiction.

Yes, they absolutely need to be read in order. They are captivating. I listened to all three over the course of approximately 5 days. 

I listened to the first two via Libby/library. I purchased the third one (Audible) because there was a very long wait on both Libby and Hoopla.

The characters were easy to distinguish.  Multiple readers voiced the different people. The character changes were well defined, it was very easy to keep track of everything and everyone through all three books. 

I just went with the premise and did not fight it. 

Probably I will read his stand alone books also:

Arthritis creates daily problems

In February/March I had a lot of left knee issues. 

I ended up getting a cortisone shot which helped a lot, because we traveled in April. 

I thought the cortisone calmed down everything and the left knee issues were solved.

In July, the pain came back. Very sad. 

Getting in and out of my car seemed to be one of the biggest issues.

We bought a new/higher vehicle for me. 

It is quite a bit taller than the 2023 Accord, which makes it look big, but it is not.

It is about 10” shorter than the Accord and less than 1” wider.

It has even more safety features. It is much easier to get in and out.

Boxes, again

About 16 months ago I shared a short post on boxes.

https://baby-steps-v.blogspot.com/2023/04/boxes.html

Today is an update. 

The lady who wanted boxes for her Etsy store, disappeared. Clearly she did not want more boxes.

All the recycling drop off stations, where we used to drop our flattened excess cardboard, closed. 

We can still put cardboard in our recycling bin, but that is only picked up every two weeks and has to hold all our other recycling and middle’s recycling too. She does not have curbside.

So I now rely on Facebook Marketplace for my excess cardboard. 

This is good, it is the easiest. I simply put the boxes on my porch. I don’t have to go anywhere. I do not have to break them down. 

People who are moving are extremely happy to get my boxes. They are usually gone within 1-6 hours of my Facebook Marketplace notice.

This is the ultimate recycling. The boxes are used again.

Great Blue Lobelia starting to bloom

 

The annuals in my pots this year - month three

  

Solving an eye sore

We have an old utility box in our backyard. It is very visible. It is very annoying. I tried, two years ago, to get somebody to take care of it. No luck.

The cover falls off regularly, the wires are in terrible shape, it is doubtful it is still hooked up to anything. 

Our woodworking neighbor made a cover for our utility box. 

It sat outside, drying, for several weeks. It is made of treated lumber, which can be very heavy/wet from the chemical treatment. 

My daughter stained it for me. 

My husband made a base with paver stones and paver gravel to keep the box up out of the mud. 

We bought a 20” paver stone (Lowe’s) to serve as the cap.

We utilized a half barrel we already had for the planter. 

I bought a variety of plants, half off at the end of the season, as an experiment to see which liked the location. 

Photos of the finished project are included in tomorrow’s post. 

Black eyed Susan’s

This note is a bit late. The Black Eyed Susans have been in bloom for several weeks. I went back and looked at photos. I think they started popping out mid July.

The photos, below, were taken August 2, 2024.

I have them blooming in two areas. 

The first/main area is in the little bed by the street. 

The second is by the side of the driveway.