"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Recently, I took a break from my "body of work" reading of the novels of Alan Furst. I came upon the ...Potato Peel Pie novel in my favorite paperback exchange just after seeing a trailer of the Netflix film. I'm intrigued by the Channel Islands. I was already aware of the WW 2 German Occupation of the islands. It called to me.

Basically enjoyed the book: it introduces several vintage classic writers to modern young readers in a context they may appreciate; heartfully discussed the Occupation which lasted 5 years and involved suffering to the people of the islands.

The novel reminded me of the works of Rosamunde Pilcher in the subject; "The Shell Seekers", for example.

The novel is written in the form of letters between and among the various characters in the post-war year of 1946. This can be an interesting format: a good way to present this novel, since there are several plots threading through the story, and lots of characters.

The idea for the book was conceived by Mary Ann Shaffer, who started the book. When her health failed, the completion of the story was done by her much younger niece, Annie Barrows.

Any criticism I may have of the book are because I think this is a "younger" persons' story; probably a younger woman's book. For me, the novel did not successfully capture the zeitgeist of the late-and immediate post WW 2 period. I was always aware of reading words on the page, not seeing the visions of the story appearing in my mind.

I promptly went to You Tube and searched for videos about the Channel Islands and they are very lovely.

Stepping out of character

Monday in Montreal I walked all morning in drizzling rain ( on and off) till tired and hungry I found:

this place

and had lunch at the bar and talked to some local people.

Probably I will never visit here again, but it was fun. Different for me.

My Mother's 99th Birth Anniversary

Not well presented, but I plan to edit this later.

From my Grandmother's 100+ year old photo album, (at Aunt Betty's). Grandma arranged to show her new baby daughter (the top two photos): left, with her little sister Carolyn, herself and Baby Viv.

Right, Baby Vivian at about 1 year.

Below, a baby photo of Grandma (1897 or early 1898) to contrast.

Happy Birth Anniversary to Mom--sadly gone nearly 20 years now. Gone too soon.

Various favorite works from our visit to the Carnegie Mellon Museum or Art in Pittsburgh

Miscellaneous

Anomalies at the Autumn bird feeder:

A cute pair of Wood Thrushes have hopped around beneath the feeder for nearly two weeks. At some point they will surely continue their migration, but for now they appear to have amble food and warmth here.  Smile.

A few days ago, two very young baby Cardinals appeared. Maybe the late season young of some of our local residents. So young there was no hint of a crest, coloring, etc. At first, they merely sat on our crab apple tree, trying to eat LEAFS. We quickly refilled the sunflower seed feeder! After other birds--parents, maybe--showed example feeding behavior, the little pair learned.    Big Smiles.

Hummingbirds continue to drift through, stopping to feed at the Zinnias and Cannas. I don't trust myself to have hummingbird nectar feeders: I could see me forgetting to re-fill it, doing it improperly, killing masses of humming birds!  Frown.  So I rely on my nectar flowers.

Miscellaneous books:

Rosamunde Pilcher's "The Empty House".  August Reading.  Vintage Pilcher, published in 1973.

Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods". Once upon a time, I thought I wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail; I was about 20 then. The book is entertaining, for sure; funny. Does have some good tips for long hikes.  I read "At Home", it was a better quality read. I sense a "pot boiler" in "..Walk..". On our recent trip, we strolled a fraction of a mile of the AT at a Pennsylvania State Park near Gettysburg.

"A Perfect Spy" by John LeCarre. This is LeCarre run wild. Amazing analysis of the personality (disorders) of a high-functioning espionage agent and his ultimate ruin. I plan to read all of LeCarre's novels, if possible.

Sojourn in the East: Pittsburgh Deserved Better than This--too much rain!

The city's art museum shares facilities with the natural history museum--convenient shared entry price.  We enjoyed our day at these museums very much; then found a cute campus bar and restaurant, the Union Grill I believe, close by for a gooey dinner and shared bottle of wine. Then a nice long walk back to our Air B&B on Squirrel Hill! Cooler in the evening, a perfect day for me.

Due to weather related back wash from Hurricane Gordon, our second and third days in Pittsburgh were wet. On day 2, we walked in moderate rain to cover the downtown tourist areas, took the Incline up to the Grandview area.

Geographically stunning, with the formation of the Ohio River before us.

Then rode a second Incline down to river level. The Incline is a 19th Century-flavored experience. Or European.  One funny scene: as some passengers got off at the top, a tiny little girl about 5 exclaimed to her Dad "This is NOT Safe!"

Day 3 was a total wash-out. We went to Pamela's on Squirrel Hill for amazing breakfast, but it was soooooo wet with chilling rain. We spent the rest of the day in bed with our books. We never do that, so I guess it was OK for once.

Air B & B -- My new Enthusiasm!

Somewhere in the Eastern US

So far, our recreational travels took us exclusively in the US: National Parks, biking, camping, touring, visiting family, etc.

We camp sometimes, if weather, convenience and the activity suit. Or we stay in motels. Neither Hubsy nor I have any desire to tangle with RV's or trailer type camp-mobiles; one of the few things we completely agree about (along with not smoking). The price of on RV covers tons of motels, hotels and resorts, in my opinion.

Motels can be Heaven or Hell, like anything on the road. On the recent trip, we had two very nice ones and one Horror. And--gee, after all these years, motels are boring!

On a trip last May, we used a very economical Air B & B in NC-- we dipped our toes in the experience.  It worked very well, was novel and fun.

So this trip, we reserved rooms in both PA and NJ. Both were fun, safe and unique experiences.
We enjoyed vintage homes, nicely appointed and decorated by caring hosts. We met and enjoyed interacting with well-behaved pets. We met fellow-travelers from the US and India at one place.
The company (Air B&B) seems very good about vetting host and guests; the vigorous ratings of both parties seem to keep everyone on their best behavior--everyone wants a superior rating.

My goal was to select homes in neighborhoods similar to our own; the home above closely resembles our next door neighbors! We would rather go out for our own meals (breakfast), so I did not try to find that service. As a "senior citizen", I watch out for little irregular features, steps, minor hazards. (I can trip over my shadow). I'm pretty social, so can tend to get drawn into the hosts' worlds--that could be good or bad, I guess.