A Week at Home (for Once)...with Snakes

No traveling this week...for once...

Instead, I spent a lot of time swimming with friends at the pool, painting in preparation for new floors, sharing reptiles with children at the public library, and getting ready for the start of Paris in July. A good week.

My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir

Falling Up: Poems and Drawings by Shel Silverstein

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger 

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Nana by Émile Zola

Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux

An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris by Georges Perec

The Martins by David Foenkinos, translated by Sam Taylor

Human Nature by Serge Joncour, translated by Louise Rogers Lalaurie

The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles

Lost and Found in Paris by Lian Dolan

Simple French Food by Richard Olney

Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:

Paris in July 2022: In Which I Plan Out My Month

The Sunday Salon: Back from Montana with Four Books Read, a Few Sapphires Found, and Fifteen Pounds of Dinosaur Bones

Dinosaur Fossil Hunting in the Badlands of Montana

It's mid-year. 

How am I doing on my 2022 yearlong challenges?

I'm ahead on the Nonfiction Reader Challenge.

I'm right where I should be on the Chapter-a-Day Challenge.

I'm a little behind in the Back to the Classics Challenge.

Summer is 1/3 over.

How am I doing on my summer 2022 challenges?

I'm ahead on the 20 Books of Summer.

I'm a little ahead on the Big Books of Summer.

Paris in July starts now! I am co-hosting Paris in July this year with the wonderful Tamara from Thyme for Tea.

The aim of the month is to celebrate our French experiences through reading, watching, listening, observing, cooking and eating all things French!

There are no rules or targets in terms of how much you need to do or complete in order to be a part of this experience – just blog about anything French and you can join in! Some ideas might include;

• reading a French-themed book – fiction or nonfiction,
  
• watching a French movie,
  
• listening to French music,
  
• cooking French food,
  
• experiencing French, art, architecture, and travel
• tasting French wine, or testing French cocktails
• celebrating le quatorze juillet or Bastille Day

Whatever it is that you love about France---share it with us all! And pass the word...

Tamara's signup post is here.

Paris in July 2022 Participant List

A Bookish Way of Life

Bellezza

Books as Food

The Boston Bibliophile

Brona's Books

The Content Reader

Fanda Classic Lit

The Intrepid Reader

Let's Read

Mae's Food Blog

The Marmelade Gypsy

NancyElin

Readerbuzz

The Reading Life

Stacy's Books

Thyme for Tea

Words and Peace

Good Thing #1

Some of us from our naturalist group 

shared reptiles with children at the library this week.

Good Thing #2

We saw over 200 kids and their parents.

Good Thing #3

So much fun!

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

Outdoor Adventures: Birds, Snakes, and Alligators, Plus a Little Reading

 

The weather here was sunny and cool, and I enjoyed a lot of reading and adventuring outside.

I finished six books. I 💗Parnassus on Wheels, and if you like books and strong women, I think you will, too. Should I read the sequel? 

I also 💗Latinitas, and I urge you to seek this one out, too. 

My friend Rae shared Searching for God Knows What, and we both agree you may like it if you like Anne Lamott. In Bird Therapy, Joe Harkness tells the story of how birding became a balm for his depression. Float Plan is exactly what the cover would lead you to believe. And I'd say skip Discworld Graphic Novels and read the books themselves.

The Poetry of Strangers: What I Learned Traveling America With a Typewriter (National Poetry Month)

Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley (Classics Club)

The Discworld Graphic Novels by Terry Pratchett (Graphic Novel)

Float Plan by Trish Doller (Fiction)

Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller (Spirituality)

Latinitas: Celebrating 40 Big Dreamers by Juliet Menendez (Children's Nonfiction)

Bird Therapy by Joe Harkness (Birding; Happiness)

The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman (Nonfiction Challenge)...37%

Yes, and...Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr (Daily Meditation Reading)...73%

100 Poems to Break Your Heart (National Poetry Month)...Waiting on the return of this book from the library

Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz (Chapter-a-Day Read)...28%

Favorite Folktales from Around the World collected by Jane Yolen (Classics Club Spin)...17%

How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope (National Poetry Month)...25%

Aaron Yang: Voracious Reader or Giant Pain to Librarians? There are more than 9,000 public libraries in the US, and Aaron Yang is trying to win as many prizes as he can in their summer reading programs. Right or wrong?

Why I love BookCrossing: I leave a book at the Strand in Galveston in 2009, and twelve years later, someone in Pennsylvania finds it and reads it. It's lovely to contemplate.

We spent all four days of the City Nature Challenge taking photos of animals and plants and uploading them into iNaturalist. The first day we looked in our own backyard as it was raining, and day two we spent at a city park. The third day we ventured down to a nearby county park, and we spent the last day at the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge. Fabuloso.

Good Thing #1

I ended up finding almost 100 different species of animals and plants, including this fellow here.

Good Thing #2

I took photos of several new-to-me birds and butterflies and flowers, including this Snowy Egret and this Plegadis Ibis.

Good Thing #3

We see a Watch for Snakes sign at Camp Mohawk and what do we see next to it? A snake! 

I'm happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below.

Cape May Warbler and Other Birds We Have Seen This Year

April 22 is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. In honor of Earth Day I am sharing photos  of birds I've taken in the past year.

Carolina chickadee at my feeder.

Cardinal (female) at the birdbath.

Cardinal (male) in the pecan tree.

House wren at my feeder.

Willet at the beach at Freeport, Texas last fall.

Common terns at the beach in Freeport, Texas last fall.

Very fat pigeon in Paris in January

Cape May Warbler, at Spring Fling 

at Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, Quintana Beach, Texas

(Of course Spring Fling is cancelled this year, but you can still visit GCBO 

and look for migrant birds stopping at Quintana to refuel 

after a long flight over the Gulf of Mexico.)

Do you have these birds in your part of the world?

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by A Web of Stories. To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at A Web of Stories.