What in the world?

Hint: A different angle would make it more obvious.

Monday=Book Review Time--sans Richard Armitage

Up for today: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (Today's review requested by Mary Kay. If you see anything you'd like reviewed in the Books Read in 2010 list, just let me know. I have 4 in the queue right now.)

Why I bought it? I had seen the BBC version with Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe and adored it. If you haven't seen it yet, put it on your netflix queue. You'll thank me later. I got the Norton Critical Edition with all the footnotes and commentaries through Amazon.

Synopsis: Margaret Hale is uprooted from the idyllic life she has lived in the south of England and moves to the fictional town of Milton in the north when her minister father leaves the Church of England. The abrupt descent into relative poverty is very difficult for her as is the change of lifestyle from the agrarian south to the industrial north. She sympathizes with the workers in the cotton mills and their plight. When she meets the owner of one of the mills, Mr. Thornton, they clash over class issues. (This is different than the movie. It is much more subtle.) He falls for her, but she feels he's completely inappropriate for her. There are a lot of political and social issues along the way, but, ultimately, this is a story about love.

What I thought? I loved it. Some of the things that I didn't like in the movie were different in the book. Very nice. I love the Mr. Thornton in the book more than the one in the movie (even though I think Richard Armitage plays him brilliantly). It has a slow start and a quick finish, but despite those drawbacks, I still love it. Gaskell tells a wonderful story full of flawed, yummy characters. Even Charles Dickens liked Gaskell's work. (They were contemporaries.) Since I read it the first time (this was a reread), I've read all of Gaskell's finished novels, and all were enjoyable--some more than others.

My Rating: ***** out of 5

Cleanness Score: 3 out of 10, This is more for themes than anything else. I thought about giving it a 2, but there is some violence and a suicide (off scene) and several natural deaths. It's a book intended for an adult audience, but I wouldn't have a problem with my teens reading it.

Friday's Photolife--Outings

Wednesday's answer and winner: Y'all are so smart. This week Alyssa was the first to get the answer right. It is, indeed, an apple press to make cider. Or in other words a cider press. In today's photolife I've included a view of the whole thing so you can see the process.

On to the Photolife:

Documenting outings is often in the details. Here are a few pictures from a family get together apple picking in Virginia. (There are tons more pictures, but this just gives you an idea.) Autumn is my favorite season. The crisp air. The vibrant colors. The falling leaves.

Apples.

Cider.

Look at the color of that cider--caramel, golden brown with a tinge of red. We strained it then boiled it--and partook. Taste bud heaven.

When we take pictures of outings, it's good to include as many aspects as we can. The cider dripping off the press into the pan, my nephew-in-law climbing a ladder into the trees to knock the apples down,

roasting marshmallows (my daughter and two of my nieces),

another daughter who was obsessed with the tractor we used to haul the apples from the orchard to the fire pit and cider press,

my take-home-cider waiting under my chair for the ride home along with a bag of apples, my daughter's poncho (that I knitted), and my backpack.

The memories are in the details.

Application to writing? One of the things I've been thinking a lot about lately is how putting specific details into writing makes it more vivid and sucks the reader in more and more. The aroma of the cider boiling, the crispy charcoal taste of the burnt marshmallows, the red-orange glow of the apples in the sunset, the sputtering chugs of the tractor, the buzzing whine of the go-cart, the nip in the air of evening setting in, the dirt under my fingernails.

What in the world?

Guess away--three views of the same contraption...

Hint: My fall crush.

Monday=Book Review Time--Taking me back

I interrupt the regular schedule of reviewing your requests for a selection of my own.

Up for today: This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection by Carol Burnett

Why I bought it? I actually didn't buy this one. A friend recommended it highly and lent it to me on CD.

Synopsis: Carol Burnett tells humorous vignettes and memorable moments from her life starting at her childhood and continuing through her rise to fame and beyond.

What I thought? There's a reason I'm breaking my regular schedule for this. I LOVED it. I highly recommend listening to this one. Carol Burnett narrates. She tarzan yells, sings, chuckles, and you chuckle along. It's completely enchanting. It took me back to watching her show as a little kid. If you are a fan of Carol Burnett, you will love this. If you've never heard of her, you will still get a kick out of her stories. Her first experience with a mugger had me dying laughing. There are serious moments, too, and I cried a few times--then again, it's easy to make me cry.

My Rating: ***** out of 5, for the CD at least. I think it would be the same for the book.

My daughter's rating: **** (she said no one takes a kid seriously if they rate something a 5--so take her seriously--she'd never heard of most of the names Carol throws around and still really enjoyed it.)

Cleanness Score: 4 out of 10, There was a little mild swearing, and a couple places where she talks about adult topics but nothing obscene. My 16 year old listened to most of it with me.

Friday's Photolife--Let it be easy

Wednesday's answer and winners: Great job this week. The first to answer correctly was Carolyn V with water lily, but in my head I was thinking lotus because of things like Lotus Rising and Lotusgirl, so, since Yat-Yee was the first to give that answer, she also gets a nod.

On to the Photolife:

Recently I watched the videos that go along with my Aperture program (like Photoshop but for Mac). Now I've been using it for quite a while--trial and erroring my way through tweaking my pictures. While trying to adjust the lighting on the picture below (for a stinking long time) and not getting what I wanted, I finally decided to watch the videos. All of them together took maybe 20 minutes (probably more like 10). And voilà:

the picture the way I wanted it. I learned how to use the presets. I thought I knew how to use them before. I didn't, and I wasted tons of time trying to recreate what I could do with them in seconds. SECONDS! Seriously. Seconds.

By learning the tools I have at my disposal, I made my life a lot easier.

I can just slide my curser down the presets and choose various options.

It even shows me what the picture will look like in a thumbnail image.

Here's a look I wouldn't have thought of for this shot, but I loved it when I saw the thumbnail, so...

Application to writing? 1. Learn the tools of the trade and use them. My writing life has become so much easier since I learned how to use things like "track changes" and "Find..." in Word (one of my tools). AND 2. Listen to those who know what they're talking about and learn from them. I've been reading a book the last few days that has had some excellent advice. I wish I'd read it a year ago. There's some amazing advice online for free. Here's an excellent post from Georgia McBride for newbies.

What in the world?

After the last few hard ones, I thought I'd try something a bit easier. Obviously, it's a flower bud but what kind?

Hint: I have a warm place in my heart for these.