I have several wildflower gardens in my yard which I try to make bird friendly by choosing plants that make seeds and nectar that birds prefer.
In spite of planting a variety of flowers that hummingbirds are known to enjoy, I’m not seeing many of them in my yard. So today I added a hummingbird feeder. If the hummingbirds do show up, Weekend Birding readers will be the first to see the pictures!
While I was outside taking photos this morning I could heard the twittering of numerous Goldfinch. They are the birds that are happiest with my flower selection, especially the sunflowers.
Sunflowers are scattered around my yard. Many are volunteers that came up on their own in the spring. If they were in a good spot, I let them grow where they were. This one came up along the fence that I let my cucumber plants climb on.
Mrs. Goldfinch is enjoying some breakfast. These sunflower seeds have barely ripened and she’s already ripping into them.
My wildflower garden in the front yard is filled with several varieties of coreopsis, another plant which makes seeds the goldfinches love. They are sitting in the flowers all day and I’m pretty sure they have a nest in the Maple Tree near the flowers. I’m watching for baby goldfinches.
Another plant finches love is coneflower. The plant below is Tall Yellow Coneflower. It’s a native plant in the Midwest, is drought tolerant and grows in any soil.
In full sun this coneflower grows seven feet tall. The first year I planted it, that was a shock. I assumed it was the four-foot variety I see in the prairies. Nope. I pulled out the little tag that was in the pot it said seven feet. This was one of those plants I picked up at the farmer’s market because the picture on the tag looked pretty. I’ve divided it and moved some to a shady area and it grows only four feet without full sun.
And finally, above is one of my favorites, the Spider Flower. These bloom all summer from July until frost and attract butterflies, bumblebees and even an occasional hummingbird. Best of all, they grow from seed and cost nothing.
These are only a few of the bird friendly flowers I have in garden. Joe Pye Weed, Butterfly Bush, Purple Coneflower, Bee Balm, Blazing Star, Spider Wort, and Viburnum are a few of the others.
Saturday Snapshot was originated by Alyce at At Home With Books. For the summer it will be hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
The Husband’s Secret
by Liane Moriarty
Narrated by Caroline Lee
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Amy Einhorn/Penguin
Publish Date: July 30, 2013
Format: Audio, 13 hours | 44 minutes
Audio Listening Level: Easy – Intermediate
Rating: 4½ of 5
Publisher’s Synopsis:
Imagine your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret – something so terrible it would destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others too. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive . . .
My Thoughts:
The Husband’s Secret is the story of three very different women who’s lives become intertwined in unexpected ways. Told in alternating chapters from the viewpoints of each of the three women, it’s a compelling family drama sprinkled with humor and wit.
Celia, an obsessive-compulsive type who strives for perfection, stumbles across a letter from her husband to be opened in the event of his death. After some soul searching she opens the envelope and finds a Pandora’s Box in the contents of the letter. Tess is dealing with an unfaithful husband who, seemingly out of nowhere, informs her that he has fallen in love with her cousin who is also their business partner. Rachel, now a grandmother, has never achieved closure on the decades old murder of her teenage daughter, is struggling with the impending move of her son, daughter-in-law and grandson to another country.
While the topics themselves are heavy – infidelity, secrets, lies and murder — the story itself is a fast-paced almost light read. Throughout we ask the question, how well do we really know those we think we know best? And how far would you go to protect your family? As the consequences of each character’s actions unfold, the lives of the three women intersect and the pieces of the puzzle fall together.
I listened to the audiobook, performed by Caroline Lee. While she has narrated many audiobooks, this was my first experience listening to her. Although I had to be alert for changes in point of view, her variations in tone and voice made it easy to follow the different characters. When reading a print novel I tend to hear my own voice in my head but her authentic Australian accent added emphasis that the story was set in Sydney and Melbourne.
In a final emphasis on the consequences of our actions, the story ended with an epilogue in which the author showed us the future of each character had they, or others, gone down the road not taken, ie an alternate life. I thoroughly enjoyed this addition to the ending. For me it was the “icing on the cake”. A satisfying and recommended read.
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Source: Review copy provided by Penguin Audio.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Almost wordless: The milkweed has begun to bloom. Hopefully I will soon see some Monarch Butterflies sipping the nectar.
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More Wordless Wednesday. © 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
1222: A Hanne Wilhelmsen Novel
by Anne Holt, translated by Marlaine Delargy
Audio narrated by Kate Reading
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Scribner and Blackstone Audio
Publish Date: December 27, 2011
Format: Hardcover: 336 pages, Audio: 10 hours | 39 minutes
Audio Listening Level: Easy – Intermediate
Rating: 3½ of 5
Publisher’s Synopsis:
A train on its way to the northern reaches of Norway derails during a massive blizzard, 1,222 meters above sea level. The passengers abandon the train for a nearby hotel, centuries-old and practically empty, except for the staff. With plenty of food and shelter from the storm, the passengers think they are safe, until one of them is found dead the next morning.
My Thoughts:
This is the eighth novel in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series and the first one I’ve had the opportunity to read. I was a little leery about jumping in without sufficient character background to fully enjoy the story but found it was not an issue. The murder mystery works well as a stand alone novel and the author provided a satisfactory amount of information about Hanne.
In 1222 we meet Hanne, a former policewoman, after she had been paralyzed in a shooting a few years earlier. She is traveling to an appointment with a spinal specialist and finds taking the train to be an easier way to travel than going by air. Flying for Hanne is a complete nightmare. The train is much simpler except that this train derailed and crashed.
Written in the first person, we view everything through Hanne’s eyes. My first impression of Hanne was that she’s not very likable. She doesn’t like people, doesn’t go out much and wants to be left alone. As the story progresses more background information is revealed about Hanne’s personal life — she is a lesbian, has a Muslim partner and a young daughter — and we learn about the shooting that caused her paralysis. She becomes more personable and I began to like her a lot more.
The story had the feel of an homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. Guests are stranded in a hotel and there is an unidentified murderer on the premises. The blizzard’s increasing intensity left the guests with no means of escape. It was a well-written mystery with many potential suspects. The suspense was a slow build but there wasn’t a lot of urgency or tension; the hotel had plenty of food and provided shelter from the storm.
There was also a second mystery, a subplot, concerning a mysterious group of people in the last car of the train. They received special treatment, were taken out of the wreckage first and had separate quarters at the hotel. Who were these people? There was much speculation, everything from the royal family to a high level prisoner in transit.
I have the book in both audio and print and listened to the majority of it. If you have to choose one format, I highly recommend the audio production, expertly performed by Kate Reading. Her voice for Hanne had a serious tone and a slightly hard edge just as I imagined she would sound. The other characters were portrayed equally well and she moved the story along at a tense, even pace.
In the end, while the murder mystery was solved, there was no clear answer to the second mystery and the question of who was in the last train car. Perhaps the answer will come in a future novel since this is a series. Other than that omission, this novel worked well as a stand alone mystery.
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Source: Review copy
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
Mailbox Monday is currently on tour, hosted by a different blog each month. The July host is Tasha @ Book Obsessed
No books in my physical mailbox last week but I did receive a couple of eGalleys through NetGalley:
The Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener by Tammi Hartung from Storey Publishing.
This one-of-a-kind book shows you how to create a peaceful co-existence between your vegetable garden and the wildlife who consider it part of their habitat.
Seeing Flowers by Teri Dunn Chace and Robert Llewellyn from Timber Press.
Seeing Flowers is a visual feast that gloriously highlights 343 popular garden flowers. Using a unique photo process that includes stitching together large macro photographs, Robert Llewellyn reveals details that few have ever seen.
What are you reading?
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© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
The Common Yellowthroat is a small songbird in the warbler family. They are spring and summer residents in most of North America and are one of the most numerous warblers. After the breeding season they migrate south and spend winters in the southern United State and in the tropics.
This is a male Yellowthroat. The females lack the black mask and the bright yellow color. I took this photo in May during migration.
This little guy was singing his heart out establishing his territory and trying to attract a mate. The males have a very distinctive witchety-witchety-witchety song making them easy to identify.
They can usually be found in open habitats such as marshes, wetland edges, and brushy fields. I hear them all summer when I walk through the prairie, wetlands or in open areas as they sing to mark their nesting grounds.
Saturday Snapshot was originated by Alyce at At Home With Books. For the summer it will be hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Lexicon
by Max Barry
Narrated by Heather Corrigan and Zach Appelman
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publish Date: June 18, 2013
Format: Audio, 12 hours | 36 minutes
Audio Listening Level: Intermediate
Rating: 5 of 5
Publisher’s Synopsis:
At an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren’t taught history, geography, or mathematics – at least not in the usual ways. Instead, they are taught to persuade. Here the art of coercion has been raised to a science. Students harness the hidden power of language to manipulate the mind and learn to break down individuals by psychographic markers in order to take control of their thoughts. The very best will graduate as “poets”: adept wielders of language who belong to a nameless organization that is as influential as it is secretive.
My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this brilliant novel with its original concept, suspenseful story line and compelling characters. One of the problems with reading a lot of books is that after a while a many of the plots begin to feel the same. I’m always yearning for that really original idea, one that’s going make it difficult for me to put the book down, and in Lexicon I’ve found it.
This is one of those books that’s difficult to describe without going into great detail, but doing so would spoil the suspense. Part of the enjoyment was putting the pieces together as the story unfolds. It was not predictable and I didn’t feel manipulated by the author. Sure, there were a few instances where I figured out a twist, but it wasn’t until the last second when I had been given a lot of clues.
A quick plot line: Something terrible has happened in the small town of Broken Hill, Australia. An event which caused the deaths of thousands of people. Emily Ruff and Wil Parke know the truth. Emily is on the run from the secret organization, Wil has critical information about the disaster but can’t remember what happened.
There are two main story lines which will eventually converge as the details are revealed. We meet Will in the present as he is being chased through an airport by people who want information from him. We meet Emily a few years earlier and through Emily we begin to understand the special school and the manipulative power of language.
The audio has two narrators who alternate speaking when the point of view changes. This was the first time I had experienced either of these narrators and both were easy to listen to. When a book’s plot is complex or there are multiple changes in time, location or point of view, multiple narrators can help the listener stay oriented.
So what genre is this book anyway?
I struggled with that question. While the concept of the story — a secret organization that can control people through words and language — has science/speculative fiction overtones, I felt like I was listening to a suspenseful action thriller with a mystery to be solved and a little romance on the side. If you enjoy Stephen King, there’s a good chance this will appeal to you. If you’re looking for something original and different, definitely give this a try.
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Source: Review copy from Penguin Audio.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
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