Doll Bones, by Holly Black

Happy Halloween tomorrow, everyone!
I hope you have yummy treats without the tricks this year.

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This was a perfect book to read this time of year. A little spooky--but not too bad (for me--not going to hand it to my kids!) If you want a quick, seasonal read, give this one a try!

Doll Bones, by Holly Black
2014 Newberry Honor

3 stars: Imaginative and creepy.

Zach is 12 and still plays make-believe games with Poppy and Alice, even though most people would say he's too old. "Most people" meaning his dad, any kid at middle school, and Poppy's older brothers, to name a few. Their complex made-up world is populated by action figure and doll characters. The doll they've dubbed the Queen is a bone china doll inside Poppy's house, locked in a cabinet. Apparently, the doll is worth a lot of money and must not be removed on pain of death. Not that they've ever really wanted to take her out. She's kind of creepy.

So when Poppy comes to get Zach (with Alice) in the middle of the night on an urgent mission, he's not sure what to think. Poppy has the doll with her and claims that not only is it filled with human ashes, she dreamed about the girl whose ashes they are. The girl wants to be buried properly [or else!] The problem is that the graveyard [she says] she belongs in is in East Lancaster, Ohio. It's attainable--by bus--but of course none of the parental figures would be pleased to let the kids go. An adventure begins.

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There's a lot going on in this book. Each of the 3 friends has less than ideal family situations that they're dealing with. Poppy's older siblings are basically the town hooligans and her parents have given up on them and the house. Alice lives with her grandmother who is extra strict. Zach has both parents at home, but his dad has only been back for a few months, after walking out 3 years before. So there's a lot of built-up resentment and challenges there.

Black did a good job making the adventure seem plausible. The town they're trying to get to was close enough to be possible, but far enough to make it difficult. The troubles they ran into also seemed realistic. A couple of their solutions...well, were a bit of a stretch, but still within the realm of possibility.

She also did a good job building up the ghost story side of it. Details here and there--the doll moving from where they put it last, dreams from the dead girl's perspective, various minor characters talking like she's real and right there with them, etc. Yep, this book would have freaked me out had I read it as a kid. On that note, I don't plan to give it to any of my children either. They're a lot like me in that regard.

I can see why it won a Newberry Honor. It was very well written. I have never liked ghost stories very much, so 3 stars was about all I could give it.

As far as scare factor, I would say it was about on par with The Night Gardener, by Jonathan Auxier.

Content: One super creepy doll and all that follows. Middle grade level--not recommended for sensitive or easily scared readers.

(Finished reading Oct. 4.)


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Have you read this one? Does this cover give you the shivers? It does me. I'm glad I just borrowed it from the library--this is not one I would want on my home bookshelf!

If you're looking for some not-so-scary books to read this month, I recommend this list from last year: Mini Theme: Halloween-ish Books.

Raspberry Patch

I got our raspberry patch started!

It's in the far back corner of the orchard; down by the compost bin, close to the fence.

It doesn't look like much right now, but I'm hoping it will thrive!

(I'm also hoping the deer don't eat the plants!)

If you squint you can see a few leaves poking up here and there.

I put in 2 different types of raspberries, 5 of each kind.

'Caroline' 

Everbearing; large, very flavorful fruit; it is very vigorous and disease resistant.

'Heritage'

Everbearing; large, firm, sweet, dark red berry; superior quality all purpose raspberry.

Harvest June & October.

I'm already looking forward to a harvest in October!
Usually by then I'm done canning the other fruit, so that would be a perfect time for some jam-making. Also, I'm hoping with everbearing raspberries there will be enough to keep my little foragers satisfied and even bring some inside too!

So, apparently there are 2 different methods for pruning everbearing raspberries.

1) You can simply cut all canes down to the ground in the spring.
Easy enough, but then you won't get the July crop.

2) Top off the 1-year old floricanes (green), which will produce your July crop.
Cut all 2-year-old canes (brown) down to the ground.
The new primocanes growing up will produce your fall harvest.
Also easy. Raspberries are nice to color-code themselves that way!

I will probably go with the second method, particularly as I enjoy pruning raspberries.
10 plants does not seem like much right now, but raspberries generally fill in fairly quickly.
We haven't put up any supports yet, but there's still time.
 

Bulbs in the Oval Garden

As I mentioned in my October Bloom Day post, I ordered a lot of bulbs this fall!

Since I was essentially starting from scratch, with 6 new flowerbeds (depending on how you count them), I knew I would need quite a few.

That ended up being 560!

It helped that I pretty much knew right where I wanted most of them, and also that most of the beds were ready for planting already.

I took quite a few pictures as I went, mostly to remind myself where I put things.

Overall, I bought muscari (grape hyacinths), alliums, 'Festival Pink' hyacinths, Dutch irises, tulips, and daffodils. There were others I wanted to get, but you know--only so much time and money!

All the tulips.

For most of the tulips I got 10 of each variety.

The two exceptions to that were 'Bleu Aimable' (20), and 'Sweet 16' (30).

After talking with a friend who lives up the street, now I must invest in some cayenne pepper, in hopes of stopping the deer from eating the tulip bulbs. Or maybe get a dog.

I actually think the first thing I will try is shallowly planting individual cloves of garlic on top of all tulip patches. Deer tend to leave onions/garlic alone. Maybe that would stop them from digging deeper for the tulip bulbs. I can hope.  

In fact, I just saw a deer today around lunchtime, bounding through the now-empty cornfield that borders the back of our yard. It did not enter our yard--this time--but it jumped right over the 5-foot tall fence into the neighbor's backyard like it was nothing. Oh deer.

With those unsettling thoughts, let's start in the Oval Garden.

When I was planting the shrubs and pie cherry tree, I left pockets of space in the middle of the bed for spring bulbs. My plan is to put the summer bloomers more around the edges. That way, the bulb foliage will not be right on the front lines as it dies back. Also, I'm thinking many of these will bloom before the other stuff has leafed out.

Tulips

I made 2 separate mixes, one for early bloomers and one for May bloomers.

I planted a patch of each type on each end of the bed.

The picture above shows the early blooming mixture I did.

These (above) should bloom in mid-late April.

'Blue Spectacle' (peony-flowering; violet purple) 

'Sunny Prince' (single; lemon yellow)

'Margarita' (double; magenta-purple).

The second mix were my May bloomers:

Tulip 'Big Smile' (single; lemon yellow)

Tulips 'Bleu Aimable' (single; deep lilac)

(Can you see the snow on the ground up in that picture? Motivation to get this done!)

In this section next to the cherry tree, as you can see, I did 3 groups of Allium aflatunense 'Purple Sensation.' They are a violet-purple color and should bloom in May/June.

On top of those, I layered 25 of the Dutch iris 'Rainbox Mix.'

These should bloom about the same time as the alliums and provide a good counterpoint in form and color. They are supposed to be a mix of yellow, blue, purple, and white irises.

Finally, I added in 2 patches of daffodils and muscari.

I put them in on the opposite side of the cherry tree from the alliums.

I have decided with daffodils that I really enjoy variety the most, rather than all one kind.

So I bought 50 of John Scheeper's Gold Medal Mixture, and 100 of their Mini Mix.

Along with the daffodils, I layered in Muscari 'Dark Eyes'--a grape hyacinth that is a darker blue on bottom with a little fluff of sky blue at the top.

The last thing I put in was a peony 'Koningin Wilhelmina.'

It's on the end of the bed closest to the street.

It's supposed to be fuschia, with paler edges on the petals.

As you can tell, I'm still going for a color scheme of dark purple and light yellow in this bed.

It will be interesting to see how all these various shades of purple and yellow look together.

Beautiful, I hope!

I was going to list out all the bulbs and where I planted them in this post, but it's already getting a bit long, so I will break it up by flowerbeds.

You're welcome.

The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate

So, let's talk for a minute about my goal of reading all the Newberry award winners from the past 5 years. It's looking like I'm not going to make it by the end of the year. My original plan was to post each year, complete with reviews, once I had read them. However, it's taking me quite a bit longer to read them then I thought it would. Between the move and our new library's 5-item limit for new patrons, I haven't checked out very many hard copies of library books this year. (Just a couple of weeks ago I was able to get my card switched over to a regular patron card, which comes with a 30-item limit. Finally!) I have not purchased them either, because what if I don't like them?

So. What I'm going to do instead is post the individual reviews as I go. Several of the years I have read most of the books and already posted reviews on Goodreads. Once I get a complete year done, I will do a new post listing all of the books and linking to reviews if need be. I know you are on the edge of your seats for that to come!

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So let's talk about this book!

The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate
2013 Newberry Award

3 stars: Liked it; didn't love it.

Ivan the gorilla lives in a mall right off the freeway, where folks come and see him. There's also an old circus elephant named Stella who does a few tricks, and a few other animals. Bob the dog is a stray, but sleeps on Ivan's stomach most nights.

Ivan is not the fearsome animal his billboard makes him out to be. In fact, he is an artist. His owner, Mack, sells his paintings for $20 in the gift shop ($25 framed). Ivan is resigned to his life, with the short beginning and endless middle, until baby elephant Ruby joins the menagerie. Stella makes Ivan promise to protect Ruby and take care of her, once she is gone, and Ivan agrees.

As time goes on, things go badly for Mack. Numbers are dwindling, and Mack is getting desperate. None of the animals are being treated right, but especially baby Ruby is suffering. Ivan must figure out how to keep his promise and get Ruby out of there. If only the humans could understand his art. One special little girl named Julia may be just the person to make the connection.

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I didn't love this as much as most other people. I don't know if I could even tell you why. It has some good messages in it, and the characters are each distinct and well-written. I guess I was having a hard time suspending my disbelief. It's strange, because that's usually not a problem for me. I read books with talking, thinking animals in them quite often, but for some reason, I didn't really get into it this time.

I just found out that it was based on a real gorilla named Ivan who lived in a mall, then eventually got moved to the Atlanta Zoo. (Yes, if you've read it, you probably already knew that.) That makes me like it more.

(Finished reading Aug. 21)

Victorio strainer vs. Kitchenaid food mill (+ 8 quarts applesauce)

I almost forgot--I got 8 more quarts of applesauce canned this month, with the help of my in-laws.

This time I used a Victorio strainer, and I really liked it.

In the past I've just used the applesauce/food mill attachments on our KitchenAid Mixer.

3 things stood out to me using the Victorio strainer:

1. It was not as high off the counter. That meant I could scoop apples into it standing on the ground, vs. standing on a stool. My kids still would have had to be on a stool, but they wouldn't have had to reach so high. When you're dealing with hot cooked apples, shorter reaches are better.

I did have to put a casserole pan underneath to catch the applesauce rather than a bowl, since it was so near to the counter, but that worked out okay.

2. The hopper, where you put all the apples to be squished, and the actual strainer part were much bigger on the Victorio strainer. I could put half the saucepan of cooked apples in there at a time.

That was nice and made the job go much quicker.

These 8 quarts worth took maybe 2 1/2 hours all together, including cutting them in quarters, cooking them, squishing, and canning.

3. I didn't mind cranking by hand. 

With the mixer, you turn it on low and it churns away, so I wondered how it would compare having to do it by hand. It wasn't bad at all. Not hard; kind of relaxing, in a way.

I'm a little sad I did it while my kids were at school, actually, because I think they would have really enjoyed it.

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They both were about the same to clean out at the end--kind of a pain.

The apple waste coming out the end of the strainer attachment did not look like poop, unlike the Kitchenaid waste. My kids would say that's a negative!

I like that I have a non-electric option for easily making applesauce.

I felt a real connection to my grandmother ancestors cranking away.

Going back to the good old days and the good old ways!

Also, I was intrigued by the other uses mentioned for it: making seedless jams and jellies, making purees and baby food, straining squash and pumpkin for smooth stringless pies, etc...

I want to explore these further!

I'm sure we'll still use the food mill attachment on the KitchenAid for some things, but I'm glad I have the option now of using the Victorio strainer.

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Have you used both? Which do you prefer?

It Is Well With My Soil...?

I bought this sign about a month ago and put it up in our living room.

A few weeks later, my husband pulled me aside.

What does that say??

Sail?

Soil?

(Ha! I was cracking up!)

Can you tell what it says? 

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It is ALSO well with my soil.

Just so you know.

Remember this?

Getting better all the time. :)

Sandhill Cranes in the Back Fields

Over the summer, we kept hearing a bird call that I had never heard before.

It was loud, especially in the evening.

Then we walked down to very end of the gravel road close by.

Here's what we saw in the field:

This picture is terrible, I know.

My camera does not do well with distances and this was as close as I could get, due to electric fences.

Very large birds, long skinny necks, long skinny legs.

I've been looking them up.

At first I thought they were herons.

Then I found this awesome website, from the Cornell Lab of Orinthology:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/

They have their calls recorded!

Listening to the herons vs. the cranes, it was immediately obvious that we had the cranes.

The heron's call is more like a croak--not what we had been hearing all summer.

The crane's call is described as a bugle call.

That's more like it!

Check it out!

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sandhill_Crane/sounds

They have migrated south now, but when they return, now I'll know what they are.