Top Books (a very subjective view)…

   A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson ….I, too, am surprised to see this book at the top of my list.  But there are two (subjective) reasons: 1) He writes about the Adirondack Trail, a great part of which includes my old stomping ground on the East Coast; and 2) he made me laugh out loud. And furthermore, it’s a book I wouldn’t normally pick up but it was a gift and it turned out to be a perfect gift.
   The Help – Kathryn Stockett… and I don’t usually fall for “mass” bestsellers but there you go, I loved this book (as mentioned several times).
   A Roomful of Hovings and The Pines – John McPhee…just happened to discover McPhee’s writing. The way he can write about the length of grass on a tennis court or what Pine natives think of outsiders will stop you in your tracks and have you reading every detail. He’s an essayist, a storyteller, a writer who puts a variety of things under a writer’s microscope and just goes and you can’t help but follow.
Truth is, when I look at the list of books I read last year, I am pressed to tell you that most were read for sheer entertainment, like page turners, easy stuff OR books on art and journaling!
PS  And I did love Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. I really liked the Major.  He seemed to have the right moves at the right time. And all was well.

Top Magazines…

   The New Yorker – still holding its (personal) top position on my magazine list but that’s because of its local, its pace, its ads, its embrace of cartoons and fiction along with Talk of the Town.  The magazine, its covers, its staff are all stories in themselves.
   Fast Company – this one rose quickly to the top of my list because it scratches a “professional reading” itch but moves and jumps and flashes around so that I don’t get bored with any pedantic pages.
  GRANTA – love it. Introduces me to new authors. Makes me read stuff I normally wouldn’t. And the photo section is full of stories in itself.
  VOGUE – ah, my beloved VOGUE. Still hangs in there but is slipping. It’s look/layout is  heavy-footed; some photo stories are annoying rather than breathtaking and overall, other than some (Euro) fashion pages, it’s not taking any chances with its articles or photos. ELLE magazine may surpass the big V in terms of presentation. Still, thank goodness Grace Coddington is still chez VOGUE  or the wind would definitely be out of the sails on this great old schooner.
    Poets&Writers – This one is for writers who don’t need to be told every issue how to do something. This one goes deep, is thought provoking with its essays on “Why we write,” its updates on the lit mag world, its spotlight on authors you might have heard of but then again, ah, maybe not and its complete section on contests and awards.  This magazine feels good; the paper is excellent, the layout is fresh and readable with decent visuals/graphics.  I carry this one around for a couple weeks before I even start to read it. And then I save them all, dogeared and annotated.

Top Movies…

     The Descendants – Absolutely not a comedy though certain previews might lead you to think so and yet it was not without its comic moments, just as life would have it. I was surprised in after dicussion of the film how much I did really like it after all. We love to look at families and see what they’re doing, how they’re doing and how they interact. Clooney was good and quite good at knowing when to be silent in this film; the elder daughter had uncanny strength while her younger sister showed the certain delightful guilelessness. All due to the script. Well written, I say. And the setting, Hawaii, was a wonderful treat though not intrusive. (It could have been). Yes, you’ll get into money and greed and the big machine and the play of family politics and although you’ll guess the end, you will be satisfied for having been there for it and will be glad you met this little family.
     Midnight in Paris – Nope, did NOT like this film at first. Thought at first glance it was kitschy. Then, it grew on me. After all, it throws every literary and artistic character from the Lost Gen (expats) at you and then unravels further back and you guess who’s who before they do some clicheed identifier (Hemingway wanting to fight, Dali being weird, weird, weird, etc) but I liked it after all. And will seek to watch it again. Thank goodness Woody Allen believes in a little magic; we need it. His version, a bit lighter than time travel (as in the Time Traveler’s Wife) is fun and we have some laughs while witnessing the truth of the movie: we all are prone to believe that the century/time period prior to  our own was “better.”  Watch it and enjoy. This one is worth owning, to play in the background during a party or even while you’re dusting and vacuuming.
     The Help – I read the book first. Thankfully. I’m sure I’d think otherwise of the film if I hadn’t. But I was terribly judgmental as I watched it unfold on the screen before me, comparing it unwittingly to the book all along the way. Still I enjoyed it. I might have cast it differently, especially Skeeter’s part (Emma Stone), but they did it ”right” after all, they did it correctly and they did a good job. I cried where I cried in the book (no, I’m not telling you where or why) and I laughed where the book also made me laugh. The audience in the theater that night was participatory, too, which is always fun - when there’s laughter or clapping and then a collective sigh at the end.  The biggest difference between the screen and the page for this one?  The movie ended and we left whereas when the book ended,  I didn’t to leave/stop reading. The movie was thin; the book was not.
     Cowboys and Aliens – omg, this movie was awful I loved it. So silly, such a mixture of excellent talent (Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig) and sci fi and westerns!!!!!!  It derives from a graphic novel, if that helps understand its mongrel self.  I loved it. Ridiculous, it was. And corny. But Ford and Craig saved it and yes, cowboys have a certain appeal. No one sits a horse better.  Anyway, this was  pure entertainment (with a touch of “impatience” because everyone works together against the aliens of course which is the way it should be but it’s so darn in-your-face.)  Tra lala. This one still wins anyway: horses, dogs and children survive blissfully and our heroes come through for us.
Indifferent:
     Harry Potter 7/8
     Pirates of the Carribean Part #4
     Bridesmaids

Top Events – not  “global” events (there would be so many)

   Game #6, World Series 
   Game #7, World Series, and was there!
   Roger Daltry presenting “Tommy” at the Peabody Opera House, STL
   The wedding of Will and Kate
   New Year’s Eve in NYC
  New Year’s Eve in Nashville (both via TV; glad for the latter since it’s in our time zone – at last, a ball (or guitar) that drops according to our central time zone.)

Top  food trends
Salted caramels
Seaside cheddar cheese at Whole Food
Balsamic glaze
Grilled cheese

Hmmm….so many more categories could be contrived here but that’s for another time.

Care to share your favorite (recent) book-of-the-moment with me? I’m all ears!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dommage. There will be no more tossed from the kitchen door. They are now placed in the backyard around the wood pile. Meanwhile, Archie becomes quite the character on my storybook pages!

Nope, didn’t like it until the other morning when I walked around it and between it. In the meantime, kids and parents were there, talking, playing, climbing on it (the little ones) and then heading on toward the literal park playground.

I spent an hour there ’til my fingers turned numb and my coffee turned cold but everything changed in that time, that is, the sunlight and the space around the sculpture. And my impression.
It’s a fine place and space.
Can you feel it?

Not putting it all away, really.
Just carrying it with us into the new year.

The advantage of some of the natural decorations is that they can still hang around outside, having moved from front of the house to back. “Interesting,” said HM.  Mmmm. guess he was thinking of sitting out there.

Christmas is still everywhere.
I have even thought this morning that there are some corners in some of the rooms that even now, even still could use some Christmas decoration. But I stay my hand.

There is never too much Christmas spirit.
Time to pause and walk around the house, something I rarely get to do this time of day. (on vacay this week.)

Thinking of all of you with whom I share comments and creativity and stories and wishing you a continuing joyous season and Happy New Year…and also that you could be here for some coffee and pie.

Pictured below, the DR and the large mossy wreath is the one HM “won” at auction at the Botanical Garden.

Annual wreathmaking class:
We made it to our annual wreath making class at the Botanical Garden this year!  and HM was not the only guy there! One other, we didn’t recognize him, had joined the ranks and in fact the class was twice its usual size. We were all giddy and yet productive (high on the scent of the fir and balsalm we were working with. It was wonderful and too busy and talk-y to take a lot of pictures! 

Not quite finished; HM holding up our wreaths is always an “interim” activity to see what we want to do with them next – trim, add, insert accessories, etc. And there’s plenty of help and encouragement from all those around us.

Holiday Gardenland Express:
And then, after HM stashed our wreaths in the car, we were  off to the Gardenland Express…the annual Christmas train exhibit just down the hall. We made it before the press of the crowd, and I wondered how many of us were really “seeing” it since we were hauling our cameras in there and aiming our lenses at every nook and cranny for pictures. So I stopped shooting and took the kid approach and we did the “treasure hunt” looking for all the little details, including trains with cars carrying succulents, one train loaded with nothing but gifts, another zipping along with very ’50s looking passengers, etc.
 
A Dozen Gorgeous Wreaths:
And then upstairs, after the trains, to the annual wreath exhibit. I loved them all. But did not tell HM. Tried to be quiet. Didn’t want him bidding on them!  Last year he surprised me with winning the silent auction on one of the wreaths with which I had fallen in love. It is now hanging on the wall in the dining room now. It takes up the entire wall! (picture to follow later). I keep it in my office the rest of the year and it rules the room in the loveliest way.

Herein some pictures, all jumbled and stuck together, due to some weird techie quirk I’m having this morning!

oh yes, this “favorite things” thing can go on and on.
And shouldn’t be hurried, tho’ I confess, I’ve much to do after posting…because…

It seems the Grinch of Xmas nights
Has feasted on a string of lights
IN THE FRONT OF THE HOUSE! 
and I know that it’s not the misdeed of a mouse!
Fix it? or nix it? That shall be decided.
Having holiday lights “off” just can’t be abided.

Stay calm; have some dinner, methinks to meself.
Stress won’t make me thinner; how ’bout wine from the shelf?
Then when we’re warmer and grinning our grins, 
we’ll venture outside, fix the lights and come in.

and have some chocolate.
and write Christmas cards. 

Hmmm…ok, this is, in fact, more about an unfavorite thing:  Christmas lights that don’t work!
What is it with those strings?  Rather than just ignoring the loser light that causes the problem, the entire half-string goes out, as though to lend the little non-light-up  some sort of malfunction support. Grrr….
Humph. Should have chosen the ones that light no matter if one bulb or several choose to go out.
Are the commercial grade lights really better?

Herein, a journal. It’s a tiny little gipper, brought to me by dear friend Linda of Haute Loire, when she took a cooking tour in Tuscany. This is actually a little journal, about 4×5″ and with a long thin leather strap to wrap it all ’round. Nope, this one remains untouched to date. And it doesn’t play well on the shelf (due to its leather string.) But it’s the real ‘ting, all lovely paper inside begging beggging begging for some written words – no matter what they are, to dress it up and make in sing (which it would likely do with a marvelous Italian accent!)

Why so compelled to journal?
It’s an old art, if not an ancient one. The history of the practice will zip you right back to 10th century Japan (ah, those ladies of the royal court…who wrote).
Journaling endures. Not just because people have time on their hands (like the Bennett sisters) but are, moreover, driven by a need to record things, about the world, about themselves, about what they see and don’t see…about fiction. 
It’s notable in the two different  journaling classes I attend that the attendees are always asking what they should write in a journal, in fact, what IS a journal? Others don’t say anything. They might read what they’ve written…or not. They might ask questions and have done no writing. They might come clutching a notebook of some sort and hope for….other people to talk with about writing? I don’t know. I go to for inspiration. I am fascinated by the teachers and their very disparate approaches. I am fascinated by those who attend. And such stories come out!
 Sometimes I write while I’m there. (This is allowed and accepted.)

I would say a journal, frightening or not in its blank blanc-ness, is the ultimate gift, to be explored, to draw the adventures out and onto the page for the writer to then re-enjoy.

The gift that keeps on giving.

It’s reading season. It’s writing season.
This is the next journal (above)…having just finished filling a custom-rendered beauty that Jeanie made for me (below).

Yet, if one were to gage journaling success on pages filled from Dec 1 to now, ah, well, then, I’ve a ways to go. And that includes travel time and you know very well that a great deal of inner thoughts can be accomplished on a plane. But I did not write. I read a bit, wrapped my scarf like an Englishman because the piped air wouldn’t respond to the “off” position, and I smiled, not insanely, just enough so people would know I was pleasant although I did not want to talk. (I’m not a plane talker.)

Yet the most writing accomplished in these three December days is lists!  Xmas gift lists. Then I forget where I put them. I write them again. I switch purses, bags, wallets. I write lists yet again. I jot lists in journals. Which one? the one I always always carry? (tiny, and from Etsy) or the ‘overall’ one (the likes of which are pictured above)?

While I may have intended to get someone on the list a collection of Billy Collins poetry, that person might now, in the list’s fifth or sixth or senventh incarnation, be relegated to getting a souvenir album of the Cardinals World Series win. And yet I have forsworn getting all nervous and jumpy about the gift part.

So as I write and sip at the dawn of this weekend morning and gaze at the boxes of Christmas lights that will somehow spring to order and stage themselves for outdoor and indoor decor, and wonder about getting out there into the holiday fray, a great deal of which I really do enjoy, but moments in Blogland are  holiday-precious and full of friends and friends-that-would-be if actually here. 

So, as a writing “dabble,” the following notes from holiday wanderings during lunch yesterday and then last evening with HM:
1) It is possible to read HUGO CABRET while sipping coffee at B&N. Then…plan to see the movie which is compelling simply because of Scorcese’s work and personal take on it.
2) The Charlie Brown Christmas Tree available at various stores (this is not an ad!)  is really rather charming and not too in-your-face to have sitting on your desk at work. (Needs batteries; the ones supplied didn’t work. I will therefore guess the song it plays is the one from the Peanuts TV special of yore.)
3) Stray cats this time of year are to be fed and watered,  not shooed away. Same with the rotund bluejays and redheaded woodpeckers who suddenly prefer the black oil sunflower seed to the lovely suet that HM bought for them and their big old beaks.
4) Coffee gets a makeover every year during the holiday season with scents and flavors and creams and bits of things like peppermint and salt and pumpking and sprinkles. I think the barristas are a tad disappointed when I ask for a mere “tall coffee.”
5) Is anyone else getting all kinds of decorating ideas and then wondering when and how said ideas will actually be accomplished?  I have an idea for a garland that does not involve going out to chop down or shop for live branches….hmmmmm….more to follow!

Happy Day 3 of Advent!