Crabapples, forsythia, azaleas are in bloom. I have none of these plants in my garden, but that is the beauty of the city: everyone's yards are open for looking. Yesterday I weeded, bought a cucumber trellis, and planted cucumber seeds underneath it. I also planted leek seedlings, a tarragon plant, some basil plants, and some lemon grass. In the meantime, Tom installed the screen door and chainsawed some ugly little ash trees that were annoying both us and our neighbor.
This morning, before rain, I'll be bagging up brush and stacking firewood. In the afternoon, during rain, I'll be doing housework. Tomorrow evening Number 1 son arrives for a week-long visit, and we are excited. It is a terrible thing to go for months without laying eyes on one's own child.
I finished reading Tree of Smoke, which turned out to be an excellent novel with a less-than-stellar ending. Then I took a small break and reread a Laura Ingalls Wilder novel. And now I have turned my attention to George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo. Have any of you read it?
4 comments:
Lincoln in the Bardo I have attempted. I find people I know have either loved it or found it totally confusing. I am one of the latter.
Here inland, we cleaning up debris from a major wind and rain storm and still trying to get the winter clean-up fionished before the black flies appear. YOur neighborhood seems ideal.
So proofreading remains.........a no go...sorry!
I love that book, though it's not the first Saunders book I would recommend and I remember agreeing with some of the comments made by whoever voted it out of the "Tournament of Books" a while back.
Sad and strange go a long way with me, I suppose.
I almost always avoid books that center around a parent's grief over losing a child. I find the theme terrifying, so it took me a while to allow myself to even consider opening this book. But thus far I can see that Saunders is concentrating on the continuing love, not just on the horrible loss--an approach that is, so far, allowing me to keep reading.
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