Morning Meanderings… Spending Time With BEES

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)53 Comments

Good morning.  😀

By the time you read this I should be on my way to the cities to join my friends for a bike ride this morning for MS.  I left town at 5 am, and the ride starts at 8 am. 

Last Saturday I had the wonderful opportunity to go and hang out with my friend Amanda who has just started Bee Keeping with her husband.  I can not lie, once I seen her in that bee- outfit… I knew I had to go and check this out.  Lucky for me, she understood my crazy thirst for knowledge and invited me into the hive…

literally.  😛

The had just bought more bees and would be moving them into their new homes.  I came over to help. 

This is a picture of me (left) and Amanda (right).  There are the bees they had just purchased.  They had bought four of these boxes and we were going to place two of them in their new homes.  Amanda says each box contains around 10,000 bees.

SSSQQQUUUEEE!!!!

This is the boxes that the bees will be placed in. I am sure there is a better name than “boxes” I just do not know it… 😀  The smoker thing in the background helps to mellow the bees as soon we will be letting them out of the boxes you seen in the first picture and dumping them in their new homes. 

Inside the boxes are these slats where the bees will make the honey.  The section to the front with the two holes is for a liquid we pour in that the bees will drink and it keeps then from getting ill or infected by mites and dying.  (I hope I am remembering this right).  This is a new unused bee box, that is why it looks so clean.

 

In each of those boxes you seen in the first picture is a Queen in her own little box.  Crazy right?  She has to be protected at all cost.  Amanda here will now replace the wooden cork in the end of this little box with marshmallow.  Yup, you read that right.  Then, once placed in her new home… in about three days the worker bees will eat the marshmallow enough to set her free among them.  All hail the Queen!

 

After Amanda and I thoroughly spray the bee boxes with a sugar water that makes it hard for them to fly… we pour them into their new home. 

 

After the bees are in the box, Amanda carefully replaced the slots where they will go to work making the honey!

Just playing with the camera… I feel like an Oompa Loompa.  😀

 

Before the lid goes back on this big hunk of food goes on top and I can not remember what it is called.  😀  This will feed the worker bees, who in turn feed the Queen for the next several weeks.  When the weather warms up the bees will produce their own food.

 

This is one of the bee homes that they started several weeks ago… you can see on the central grids that work is being done. 

 

 

Amanda says that every few weeks you need to check these for a couple of things.  1.  You want to remove these little sacks you find on them which I am told is the worker bees making a new Queen.  Rude right?  Apparently if the bees feels that the hive is too full they will attempt to create another Queen and then take the existing Queen and leave the hive to make a new one.  By scraping off these sacks you are assisting in preventing that.

2.  She checks for the Queen.  You want to make sure she is within the box somewhere.  This is easier said than done.  As the bees fill up these grids, another box of grids is added to the existing one on top.  Amanda says by August (harvest time) the boxes should be stacked so tall she will need a step-ladder to get into them.  Currently these older homes have only two stacked so not too deep… still, we are looking for a single Queen bee among the 10,000.  😯

How do you pick out the Queen?  She is larger and longer than the others, has longer wings and is more of a buttercup coloring .

Looking for the Queen….

The experience was incredible.  I was not nervous at all.  When we started working with the older bee homes they were more aggressive, not liking to be disturbed.  Several went for my face mask, which was kid of like 3D as they hit the mask in “attack” mode.  Before we left the area we had to wipe each others outfits down, Amanda said I was covered with bees. 

That is my contribution to this weeks Saturday Snapshot.  Stop on over and see Alyce at At Home With Books to see what others are taking pictures of around the world. 😀

Winter Girls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

When Cassie called Lia, crying, begging for her to help… to talk to her, to be there for her…. Lia should have picked up the phone. 

But…

she didn’t.

And not Cassie is dead and Lia is left with the “should have” and the “could have” of a moment in time that may have changed everything.

Then again…

maybe not.

After all, Cassie and Lia were once very close…. each of them part of the “Winter Girls”, each competing to be the thinnest… the smallest girl in school… in their town… everywhere.  And really, would picking up the phone that night have helped Cassie?  Or for that matter, have helped Lia?

Now Lia finds herself in a world where her parents watch her like a hawk… trying to get her to eat, trying to help her… but when Lia looks in the mirror she sees only the yellowness of oozy fat beneath her skin….

UGLY.  FAT.  HORRIBLE.  DISGUSTING.

And so, Lia watched everything she eats….

6 almonds….. 42 calories

toast with no butter…. 120 calories

half an apple… 50 calories…

The goal… 500 calories a day… Or…. is that too much? 

FAT. STUPID. LAZY. UGLY.

Her family begs her to gain weight…. but at 18 years old, Lia cant stand how being 97 pounds feels…. why do they continue to try to make her fat?  Trying to make her eat like the gluttons they are?  Do they not know that she will run on the treadmill for fours hours later, getting rid of it… all of it until that scale creeps down…. triumphantly to 90, then 87, then 85, then 83…. and then….

“The number doesn’t matter. If I got down to 070.00, I’d want to be 065.00. If I weight 010.00, I wouldn’t be happy until I got down to 005.00. The only number that would ever be enough is 0. Zero pounds, zero life, size zero, double-zero, zero point. Zero in tennis is love. I finally get it.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls

Laurie Halse Anderson has done it again.  Seriously!  When I read SPEAK (a banned book by the way!) I was blown away by the powerful and brave topic of a teenager being raped at a party, and afraid to talk about it.  Now, in Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson tackles another tough and heartbreaking topic, Anorexia.

Told in the voice of Lia, we are taken completely inside the mind of a young girl who feels she in always fat, even though everyone, EVERYONE (parents, doctors, counselors….)are telling her differently.  As Lia fights to stay thinner and thinner, you experience with her hallucinations, lack of energy, the inability to get warm, and embarrassment from her siblings at her thinness. 

I highly recommend you listen to this one on audio (yes, even those of you new to audio) – do yourself a favor as Jeannie Stith does an emotionally charged narration of this book… from the voices within Lia’s own mind, to the people that surround Lia’s small world.  Listening to this one was a real treat.

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

Audible.com

Other thoughts on Wintergirls:

Beth Fish Reads

Hey Lady!  Watcha Reading?

Word Bird

GReads

I borrowed this audio from my local library

Morning Meanderings… The Last World Book Day Book

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)9 Comments

Good morning! 

It’s Friday!  *insert dance here*

In the office I work in, downstairs there is a business called Shining Light Studio.  Greg Rosenberg works with stained glass and if you check out the link to his site, you will see that amazing things he creates. 

A few weeks ago he and I were discussing the Hunger Games Movie.  Greg wanted to know what the movie was about having heard a few rumbles about it and I of course, was all too ready and eager to gush about The Hunger Games.

Flash forward to World Book Day and my book I was handing out was indeed Hunger Games.  I was thrilled of course to give out this great read but knew I wanted to get one in Greg’s hands and get him reading this book…

I had a request though…. 😀

This week, I finally had time to connect with Greg again and brought him the book.  My request had been that he wear the mask that he does when he is working with the glass and chemicals because for some reason I find that to be very, “Hunger Gamesish”

He obliged. 


Thanks Greg!  Enjoy the book!

 

As for today – I am actually going garage sailing.  I know… freaks me out a bit too!  I have not gone in over a year, but a friend has been gushing about her finds lately and this used to be something I loved to do so thought I would hit a few this morning.  😀

I will be back here later to put up my book review and work on a couple of things for tomorrow.  😀

 

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

Alice Howland has a wonderful life.  She has three grown children, a loving hard-working husband, and she herself is a well established Professor at Harvard.  At age fifty, she is not really too surprised when she starts to forget where she left things like her keys and her Blackberry.  She is a little more concerned when she gets lost on the Harvard campus that she has always known very well, but a brief Google check regarding menopause brings up forgetfulness as one of the symptoms.  Still… it doesn’t hurt to see a doctor…

Alice is stunned when she is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s.  Certainly an active woman like herself, can beat this.  Yet what follows is a struggle of losing ones memories…. a family in despair and crisis, and a woman who is fighting the biggest battle of her life, just to be…

still Alice.

Lisa Genova has also written Left Neglected about a brain injury and Love Anthony will be out in 2013, about a boy with autism.

I didn’t want to read this book.

When my book club voted this as our May book club read, I was not thrilled.  There are few things that truly frighten me, but the thought of not knowing who you are, or fearing people you have known all your life as they have become strangers in your mind – truly frightens me.

When I posted I was reading this on my sidebar under the Bookies tab, many readers shared what an amazing read it was, and honestly – that helped me dip cautiously into this book.

I read it… in one sitting.

Author Lisa Genova wrote something wonderful here.  Brilliantly, the story is told from Alice’s perspective.  Seeing Alzheimer’s through her eyes was both frightening and informing.  I cringed when she introduces herself to the same woman twice, having forgotten she already had done so.  When she is lost inside her own home desperately looking for the bathroom, my heart breaks for her. 

Page by page as a reader, you are right there with Alice through good days and bad.  This fictional story flowed so well from the very start – moments of laughter and yes, moments of tears…. this book is a MUST READ.  If you are in a book club, it is an incredible discussion book as well, with questions in the back of the book.

I knew when I had read this book that our book club discussion was going to be deep and it was going to be good.  There was so much to talk about!  This week when we met and I started asking the questions from the book, I hardly needed to say a word… the conversation flowed.  The ladies in our group has much to say about Alice’s journey, her family, and their own personal connection to Alzheimer’s as well.

This is one of those reviews where we didn’t even really need the questions.  The book brought memories of people to our review that I had never met but wish I had.  Grandparents were discussed, some still living with the disease, and some who have passed on.  How Alzheimer’s affects each person differently was amazing.  Some reverted to a much younger time in their life, believing they lived somewhere else.  Others who had English as a second language – reverted to their first language.  Some remembered a spouse, but could not recall anyone else. 

And as in most Bookies events there was food.

Alice mentions enchilada’s early in the book so chicken enchiladas were a must!
Fresh salads and toppings!
Risotto with spinach for memory!
Blueberries and dark chocolate are mentioned in the book as brain and memory enhancers

Some interesting facts about Still Alice:  Still Alice was initially a self published book, and approved by the Alzheimer’s Society.  STILL ALICE debuted at #5 on the New York Times Bestseller list and has spent 40 weeks on that list. It won the 2008 Bronte Prize and the 2011 Bexley Book of the Year, and it was nominated for the 2010 Indies Choice Debut Book of the Year by the American Booksellers Association. It was the #6 Top Book Group Favorite of 2009 by Reading Group Choices, a 2009 Barnes & Noble Discover Pick, a 2009 Indie Next pick, a 2009 Borders Book Club Pick, and a 2009 Target Book Club pick. There are over a million copies in print, and it has been translated into 25 languages.  (as seen and noted on the authors website)

A few other thoughts on this book:

Musings Of A Bookish Kitty

A Novel Menagerie

Always With A Book

Care’s Online Book Club

Thank you to our local Library and their “Book Club In A Bag” program!

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

Want to listen to it on audio?

Morning Meanderings… Mother’s Day Wishes

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)13 Comments

Good morning!  Barreling towards the end of the week already!  WOW!  Today is my last day of work for the week and it is going to be a fun one.  Myself, and two co workers are going out to lunch for a late Administration Week celebration, then a little shopping.

Later tonight, I have a dinner/birthday gathering for a friend I used to work with.  😀

Then – this coming Sunday is already Mother’s Day.  Normally we just go out to lunch and maybe a few starter plants for the yard… but this year I have my eye on something…

I already have this and love it:

(If you are an audio lover, I highly recommend this – I use my credit every month AND they often have some great sales for members with $4.95 titles…. I really load up them 😀 )

For me though…. I seen something when I was in the Cities last week at Fleet Farm that caught my eye.  I stopped at out local Fleet Farm last night to see if we had it too…. and

we do:

It is up on a display stand, so I am hoping you (and my hubby) can see it well.  But once I seen it….. OOH!  I am thinking new reading area on the deck?  😛  I don’t know if it “Will Be Mine”… but a girl can always dream  😀

Anything you are planning on doing or hoping you will be getting for Mother’s Day?  Guy’s who read this, are you thinking about mom’s, wives, or even sisters with kids? 

Later today my review is going up for Still Alice, the one I just read with the Bookies.  This was an exciting review to write!

In The Bag by Kate Klise

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)19 Comments

Daisy is traveling with her teenage daughter Coco to Paris.  When they arrive and Coco goes through her bag excited to take out the carefully picked out skirts, peasant tops, and super cure shoes, instead she find wadded up t-shirts and dirty pants.  Ugh.  Who packs dirty pants???

WRONG bag.

Andrew is traveling with his teenage son Webb.  Andrew had noticed the very attractive  woman sitting in 6-B, with her younger sister.  Ummm… too cheesy?  Ok her daughter, but she doesn’t look like she could have a teenage daughter!  He decided to slip a note in her purse when she is not looking.  When they arrive Web finds that he has the wrong bag…. filled with expensive shirts and clothing items he can not even identify.

While Andrew and Daisy try to figure out how to get the bag mix up settled, they are unaware that Webb and Coco are also working on their own “reunion”.

Kate Klise was the fourth of six children born to educational film producer Thomas and Marjorie Klise. Raised in Peoria, Illinois, she attended Marquette University and spent fifteen years working as a correspondent for People magazine.[2] She currently resides on a farm with a pond near Norwood, Missouri , where she has many friends who she describes as kind, generous, and always thoughtful. “My nicest characters always resemble them,” said Kate Klise. She is a vegetarian, who loves tomato sandwiches. ~Wikepedia
I knew when I chose this book it sounded like fun.  Visions of light summer reading, smiles and the occasional giggle escaping me while I sat on the deck slathered in tanning lotion drinking ice tea…

well that was the plan.

The book delivered, the weather did not.

Either way, In The Bag was as I had expected.  Reading the synopsis I knew this one was just going to be candy for my brain. I liked the alternation chapters between our four protagonists, Daisy, Coco, Andrew, and Web.  The note that Andrew stuck in Daisy’s purse cracked me up… totally GUY.  😛  The email exchanges are light and fun. 

In the end, a quick, fun, read.  That if you are going to the beach, this one need to be, in the bag.  😉

Thank you TLC book tours for a fun summery type book that made me crave beaches and warm sand.

 

 

Tuesday, May 1st: Seaside Book Nook
Wednesday, May 2nd: A Bookworm’s World
Thursday, May 3rd: 2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews
Monday, May 7th: Walking With Nora
Tuesday, May 8th: Book Hooked Blog
Wednesday, May 9th: Book Journey
Thursday, May 10th: A Musing Reviews
Monday, May 14th: A Cozy Reader’s Corner
Tuesday, May 15th: Life In Review
Wednesday, May 16th: Book Reviews by Molly
Thursday, May 17th: Good Girl Gone Redneck

Morning Meanderings… Book Club Of Laughter and Tears

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

Good morning!  Happy Wednesday! 

I am about to gush about my book club again.  😯

I can’t help it. 

Last night we met to review Still Alice by Lisa Genova.  It is a book about a women with Alzheimer’s, and it was a book I absolutely did not want to read.  I did of course, read it, and I am so glad I did. 

I knew our discussion was going to be good no matter what each of the eighteen Bookies thought of this book.  Love it or hate it, this book was going to hit a nerve or a heart string in each and every one of us….

and so it did.

I spent 2 1/2 hours with these amazing women discussing the book, the characters, and people in our own lives that have experienced this disease that honestly, scares the nutter butters out of me.  We ate food centered around the book, and we ate food mentioned that is supposed to be good for brain power and memory (dark chocolate and blueberries).  We laughed, and we cried.

Driving home after 9 pm, I had to once again think how lucky I am to be part of such an amazing group of women.  The topic was not an easy one.  One of our members found that it hit so close to home that she could not come and discuss it with us, but instead sent a letter along with another member saying what a painful topic it was, her thoughts on the book, how it touches her personally, and she would see us next month.

And that is what I LOVE about us.  We keep it real.  A book can generate raves, or it can cause pain and anger, yet we stick together, appreciate each others opinions, even when they differ from our own.  I can not even begin to tell you how that makes me feel, what a level of security and trust we bring to each meeting. 

Our review will go up on Thursday (I can’t wait!!!)  .  Today I have a book tour review for In The Bag.

As I head out to work, I will leave you with this, have you hugged a book club member today?  😀

May BAND Discussion: Non Fiction…. The Topics You Hate To Admit You Enjoy

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)31 Comments

BAND — Bloggers’ Alliance of Nonfiction Devotees — is a group organized to promote the joy of reading nonfiction. We are “advocates for nonfiction as a non-chore,” and we want you to join us. Each month, a member of BAND hosts a discussion on their blog related to nonfiction.


I was so excited when I was offered to host the May BAND topic.  I started dabbling a bit more consistently into non-fiction in early 2010 and discovered I really enjoyed it.  It seems as I get older (*insert GROAN here*)the more I find myself fascinated with true stories.

Non-fiction covers everything from memoirs, to facts about anything…bugs, wood, planes, homes, historical truths, you name it… you can read about it…

HOWEVER…

what I would like to offer up as the topic this month is what are those topics in non fiction reading, that you almost hate to say out loud that you enjoy reading about.

I have two that come to mind, one I don’t mind saying out loud… the other even disturbs me a bit.  😛 

The first is, I am fascinated with everything to do with the Titanic.  Not just now that we are on the 100th anniversary of the tragedy… but I always have been.  In a way, I feel bad about this because it is about a tragedy… but I am drawn to it… the ship, the facts, the people on board… I can not get enough about reading non fiction about this…

A Night To Remember

Titanic Survivor by Violet Jessop (on my wish list!)

The Story Of Titanic as told by Its Survivors

Voyagers Of The Titanic

 

The second non fiction topic that I hate to admit I like to read is true crime.  Yup.  There was a time when an Ann Rule book was the first book I read each year.  I admit, I haven’t read one in a few years now, but I am still drawn to the topic for some reason even I can’t explain.  I am oddly interested and baffled by what causes people to act in such ways.  Some of the true crime I have read in the past:

Heart Full Of Lies

The Stranger Beside Me (Ann Rule’s recap of her friendship with Ted Bundy when he worked the Crisis Hot Line with her, before he was discovered to be a serial killer)

Green River Running Red

Every Breath You Take (the first Ann Rule I ever read, about a woman whose husband would not let her go – an obsession that was so frightening that she (Sheila Blackthorn Bellush) knew he would eventually kill her and had told a friend to have Ann Rule  write her story if he did succeed in killing her).  He succeeded.

 

Thanks for letting me play in the BAND!  😀

Do you have any non fiction topics that you are a little reluctant to admit you enjoy reading?  It can be anything… books about ants, the human brain, bed bugs, Salem Witch Trials, Undertakers, fashion, rock star memoirs…you name it! Spill it!  😀  Feel free to write your own BAND post and link it back here. 


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Morning Meanderings… BOOK CLUB TUESDAY!!!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)23 Comments

Good morning!  Happy Tuesday.  I woke up to a light rain (again) pattering on the back deck as I let the dogs out but today… I dont mind.  After I write this I will be on my way to work, after work to the store to get my ingredients for tonight’s Bookies review of Still Alice by Lisa Genova.

To all of you who have said to me “I can not believe you have not read this one yet!” or “That is one of my favorite books!”  Now that I have read it, I can not believe I had not read it yet either, and yes, I think it is quickly rising in my mind to on of the best books I have read this year.  Our review will go up on Thursday.

So as it clouds up over here in Central Minnesota, my mind is circling around ideas of if I can make pumpkin ravioli for the first time ever and serve it to 18 girls in my book club successfully, or….

am I better off making enchilada’s… a safer recipe I am more familiar with…. 😀

 

In Shelf Awareness this morning, one of those lovely morning reads that pops in my email and makes me smile, this was stated about the best book club reads out there right now:

 

Top Book Club Books in April

The following were the most popular book club books during April based on votes from readers and leaders of more than 32,000 book clubs registered at Bookmovement.com:

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
2. Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy by E.L. James
3. Defending Jacob: A Novel by William Landay
4. The Paris Wife: A Novel by Paula McLain
5. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
6. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
7. Before I Go to Sleep: A Novel by S.J. Watson
8. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
9. Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue
10. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

 

I have read #1, #5, #7,#8.#9, and #10.  How about you?  Have you read any of these?  Would you agree with their choices?  I would have to add Still Alice should be added to that group.  I think our discussion tonight is going to be deep, and amazing. 

The Selection by Kiera Cass

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)14 Comments

If I had to vote on a “best cover for 2012” book.. this one would be in the running.

~ Sheila

The Selection

America Singer is a young teenage girl. She lives in a country, Illea, where people are ranked by their skills, or in castes. America is a five, only three steps from the bottom. Fives are typically artists or performers; America is a singer and is skilled at a few instruments. Her family constantly struggles to get the food needed, as well as keep the house heated through the winter season. America lives with her mother, Magda, her father, Shalom, her younger sister, May, and her younger brother, Gerad. Her eldest siblings, Kota and Jenna, have moved out of the house. Aspen, a handsome nineteen year old, holds America’s heart. America cannot truly be with Aspen because he is a six; women hardly ever marry below them. Aspen can hardly provide for his family, especially after his father’s death. America, because of money issues, enters in the “Selection” a contest in which the king and queen of Illea randomly choose thirty five women between the ages of sixteen and twenty from each providence to compete for their son’s hand in marriage. America, of course, knows she has little chance of being picked, but enters the contest for the possible compensation that her family could earn if she is selected. When America is selected, her whole providence of Carolina is dumbfounded.

America goes to the palace only to escape Aspen, who has recently decided to end their relationship. It is here in the palace where she meets the kind, generous, caring, and funny Prince Maxon. America has no intentions of coming to care for Maxon, and expects to be sent home in the first week. To her surprise, she becomes very dear friends with Maxon. Despite her still nagging feelings for Aspen, she finds herself and the prince growing closer and closer together. After brutal attacks on the palace and a surprise appearance from Aspen, she knows she must chose between the two, but who will it be?

 

The Selection is a book that is portrayed in great detail, and lets you really feel what the characters feel. It shows you the true meaning of life, and mostly, the tangled ways of love and how it creeps up on you at unimaginable times. I personally enjoyed this book immensely.  I loved it, and read it in a matter of hours. It is extremely hard to put down once you start, and is interesting and pulls you in from the beginning. Looking forward to the next book!

Note from Sheila:  Camryn told me this is one I do not want to miss!  Also, the book cover pic is always linked to where you an purchase the book but I also heard it is excellent in audio as well.  Audio lovers, here is a link for you.  😀

 

Camryn is 12 years old, soon to be thirteen and enjoys reading YA books of the fantasy and romance genre. A few of her favorite books are “Hourglass” by Myra McEntire, “The Other Countess” by Eve Edwards, “Hush, Hush” by Becca Fitzpatrick, “The Immortals” series, the “Marked” series and the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” series.  When she’s not reading she enjoys watching Gilmore Girls or going to book sales for more books to add to her ever-growing collection.