It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing, and some weeks I share what I am listening to.

What I/we’ve been Reading

Last week I finished Death and Daisies by Amanda Flower, which is part of the Magic Garden Mystery series.

I borrowed the first and second books in the series from Libby and then found out that my local library hadn’t put book three in. Argh! Hopefully they will eventually so I can finish the series.

The books are pretty good but are I don’t know that I like how the mysteries are always solved in less than a week. In book two the ending was so abrupt that it was like the story just hit a wall – pretty literally actually. The stories are entertaining, though, and I guess she solves the mysteries fast to keep the action going non-stop, which keeps the reader turning the page. They are well-written books and just a nice escape from life, even if there were a couple of things I didn’t like about them.

 I read plenty of books that I don’t like every aspect of it but still enjoyed the escape from life I experienced while reading them. If I didn’t like the books at all then I wouldn’t have added another one of her books from a different series to my Kindle this weekend from Libby and wouldn’t be hoping to get book three for less than the $13 being charged on Amazon for the eBook edition. I’m going to wait and see if I can get it on Libby instead at some point. I find it odd that you can get the other two books in mass paperback for $8 but it’s $13 for even an ebook for the new one, even though it is three years old, but I’ll never understand how publishers work.

Anyhow, enough rambling about books and costs and etc., etc. Here is a quick description of book two of the Magic Garden series in case you are wondering what it was about:
Fiona Knox thought she was pulling her life back together when she inherited her godfather’s cottage in Duncreigan, Scotland—complete with a magical walled garden. But the erstwhile Tennessee flower shop owner promptly found herself puddle boot-deep in danger when she found a dead body among the glimmering blossoms. One police investigation and a handsome Chief Inspector names Neil Craig later and Fiona’s life is getting back on a steady—though bewitched—track. Her sister Isla has just moved in with her, and the grand opening of her new spellbound venture, the Climbing Rose Flower Shop in Aberdeenshire, is imminent.

But dark, ensorcelled clouds are gathering to douse Fiona’s newly sunny outlook. First, imperious parish minister Quaid MacCullen makes it undeniably clear that he would be happy to send Fiona back to Tennessee. Then, a horrific lightning storm, rife with terrible omen, threatens to tear apart the elderly cottage and sends Fi and Isla cowering under their beds. The storm passes, but then, Fi is called away from the Climbing Rose’s opening soiree when Kipling, the tiny village’s weak-kneed volunteer police chief, finds a dead body on the beach.

The body proves difficult to identify, but Kipling is certain it’s that of the parish minister. Which makes Fiona, MacCullen’s new nemesis, a suspect. And what’s worse, Isla has seemed bewitched as of late…did she do something unspeakable to protect her sister? The last thing Fiona wanted to do was play detective again. But now, the rosy future she’d envisioned is going to seed, and if she and Craig can’t clear her name, her idyllic life will wilt away. 

Since I didn’t have book three, I jumped back into my first Nicole Deese book, All That Really Matters. It is a romance and I know where it is going but it is well-written so I’m going to keep reading it.

I am also reading The Regal Pink by Jenny Knipfer. This is a faith-based fantasy book and so far, I am enjoying it, even though it is not my normal genre.

I’m switching between books based on my mood like I usually do since I am mainly a mood reader.

Little Miss and I are still re-reading Little House on Plum Creek, but I have a few other books on my list that I hope we can start soon.

What’s Been Occurring

I posted a little bit about what was happening last week on my post yesterday if you want to read that to catch up, but I will warn you that it wasn’t terribly exciting. *wink* There was a little sadness, a bit of stress, and a lot of wildfire smoke.

Yesterday Little Miss had a friend over and we attended a graduation party for our neighbor’s daughter who graduated from high school Friday night.

The party was held at a small hall down the street from our house but then it was moved back up to the neighbor’s house, which let Little Miss and her friend play with our neighbor’s grandsons and some other children who came to the party for a little while.

She and her friend jumped on the trampoline, then played on the slip n’ slide, then went to the trampoline, then back to the slip n’ slide and so on. I’m not sure about the other kids, but my daughter slept pretty hard last night after all that playing. I also let her sleep in this morning.

We finished school last week and are looking forward to our summer break to refresh our minds and souls. We are hoping for some relaxing days, a little bit of fun, and a lot of time to simply take our time and not feel like we have any obligations to do anything intentionally academic.

What We Watched/are Watching

I started watching Victorian Farm on BritBox this week because Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs has talked about it quite a few times to me and on her blog. It is an interesting show about how farmers lived in the Victorian age in England.

Here is a little description in case you are curious:

This historical documentary series finds archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn and domestic historian Ruth Goodman on the Acton Scott estate, located in rural England and frozen in the Victorian era. The trio lives here for a year, using only Victorian-era tools and materials, such as those found scattered around the estate, to re-create everyday life during the late 1800s. The three must grow and harvest their own food, care for and breed a variety of livestock animals, maintain the estate’s buildings and even craft their own tools and furniture.

The Husband and I also watched a few episodes of Newhart on Amazon last week because it is such a lovely escape from life.

This morning I watched a sermon from Elevation Church and then I watched another one with Robert Madu from Social Dallas. Both were very good. One was about our need to connect with other Christians and the other one was about Jonah and God’s call on his life and on our life. Then I watched half of another sermon by Robert, which was about loving others even we do not agree with them because God loves them even if he does not love what they do (just like he often doesn’t love what we do).

What I’m Writing

I am working on Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage, book two in the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries. The first book comes out July 18^th.

Last week on the blog I shared:

• Saturday Afternoon Chat: Hazy, smokey days and the cruelty of nature
• Spring of Cary: Notorious

Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.