Sunday Bookends: We missed a 100-year old tradition & more mysteries

/ Lisa R. Howeler

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. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

Our family tried to go to a 120-year-old tradition of riding a homemade wooden sled down a hill on a track made of 13-inch blocks of ice yesterday but the wait was 3-hours.

We opted for food at an inn and tavern instead and left the waiting to others.

The Eagles Mere Toboggan Ride is held only if the Eagles Mere Lake freezes enough that the fire company can cut the blocks to build the slide.

It doesn’t happen every year so we have to take the chance when we can but it’s been so severely cold that we made the mistake of waiting.

Since the weather is warming up, this weekend was probably the last chance.

It was a nice day despite the kids and husband not being able to go down the historic slide. What?  You didn’t think I was going down that thing, did you?

They walked around town on their way back and stopped by the little bookstore I love to visit. I was waiting in the car, though, and didn’t know they were visiting it and when we drove by later, finding a parking space was impossible. So I didn’t get to go to the bookstore, but Little Miss and The Husband picked up a couple books for me.

Then it was on to the tavern for an amazing lunch while taxidermy animals looked down on us.

If you would like to know more about the toboggan ride, you can watch this video:

What I/We’ve Been Reading

In Progress

I am reading Mrs. McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie for the Read Christie 26 Challenge.

I am also reading The Blue Castle, Return of the King, and Murder, She Wrote: Bullets and Brandy by Donald Bain.

Up Soon

How To Seal Your Own Fate by Kristin Perrin.

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I are reading The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy together and listening to The Green Ember by S.D. Smith.

The Husband is reading The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

I don’t know if I need a life or if my life is okay but my big thrill this week was when my Blu-ray of Angels With Dirty Faces — a movie with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart from the late 1930s — arrived in the mail. The icing on the cake was that The Husband was just as excited to see it and warned me I can’t watch it without him.

I am watching it for next week’s Winter of Cagney.

The husband and I watched an episode of Kate and Allie last night. I forgot about that show.

I watched White Heat for the Winter of Cagney and will write about it Monday.

I also watched All Creatures Great and Small.

What I’ve Been Writing

What I/We’ve Been Listening To

I am listening to Shakespeare. The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brenden O’Hea because I found it more interesting to listen to than read.

Some Housekeeping

Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea.  This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.

Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link-party.

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.

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

If you enjoy the kind of content on my blog and all that goes into it, you can support my writing for $2.99 a month or a single donation. Learn more here: https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/

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23 thoughts on “Sunday Bookends: We missed a 100-year old tradition & more mysteries”

  1. Pingback: Sunday Bookends: Kurt Browning commented on my Instagram! Oh and I read books. | Boondock Ramblings

  3. I forgot all about the old series Kate & Allie! How did you find that? Was an episode on YouTube or what? I just googled it and it was on for 6 seasons! I thought it was much shorter. I might try to find it.

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  4. In the summer when I was a kid a local organisation used to have a fundraising activity where you could ride a giant ice block (which they’d frozen a rope handle into) down a big grassy hill, I looked forward to it every year. It was the closest I ever got to experiencing tobogganing.

    I don’t think I could bear having taxidermied animals staring at me while I ate.

    Wishing you a happy reading week

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  5. Thanks I did chuckle at your not going down the slide, if it did happen for the others. A shame it was such a long wait. How interesting though. All Creatures Great and Small is very good, I must look to see if any more episodes are available.

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    • I think if my son had gone with his friends that they would have waited for it. But I think probably my daughter and husband wouldn’t have waited that long. My husband claimed it was the kids who wouldn’t wait that long, but I think he was the one that didn’t want to stand there. My son said he had never seen a line so long for something. It curved around a couple of different streets in the town I guess. I’m guessing that our volunteer fire departments were able to get a lot of money this year to help them. They take turns hosting the slide each weekend and are able to keep the money that is made that weekend.They also volunteer to help keep the slide going. It’s a great tradition and a lot of fun for the area.

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    • The food at that tavern was so good. I thought it was going to be a little dumpier than it was so I was pleasantly surprised to see it was a pretty nice place. The service was great. I was also surprised it wasn’t more packed since a lot of people were up to go to the toboggan ride, but I think we hit it at just the right time. Not exactly sure how I felt about all the dead stuffed animals but I don’t know if they are real or just facsimile anyhow.

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  10. I’m sorry, but I would say a big no to a three-hour wait for a death ride in a toboggan, too. I would say a big no to a toboggan ride period. In that cold, I’d be huddled up next to a fire.

    I’m trying to stretch out All Creatures Great and Small for as long as I can. I love that show.

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    • Luckily, it was 43° yesterday instead of the really cold temperatures we’ve been having. But still a three hour wait was just too much. My son wanted to go because it is a rare opportunity and it would be cool to say you went on it since it is so old. Or it’s such an old tradition anyhow. The toboggans themselves are old but not 120 years old. They have fixed them up over the years. I don’t know how the people did it when we had those Arctic temps though. I saw videos of them flying down that hill in the dark and then you have to walk back up the hill to get back to your car. No thank you.

      I knew that I wouldn’t be trying it because of my health issues. Sometimes walking into a store is difficult for me, Let alone all the way up a hill. But it would’ve been a cool experience for the kids. We’ll have to see what next winter brings and if they are able to cut the ice out of the lake. The process of making the slide is at least very cool and cool to watch.

      I love All Creatures Great and Small too. I love to drag it out and even make my family rewatch it with me from time to time. 😂

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  11. “I don’t know if I need a life or if my life is okay but my big thrill this week was …”
    Sounds okay to me to have a thrill at all. You should have seen me when my “magic apple” seed beads (that’s what the color is called) arrived yesterday.
    I have “Kate and Allie” on DVD. I love Jane Curtin. It was one of the first shows I got to see in English when we first had cable. That and a movie about Dawn Fraser.

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    • I think I watched Kate and Ally when I was a kid but when we started to watch it, I didn’t remember any of it. I really like Jane Curtin too. Her comedic timing is amazing.

      I get very excited about movies on DVD or Blu-ray or new journals. I lead a very exciting life. . 😂😂😂

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    • I forgot about Kate and Ally too. I also think that the toboggan slide is absolutely crazy. I mean I’ve known about it my whole life so it doesn’t seem that abnormal to me but at the same time it does if you know what I mean. it’s kind of like when you have something from your area that you know about but when other people hear about it you suddenly realize maybe that thing is a little weird. 😂😂

      Like cow pie bingo. Do you guys have cow pie bingo?

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