Hello everyone! Welcome to a new Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, the post where you can share your posts from the previous week, or even before, and get some new eyes on them. You can also connect with other bloggers so I really encourage you to click on and comment on the other blog posts.
I am a co-host for this feature with Marsha in the Middle and Melynda from Scratch Made Food For Hungry People but we are looking for a couple more hosts, so please let me know in the comments if you are interested and I’ll put you in touch with Marsha.
How was your week this week?
Mine has been mostly filled with housework, homeschooling, writing blog posts, and editing the second book in my cozy mystery series. I am so excited for those who read the first book to read book two in the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries! It comes out December 5 and is called Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage. The first book is Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing.
One blog post I worked on this week was about our trip last week to a reptile zoo. I know there are soooo many people who love snakes and lizards (ha!) so here are a few photos from our visit:
Let’s get on to what post was our most clicked last week. It was:
Now it is your turn to leave a link to one of your blog posts from this week! Have fun and keep it family-friendly! Then visit some other bloggers and find new friends.
For October and November, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching cozy or comfy movies, and some of them will have a little mystery, creepiness, or adventure added in. You can find out about the other movies we watched by searching Comfy, Cozy Cinema in my search bar at the right.
This one was a different one this week because it was a documentary about four British actresses who are legends in theater, movies, and television. All four of them have been named “dames” by the British monarchy. This is the female equivalent of being dubbed a knight.
The documentary is a series of sit-down interviews with Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Joan Plowright, and Dame Eileen Atkins.
The documentary was made in 2018 and all the women were in their 80s. They are now in or nearing their 90s but all four are still alive.
All four women have been friends for probably 40 years or more.
If you haven’t heard of one or the other of these women, I’ll detail below some examples of what they’ve been in. Most would be familiar with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith at least.
I watched this documentary a few years ago and found it enchanting, hilarious, touching, and inspiring. I made my husband watch it with me and now I’ve made Erin watch it with me too.
The entire documentary consists of the women at Joan’s cottage where she used to live with actor Laurence Olivier, simply telling stories about their careers and families and the time they spent together as friends.
All four actresses have worked in theater, the small screen and big screen.
They all started in theater and hearing their early stories about those days was very interesting to me, even though I’ve never been interested in participating in it myself.
Judi Dench is well known for her work on British sitcoms (As Time Goes By and A Fine Romance. She stared in A Fine Romance with her future husband Michael Williams) but more prominently an entire line of movies from the Bond movies where she played M, to Shakespeare in Love where she played a queen. She also played queen in Mrs. Brown.
Her list of movies also includes Chocolat, Philomenia, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and … well, there are tons of them. (A link to her work: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001132/)
Maggie Smith is most well known recently for Downton Abbey and Harry Potter. She played the Dowager Countess Violet Crowly in Downton Abbey and Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter. (a link to her work: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001749/)
Eileen has been in a ton of films and television as well, Paddington 2, Wicked Little Letters, The Crown, The Archers, Beautiful Creatures, etc., etc. (A link to her work: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0040586/)
Joan’s film list includes The Spiderwick Chronicles, Mrs. Palfrey at the Clairmont, Dennis the Menace, and 101 Dalmatians among so many others. (Here is a link to her work: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0687506/)
The documentary is pretty laid-back and easygoing. There are some great quotes from all four women about acting and life in general. They bounce off each other in hilarious exchanges between the women and the interviewer and the crew helping with filming. There is footage from their past films and plays woven throughout.
This is not a rated G film with Judi dropping a couple of f-bombs during the filming, especially in regard to a question about growing older.
Maggie is so funny because she seems unable to use the word “child” throughout. She refers to the son of Joan and Laurence (they call him Larry)’as “a small person.” Like when she tells a story about him she says, “When Richard was a small person…”
The story she tells is hilarious too. She once overhead Laurence Olivier begging his young son to tell him if he had thrown the key to his liquor cabinet down the dumb waiter.
“Richard, tell Daddy where the key is. Daddy needs his num-nums.”
Maggie laughs and says, “The idea that a great actor was reduced to using the word num-nums.”
I also really giggled at the conversation about how they each became dames.
Judi became one first and called Maggie when she became one and said, “Don’t worry…you can still swear.
“You can swear more actually,” Judi says with a laugh.
“You just do it privately,” Maggie snickers and speaks with a very posh accent.
Joan was a lady before she was a dame because she married Sir Laurence Olivier, Maggie points out.
“Well, darling, it is quite difficult to have two titles,” Joan replies. “People don’t know which one to use.”
“You’ll have to grapple with it, Joan,” Maggie smith says while the other women laugh.
There are also some very profound quotes from the women mixed in with the laughs.
At one point Judi is asked how people face the fear associated with acting.
“Fear is petrol,” she states in a matter-of-fact tone. “Fear is the petrol. It generates such an energy. Fear. Being frightened. If you can somehow channel it, it can be a help.”
I really love this documentary because it is a wonderful reminder of what women can do when they cast aside societal expectations and just go for their dreams.
These women had a passion for acting. They wanted success and went for it and didn’t let anything stop them. In a day and age where women had to fight for every crumb, they won the whole loaf and then showed other women how to do the same thing.
As I told Erin, I just love watching these women talk about their past but also teared up when they showed all the roles they have played. I mean these women were pioneers for women who were told they couldn’t play certain roles and couldn’t be mothers and wives AND successful in their careers at the same time.
Not only did they defy expectations but they completely exceeded them. I mean Judi Dench was literally in Shakespeare in Love for eight minutes and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She is 88 years old and two weeks ago she recited a Shakespeare soliloquy from memory on the Graham Norton Show:
I found the documentary for free (with commercials) on Tubi but you can also rent it off various streaming services.
We are taking a break from the Comfy, Cozy Cinema for Thanksgiving but will be back next week for The Fishermen’s Friends and then on November 30 with a bit of Jane –Sense and Sensibility.
I’m not sure what we have on tap for December but stay tuned. If Erin and I don’t do a joint Cozy Christmas cinema together, I’m sure she and I with both be watching our favorites and sharing about them on our blogs.
Last week I was able to pull off a surprise for Little Miss who is a huge fan of reptiles, especially snakes.
She watches a show called Snake Discovery on YouTube a lot and learns all about snakes, their habits, the different ones, etc.
Two years ago she was bit by a non-venomous snake and fainted from the excitement of it all. As she fainted she fell into the kitchen table at my parents and we had to take her to the hospital by ambulance. I thought that after that she wouldn’t like snakes anymore but, on the contrary, she was even more fascinated.
She has no qualms telling an adult, by the way, that a snake is not poisonous or non-poisonous, they are venomous or non-venomous.
When I found out the county library – the only library in the county was sponsoring a trip to a reptile zoo I used to hear wasn’t a very good one but had improved, I signed up immediately. I managed to keep it a surprise despite talking about the logistics of getting there with The Husband in front of her more than once. She thought I had a doctor’s appointment and that’s why we were driving so far but when we pulled up and she read the sign she yelled out, “Yes!”
The Husband was working that day so I took The Boy with us. I thought he would have fun too and it meant a day off from his trade school so he was all for it (even though he doesn’t hate school).
Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland is named after a Clyde Peeling, a native of Muncy, Pa. As far as I can tell online he is still alive. The zoo was first opened in the 1960s but has grown over the years.
Little Miss was overwhelmed when we walked into the zoo. There were so many exhibits with snakes, geckos, lizards, turtles, and alligators she could barely contain her excitement. She ran from exhibit to exhibit, her eyes wide while she told me about them without even reading the signs on their exhibit. She probably could have told a few of the staff members some things about their charges that they didn’t even know.
When you first walk in there is an open exhibit with alligators. They don’t look real. They don’t even move. They seem to be completely bored with life. I was convinced the place was a scam and their alligators were real wax figures. The next time we came by, though, one of them had moved and his eyes were a little more closed and The Boy insisted he had seen it move. They also had an albino alligator who he said he saw move even more.
From there you enter a gallery of turtles, snakes, tree frogs, toads, lizards, and geckos. They are behind glass, of course. We briefly viewed the gallery on the way in and then headed for the small amphitheater where a young man with a very Irish accent talked to the children about the various reptiles he held up. He held up a small crocodile, a lizard, and a python. Little Miss was very disappointed that she couldn’t hold them. She thought it was interesting that she could touch the crocodile on the head on her way out but she really wanted to hold it or the snake.
After the presentation finished, the group moved on to the parakeet tent which is a type of greenhouse completely full of parakeets and a few cockatiels. The zoo sells seed sticks for $3 and visitors can hold the sticks out and the birds will land and eat the seeds. The birds will also sometimes land on the visitors as well, but mainly they like to stay in the trees, along the edges of the tent structure or they like to drop the ground and chew at shoelaces.
I was completely in panic mode in the parakeet tent, not because I don’t like parakeets (I owned two when I was a child), but because I was petrified that I might step on one, killing it and traumatizing a bunch of preschoolers (since most of those who attended with the library group were of that age group). They even have a sign as you walk into the facility, warning you to watch for the birds on the ground.
I ended up backed up against the wall by the staff member while The Boy and Little Miss walked through the greenhouse – or at least part of it. The Boy was wearing steel-toed boots and I think he was also petrified he might kill one.
Two of the birds really looked like the birds I had growing up and I felt nostalgic for Perky, the one who lived longer. He used to sit in a cage in our kitchen and Mom would talk to him while I was at school. We said “Perky bird” to him so often that he actually started to call out “Perky bird! Perky bird.”
Unfortunately, he passed away when we left him with a friend of mine when we went to North Carolina for Christmas one year. My friend had birds herself and we don’t know if Perky was overwhelmed with all the bigger and louder birds around him or what happened. I felt so guilty for leaving him and my friend felt guilty that he died on her watch. We’d had him for several years so I guess it was only a matter of time. We didn’t try another bird after that. I don’t think my heart could have handled it.
Once we left the parakeet area, we headed back to the exhibits so Little Miss could get a closer look at the various snakes and lizards.
In one exhibit there were four turtles and an iguana and at one point the iguana really took an interest in Little Miss and kept watching her intently through the glass. I don’t know what it was about her that fascinated him but I think he would have gone right home with her.
She and the boy were fascinated with the Komodo Dragon and we were all fascinated with the Aldabra tortoises housed in the same building as the dragon. The building was empty of other people when we got there so we just sat and watched the tortoises for several minutes and it was the most relaxed I had felt all day. If we ever go back there I think I’ll just go there first and watch them while everyone else explores the rest of the zoo.
We also had fun watching a trio of garter snakes who were curious enough to come up to the exhibit glass and check us out while we watched them. I’m not sure why we paused by their exhibit in the first place since we see so many of them in our yard in the spring or summer, but I’m glad we did because they were so entertaining.
In the courtyard outside in the back of the facility, there was a dinosaur display with animatronic dinosaurs, which we enjoyed seeing and interacting with. In that same area, they had an enclosure with three Australian Emu.
The library paid for the tickets for everyone who signed up for the event, which was really amazing of them because the tickets are $20 a person for anyone 12 and up and $16 for those 2 to 12.
The prices are steep but the place allows you to stay as long as you want, see all the educational KU live programs they have going on during the day, and bring and eat your lunch in the pavilions they have there or inside their gift shop. It isn’t a huge zoo, but there are 40 exhibits of various reptiles, the parakeet area, and the dinosaurs out back.
I am sure we will be visiting there again in the spring. Most of the exhibits are inside but running between buildings was a little chilly that day and it will be nice to go on a warmer day as well. I know Little Miss is already looking forward to another visit and I told her we would even pay extra so she can hold some of those snakes she loves so much.
Today on my son’s 17th birthday I found myself thinking about him through the years.
Here are a couple of letters I wrote to him and posted on my blog.
The first one was a day before he went into third grade in 2015.
I wrote the second in 2016.
2015: I’m not going to lie. I’m having a very hard time with you going back to school in a day. When I say hard, I mean my chest gets tight, my face scrunches funny and my eyes feel hot with tears and I feel weak in my knees.
I’m not ready for you not to be home with me every day. I’m not ready to not be able to rub your little back or kiss your cute head whenever I want. I’m not ready to not hear you building your Legos and creating stories with them, or listening as you tell me what you’ve made on Minecraft that day.
Someday I won’t be able to reach the top of your head to kiss it, I know that. Someday I won’t hear you ask me to come see your latest creation on Minecraft or your latest drawing. Someday you won’t even care if I watch you jump off the side of the pool or ride your new bike, or build your latest Lego robot.
You are so bright and creative and witty and fun. You make every day better, more fun, more interesting, and definitely more worthy to live. I never know what new adventure awaits me when your feet hit the floor each morning and that’s a pretty awesome (yet sometimes scary) feeling.
You’re such an amazing big brother. I hope you know that. You care for your sister, keep her out of trouble, help me care for her, and, as Grandma once said, you show her how to love by being loving to her. Each hug, each kiss, each cuddle shows Gracie what love really is and the fact you know this at only 8-years of age makes me realize we must be doing something right as your parents.
Here we are with only a few days left of summer. I can’t put the brakes on time; I can’t make it stand still, no matter how much I want to. Instead, I’m trying to enjoy each time you put your arms around me. I’m trying to focus on each moment we have together, each story you tell me, each kiss you give me and each laugh we share. I’m letting my cheek linger against the top of your buzzed head when I hold you.
You’re going to have an amazing school year. I know that. Third grade is going to be challenging. There will be tears. You and I will both get frustrated. We may even yell at each other a bit. But we’re going to survive it – together.
Love you, kid
Mom
2016
When I look at this photo of you I see a little boy who has my heart completely and has since the day I first learned you were growing inside me. I see your brilliance, your wit, your charm, your amazing ability to look at almost any situation in a positive light. How hard it must be for you to have been given parents who sometimes lean too much toward the negative yet God gave you the gift of compassion and encouragement because he knew we would need to be reminded.
You wanted to cross the entire bridge that day but daddy and I were tired and said “no.” I wish I had said yes. I don’t ever want to limit you in your dreams or your goals. I don’t ever want to slow you down.
Your future is so wide open and though I often want to keep you close to my side, tucked under my arm, I know I’ll someday have to let you walk the path there on your own.
Before we know it, it will be spring and I hope we go back to that bridge because we are going to walk all the way across it together.
Happy 17th birthday, kid. You mean the world to me and your dad and sister and the rest of the family.
You’re bright, compassionate, sweet, funny, silly, crazy, and an absolute blessing.
October seemed to be a very busy month for us while also not busy. I don’t know how to explain that. It was full of little spurts of busy mixed with a lot of mental busyness for me as we try to figure out some next steps in life. Today I’m looking back at October through some photographs.
We had beautiful foliage this year. I didn’t get out to take as many photographs as I should have or would have liked to, partially because of the rainy and yucky weather we had part of the time and partially because of apathy, for lack of a better word.
We also had some nice family time with my parents in October and also celebrated Little Miss’s 9th birthday.
It is cocoa with maple syrup time now that the weather is cold in Pennsylvania. That is what I am drinking this morning but later I will be sipping tea because I use real cocoa powder for my hot cocoa and if I have too much it trips my tachycardia issues a few hours later. Weird, I know.
We lit our first fire earlier this week and it was nice to have the house nice and cozy during the day and comfortable at night.
It is not lit yet today and I really need to get on that because it is going to be chilly again today, though not as cold as it was earlier this week. I am writing this blog post, though, so the fire will have to wait.
My almost 17-year-old (Tuesday he will be 17) will have to man the fire this afternoon because The Husband will be at work and Little Miss and I will be at my parents’ house making apple pies for The Boy’s birthday. He and my husband are not huge cake fans so my mom makes them pies. Now that Mom is 79, it isn’t as easy for her to make the pies on her own so Little Miss and I help. We will help again in a couple of weeks for Thanksgiving and my husband’s birthday, which are the same day this year.
Little Miss and I picked out the apples for The Boy’s pies yesterday at a farm store near us. My dad sent me a link to a website that helped us figure out which apples are best to use since previously we used Macintosh and they were too runny. We picked them up during a run to get groceries and to take my mom to get her license photo taken. It was so fun to look in the store with all its natural food and treats but I didn’t want to blow our budget so I got the apples, a small amount of chocolate, and a natural soda.
My mom can’t drive anymore but for some reason she still wanted her photo taken for her license and I wasn’t about to argue with her. Mom has suffered from Fibromyalgia for years and there have been times when getting around even at her house has been hard for her.
A few years ago she lost over 100 pounds with diet and she was able to get around even better. Her right shoulder is in bad shape, though, and surgery isn’t an option so there are days she is in total agony and can barely lift her arms. She walks with a walker and does well around the house now. Yesterday she was going to have to walk a bit to get to the bathroom at the DMV and then to get her photo taken and that made me nervous at first. I worried about what I would do if she fell or needed to suddenly sit down. I had nothing to worry about because she did amazing.
She might be hurting today but yesterday she got everything that she needed to get done without needing a wheelchair or to sit down. I was very proud of her. She shows me how to push through even when we are struggling.
Earlier in the week, Little Miss, The Boy, and I took advantage of an offer by our wonderful county library to attend a field trip at a reptile zoo about an hour away.
Little Miss absolutely loves reptiles so I kept this a surprise for more than two months and managed to keep it a surprise despite talking about the logistics of getting there with The Husband in front of her more than once. She thought I had a doctor’s appointment and that’s why we were driving so far but when we pulled up and she read the sign she was so excited.
She was also overwhelmed. There were so many exhibits with snakes, geckos, lizards, turtles, and alligators she could barely contain her excitement. She ran from exhibit to exhibit, her eyes wide.
In the courtyard, there was also a dinosaur display with animatronic dinosaurs, which we enjoyed seeing and interacting with.
The library paid for the tickets for everyone who signed up for the event, which was really amazing of them because the tickets are $20 a person for anyone 12 and up and $16 for those 2 to 12.
The prices are steep but the place allows you to stay as long as you want, see all the educational live programs they have going on during the day, and bring and eat your lunch in the pavilions they have there or inside their gift shop. I am sure we will be visiting there again in the spring. Most of the exhibits are inside but running between buildings was a little chilly that day.
I’ll be sharing more about this trip in a separate blog post later this week.
It was a long day when we went there because it was an hour’s drive down and then an hour’s drive back, plus the three hours we spent there.
On Thursday, Little Miss had gymnastics and I sat in the car and tried to work on the next book I am writing that comes out next year.
Next week I don’t have as much planned, other than celebrating The Boy turning 17, so I am looking forward to some calmer and cozier days.
How was your week last week? Did you do anything fun? Anything exciting planned for this week?
Welcome to another week of Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, which I co-host with Marsha in the Middle and Melynda from Scratch Made Food For Hungry People. This week has been a fairly relaxed but fun one for my family. Yesterday we went on a family field trip to a reptile zoo about an hour from us. My daughter absolutely loves reptiles. She watches a YouTube show called Snake Discovery about snakes and has even been trying to convince me to let her get a snake.
That isn’t going to happen because my husband is deathly afraid of snakes. He’s like Indian Jones in that room saying, “Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes?!”
I’ll write more about our trip to the reptile zoo in my Saturday Afternoon Chat.
For now, let’s get on to the post with the most clicks for this week. It was:
Now it is time for all you bloggers to leave your links for this week’s Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot. Your posts can be on any topic, from fashion to design to memories to what you did this past week. All we ask is that you keep it family-friendly.
In 1999 I wrote a story for the newspaper I was working for about the barber in the town we now live in. He was my dad’s barber and twelve years later he was the only person my toddler (now my almost 17-year-old) would let cut his hair. The barber, Sonny Decker, passed away several years ago.
This is the article I wrote. The photos are of my son.
Decker’s Barbershop in Dushore is about more than just an inexpensive haircut. It is about a place and a feeling and a simple man who does a simple job in a small town. Most of all, it is about country life and country people. It defines what life should be – relaxed, laid back, friendly, and caring.
In Decker’s Barbershop they talk about the town, the school, the weather, politics, work, hunting, or whatever the topic might be for that day.
“We have solved quite a few problems in here,” Bill Faulkiner, Laporte, says from the barber’s chair. “If we could get paid for all the issues we have discussed we would be rich.”
The topic on one recent afternoon was school closings and school boards. Everyone has an opinion today, except the barber who nods and smiles and keeps cutting Faulkiner’s hair.
The barber’s first name is Andrew but no one here calls him by this given name. The 60-year-old barber is Sonny to all of his customers.
“I’ve been here 31 years,” Decker says. “I can’t even believe it. It doesn’t seem that long at all. I’ve met a lot of interesting people and we’ve talked about a lot of things.”
Residents and customers would tell you business has never waned for Decker, even though he doesn’t own a phone. (“No appointment books here,” he says), and the building where he started his business on Main Street in Dushore was demolished this past year (“I miss the old building and seeing the trucks go by but I have more room here and more window space.”).
Decker says he started his business in May of 1968 after attending the City Barber Institute in Wilkes-Barre. According to Decker, Dushore wasn’t the first place he worked.
“There used to be this man named Guy Miller in Benton, who took young guys in,” Decker says. “I worked as an apprentice there for a while. Soon after that I had to take the state board exam.”
Customers say life seems to slow down and catch up to people both when they walk into Decker’s shop.
“This is where I come to relax,” Faulkiner says. “I work from sunup to sundown so I like to come in here and talk to people. You can get different input from the people who are here.”
On this day, life is catching up to 4-year-old Seth Crane of Dushore. According to Seth’s dad, John Crane, Seth is getting his first haircut. It is a nerve-wracking prospect for the young man, whose head is covered with long blond curls, but Decker knows how to sooth the fears of an apprehensive child.
It is something that he has been doing for 31 years, after all.
“What are you worried about? This is going to be fun,” Decker says. “You’re going to feel so cool with all your hair gone. You won’t sweat anymore and when you’re done, I’ll give you a Mickey Mouse lollipop. Won’t that be nice?”
Seth is skeptical and doubtful and it takes sitting on his dad’s lap to get him to let Decker give him “his first professional haircut.”
Seth is getting what his father will get.
“High and tight, that is how I like it,” John Crane says. “This is the only place you can get a real military haircut.”
“Show me how you turn that on,” Decker says, and lets Seth hold the clippers, in an attempt to stop the tears.
The tears don’t stop until almost all the hair is gone and and Decker has changed the direction of the conversation.
“I’m going to give you a lollipop and then your sisters will be jealous and they’ll want a haircut,” Decker says. “What are your sisters’ names?”
“Samantha and Cathy-Jo,” says Seth, sniffling, but calm.
Decker says the best part of his job is listening to the conversations and meeting new people.
“We have pilots and businessmen and all kinds of people come in here,” Decker says. “You get a real education here.”
Decker’s thoughts are full of memories and his memories are full of people.
“I remember I used to talk to Elmer Robinson from New Albany a lot,” he says. “He was real interesting. He knew a lot. Yep.”
Customers say they’ve learned a lot at Decker’s shop too.
“Hey, Sonny, do you remember when Marty Behrend and Jim Gardner would talk about the old creamery?” John Crane asks. “It was great. They used to talk about how it used to be and tell us stories that would just have our sides splitting.”
Decker nods and smiles as he trims another layer from Faulkiner’s hair.
“I remember when Bill Sick’s brother Leo said to me, ‘Sonny, when I die, I want you to come over and cut my hair for the funeral.’” Decker pauses in mid-cut, and his gaze drifts out the front window. “Of course, I thought he was kidding but boy was I surprised when one morning I got a phone call and they said he had died. That was the first dead person’s hair I cut. After that, the first three people’s hair I cut felt dead. It was weird.”
Decker resumes his cutting. For a brief moment, silence falls over the shop and all that can be heard is the buzz of the clippers.
“You know I believe I am the only male barber in Sullivan County,” Decker says, interrupting the silence with another thought.
And that is what it is all about here at Decker’s shop. Thoughts and stories, memories and moments.
How Is a Missing Military Working Dog Related to Two Local Fires?
Snuggle with your trusty hound and settle into a small-town mystery in book 6 of the Gone to the Dogs series.
Air Force veteran Dr. Lane Bishop and Nora Hernandez’s romance has cooled. He is busy working as a researcher at the vet school, and she’s busy with her restaurant and opening an antique shop. What Lane hasn’t told her is his PTSD, which manifests mostly with nightmares, makes him believe he’s damaged goods. But that is about to change when he meets a stray pup that acts a lot like a military working dog.
When a tornado hits Brenham, there is damage in the downtown area and a fire is ignited in Nora’s new store. A Belgian Malinois dog is seen at the fire and later Lane sees him at a wedding venue where an explosion occurs. Not long after, a second explosion rocks Brenham and sends Nora and Lane on a hunt for the person responsible. Will the pair find the guilty party before more damage is done to the city’s landmarks? And will Lane find the words to tell Nora how much he loves her before it’s too late?
This is the second book I’ve read in this series and I enjoyed it, especially the romance mixed in with the mystery. This was a to-the-point mystery that wrapped up without a ton of clues but that was okay – the clues weren’t needed to make the story interesting. It was fast paced with a new development in almost every chapter but not so fast paced that it was unrealistic or ridiculous.
I loved the main characters, even though I have not read a cozy mystery where there was a POV from two people before. I don’t know if I really liked the switching back and forth at first but I really loved both characters so it started not to bother me as much.
The supporting cast in this book was also a book to the story.
The plot line of the military dog drew the elements of the mystery together and I was pleased with how that part of the story resolved. The ending was somewhat predictable but I didn’t mind that because it ended how I hoped it would.
Though I felt there were a couple of plot points that didn’t quite come together for me, I still enjoyed the book and would read more in the series. This book came at a good time in my life when I needed a clean and wholesome book to read.
About the Author
Kathleen Y’Barbois a multiple Carol Award and RITA nominee and bestselling author of more than one hundred books with over two million copies of her books in print in the US and abroad. A tenth-generation Texan and certified paralegal, she is a member of the Texas Bar Association Paralegal Division, Texas A&M Association of Former Students and the Texas A&M Women Former Students (Aggie Women), Texas Historical Society, Novelists Inc., and American Christian Fiction Writers. She would also be a member of the Daughters of the American Republic, Daughters of the Republic of Texas and a few others if she would just remember to fill out the paperwork that Great Aunt Mary Beth has sent her more than once.
When she’s not spinning modern day tales about her wacky Southern relatives, Kathleen inserts an ancestor or two into her historical and mystery novels as well. Recent book releases include bestselling The Pirate Bride set in 1700s New Orleans and Galveston, its sequel The Alamo Bride set in 1836 Texas, which feature a few well-placed folks from history and a family tale of adventure on the high seas and on the coast of Texas. She also writes (mostly) relative-free cozy mystery novels for Guideposts Books.
Kathleen and her hero in combat boots husband have their own surprise love story that unfolded on social media a few years back. They make their home just north of Houston, Texas and are the parents and in-laws of a blended family of Texans, Okies, and one very adorable Londoner.
More for Kathleen
You’ve most likely seen military working dogs (MWDs) on television shows or in the news. Maybe you’ve seen police dogs in action or read about them. They’re often fierce looking and always well-trained and intelligent. Along with their handler, the MWD is a brave and not so secret weapon in the military and law enforcement world. And did you know that an MWD always outranks his or her handler? It’s true.
I was very aware of all of this, but I had no idea what happened to these dogs when they were too old or perhaps physically unable to continue in their roles. People retire from their careers, so it makes sense that MWDs would as well.
I first learned about retired MWDs from watching my friend Ronie welcome a gorgeous Belgian Malinois, Vvolt, to her family. Anyone who knew the family or came to know Vvolt through social media fell in love with that dog. With his ears cocked just so and his bigger-than-life personality, I knew I had to write about him someday.
When I was given the opportunity to co-write a cozy mystery series with my dear friend, Janice Thompson, I knew one of those books would have to include an MWD. Because MWDs are used in so many situations, from military police work to bomb sniffing to PTSD care and more—I had to narrow down the choice of what my dog would be doing. I won’t give anything away, but I can tell you that Pal, the fictional Belgian Malinois in NEW LEASH ON LIFE is very good at what he does. He also loves a good Whataburger when his regular kibble isn’t available, but I digress.
When I set out to create the personality for Pal, I looked to what I knew and loved about Vvolt. Big personality, toothy grin, and the ability to run and jump like a champ were all included in my dog’s version of the MWD. And like Vvolt, my MWD develops a strong bond with his handler and the family who welcomes him into their home. Pal is loyal, friendly, and apt to stand between his people and danger at the slightest provocation.
Pal’s person in NEW LEASH ON LIFE is Dr. Lane Bishop, a Texas A&M University research veterinarian and Air Force veteran. Lane deals with nightmares that came out of his military experiences. As you can imagine, this causes an issue or two with Nora Hernandez, the woman Lane adores but has not shared his worries with.
Then along comes Pal, a stray (or is he?) with a habit of disappearing and then turning up at the most unlikely places just when he’s needed. I won’t give away the story, but let’s just say that sometimes it takes an animal to show the humans what needs to be done.
NEW LEASH ON LIFE is the story of new starts and second chances, of how God can doesn’t just use humans to achieve His purposes. For this and so many other reasons, the tale of Lane and Nora and Pal is dedicated to the memory of Vvolt and his people.
