Sunday Bookends: A trip to a used book sale, the same books, more canal journeys

April 5, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 23 Comments

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.

I want to start by sharing that today is my sister-in-law Kim’s birthday so happy birthday to her. She had a heck of a 2024 and is an overcomer. Looking forward to her having a much better 2025.

I shared a bit yesterday about our week last week, which was fairly uneventful, other than a trip to a used book sale at a library near us. I picked up 19 Hard Boys Mystery books for 50 cents each. That was a fun find. These books, like Nancy Drew, are a bit dated, of course, and written for younger kids but they still have pretty good mysteries. They are also a fun escape from life.

Little Miss also picked out some cozy mysteries for me to try out. She’s picked out a couple duds over the years but also some very good ones so we will see how this bunch works out.

You can read more about our week last week here.

I wish I had something more exciting to report but I am still reading The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murders by Joanne Fluke, The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis, and The Two Towers by Tolkien.

I did finish Whose Body? By Dorothy Sayers last week.

The Husband is reading Big Trouble by Dave Barry.

I’ve still been watching Great Canal Journeys every night. Not much else. The Husband has been watching Shogun.

I watched an episode of Great Canal Journeys when they visited Scotland and I was absolutely blown away by this huge device that lowered their boat from one level of the canal to the larger canal below and two huge steel statues of horse heads they visited during the episode.

I watched Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris as well last week and will be watching How to Steal A Million today or tomorrow.

I’ll also be watching another Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries episode this week so I can write about it on the blog.

Last week on the blog I shared:

A book sale, a trip to a garden center, and what’s up with the turkey vultures in our area?

On the Frontier by Transmissions from the Northern Outpost (I’m biased. This is my brother)

Nadine’s Private Island by Cat’s Wire

Photos from this Week

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.

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot! Come link up with us!

April 3, 2025April 3, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 5 Comments

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog, and providing a link so readers can learn more about it.

Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.

Your hosts for the link up:

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Sue from Women Living Well After 50 started blogging in 2015 and writes about living an active and healthy lifestyle, fashion, book reviews and her podcast and enjoying life as a woman over 50. She invites you to join her living life in full bloom.

We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!

WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!

This week we are spotlighting: This Blonde’s Shopping Bag

Here is what Kellyanne says about her blog:

This Blonde’s Shopping Bag is a personal style blog by Kellyann Rohr. I believe every woman, regardless of age, should have the tools and opportunity to feel their best through fashion. A closet full of great basics with some fun pieces mixed in helps you avoid that dreaded feeling of having nothing to wear! It doesn’t have to break the bank either and that’s why I’ll show you how to get the most bang for your buck. Quite simply my mission is to encourage and support women to stay fashionable, fresh, and relevant!

This Blonde’s Shopping Bag was started in 2016 as a result of my love for shopping and creating outfits. I’ve always loved fashion and finding budget friendly pieces to create looks I love. So many of my friends and co-workers complimented me on my outfits and asked advice but also shared how they could “never pull off” some of my looks or that they “couldn’t afford” to dress the way they really wanted. The blog is my answer to those problems.

Since it’s inception the blog has grown and so has my reach. It’s been a dream come true to connect with a community of like minded women and partner with brands. I’ve especially enjoyed working with Chico’s, Vionics, and Jambu as well as smaller, women owned businesses.

Here are some of my highlights for the week

(Some “grand” photos in this one!)

(A cozy coffee catch up!)

(loved learning about planners here)

(awesome cow print dress!)

Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up! Please remember that this is a link-up where you can share posts from the previous week or posts from weeks, months, or even years ago. All we ask is that they be family friendly!

Springtime in Paris: Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

April 3, 2025April 3, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 11 Comments

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris kicks off the Springtime in Paris movie marathon hosted by me and Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

This was such a sweet movie and perfect to get me into the mood for happy, joyful spring.

The movie, based on the book of the same name by Paul Gallico, features a very talented cast, including Leslie Manville, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo, Jason Isaacs, Rose Williams, Isabella Hupert, and Lambert Wilson.

Released in 2022, it was directed by Anthony Fabien and takes place in 1957.

The movie tells the story of Ada Harris, a widowed and self-employed housekeeper from Battersea, England.

This is a small spoiler, but we don’t know when the movie starts that Ada is widowed and neither does she. She finds out near the beginning of the movie and this launches her into a journey to follow her dream of one day owning a beautiful dress made by Christian Dior.

She develops this dream after she sees one of the designer’s dresses in the bedroom of one of her clients.

This client is always making excuses why she can’t pay Mrs. Harris her fee, yet she can somehow afford a $500 dress from Paris.

When Mrs. Harris wins a bit of money after betting on the horse races she tells her friend and fellow house cleaner, Vi, that she’s going to save up and buy a dress from Christian Dior. Vi doesn’t understand why Mrs. Harris wants to do this and I don’t think Mrs. Harris really understands why she wants to either at that point.

Not only is Mrs. Harris going to buy a dress from Christian Dior, she’s going to take herself to Paris to get it.

There are all kinds of ups and downs on this journey but I won’t share them with you, so I don’t spoil the movie if you haven’t seen it. I will say that Mrs. Harris is much too nice of a woman and often helps out a “rising starlet” (or at least she thinks she is one) and many others who don’t show her the same regard.

Eventually, Mrs. Harris will get to Paris and meet a few lovely characters, including a young man and woman and a man her age who seems to be interested in her romantically.

She barges her way into the fashion house of Christian Dior and meets its staff and it’s creator in the early days of what is now a fashion giant.

Before she goes to Paris, Mrs. Harris tells her friend Vi, “That’s what we are, Vi. Invisible women.”

In Paris, the so-called invisible woman immediately charms everyone at the fashion house. From the models to the seamstresses, they are all completely shocked and amazed that this woman has come to their design house to order a dress and has saved up all her money to do so.

Their normal customers are rich and just toss money out to get what they want. Those customers take for granted all the hard work the men and women who make these gowns put into them. All of it fascinates Mrs. Harris, though. She’s refreshing and down to earth and doesn’t care about being fancy or “proper.”

She learns that Dior isn’t just a dress, it’s a feeling, an atmosphere — it’s all the hard work of the women who sew and alter and design and create to make each dress unique and special.

This is before the time of assembly line designing. Each dress was made for the person who would be wearing it which is what made it so special to have.

At one point Mrs. Harris says about the dress making process, “It’s not sewing. It’s making moonlight.”

As I watched Mrs. Harris being driven through the streets of Paris, I wondered how they film scenes like this in modern times. All the cars around them and parked on the streets are from the 1950s but I am certain those are not the cars being driven in Paris now. There are a lot of close-up shots of the actors as they are driving or shots that angle the camera up so that the road isn’t seen, so maybe that’s how they do it. Either way, it’s very convincing and completely immerses the viewer in the movie.

*Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features / © 2021 Ada Films Ltd – Harris Squared Kft*

I should mention that Leslie Manville was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. Costume designer Jenny Beaven was also nominated for a number of awards for costume design, including the Academy Awards.

I enjoyed this interview with the cast about the movie, if you are interested in learning more about the making of the movie. I recommend watching it after you watch the movie because you might receive a few spoilers watching it.

While watching it, I was struck by something Leslie Manville told the interviewer.

“It feels like the kind of film we are ready for right now,” she said. “You can just go to the cinema, shut the rest of the world away, just temporarily, because we need to do that, and just escape into this beautiful, slightly fantastical world of Ada Harris and just go with her on her journey.”

Here is the rest of our schedule for our Springtime in Paris movie event:

How to Steal A Million (April 10)

Paris Blues (April 17)

Hugo (April 24)

The Intouchables (May 1)

Charade Group Zoom on May 4 – this is where you can all join us for a watch party! (writing about it May 8)

Here is where you can find the movies on streaming:

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris: Amazon, Fandango, GooglePlay, Apple TV (this one was also on Peacock when I originally chose it.)

How to Steal A Million: Amazon, YouTube, GooglePlay, Fandango and Apple.

Paris Blues: YouTube for free (just search for it), Tubi, Amazon, Google Play, PlutoTV, Fandango at Home, YouTubeTV

Hugo: Amazon, Fandango at Home, Pluto TV, AppleTV

The Intouchables (warning this is an R movie and no, I don’t know why, but I’m guessing some language. It is also French and subtitled so this is NOT the American remake.): DisneyPlus, Amazon (on Prime as I write this), Fandango, Plex, YouTubeTV, Google Play, AppleTV, and Hulu

Charade (pretty much everywhere): Crackle, Tubi, Plex, Amazon, AppleTV, GooglePlay, YouTube, YouTubeTV, The Roku Channel, Fubo.

If you watched the movie this week, or watch it later and write about it, and want to link your post you can do so at the link below. The link will be available until May.

The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries Recap: The Mystery of the Diamond Triangle (with spoilers)

March 31, 2025April 1, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 4 Comments

A few months ago, I wrote about the first Nancy Drew centered episode of the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys show from the 1970s. For the first season of the show, the episodes switched off each week between the two mystery solvers — with one week featuring The Hardy Boys and the next week featuring Nancy Drew.

Then last week I wrote about the first episode of the series, which featured The Hardy Boys.

This week I will be focusing on the episode, The Mystery of the Diamond Triangle.

In season one, Nancy Drew is portrayed by Pamela Sue Martin (not to be confused with the chestier Pamela Anderson). Part way through season two she left the show because she felt that Nancy Drew was receiving less and less screen time and was replaced by Janet Louise Johnson.

For now, though, we will be discussing episodes where Pamela was portraying Nancy.

We start the episode with Nancy and George flying over scenery in a small plane and George about to throw up from air sickness. She tells Nancy that she was conned into coming up into the plan and Nancy admits she tricked her friend because she needed a witness in the plane in order for her to get her Diamond Triangle Certification (whatever that is).

All I want to know is why Nancy doesn’t have a certified trainer with her as the witness, but…okay…details schmetails. Let’s just go with it.

It also feels a little mean for her to do this to George.

“Yeah, you get a diamond triangle, and I get a nervous breakdown,” George says.

Sounds like most of her adventures with Nancy. If I was her, I’d get a new friend. Nancy is pretty bossy and likes to tell people what to do in the show. I think she likes having George be her little lacky and witness all her exploits.

George is quite whiny in this first season. She’s a mix of Bess and George from the books since there is no Bess in the show. In the books Bess is afraid of everything, and George is more adventurous like Nancy.

While they are in the air, a storm breaks out and Nancy has to find a way to get out in front of it. This takes her off course and while George is worried about them being caught in a storm, Nancy is more upset that she won’t get her Diamond Triangle Award.

While going off course, Nancy notices a car on a dirt road below them swerving around and then crashing. She has her friend Ned Nickerson, who was following them in a truck on the road, call the police for them. This gets Ned in trouble later when the police chief shows up and accuses Ned of filing a false police report. The chief says there was no accident because the road they are talking about has been barricaded for three years when the bridge was washed out.

(Ned Nickerson was Nancy’s boyfriend in the books, by the way. In the show he’s her attorney dad’s lacky and her want-to-be boyfriend.)

The bizarre thing is that Nancy’s dad, attorney Carson Drew, tells Ned he will have to go with the police for questioning, even though Nancy saw the accident and told Ned to call. The chief is all like, “Yep. Let’s go.”

Really? In this day and age, people don’t get arrested for actual crimes or if they do, they are released again but this kid is getting called in for something Nancy actually did?

She’s a serious troublemaker.

Nancy isn’t pleased that the chief has doubted her and tells George they are going out to investigate what happened on their own.

Here is another example where I really don’t like Nancy from the show. When they get to the site of the bridge that is out, she snarks at George, “Don’t worry George, you won’t have to close your eyes this time. We’re on the ground now.”

Hello? Snotty much? Your friend is always risking her life for you, and you repay her by talking down to her? Like I said above, George really needs a new friend.

I suppose the makers of the show were trying to make her tough and bold and that’s all fine and good but why do women on TV have to be snotty to show they are bold and tough?

I think the makers of the show could have made Nancy be strong and brave without making her overbearing and rude. Her outfits are cute at least.

Nancy’s investigation leads her to call the local antique car club to ask them if they know anyone who owns an antique car like the one that went off the road. They only know of two people so Nancy heads to the first name, a young man named Morgan Poole.

Morgan says his car is in the storage barn and is always parked there.

Nancy asks to see it. Of course,it isn’t there so Nancy says Morgan better get a lawyer, which her dad luckily is.

What does he need a lawyer for? I have no idea…it’s not a crime for a car to crash, but it is a crime for the car to be stolen so Morgan should have been calling the police.

He needs a lawyer, it turns out, because his insurance company says they aren’t going to pay for the car since Morgan didn’t prove he fixed up the car before it was stolen.

How did Nancy know this would happen? Who even knows, but luckily Daddy Drew was there to help.

Carson Drew tries to argue with the insurance guy that Morgan should get his money back for the stolen car and it should be paid for because Morgan upgraded the car. The insurance man says, “Nope…he never brought me in the proof of the appraisal that the car had been improved.”

The insurance guy says he might pay out but only if Morgan can prove he improved the car and that will require receipts. Morgan traded other car collectors for the part and doesn’t have receipts, which makes the insurance guy pull Mr. Drew over for a somber “side bar” during which he suggests that the young man may be trying to commit insurance fraud.

Dun-dun-dun-dun!

The car is found later that day, and it requires about 50 police officers and a few photographers to retrieve it because it has been set on fire and pushed into a ravine. There was no one inside so I’m not sure why there were so many police on scene. The budget for those extras was most likely why they didn’t have a budget for actual writers.

Carson, Nancy, George and Ned all go to look at the car in the ravine and Ned declares this means the misdemeanor charge of “crank calls” against him can be dropped. I’m sorry??? This moron chief charged the kid with crank calls when Nancy said she saw it? Guy sounds like a real Barney Fife.

But now, with the appearance of the car, Carson Drew says poor Morgan clearly committed insurance fraud by getting a higher binder on the car when he called to say it had been upgraded and then burning the car. Nancy refuses to believe Morgan would do that because he loved the car and worked so hard to refurbish it.

She grabs a rope and begins to climb into the pit where the car is while the chief and her father look on, and don’t even try to stop her. Yeah…okay…believable.

During this we hear an awkward football metaphor from Nacy that ends with an awkward come on line from Ned that Nancy can play in his backfield anytime.

WHAT? Just….no.

Anyhow, the police actually arrest this kid for felony insurance fraud. Like put him in actual jail.

Let me pause for a well drawn out facepalm.

Nancy still wants to help Morgan, so she visits him in jail like she owns the place and tells him she wants to help him. He doesn’t want her help because he knows he’s been framed but no one will believe him.

“Well, I’m going to find out anyhow,” Nancy declares. “I don’t like being made a fool of!”

And off she marches to find out what really happens.

She is in another stunner of an outfit with a shiny pink shirt and a really cute skirt in this scene, incidentally. No sarcasm on my part here. Her outfits are very nice.

Ned and Nancy take off in a plane again with Ned not wearing his glasses for some reason and Nancy pointing that out. She bosses him and scolds him in the same way she does George. “Keep it steady! Use the controls. Take some speed off! Go down! Lift up! I said keep it steady, Ned!”

She gets a bit of a taste of her own medicine when she starts to feel sick to her stomach from Ned’s flying.

She sees a man below her in the bushes and tells Ned.

“Where?” he asks.

“Never mind. Just keep your bearing!” she snaps.

Then we switch to some bad looking men reporting to each other that there is a plane flying low over them.

Back to Nancy and Ned and they are flying too low, about to crash. More yelling from Nancy who is a few seconds short of calling him a “blithering idiot” and then she takes over and has to land the plane in a nearby field.

Uht-oh…this means the bad guys have seen them, but, luckily, they end up leaving them alone because Ned and Nancy are “just a bunch of kids.”

Later Nancy wants to explore more but Ned puts his foot down and says, “Nancy, you can’t go out there alone and if you want my help you will need to do it on my terms!”

This pisses off the feminist Nancy and she tells she and George should go out there alone and find out what the real story is.

Oh my gosh…my husband had a huge crush on this actress, but she is really not a good actress. She’s always yelling or snapping but she barely has any inflection in her tone.

So, George and Nancy go snooping and find out that cars are being stolen and smuggled across the broken bridge to a warehouse. Also, while snooping they are walking through the woods and there are weird bird sounds that George says are from an an owl. Um..no. Those bird sounds are from an Amazon rainforest, which neither of these girls are in.

They discover a ‘villain lair’ but really don’t know if they are villains or what they are doing. They try to sneak off, but the men hear them walking away and go to look for them.

Back in Carson’s office, he’s got Morgan out on bail and is telling Morgan he thinks he’s guilty of the crime and the little snot better fess up. During all this I keep wondering where in the world are Morgan’s parents or family? Do they not care about their family member possibly going to jail for a crime he didn’t commit?

A member of the police department is brought into the meeting with lawyer and client and all three begin to brainstorm what might really be going on. They decide it might be a car stealing racket where someone is stealing the cars buyers are looking for, giving them a new paint job, and then passing them on to the buyers. Huh. Odd they didn’t think of this before but instead decided to rush forward to attempt to prosecute a teenager for a felony.

Anyhow, now we are back to Nancy and George who have uncovered the very plot Carson and the police offer suggested in in a warehouse somewhere out in the jungle — I mean woods in some American state. They are outside looking in at an essential chop shop when they are caught by the two scary bad guys they saw in a tiny shed earlier.

Meanwhile, Ned has somehow used a computer program to pinpoint where all the cars are being taken from and finds out they were all insured by the same insurance company.

Ned decides to go back to where the broken bridge is to see if that is where Nancy went. I found it interesting that he’s also using a CB radio to try to contact Mr. Drew to tell him what is going on. Of course Mr. Drew walks in the house just as Ned is trying to contact him.

Ned tells him where he is going and Mr. Drew, who still has the police officer with him, tells him he’ll meet him there.

Ned tries to rescue the girls before Mr. Drew arrives though and is discovered which results in all three of them being chased around the warehouse by the bad guys. When Ned hears the police sirens he opens the door to the warehouse, letting the police come in and nab the bad guys.

As for the burned out car — Ned says the bad guys did that to try to throw the police off the scent while they moved their operations elsewhere.

Unfortunately, Morgan is now out a car and all the parts he paid for ,but Nancy and George say they want to find a way to make the police give him a reward for helping them break up the car stealing ring. Ah, if only small municipal police departments had that kind of money to throw around.

Anyhow, this concludes another review/recollection of a Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries episode. Have you seen this crazy ride of an episode before?

If you want to listen to a podcast about this episode and all things Nancy Drew, check out the True Drew Podcast hosted by Avery: https://www.truedrewpodcast.com/

Here is the episode about this … ummmm… episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-drew/id1712601901?i=1000685173400

I am not associated with the podcast. I simply enjoy listening to it.

Next up I will write about the episode The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of Witches’ Hollow.

Sunday Bookends/Chat: Losing a tree friend, giving Dorothy Sayers another try, and getting ready for Springtime in Paris

March 30, 2025March 30, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 19 Comments

Yesterday I wrote on the blog about our “exciting week” which involved the huge maple in front of our house being cut down.

It was quite the event for us boring folk who never do anything exciting. First, the tree was over 100 years old and it was hard (but necessary) to see it go. Second, watching it be cut down was fascinating. I have seen a tree be taken down but not one this large.

Watching the man tie ropes onto the larger branches and trunk to make sure it fell gently to the ground was mesmerizing. I accomplished very little that day.

You can read more about my thoughts on the tree in my post from yesterday, but I will say that I am adjusting to the tree’s absence better than I thought I would. It was nice to sit out on the front steps tonight (I’m writing this part Saturday night) and watch Little Miss and Zooma the Wonder Dog jump up on the stump and look out from it and the cats jump up there as well. It was also nice to look up and see the stars of the sky instead of just tree branches. The street seems so much wider and more open now. It’s an odd change, but it’s not as rough as I thought it would be.

Saturday’s weather was amazing. Seventy degrees, mainly clear skies. Little Miss and I went to the playground and then played outside our house as well. Temps will be warm again today and tomorrow and then storms are set to come in Monday and the temperatures will drop again for a while.

This will be the norm in Pennsylvania for a while – warm weather, then cold, then warm, rain, then sun, then snow, then rain, then finally it will be actually spring. You know, right when summer is set to arrive.

My sinuses are seriously suffering from the up and down and will probably continue to suffer for the next month. Such is life in Pennsylvania.

I also wanted to mention really quick that we did receive an apology from the local library over the incident that has left my daughter and I uncomfortable with going there again. We did not receive an apology from the staff member but we did receive one from the library director. At this time we have found a couple of other libraries to visit for our book-lending needs but the apology was appreciated and we will find other ways to support the local library.

I am reading the same books this week but making progress.

I’ll probably finish Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers this week. Thank you to Cat from Cat’s Wire for recommending this author.

I’ve mentioned before I sometimes read a few books at a time — sort of anyhow.

I will read whichever book I am in the mood for each day but as soon as one captures my attention more than another I will continue reading that book instead. This week my attention has been captured by “Whose Body?” and The Two Towers, book two of The Lord of the Rings trilogy the most.

In between I have been reading The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke and A Boy and His Horse by C.S. Lewis.

I’ll probably focus more on The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder once I finish the Dorothy Sayers book because I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read of it so far.

Little Miss has been listening to The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis at night before bed.

During the day we are reading The Littlest Voyageur by Margi Preuss.

This week I’ve been binge watching a British show called Great Canal Journeys, which follows an elderly couple as they travel on the canal systems of England.

The Husband and I also watched The Barkleys of Broadway with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would when it first started. It was a lot of fun seeing Ginger’s dresses in color.

Later this week I will be rewatching Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris for the first movie for the Springtime in Paris movie event that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are doing through April and the beginning of May.

I wanted to leave a note for anyone who is participating in the event on where you can find the movies streaming:

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris: Amazon, Fandango, GooglePlay, Apple TV (this one was also on Peacock when I originally chose it.)

How to Steal A Million: Amazon, YouTube, GooglePlay, Fandango and Apple.

Paris Blues: YouTube for free (just search for it), Tubi, Amazon, Google Play, PlutoTV, Fandango at Home, YouTubeTV

Hugo: Amazon, Fandango at Home, Pluto TV, AppleTV

The Intouchables (warning this is an R movie and no, I don’t know why, but I’m guessing some language): DisneyPlus, Amazon, Fandango, Plex, YouTubeTV, Google Play, AppleTV, and Hulu

Charade (pretty much everywhere): Crackle, Tubi, Plex, Amazon, AppleTV, GooglePlay, YouTube, YouTubeTV, The Roku Channel, Fubo.

This week on the blog I shared:

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.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: It was more than just a tree

March 29, 2025March 29, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 23 Comments

This week the absolutely mammoth maple tree in front of our house was cut down and it knocked me for a bit of an emotional loop.

The tree has not only been here since we moved in, but it’s also been on this street, right in that spot for over 100 years.

Since we’ve moved here, though, my neighbor and I have looked at that tree, especially the top of it, and watched the branches blow in the wind and wondered what would happen if the top of it snapped off.

For the most part I was comfortable in knowing I wouldn’t have to make a decision on the tree because we didn’t have the money to have it cut down. I liked the shade from it in the summer and watching the colors change on it during the autumn.

Sure, I worried some if the winds were high, but it was a sturdy tree. It’d been there for 100 years. The base was actually huge. It wasn’t going anywhere. Not the whole tree anyhow. Ahem. Hopefully. Insert cautiously optimistic worried grimace here.

This winter, though, a couple larger limbs fell off into our yard and I wondered what would happen if an even larger one broke off and hit either our house or the neighbors.

Then we had more than one wind advisory over the winter. I found myself looking up at the top of the tree (as far as I could look anyhow) several times over the last few months, hoping I wouldn’t hear a crack at some point. One day a limb did come down and that’s when the fear started to become more of a reality.

I knew we still didn’t have the money to have it taken down. Two years ago we were quoted a very high amount of money to have it removed. Our neighbors offered to go in halfway with us, but I still didn’t know where we would find the money to do it.

To make a long story short, the neighbors ended up talking to a tree cutting company who offered them a great deal to bring the tree down so they took the deal after they consulted us.

We couldn’t turn the opportunity down.

I no longer had my excuse of not having the money because the neighbors offered to pay for it. I had to face the fact that the tree would really have to come down and though I knew it was necessary, I didn’t want it to happen – well, in some ways. In other ways I did want it to happen.

I am someone who hates change and this would be a very big change. That tree had sheltered us from the sun, winds, snow for the five years we’ve lived here, but it has also sheltered other families for 100 years.

Imagine all it has seen over the years. The invention of cars, or at least better ones, men marching off to war, new houses going up, the street in front of it being paved. A couple of years before we moved here it even survived a tornado that ripped up many trees around it and tore part of the steeple off the church the tree overlooked.

As a Christian I don’t believe trees are alive, but I do believe God created them. As far as I know this tree was planted by either the town or the residents on the street since there was row of them perfectly aligned up the side of the street. God created trees and from them came saplings to be planted though.

*Not sure the date of this one but you can see the maple trees are bigger here.*

This tree brought beauty and personality to the view out our front window these past five years. Shielding us from the sun was one of the most helpful features it offered because our house has stayed very cool even without air conditioning because of the shade of the tree. Installing air conditioners is not easy in this house because we have roll out windows. We have to use portable air conditioners.

This change is something we will have to simply adapt to this summer. Sitting on the front porch to read a book might not be as nice because the shade of the tree is now gone.

But . . . again . . . the tree was extremely tall and if some of the limbs had broken off from higher up it could have taken out a front porch or one of our cars at least, if not more. Someone could have been very hurt or even killed.

As an aside, I don’t remember ever seeing such a tall maple in my life. If some of those higher limbs broke off and came crashing down? Yikes! I hesitate to think of the damage it would have caused.

So, Wednesday night the neighbors let us know that the tree cutting service would be there the next day to take the tree down. It was a very fast turn around from when they suggested the plan to when it was implemented. I barely had time to adjust which might have been good since I probably would have ruminated and stressed over it all for much too long.

The company arrived at 7:30 a.m. and started cutting at 7:40 a.m.

I watched the process for the entire day – fascinated with how it was taken down chunk by chunk. I wasn’t terribly sad when I watched it come down because the process was mesmerizing. The sadness came later in the day and I did let myself cry some — even though my family seemed to think I was being silly.

There was a team of about six people but the owner of the company did all the cutting. He worked almost consistently all day with only a small lunch break. His arms had to be killing him at the end of the day.

We were told at the end of the day the center of the tree where it branched off was rotting and there were ants living inside. There was also water running through the base. It was a necessary removal for sure.

Now our house is much brighter (almost too bright for me) and we have a totally different view of the town. The leaves haven’t come back on our trees yet so it’s a little sad and brown outside our window at the moment but we are seeing some buds pop out on the branches. I’m trying not to remember how the buds were coming out on our maple too and how it would have been blooming soon, it’s canopy spreading over our house, our street, and our parking space across the road.

*The view of the tree cutter from his bucket.*

(The view of our small town from the bucket)

I try not to think about the animals or birds who might have made the tree their home.

I try not to remember how I could see that tree from the main highway as we came back from our parents or how I often took it for granted and didn’t take the time to look up at it’s towering branches.

For me the tree was more than a tree. It was a symbol of normalcy, of comfort, of the expected.

I don’t like unexpected things. I don’t like change. I don’t like remembering that much more than losing a tree is changing in our lives these days.

My parents are getting older, my health is sometimes wonky, my son is about to graduate high school, my daughter needs to make new friends and I feel like I need to find them, and the world is absolutely crazy.

With the tree gone I feel like my normal world is no longer normal in some ways. I feel like a piece of me has been taken away, as odd as that sounds.

The day after the tree was removed I looked out in our backyard at another towering maple and whispered to it, “Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone take you.”

And I won’t. I’m going to be very protective of the trees in our backyard now.

Yes, I know the tree had to be taken down before it came down without our permission, and I am so grateful to great neighbors who were so generous to help us all out, but still . . . I miss our tree, I miss my normal routine of looking out at it while I sipped my tea in the morning, and I miss the feeling of normalcy having it there gave me.

I’ll adjust. I’ll be okay. I’ve (almost) already accepted it.

I won’t, however, feel guilty for taking a little bit longer to mourn it.

Join us for our Springtime in Paris movie event!

March 28, 2025April 1, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 6 Comments

Next week Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching movies that take place in Paris and you are invited to join us.

We’ve done these movie features before but let me explain how they work.

The dates listed on the graphic are the dates we will share our thoughts on our blogs. Erin and I watch the movie one week and then share our thoughts about the movie on a Thursday on our blog.
Then we offer a link for other bloggers to share their thoughts on the same movie. You do not have to watch the movies at the same time as us or even put your link up for a particular movie on the week we watch it. Just drop a link whenever you watch whichever movie. And you absolutely do not have to watch every movie to participate.

You do not even have to blog about the movie to watch with us.

Here is our schedule:

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (April 3)

How to Steal A Million (April 10)

Paris Blues (April 17)

Hugo (April 24)

The Intouchables (May 1)

Charade Group Zoom on May 4 – this is where you can all join us for a watch party! (writing about it May 8)

I wanted to leave a note for anyone who is participating in the event on where you can find the movies streaming:

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris: Amazon, Fandango, GooglePlay, Apple TV (this one was also on Peacock when I originally chose it.)

How to Steal A Million: Amazon, YouTube, GooglePlay, Fandango and Apple.

Paris Blues: YouTube for free (just search for it), Tubi, Amazon, Google Play, PlutoTV, Fandango at Home, YouTubeTV

Hugo: Amazon, Fandango at Home, Pluto TV, AppleTV

The Intouchables (warning this is an R movie and no, I don’t know why, but I’m guessing some language): DisneyPlus, Amazon, Fandango, Plex, YouTubeTV, Google Play, AppleTV, and Hulu

Charade (pretty much everywhere): Crackle, Tubi, Plex, Amazon, AppleTV, GooglePlay, YouTube, YouTubeTV, The Roku Channel, Fubo.

Erin and I hope you will join us for this fun feature!

I also want to mention that we are hosting Drop in Crafternoons which are crafting sessions Erin had the idea for over the winter. We all meet together on Zoom and chat while we craft or do art of some kind and you can pop in for just a little visit or longer that day during our time. Whatever fits your schedule.

If you are interested in joining our crafternoon sessions, email Erin at crackercrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to our list to be emailed about dates.

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot! Come link up with us!

March 27, 2025March 27, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 6 Comments

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about them.

Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.

I am going to have to be short and sweet today because I spent all day watching the tree cutters remove a 200-foot tree from in front of our house today and almost forgot to finish my post!

Watching the tree be cut down was bittersweet. I loved that old tree, but it was getting a bit old and we didn’t know if it could topple on to our house or our neighbor’s house so the neighbors (who are amazing) paid to have it removed. Watching it be cut down and up was so cool and I’ll be writing about it on my blog for Saturday. They are, in fact, still finishing up as I write this.

Your hosts for the link up:

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!

This week we are spotlighting: Moo is Van Me

Here are some posts I enjoyed this week (though I really enjoy so many posts from this link up!!)

|| How I Did With My Winter Bucket List by My Slices of Life ||

|| Eye of the Storm Photos of Paul McCartney by Adventures in Weseland ||

|| Exciting Things to Do Before Turning 65 by Deb’s World ||

|| A Drapery Trick: More Stock Up On What I have by Debbie Dabble Blog ||

Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up! Please remember that this is a link-up where you can share posts from the previous week or posts from weeks, months, or years ago. All we ask is that they be “family-friendly.”

Discussing The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries Show episode, The Mystery of the Haunted House.

March 27, 2025March 26, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 9 Comments

A few months ago, I wrote about the first Nancy Drew-centered episode of the Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries show from the 1970s — The Mystery of Pirate’s Cove.

The show featured 46 episodes from 1977 to 1979 on ABC.

For those who aren’t familiar with the source material for this show, it was based on The Hardy Boys books by Franklin W. Dixon and the Nancy Drew Mystery series by Carolyn Keene. Both series were ghostwritten by a number of different authors and created by Edward Stratemeyer in the 1930s.

For the first season of the show, the episodes switched back and forth each week with one week featuring The Hardy Boys and the next week featuring Nancy Drew. During the next season they began combining the two so that The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were in the same episode. This had to do with falling ratings – especially when it came to the Nancy Drew episodes. Somewhere in there the original actress — Pamela Sue Martin — also left and was replaced by Janet Louise Johnson.

Overall, this series is a bit cheesy and cringy, but I do have to say I don’t think they did too bad for the first episode. I mean – it isn’t award winning and the special effects are bizarre, but it is an interesting plot and the acting isn’t the worst I’ve ever seen.

The show starts with the brothers — Jo and Frank Hardy — in town and spotting their father walking out of a hotel. We aren’t told if the brothers were just driving by or why they are outside the hotel when their dad walks out but through conversation between them, we learn that their dad said he was going fishing. They can’t figure out why he would lie to them.

They plan to ask him but then a car pulls out behind their dad’s car. This makes them realize that their dad is being followed so they rev up their trusty little motorcycles (helmets firmly in place first, of course) and decide they are going to follow whoever is following their dad and find out what is going on.

We are then at a cemetery and the boys’ dad is shining a flashlight on a tombstone with the name Will Bronson engraved on it. Bronson has a death date of the year 1974.

The boys don’t see this part with the tombstone, but we the viewers do. What the boys see is that their dad Fenton Hardy, is being followed.

They go back to their dad’s office the next morning and ask their dad’s secretary what she knows. She says she booked a hotel for their dad for his fishing trip. They, however, find out their dad checked out that day. The secretary shrugs and assures them their dad will be home later in the day then and he will fill them in.

The problem is that Fenton has been cornered and essentially kidnapped by two men. These same men want to know who hired him on his latest case but won’t tell him who they are. We still don’t know who they are when they break into Fenton’s home late that night looking for his client’s name.

They are also very loud for two men who are trying to secretly break into a home, but let’s not quibble with such minor ridiculousness. It’s just TV and there are many more ridiculous moments to come.

Eventually we learn that Fenton’s client was a government agent suspected of stealing government secrets and selling them to a foreign entity. It’s not as cut and dry as it seems because he may have also suffered some sort of amnesia and he’s wandering around the countryside, trying to get away or hide or something or other.

This mystery will have the boys looking for clues in some pretty strange places, including a “haunted” mansion that isn’t what it seems.

As always when I watch an episode with the actors who play The Hardy Boys — Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy – I am fascinated by their fluffy hair. It’s so luscious and soft looking. Ah, the ‘70s, a time when both men and women had impeccable hair.

Anyhow, I digress… during this episode poor Aunt Gertrude, Fenton’s sister (I believe), is beside herself with worry. No one will tell her what is going on and she must be the go between the boys and their dad as they both chase each other all over the place. She keeps asking all three “boys” to be careful and they just scoff and say things like, “Yeah. Yeah. Okay, Aunt Gert,” like she’s the most annoying thing ever. They might as well say, “Whatever you crazy old bat.”

I just think these “boys” should be grateful they have someone to look after them and who cares enough to be worried.

What was with all these books killing off the mothers and having live in housekeepers or aunts anyhow? Nancy Drew’s mom was also dead, and she and her dad had a live in housekeeper named Hannah. Yes, I know I mentioned this in my last post about the show. Yes, I will probably mention it again because I am becoming an lady who forgets what I already wrote about and tells the same stories over and over again.

Also, Fenton’s secretary is about the boy’s age and seems to be a minor character but at the end of the episode, we get the idea she and Frank are dating when she gives Frank a kiss on the cheek. For whatever that tidbit is worth.

I won’t go into too much detail about the episode’s plot because I know so many of you are just dying to go look this series up and binge watch it, *wink* but I will say that you should brace yourself for the creepy scenes in the haunted house and the scary “monsters.”

Someone put the whole series up for free on YouTube and you can find the playlist here:

In my next post on this topic (not necessarily my next post on the blog), I will be writing about The Mystery of The Diamond Triangle, which was an episode that featured Nancy Drew.

Do you remember this old series or have you heard of it at least? It was not something I ever heard of before last year and now I’m a bit hooked.