The Crochet By Megs Book Club: An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

Welcome back!! I hope you had a chance to read An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield. And if you didn't please do! It is a phenomenal book about life, the importance of perspective and the incredible journey he had to becoming an astronaut. But I'm getting ahead of myself!

For those who are unfamiliar with Chris Hadfield's story, he was an astronaut who has been to space three times, the last time he spent months working at the international space station as the first Canadian commander and gained some notoriety by tweeting pictures and video of everyday life taken while at the station. Including one rather popular video, on youtube of him playing/singing David Bowie's Space Oddity!

But as you learn from reading his fabulous memoir it was a long road to get there and the life of an astronaut is not exclusively about getting to space nor should it be.

I loved reading about the remarkable journey he and his family took to reach this life goal. His wife and family made incredible sacrifices to get him where he is today and I love how he did everything he could to honor those sacrifices and make them proud.

It was interesting to read about life as an astronaut outside of going to space, like many others, I really only knew about this one aspect, and I didn't even know much about that!

I don't want to spoil the book for you if you haven't read it yet so I'll stop here but if you haven't picked it up yet you should! It will give you so much appreciation for these people, and their families go through and the ways we're benefiting everyday from their efforts!! Enjoy!!

Time for the next Crochet By Meg's book club selection and I'm very excited about this one, I hope you are too!!! It is: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Hope you are as excited as me!!!

The Crochet By Megs Book Club: Bellman & Black

Welcome back to the Crochet By Megs Book Club!!! I hope you had a chance to join me in reading Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield.

This was a wonderful story! I loved the build-up all through the novel, but I'm getting ahead of myself!

Bellman & Black tells the story of William Bellman an all around charming lad in 1800s England. The story begins when he is a young boy (although old enough to know better) out playing with his friends when he makes the outlandish claim that he will be able to hit a rook with his sling shot far in the distance.

It's way to far! his friends point out but he attempts regardless (even though he agrees with them), he is sickened when his shot rings true and the rook falls to the ground dead. He never believed he would hit it but the deed is done and the bird is dead.

William heads home very upset and through conscious effort forgets about what he did, or at least nearly forgets.  The rooks meanwhile circle their fallen brother and they will never forget.

So begins the book Bellman & black. Unfortunately I can give no more away without ruining the book for you!

It is a rather dark tale, you read it feeling that something sinister is lurking nearby just out of sight. I love what the author does in exploring the ideas of time and memory. I still loved the Thirteenth Tale more (it would be hard to compete with her first novel) but Bellman & Black was lovely and well worth the read!!

What did you think of this selection? Were you also looking over your shoulder the whole time? If you haven't had a chance to read it, I highly recommend it!!

And now it is time to pick our next book!! The new selection for the Crochet By Megs book club is:

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield

Hope you can join me in reading this amazing book!!!

The Crochet By Megs Book Club: Dance Gladys Dance

Welcome back to the Crochet By Megs Book Club! I hope you were able to read 

Dance Gladys Dance by Cassie Stocks

This book was so good and so unique! It tells the story of Frieda Zweig a young woman whose passion for painting has been the focus of her life for as long as she can remember but after a bad break-up she finds herself questioning is she really an artist? 

She decides to give up her crazy, quirky life and try to be normal. That's when she stumbles across an ad for a used record player "Gladys doesn't dace anymore. She needs the room to bake" intrigued she calls the number and sets up an appointment to go have a look. But when she gets there she finds that the number she dialed wasn't for a record player just an older gentleman looking to rent a room.

Freida is confused by the incident but decides, why not? She'll rent the room she needs a place to stay and the rent is low. However when she moves in she finds she is haunted by the spirit of Gladys.

This is a fun, humorous and touching tale of two women and how while we can't change the world we can change small things and break ground for those coming after us.

I loved this book! I loved how all the lives in the story intertwined and affected each other in the most surprising ways, I loved reading the stories of both Freida and Gladys. 

This was such a good book I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and if you haven't read it yet I hope I've convinced you to pick it up and give it a try!! Make sure to share your thoughts on the story below!!

And now it's time to pick the next installment of the Crochet By Megs Book Club!
The next book is Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield

I'm very excited for this one!! I loved Diane Setterfield's first book The Thirteenth Tale and I can't wait to read this one! You don't need to have read her first book to read this one as they are unrelated but if you haven't yet I'd also recommend reading it!

Garden Planning - Part 2

Well the weather is slowly warming up and the snow is slowly melting but its spring in our house!

It's true! I can never wait long enough to start my garden, honestly it's a struggle not to plant things at the end of January! At that point I'm sick of winter and all I want is to get my hands in the dirt planting and seeing beautiful little green sprouts turning up.

This time I was able to wait almost long enough to start my seeds... Almost. I started them around the end of February and they have officially outgrown their planters! And it is still far to early to put them outside. Especially as I'd have to dig through a decent amount of snow to even get to the dirt!

So I have improvised some cute little planters!

That's right, Solo cups!

I'm aware their are cups you can plant right into the soil. But I didn't go that route, One because I've tried them before and they didn't biodegrade very quickly after being put in the soil and two they also leaked all over the place while they were inside.

I chose my little solo cup planters because I had a bunch leftover in the basement from a party a couple summers ago and I figure that I could easily cut them open to plant my little sprouts when the weather catches up with me.

Win/win I'd say!

What about you? Do you start seeds indoors? And do you to have to improvise when you accidentally on purpose start them to soon?

A Bit of Travel

Good Day!

I know I have been missing for a few weeks, but I was doing a little traveling. Which isn't entirely an excuse as I have been back for a while now and still hadn't written a blog post or put up anything but I was definitely still on vacation mode and feeling lazy!

I'm actually still feeling rather lazy but I have found that the only way to stop feeling lazy is to get off your butt and do something so here I am!!

My husband and I recently had a wonderful vacation, we went away for two weeks (the longest we've been away ever). And it was wonderful!!

The first part of our trip was dedicated to visiting family! My husband's family lives far away from us and it's always lovely to get a chance to go and spend some quality time with them!! We had an amazing time filled with walks in a neighboring park, board games, delicious dinners and an abundance of quality family time! 

Then it was off to the airport because we were off to Portugal! My parents are living there for a few months (why you ask? just because!).  My parents are always ready for an adventure and decided this was a great time to fulfill a dream of living a few months in another country.  This was an amazing opportunity for us as well! Europe can be an expensive vacation but as we only had to pay for our flights and not accommodations we were able to travel without taking to big a hit to the wallet.

Portugal was amazing!! It is truly beautiful! It has all the charms of Europe in its small winding cobblestone streets, it's rich history and tiled buildings but it has a gorgeous tropical beauty to it as well. Palm trees, rocky cliffs, secluded beaches, and turquoise waters. A large part of the country is coastline so the amount of beaches to visit is crazy! And each beach is unique and beautiful in it's own way!

Here's a couple of the lovely beaches we visited

Aren't they gorgeous?

We also took advantage of their wonderful marketplaces and fish markets

That is something that was absolutely wonderful about Portugal, the abundance of fresh fish and seafood!

I love seafood and ate it at every opportunity! I even tried barnacles!! 

They were awesome!!

The other wonderful thing about Portugal? The Sangria!

It's just about everywhere and it's so tasty!!

We spent a week in Portugal with my parents and had an amazing time but then it was time to say goodbye!

On the way home we also spent a couple of days with my sister who lives far away from us. It was wonderful to spend time with her and her family!! She only moved away recently and although they will only be living away for a year I have been missing her and her family terribly so it was great to spend some quality time with them.

And that wraps up our wonderful vacation time! What about you? have you had a chance to get away? Visit some family or just avoid some of the winter cold?

Crochet By Megs Book Club: The Painted Girls

Hello again!

I hope you got a chance to pick up The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan.

I loved this book! I found the story enchanting especially against the backdrop of 1800s Paris. But I'm getting ahead of myself!

The Painted Girls tells the story of three young sisters in 1800s Paris, their father is dead and their mother is an alcoholic addicted to absinth. Living in abject poverty the girls must struggle to survive and look after one another in a vast and unforgiving city.

The jobs for women are difficult and don't bring in much money. The only way the girls feel they can lift themselves out of their horrible situation is to become ballerinas. 

This story is told few the viewpoints of Antoinette and Marie the two older siblings trying desperately to take care of each other and their younger sister. Both take on far more responsibility than any young girl should and facing the hardships of their situation with all they have.

This book was beautifully told, the story telling wonderfully done. I was so impressed with how well the relationship between sisters was expressed. Every woman with sisters has had the same worries for her sisters, has tried to look out for them, been hurt by them, awed by them and loved them in the same way as these sisters have.

I hope you enjoyed The Painted Girls as much as I did! And if you haven't had a chance to read it yet I hope you will! Please make sure to share your thoughts on the book below!!

And now it's time to pick the next book! Have I mentioned how much I love doing this??

The next book in the Crochet By Megs book club is...... Dance Gladys Dance by Cassie Stocks

I hope you enjoy it!! We'll check back into the book club in 6 weeks to see what you thought of it!!

Garden Planning

It's February!!! I'm officially sick of winter and ready for spring!!!!

Too bad spring is still 2-4 months away.... Sure I could hang my head sadly, depressed about the ongoing cold, feel sorry for myself and my puppy being stuck indoors only to take hurried walks around the block muttering about how cold it is. But instead I'm going to do some garden planning!!

It can be hard to wait when all you want to do is dig in the garden planting veggies and flowers feeling the warm sun on your face but I think spending some time planning out this years garden will be a great way to ward off the winter blues and it makes spring feel closer than it actually is!

Most years I have a very general idea about what I want to do, vague notions about the type of veggies I'll plant and more often than not I get a little behind and end up overwhelmed. But not this year!! My plan this spring involves constructing two more raised garden beds. These ones will not be permanent, I'd like them to be movable so they can be packed up & put away when the weather turns colder. So they will be smaller but deep!  

I have a large garden bed in the back of our yard but it doesn't get nearly enough sun for many veggie crops so it will be for shade loving plants only.  I'm thinking some nice leafy greens. Lettuce, spinach, chard, & arugula and surprise! Beans, Peas, Beets, leeks, onions & Cauliflower are all shade happy plants so they'll be in there too!

On & around the patio it is sunny and hot! This is where I'm planning on putting the two new raised beds as well as many potted plants and some hanging baskets. This is where I'll be planting plenty of peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash/pumpkin, and watermelon! I've never grown pumpkin or watermelon before so wish me luck! Hopefully I'll get at least one of each!!

These are the seeds I already have, ready to go for another summer (hopefully) full of produce!!

Don't worry I'm not quite done with the seeds yet! I still have my trusty seed catalogue to pick up what I'm still missing!!

What about you? Are you doing any gardening planning? How are you beating the winter blues?