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?