Saturday, November 28, 2020

Shrike Hunting, Year of Pleasures, and Happy Weird Thanksgiving

 





"Happy weird Thanksgiving!" my sister-in-law said when she called and I happy-weird-Thanksgiving-ed her right back. Definitely a weird Thanksgiving, but that won't stop us from having lots of turkey, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, homemade hot rolls, and salad, will it? Deliciousness.




All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot...94% complete
The Book of Idle Pleasures...31% complete
How to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life...95% complete
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy...92% complete
Year of Pleasures: Classical Music for Every Day...30% complete
Illustrated Step-by-Step Baking...browsing


I'm closing in on finishing two of the books I've been reading all year---War and Peace, as well as How to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life. I'm nearly at the end of the first James Herriot book, All Creatures Great and Small. The Book of Idle Pleasures extols the delights of (almost) doing nothing. Baking shows how, step-by-step, to make most of the baked goods I'm interested in making but haven't made yet. And then there is Year of Pleasures, a daybook of classical music, one piece for each day of the year. I'm reading Year of Pleasures as I listen to the playlist on Spotify. Quite fun.








I have a lot to be grateful for. Two posts last week about gratefulness:

Want to read some good nonfiction but don't know what to read? I made a list for you:

The spinner stopped on fourteen, making my Classics Club spin Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love. What did you get for your spin?







For the next four months, many of us in our naturalist group will be shrike hunting. No, we are not hunting snipes, those imaginary animals sought during our childhood, but shrikes, the bird pictured to the right above. Shrikes are in decline, apparently, and my husband and I are participating in a study to find out more about them. The shrikes we seek have a wire with a signal that we can locate with a transmitter, but it's harder than you think. Last week we only found 2 of the 5 shrikes we sought, though this week we found 2 of 2. One of the birds we found last week is on that electrical wire on the photo to the left, if you look very, very closely. 

 






Good Thing #1: My daughter-in-law's parents got Covid, despite taking every precaution, and they got very sick, but they have recovered well.

Good Thing #2: I have started doing yoga at home twice a week. I've missed yoga so much.

Good Thing #3: I started working on a few posts about our hiking in Arizona. I plan to run them in January. I'm also working on a post for Virtual Advent for every Wednesday in December. There are still openings for the 2020 Virtual Advent tour, and you can join in here.





I'm delighted you found your way to the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week; it's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we might talk about at the Sunday Salon:

  • What was your week like?
  • Did you read any good books? Tell us about them.
  • What other bookish things did you do? 
  • What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.


My linkup for Sunday Salon is below.

61 comments:

  1. Are you enjoying All Creatures Great and Small? Each week we watch a show called the Yorkshire Vet which is a documentary on a vet who was trained by James Herriot, it’s one of our favourite shows.

    Looking forward to seeing your posts on Arizona next month!

    Have a lovely week!

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  2. Shrike "hunting" sounds quite interesting! What a great thing to do. I'm glad your daughter-in-law's parents have recovered. So many have not been so lucky recently.

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  3. It was definitely a weird Thanksgiving but we made a turkey dinner and enjoyed it.

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  4. Agreed - weird Thanksgiving this year, but we still had a good time. Hope you did too. Have a great week!

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  5. Happy late weird Thanksgiving!

    I love All Creatures Great and Small so much. It's a perfect read for 2020. I hope you're enjoying it!

    I'm glad your daughter-in-law's parents are recovering. I look forward to your Arizona post! My husband and I want to take a job there but it hasn't worked out so far. Maybe next time!

    Enjoy your week!

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  6. Thank you for showing us a photo of a shrike. I love that you are helping to track them down!

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  7. My week was just rough! But the Christmas tree is up and now we have 3 days left of school, a staff development course, staff end-year (kind of) and then it's just holidays!

    Are you bird watchers Debbie? You should so come and visit me in South Africa. Some of the worlds most exquisite and beautiful birds are in our country.

    I got Around the World in eighty days for my spin and I couldn't be happier! I plan on doing a "around the world in eighty books" reading challenge next year and that book is going to start it of perfectly! YEAAAA!!!

    Your Thanksgiving dinner looks lovely and I'm glad to hear you are so positive about it.

    Have a wonderful, blessed week.

    Lots of Love,

    Mareli & Elza

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    1. Maybe one of these days I will get over to South Africa!

      I hope you enjoy Around the World in Eighty Days.

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  8. Did you know there is a remake of the show All Creatures Great and Small? PBS will be airing it in January. That's so cool that you have a naturalist group.

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  9. I'm glad to hear your daughter-in-law's parents have recovered well. I worry constantly that my parents will contract the virus. Looks like you're getting along in your reading. Year of Pleasures caught my eye. I've always wanted to explore books on music. I'm bookmarking your TBR list of your nonfiction books. :-)

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    1. I've been worried about my dad, too.

      You should definitely look for Year of Pleasures.

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  10. I am glad to hear that your DIL's parents are feeling better!

    And yes, what a weird Thanksgiving this year! We had one as well. Lol.

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  11. I’m missing the birds we used to have in our backyard since the trees were felled, especially the pair of kookaburras we had nest each Spring. Good luck with your Shrike hunt!
    I’m glad you were able to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast.

    Wishing you a great reading week

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    Replies
    1. What a treat to see a kookaburra in a nest. So sorry to hear about the loss of the trees.

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  12. Wow, 'War and Peace' is also on my Bucket list. As a literature major I feel its compulsory to read. Good luck with your Shrike hunt.

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    1. It took me a long time to get the courage to read War and Peace. I've been reading it all year and I still get the characters mixed up.

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  13. Very quiet here as we are in a lockdown. Essential stores/services are open. Restaurants are delivery or takeout only. All the Christmas markets/events have been cancelled.

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  14. It was definitely a weird Thanksgiving, but it sounds like the food remained the same. :)

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  15. Yes, definitely a weird Thanksgiving here, too, although the staff went all out with decorations and food. Unfortunately I went all out, too, and made myself a little sick for all day on Friday.

    Enjoy your week ahead, and good things for all!

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    1. Glad you were in the midst of so much celebration, but sorry you overdid a bit.

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  16. Lol... weird Thanksgiving - and it's shaping up to be a weird Christmas, too! But at least you had a peaceful, delicious meal... I love the idea of a shrike hunt:)). Good luck with finding them, Deb. I hope you have a great week!

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  17. It was a weird Thanksgiving, wasn't it? We skipped the traditional meal (for now) and had a simple pork tenderloin, risotto (oven recipe) and zucchini. I couldn't really plan for a turkey dinner since we had no idea how long my husband would be in the hospital. As it turned out, he was only there for 24 hours.

    I'm so sorry your DIL's parents got COVID! One of our good friends entire family of four got it and the husband wound up in ICU. He's home now and feeling much better, thank goodness! Scary to think that you can take every precaution and still catch it.

    Have a good week, Deb.

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    1. My dil's mother should have gone to the hospital; her oxygen level dipped to 88%. But she refused to go as she is the only one in charge of her 96-year-old mother.

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  18. A snipe is a real bird -- a wading bird found in northern marshes! In North America we have the Wilson's snipe, but globally there are around 26 species of snipe in the family Scolopacidae. However, as you indicate, the kids' snipe hunt wasn't looking for a bird, it was more of a hazing ritual.

    be well... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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    1. You sound like you have done your share of (real) snipe hunting.

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  19. Looks like you had a nice Thanksgiving in spite of the weirdness. :) It really was different this year, wasn't it? Still, good food is good food!

    Looking forward to your hiking posts.

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  20. Your shrike project sounds so rewarding. I am inspired to try yoga from home, too. I have an old video I will try it this week and wee if these old joints can do it.

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  21. Definitely a weird year! Glad your daughter-in-law's parents seem to have recovered. I need to do some more hiking.

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  22. Happy weird Thanksgiving is an apt phrase! ha. We enjoyed our socially-distanced backyard Thanksgiving at my in-laws.

    War and Peace--that's a biggie! It was on my list for years, but it's pretty much buried at the bottom of the list now. Congrats!

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  23. Your Thanksgiving was very like mine. Nice variety of books. I avoid "classics" since I have bounced off most of the ones I've tried. I'm not an adventurous reader and don't want to work too hard at it. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

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    1. I was scared to try "classics" but the vast majority of the ones I've read in the last few years have been wonderful.

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  24. Must feel very satisfying to be nearing the achievement of some big reading goals. The music one sounds really good, and a great way to listen to music.

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  25. Definitely a weird Thanksgiving here, too... all of the traditional food, but none of the people! Still we enjoyed the dinner and zoomed with family. On the reading front, I'm officially in a slump and hoping James Baldwin can break it.

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  26. We had "Turkey for Two,"and my former student who now lives in Boston sent us a peppered ham, something we'd never tried. It was wonderful. So, our Thanksgiving was no weirder than usual.

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    1. Want a couple of slices? Trade you for cookies or sweets.

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    2. I am making some lemon-pecan bread today, if there is any trade interest on your part there.

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  27. Weird Thanksgiving sums it up. Here, too. Well, onward. Let's see how weird we can make Christmas!

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  28. I forgot to include all the James Herriot books in my re-read books post today! I love, love, love them. Not sure I can watch the new show though. The old cast "were/are" the characters to me.

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  29. i have been doing too much sitting and am going to take some inspiration from your posts. you do share so many good things and i look forward to seeing your hiking photos

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