The Sunday Salon: A Week of Tropical Storm Alberto, Hunting for Pollinators, and Some Happy Reading

     

Welcome! I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. What is the Sunday Salon? The Sunday Salon is a place to link up and share what we have been doing during the week plus it's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Storm surge from Tropical Storm Alberto causes flooding in Surfside Beach.

My town is just north of Surfside Beach.

(Houston Chronicle photo)

I've lived along the Texas Gulf Coast my entire life, and I will tell you that it is not an auspicious sign for the 2024 hurricane season to have Tropical Storm Alberto, the first named storm of the season, develop in the Gulf in mid-June. 

Fortunately for us, the storm did not aim directly for Texas. 

I am participating in Pollinator Week this week. Wish me luck. So far, I've taken photos of 54 pollinators, with 24 different pollinator species. Worrisome fact: So far, I've not seen a bee of any species.

I've been scrambling around to find some wonderful summer reading, and, in the meantime, as it always does, my wonderful summer reading found me. I've been requesting, receiving, and then almost immediately returning so many library books this June that I feared my library, in frustration with me, might confiscate my card. 

Finally this week, I listened to you, the avid readers of the world, and I ended up reading some fantastic books. 

Instead of looking for some gentle summer reads, I figured out that what I need this summer is some gentle yet thoughtful reads; pure fluff just doesn't satisfy me these days. 

What I Read Last Week:

Virgil Wander by Leif Enger (Adult Fiction)

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy (Adult Novella)

Countdown by Deborah Wiles (Children's Fiction)

The White Stone by Gunnel Linde (Children's Fiction; 1001 Children's Books)

It's Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People by Ramani Durvasula (Nonfiction; Happiness)

Jackie and the Mona Lisa by Debbie Rovin Murphy (Picture Book; Paris in July)

What I'm Reading Now:

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (1000 Books)

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (in French for Paris in July)

How the Mountains Grew by John Dvorak (Naturalist Group Book Club)

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center (Romance)

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson (Nonfiction)

Revolution (The Sixties Trilogy #2) by Deborah Wiles (Children's Fiction)

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (Mystery; Book Club)

I began to list 3 Good Things every day during the pandemic. Now I've established a regular routine of writing down my 3 Good Things. Here are 3 Good Things from last week:

Good Thing #1:

My husband and I shared 

my husband's rock, mineral, and fossil collection

with a group of kids at a camp this week.

Good Thing #2:

Pollinator Week.

Good Thing #3:

I am delighted to discover

Poetry in America on PBS.

Weekend linkup spots are listed below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

I hope you will join the linkup for Sunday Salon below.