Rain barrels it's economical

Rain barrels during the winter period

VIA «Rain barrels — for economical owners!»

Rain chain — made in Japan

VIA «Rain chains instead of drains»

One Christmas while growing up, my parents gave my older sister a set of books for Christmas. She had them, which meant that I wanted them. But they weren't mine. (I'm still surprised at the number of times over the years that they have given a gift to one of us that would have been better suited for the other. Like the sewing machine... Seriously...) Anyway. I digress. So, I had to wait for the sister to either finish reading all nine books, or wait for her to get tired of them. I don't think she made it past the first few books before losing interest and then grudgingly allowed me to borrow them. (I'm pretty sure the parents were involved in pushing that...)

And let me tell you... I devoured those books. Seriously inhaled them. The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder was insanely loved by me. I cannot tell you how much I loved these books. There are nine of them, and I was reading them when I was probably about 7 or 8. Nine books. Big books too (at least for a kid that age) But I read them. And I loved them. I loved them so much that I thought they were the greatest books ever. I wanted to be Laura. For real... I begged my mom until she made me a bonnet and then I would run around outside, letting my bonnet flop off my head and stream behind me like Laura's did. (And really people, Laura was right! Bonnets are seriously annoying.)

I remember so many games played by myself that involved me being Laura in some way or another. I loved all of the books, but my very most favorite was These Happy Golden Years because that's when Almanzo proposes to Laura. It's been years since I've read these books, but I've never forgotten that scene. I even looked it up a while ago to make sure I was right, and I totally was. 'That would depend in the ring.' Sigh. It gave me butterflies. I don't even think I was 10 yet when reading this book but I remember thinking how amazing and romantic that scene was.

But then... Book the ninth. I remember starting it, so happy and eager to read about them after they had finally gotten married. But as I started reading, nothing felt right. The writing was different and even as a young kid, the narrative voice felt... off. Somehow awkward and stilted. I remember forcing myself to finish the book, because it was the end to this deeply beloved series but being incredibly disappointed in the final book. It wasn't until later that I learned that Laura had died before writing this book and her daughter (I think...) had compiled the notes she had left behind and written the final book for Laura. Made me feel pretty good that I'd picked up on the differences as a 9 year old.:)

I really want to go back and reread these books because of how much I loved them growing up, but at the same time, I'm very afraid to. I'm afraid that they won't live up to the pedestal I've placed them on in my memories. Maybe I'll wait until I have kids of my own and then try and read them together. I'd love to go back and see how many of the scenes I vividly remember from these books are the same as I remember them, or if they are even in these books (like Laura running through the rain so fast she managed to dodge the raindrops. Do you have any idea how many times I tried that?! I lived near Seattle, WA. We were no stranger to rain and I used to try, so hard to run fast enough to dodge the rain. But alas. I never managed it.)

Any of you have memories of reading about the many adventures of Laura on the prairie?

Complete List of the books:

Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Priarie
Farmer Boy
On the Banks of Plum Creek
By the Shores of Silver Lake
The Long Winter
Little Town on the Prairie
These Happy Golden Years
The First Four Years

(Also, I hate the cover art with the real people on it... I loved the Garth Williams illustrated covers, even as a kid. They just fit the books so much better)

The wall in the Garden of Severus suffered a partial collapse after days of rainfall in southern Italy, Pompeii’s superintendency said on Wednesday.

The area was sealed off to visitors at the time and the discovery was made by staff at the ancient site.

The Garden of Severus is already part of the Great Pompeii Project, a multi-million euro fund from the EU and Italian government to protect the area.

An agreement is also being set up with the fire service to intervene in inaccessible parts of Pompeii which are at risk, the superintendency said.

The incident at the Garden of Severus is just the latest in a series of collapses at Pompeii, which was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 79AD.

Culture Minister Dario Franceschini last March promised to unblock €2 million in restoration funds, after the Temple of Venus and Pompeii walls were damaged by rainfall.

Despite the site winning funding to the tune of €105 million, the Italian authorities have been criticized for being woefully slow in implementing restoration plans.

UNESCO has also weighed into the debate, threatening in 2013 to scrap Pompeii from its prestigious World Heritage list if measures were not taken to save the ancient site.

Source: The Local [February 05, 2015]

Last week I announced a self-challenge I'm undertaking in the month of May. I'm reading books that are approximately 200 pages or less for the entire month. I'm happy to say that it's gone extremely well this week-- I've already finished four books! I read Missouri

and The Only Dance in Iowa: A History of Six-Player Girls' Basketball

, which I recently purchased, and Lonesome Traveler and Summer Rain

, which I've had on my shelves since high school. It was a double whammy for me because Summer Rain and Missouri are both books in translation, which helps me on my goal of reading ten books in translation for my Day Zero Challenge. All in all it was a successful week of reading. Have any of you started reading short books for this month? I'd love to hear about your progress or plans!

I have four days left of my semester. I've been a little slow with blogging lately so I'm looking forward to being in the swing of things again. I actually don't have too much work this week. I have a five page comic to finish today, a Renaissance poetry take home final to finish tomorrow, and an entrepreneurship exam on Thursday evening. Then I will be free of this semester! Next year will be the final year of my undergraduate career. It's going to be a weird one since I'm taking almost the minimum amount of semester hours and in the fall I'll only be in one English class. I'm pursuing certificates in nonprofit management and fundraising and philanthropy; next year most of my classes will be in those certificate programs.

And on a final note, I'd like to wish a happy mother's day to all the moms out there who read my blog. I'd also like to say happy mother's day to my own mother who always spoiled me with books, my Grandma Marilyn who taught me to read, and my Grandma Sheree who has always supported my love of reading. Best moms in the world!

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Bonnie from A Backwards Story is with us again today, bringing us another fantastic interview — this time with Carolyn Turgeon!

Carolyn Turgeon is the author of three novels, Rain Village, Godmother, and Mermaid. Her next novel, The Next Full Moon, is scheduled to come out in August/September 2011. Based on Te Swan Maiden, this will be Turgeon’s debut novel for young readers. Her novels tend to be twisted versions of fairy tales you’ve never seen before, such as The Little Mermaid from the princess’ perspective in addition to the mermaid’s or a version of Cinderella where the godmother is banished from the fairy realm when something goes horribly wrong... For a review of Turgeon’s work, please visit the above links. Reviews of her other titles will come to A Backwards Story later this year. Godmother and Mermaid are also featured in a FTF guest post titled FRACTURED FAIRY TALES.

1) What were your favorite fairy tales growing up? What drew you to them?
I can recall loving all kinds of stories, such as Thumbelina and The Princess and the Pea, with all their strange and wonderful images—the tiny girl floating along in an acorn, the princess with her stack of mattresses. I think my favorite fairy tales were by Oscar Wilde: The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose… but my favorite was The Selfish Giant. It’s very sad and strange and beautiful—the ghostly little boy, the lush garden, the endless snow and frost, the giant who gets struck down, covered in white blossoms… I’ve always tended to like stories that are very sad.

2) What made you decide to write alternative versions of fairytales from unique perspectives?
I didn’t really start out intending to write alternative versions of fairy tales. When I started Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story, I just wanted to tell the Cinderella story straight, with lots of wonderful, lush detail and full, fleshed-out characters and all kinds of weirdness and darkness, etc. That’s what I love about fairytales, by the way—that strange combination of beauty and darkness you find in all of them. After my first book, Rain Village, which took forever to write, I wanted to do something that I thought would be a lot of fun, something that I would really love writing. I only decided to tell the story through the perspective of the fairy godmother when I realized how limited Cinderella’s perspective was—back then I only ever wrote in first person—so I figured that if the fairy godmother was narrating she could be pretty omniscient, tell you what was going on with Cinderella and the other characters. Plus, she could tell you her own story, too, which I thought might be interesting. Later, I decided to set the book in contemporary New York City and only have the godmother remembering everything that had happened in the other world. The book is set half in New York and half in the fairy tale world (in flashbacks). I only decided to do that after joining a writing workshop and seeing that the people in the workshop didn’t seem to be responding to the straight-out fairy tale I was writing. I wanted to win them over and I thought maybe I could lure them in with a present-day story set in the city, win them over that way, and then plunge them into the fairy tale.
So the book only slowly evolved into this alternative version. Once I put the fairy tale in via flashbacks, I knew something had to have gone terribly wrong. Why else would the fairy godmother be an old woman in New York?
After writing the book, though, I felt there was something really powerful in taking a story as well known as Cinderella, a story that’s in our blood and bones, and telling the “real” story from a perspective you never think or care about.

3) Can you tell us more about your upcoming book, The Next Full Moon?
The Next Full Moon is my first children’s book, a middle-grade novel about a 12-year-old girl who’s being raised alone by her father in Pennsylvania and who starts growing feathers, which is totally mortifying and confusing for her of course. She then comes to discover that her mother, whom she thought died when she was an infant, was (and is) a swan maiden. The story’s based on the old tales in which a man steals a swan maiden’s feathered robe when she’s in her human form, takes her home, marries her and has children with her. One day she discovers the robe and flies away—there are various reasons for this, depending on the version you read. I wondered: what happens when those kids she leaves behind hit puberty? In my book, the man and woman had only one child, and now here’s the kid ten years later with feathers appearing on her arms and back, having no idea that her mother is still alive and, of course, no idea that she’s a swan maiden.
I like the idea of a 12-year-old girl, full of shame and embarrassment, slowly discovering that she’s magical and amazing.

4) What other ideas are you working on right now?
Well, I’m working on a few things right now. Because of Mermaid, I started this blog, I Am a Mermaid, where I talk to all kinds of people about mermaids. I’ve realized that there’s this whole mermaid culture out there that’s really fascinating and lovely. So I’m writing my first non-fiction (but still quite fantastical!) book. And I’m working on a new novel that has to do with Weeki Wachee and a YA novel about a drowning pool, and I have this half-done thriller that I hope to finish this year…

5) Was it hard coming up with your own lore when you began world-building? How did you bring everything together?
It was challenging for me to write about magical worlds, I think, in that I was afraid of making them too Disney-ish or corny. So with Godmother, at first I was very vague when talking about the fairy world; in fact in the first draft, the flashbacks start with the godmother meeting Cinderella and we don’t really see her in her own world at all. It was only after the book sold that my editors pushed me to make the fairy world more defined and vivid, to explain the rules of that world and the landscape of it and so on. So I added in the first couple of flashback chapters that are in the book now, and they were probably the hardest chapters for me to write, even though they’re probably the lightest ones in the whole book.
With Mermaid, I mainly had to explain the rules we see in the original Hans Christian Andersen story… like why the mermaids can only visit the human world once, on their birthdays, and so on. It was more like putting together a puzzle than anything else, trying to create the worlds in that book and make them adhere to specific points from the original story.

6) Which of the books you've written is your favorite so far? What makes it the most special to you?
Hmmm. I think that would always tend to be the latest one. Right now I’m very excited about The Next Full Moon and writing for this younger age group. I found it surprisingly easy to write as a twelve-year-old, which is possibly a little worrisome, and was able to draw on my own memories and experiences more than I have for any other book. Like the characters all go to the lake in their town, where there’s an old carousel and people sell lemonade and they can all go swimming or lie out on the beach. And I was just directly describing the lake my friends and I used to go to in East Lansing, Michigan, where I lived from when I was twelve to fourteen, and I hadn’t thought about that lake in years. We moved around a lot when I was growing up, and so I’m really distanced from some of those memories and places. It was kind of nostalgic and wonderful, writing that book and slipping into those memories and this old self. Also, I have to say, I think the trauma and awkwardness of being twelve mixes really well with the fairy tale elements in the book, and I like the idea that something magical is happening to you as you hit puberty and you just have to figure that out.

7) What are some of your favorite fairy tale inspired novels and/or authors?
I love Angela Carter and her weird, gorgeous visions. I love Alice Hoffman, Francesca Lia Block, Joanne Harris, Isabel Allende, Jeanette Winterson, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Italo Calvino... They’re not all fairy tale writers and I don’t know to what extent they’ve all been inspired by fairy tales, but they all write in that vein I think, lush and magical. I really enjoyed Erzebet Yellowboy’s Sleeping Helena. And I also, by the way, really loved the way the Pied Piper story is used in the movie The Sweet Hereafter. It’s pretty brilliant.

8) If you could live out any fairy tale, what would it be and why?
Oh, I think maybe Thumbelina. I mean, who wouldn’t want to ride around in an acorn? For the most part, I think fairy tales are not the stories I would like to live out. Though I wouldn’t mind being the little mermaid for a day, before she goes and sees the sea witch and ruins her life…

9) What's your favorite Disney rendition of a fairy tale? What makes it so special?
I’m going to have to defer to my childhood self, who loved all those movies quite passionately. As an adult, I could barely even get through The Little Mermaid, which I was totally swept away by as a teenager. Probably my favorite, though, is Snow White. The old versions of that tale are really very shockingly weird and violent, and even the Disney version is incredibly creepy, with our semi-dead heroine lying gorgeously in a glass coffin in the forest and our hot prince having a thing for dead chicks.

FUN AND CRAZY ROUND!

~Best fairy tale villain and why?
Oh, the stepmother from Snow White. She’s a gorgeous witch with a magic mirror who has her stepdaughter murdered in the forest and then eats her heart (or lungs or what have you). Even though she’s betrayed by her huntsman and actually eats a stag’s heart, she believes she’s eating Snow White’s. It’s hard to think of a more perverse female villain! And I love the image of her skulking through the forest with her cloak and her basket full of poisoned apples.

~Rapunzel is named after lettuce; what odd thing would you be named after if you were in a fairy tale?
Oh, I love Rapunzel and the lettuce that is so delicious and addictive that Rapunzel’s mother craves it above all else and even makes her husband climb into a witch’s garden to get more for her. I mean, who pines for lettuce? Now I totally want some lettuce, now that I’m thinking about it...
I’d like to be something equally un-chocolate-y, if you know what I mean, some other pedestrian, unsexy vegetable with hidden powers of seduction. Like a rutabaga or a turnip. Turnip is kind of a cute word, not too far off from the delightful “tulip.” I’d like some fairytale character to be sitting in a room wasting away from a mad desire for turnips.

~ Using that name, give us a line from your life as a fairy tale:
She stared out the window at the impossibly lush turnips growing outside just beyond reach, their leaves shooting into the air like hands, their bodies dense and purple, as round as breasts. Her mouth watered as she watched the turnip leaves undulating in the breeze. As if they were bellydancing, she thought.

Meanwhile, Turnip was enjoying a large slice of chocolate cake at Jean Georges.

~Would you rather:

- — eat magic beans or golden eggs? Golden eggs. Don’t those sound delectable? A magic bean is just wrong.

- — style 50ft long hair or polish 100 pairs of glass slippers? I think polishing the glass slippers would be much more manageable. And I love things made out of glass, especially slippers and dresses. Are you aware of Karen LaMonte’s glass dresses? Look:

- — have a fairy godmother or a Prince Charming? Oh, a fairy godmother. Who wouldn’t want an endless supply of dresses and carriages? And let’s face it: Prince Charming isn’t all he’s cracked up to be.
Come to think of it, though… if we’re talking about the fairy godmother from my own book, then I’d really have to go for the hot prince, or even one of the coachman or mice. Anyone but the godmother, please!

-----------------------------------------
Okay, okay, here’s the part you’re all waiting for: The giveaway! Carolyn has generously agreed to give away three—yes, THREE—autographed copies of Mermaid as well as some fun mermaid tattoos! You know you want to win this contest and read this fantastic book.

To enter,. In addition, please leave a comment answering this question: What would you do if you could be a mermaid for a day? Also, what would you be willing to sacrifice in order to become a mermaid?

Entries must be received by MAY 5th. May 8th This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL!
Good luck and I can’t wait to see your responses!

PS from Misty: I love this picture! ----->

Today I have an interview with up and coming author Alexandra Bracken. Her novel, Brightly Woven, debuts March 23. The short description of the novel from her website is, "Sydelle Mirabil is living proof that, with a single drop of rain, a life can be changed forever. Tucked away in the farthest reaches of the kingdom, her dusty village has suffered under the weight of a strangely persistent drought. That is, of course, until a wizard wanders into town and brings the rain with him." I haven't read her novel yet, though I plan to, so many of you might be wondering why I chose to interview her. Bracken is unique in that she was working on publishing her novel while she was still in college. She signed with an agent on her 21st birthday and after spending her senior year revising the novel her dream is finally coming true next week. How did she do it you might ask, and I think the work diligence pretty much sums up Bracken's story. I won't just leave it at that though, as follows you can read her answers to my questions about how she balanced school and writing and what path (or paths) she took to get there.

Where did you go to school, when did you graduate, and what did you go?
I went to the College of William and Mary, graduated last Spring, and majored in History and English

Did you start as an English major? What made you decide to become an English major?
When I was applying for schools, I focused on the Virginia area, mostly because I knew I wanted to study Early American History and I would freeze my butt off if I went to school in New England. I had always loved English, but my dad had convinced me to major in History and Government because he wanted me to be a lawyer. BIG mistake. I took one Government class and realized how stupid it was for me NOT to major in English--AKA the subject I really loved.

What were your plans for after graduation? How have those plans been fulfilled or how have they been different than you expected?
Originally, I was going the pre-law route (I'm sure you've all noticed that when you say you're an English major, most people assume that you want to be A) a lawyer or B) a teacher)... but I realized, in the middle of taking the LSAT unfortunately, that being a lawyer would make me MISERABLE, and spent all of the summer between Junior and Senior year moping around without a life plan. My next idea was to work in PR/Communications (which I definitely recommend), but I ended up getting a scholarship to attend the Columbia Publishing Institute and decided to take it. I now work as an editorial assistant in children's publishing. Looking back, it seems like a natural choice since being an author had given me a lot of insight into the business.I'm not sure if it's what I want to be doing forever, but I'm happy to be employed and doing something I enjoy!


What made you decide to take on writing a novel while in college?
I first tried my hand at writing a novel my freshman year--I always say that NaNoWriMo made me very brave, and it's true. I thought I would just give it a go, and ended up getting hooked on the process.

Were you planning to publish this all along?
No... I tried to be very realistic about it and not get my hopes up, but secretly I was hoping I'd be able to sell something before I graduated.


How did you balance school and writing?
I get asked this all the time, and I'm still not sure what the right answer is. I was very disciplined and made a lot of social sacrifices on the weekends. You really do have to find a schedule that works, though. The first three years of college were incredibly reading and writing intensive (I was once assigned 2000 pages of reading a week in my Sophomore year. Not. Fun.), but that helped me write. Knowing that I only had an hour here or two hours there meant that I used that little time for writing and writing alone. When i was working on revisions with my agent, I gave myself a deadline to finish the first round before finals that May. Starting in March, I woke up at 6 AM every day and wrote until I had class at 1 PM, and when I was done with homework at night, I'd be back to revising. I tried getting up at 5 AM and squeezing in an hour of work out time, but... uh... I quickly decided an extra hour of sleep was more important than getting my fitness on.


What advice would you give college students who want to write seriously in college? What advice would you give those who want to publish? What steps should they take?
The advice that I always give to high schoolers and college students that ask me this question is this: While you're in school, focus on being a writer before you focus on being a published author. I really miss the days I had before I was published, when I could write whatever I wanted regardless of how crappy it was and I didn't have to worry about another person's judgment. I can't reinforce this enough, being published in college is like having a full-time job, and one that isn't always fun. It's an incredible amount of stress and pressure to put on yourself, when you're already anxious about exams/papers/what-have-you. Not everyone will have a negative experience, but I would also add that a good portion of my friends thought that I had graduated a semester early because I was so deep in my revision hole that I only surfaced for food and class. School is such a unique and wonderful time, but you don't get to experience it when you're by yourself writing. There are a zillion and a half elements in Brightly Woven that I picked up from the classes I was taking at the time. Be a sponge and absorb as much as possible from your classes and friends. Make sure you're taking advantage of all that college life has to offer, and if you happen to write something that you feel is ready to be seen by the world, go for it! Revise it seriously, submit it to agents, and learn from the feedback you get. Make sure that when you're writing you are happy and excited, because the minute you start feeling stressed out or depressed, it often means that your life has become unbalanced, and you need to step away and refocus.


What advice would you give to English majors about how to make the English major work for them after school?
Okay guys, here's a secret: what matters in the job world isn't necessarily what you majored in, but the internships and work experiences that you have. My current boss didn't hire me because I was an English major (though I'm sure that helped)--she claimed it was because I talked about coordinating our Student Assembly's Thanksgiving airport shuttle rides. So don't discount any work experience you have, regardless of how small or insignificant you think it is. I would also recommend networking with alums in the career field of your choice, and seeking out speciality programs like the Columbia Publishing Course, which often feed you directly into jobs. Besides the fact that companies are always looking for good writers (seriously--critical writing does not tend to be a strength of most business majors), so be sure to always play that up. Plus, you've spent how many years analyzing and forming your own arguments, right? That's another skill you have in the bag.

Alexandra's novel, Brightly Woven, comes out March 23. You can read a longer synopsis if you follow the Brightly Woven link.

Alex Treven is a lawyer at a prestigious law firm. He represents the inventor of a encryption program. When both the inventor and the patent officer wind up dead, Alex begins to wonder if he is in danger. He attempts to contact his brother, Ben, whom he hasn't talked to in seven years, to ask for help. He knows his brother was in the military and may be able to offer some level of protection.

Ben is an undercover who is tasked to eliminate targets in the war against terror. When he receives his brother's email, he's furious that Alex has dared to ask him for help. Their rocky relationship was due to a family trauma when they were both young. The each dealt with it in different ways: Alex stayed close to home and devoted himself to his parents and Ben dropped out of college and enrolled in the military.

Ben returns to his boyhood home and provides protection to Alex and Sarah Hosseini, a legal associate. Several "agencies" have an interest in the encryption program, and will stop at nothing to prevent the patent from going through.

FAULT LINE is a fast-paced, action-packed thriller. The character development is very strong, we learn more and more about Ben and Alex in each passing chapter. There are several underlying story lines that all wind together to wrap up an amazing book! This book is guaranteed to grab your attention from page one! I was a little overwhelmed with all the talk of technology in the first few chapters, but once the pace of the storyline quickened, I wasn't able to put this book down!

About the Author:

After graduating from Cornell Law School, Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position with the CIA's Directorate of Operations, then worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center. Eisler's thrillers have won the Barry Award and the Gumshoe Award for Best Thriller of the Year, have been included in numerous "Best Of" lists, and have been translated into nearly twenty languages. The first book in Eisler's assassin John Rain series, Rain Fall, has been made into a movie starring Gary Oldman that was released by Sony Pictures in April 2009.

For more information about the author or his work, please visit http://www.barryeisler.com

Pump Up Your Book Promotion
"We take book promotion to the virtual level!"

The Shadow Concrete

As it is simple and as it is healthy! So it would be desirable to exclaim, looking at the simple object created by Portuguese architectural bureau Ateliermob. Under an amusing canopy the cafe disappears.

Shadow Surface consists of the concrete roof placed on three walls, creating a courtyard filled with sunlight spots, or even the whole hares getting through drawing from round apertures. Through the same apertures rain water inside gets, creating an original show. The one-storeyed cafe is between this canopy and a children's playground on which there are high windows.

The Project Purpose: to unite apartment houses

On the lift or on steps from under a canopy it is possible to go down in an underground parking.

VIA «The Concrete Romanticism in Lisbon»

When August Wilte learns his wife is pregnant, he's terrified. His own father, London, was less than perfect. To make things worse, his mother died when he was very young, so he's never been exposed to "good" parenting.

August confronts his father, demanding an explanation for his failures. Instead, London suggests that meet once a month for a round of golf. Both men get what they want: London gets the chance to reintroduce his son to the game of golf, and August receives tidbits of memories of his mother on golf score cards that London used as a sort of diary.

August soon learns that his father's motive isn't just golf. Each golf lesson is actually a life lesson. By the time his wife has reached the end of her pregnancy, August has received nine lessons in life from his father.

I'll have to admit, I was apprehensive about reading THE NINE LESSONS when I read the description. However, I enjoyed Milne's other book THE PAPER BAG CHRISTMAS I thought I'd give him another chance. I'm glad I did. Milne's characters are genuine and experience emotions we've all experienced. The messages relayed in THE NINE LESSONS are messages that we can all take to heart.

Here is just a sampling of some of the wisdom London passes on to August:

"Some days we play the game of life in the bloody rain. Not all days can be sunny skies and fair weather. But sooner or later the dark clouds dissipate...and the light shines through."

"If your child happens to wonder out of bounds, stick by his side, let him know you're there to help, and encourage him to get back on the fairway as quickly as possible."

"Mind your own score...get rid of the mental tallies of who is doing what, and just work as a team to get everything done that needs to be done."

"You've got to follow through. Even if it seems hard, you've got to force your body to do it."

THE NINE LESSONS would be the perfect gift for a father-to-be, or any person attempting to overcome a obstacle or challenge in life. Don't discount the book because on the surface it appears to be about golf, because after all, Golf IS life!

Ballesteros had suffered a 'severe deterioration' as he battled a brain tumour, his family said.
Ballesteros and his wife Carmen in 2004 at Spanish Crown Prince Felipe of Bourbon's wedding
The five-time major winning Spaniard was recovering from surgeries performed in 2008 to remove a malignant tumor from his brain.
Other sports stars who have been paying tribute include Spanish tennis star Rafa Nadal, who said: 'Seve is one of this country's great sportsmen. I've been lucky enough to meet him and play golf with him.’
In a statement on Ballesteros' website today, the family said the 54-year-old golfer passed away at 2:10 am local time at his home at Pedrena, in northern Spain, where he has mostly been since undergoing four operations in late 2008.

Family man: Ballesteros with his former wife Carmen and their son Baldomero after winning the Volvo PGA championship at Wentworth in 1991
In a statement, the Ballesteros family says it 'is very grateful for all the support and gestures of love that have been received since Seve was diagnosed with a brain tumour on 5th October 2008'.
Ballesteros had earlier been blessed by a priest in a ceremony reserved for Catholics who are dangerously ill or close to death.
The golfing legend received the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, according to Spanish national newspaper El Mundo.
Battle: After a second course of chemotherapy in February 2009, Ballesteros said it was a 'miracle to be alive' at a press conference in Madrid Volvo World Match Play Championship just eight months later
During the ceremony a priest uses olive oil to bless a patient on the forehead and hands while reciting prayers.
The paper said the sportsman had received Extreme Unction, an older term for the sacrament, but gave no further details.
The Anointing of the Sick is one part of the Last Rites ritual in the Catholic Church.
Comedy moment: Seve Ballesteros's sense of humour will be sorely missed
Vintage: Ballesteros saw off defending champion Tom Watson in memorable fashion, winning the second of his three Open championships, at St Andrews in 1984
Seve was the last of his kind
There will never be another golfer quite like Seve Ballesteros. Perhaps no other sportsman quite like him either.
Put together the charisma of Arnold Palmer and the shot-making skills of Tiger Woods and you come close. Yet at his peak, hard though it might be to believe, his appeal was greater than the sum of those two giants of the game.
In the 1980s Europe became blessed with a ‘Big Five’ of Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam.
True great: Seve Ballesteros holds the Ryder Cup trophy in the rain in 1997 after Europe beat the United States

Legend: Seve Ballesteros reacting as he wins the British Open golf championship at Royal Lytham and St. Anne's in Lancashire
Severiano Ballesteros "The Matador"

Seve Ballesteros 13Th Fairway approach shot 1986 Masters

Amazing golf shot - Ballesteros on his knees

source:dailymail

VIA Tributes pour in for Seve Ballesteros after golfing legend dies from brain tumour at age of 54

Commercial Mailboxes for houses

Residential Mailboxes for cottages

VIA «Mailboxes for apartments and cottages»

Every month Aths and I are reading one eco-centered book for our feature Leif Reads. To find out more about this feature visit the about page.

With all the snow falling this year a lot of people think the signs of global warming are over. In reality, all of this snow is just more proof of the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. More carbon dioxide in the air means the air holds more moisture, and that moisture has to go someplace which is why we've had record snow and rainfalls recently. Since there is more rain on the ground and there needs to be somewhere for it to go we experience floods. As Bill McKibben points out in Eaarth, "a river that has to carry more water takes up more space... the river [the road] running next to is getting wider because we now live on a planet where warmer air holds more water vapor and hence we have bigger storms. There's no room for the road to shift" (61).

This is something that really hits home for me because I've experienced two pretty monstrous floods in last three years. One where I live now, Iowa City, and one where I grew up, Des Moines. While you may not care about the natural problems with flooding, I'm sure you care about the people whose lives are changed by them. "After such a disaster, researchers report, 'people feel inadequate, like outside forces are taking control of their lives" (75). This is a huge problem right now. Our earth is not the only thing changing, we as people are changing because of these things we've done to our earth.

Flooding in Colfax, Iowa, where my dad grew up. This flood was just last summer and washed out the majority of the fields in area. Photo source.

I walk by this building every day, but during the flood of 2008 the door was blocked off by water. Photo source.

We all know flooding happens, but it's important to make the connection between the amount of snowfall we see and the amount of flooding we have. Snow is frozen, but when it melts that means there is more water in our rivers. More water than our rivers can hold.

Have any of you experienced a flood?

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The destructions are part of a campaign by the IS extremists who have destroyed a number of shrines — including Muslim holy sites — in order to eliminate what they view as heresy. They are also believed to have sold ancient artifacts on the black market in order to finance their bloody campaign across the region.

The five-minute video shows a group of bearded men inside the Mosul Museum using hammers and drills to destroy several large statues, which are then shown chipped and in pieces. The video then shows a black-clad man at a nearby archaeological site inside Mosul, drilling through and destroying a winged-bull Assyrian protective deity that dates back to the 7th century B.C.

The video was posted on social media accounts affiliated with the Islamic State group and though it could not be independently verified it appeared authentic, based on AP's knowledge of the Mosul Museum.

Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and the surrounding Nineveh province fell to the militants during their blitz last June after Iraqi security forces melted away.

In their push, the extremists captured large swaths of land in both Iraq and neighboring Syria, declared a self-styled caliphate on territories that are under their control, killing members of religious minorities, driving others from their homes, enslaving women and destroying houses of worship.

The region under IS control in Iraq has nearly 1,800 of Iraq's 12,000 registered archaeological sites and the militants appear to be out to cleanse it of any non-Islamic ideas, including library books, archaeological relics, and even Islamic sites considered idolatrous.

"Oh Muslims, these artifacts that are behind me were idols and gods worshipped by people who lived centuries ago instead of Allah," a bearded man tells the camera as he stands in front of the partially demolished winged-bull.

"The so-called Assyrians and Akkadians and others looked to gods for war, agriculture and rain to whom they offered sacrifices," he added, referring to groups that that left their mark on Mesopotamia for more than 5,000 years in what is now Iraq, eastern Syria and southern Turkey.

"Our prophet ordered us to remove all these statues as his followers did when they conquered nations," the man in the video adds. The video bore the logo of the IS group's media arm and was posted on a Twitter account used by the group.

A professor at the Archaeology College in Mosul confirmed to the Associated Press that the two sites depicted in the video are the city museum and a site known as Nirgal Gate, one of several gates to the capital of the Assyrian Empire, Ninevah.

"I'm totally shocked," Amir al-Jumaili told the AP over the phone from outside of Mosul. "It's a catastrophe. With the destruction of these artifacts, we can no longer be proud of Mosul's civilization."

He said that very few of the museum pieces are not genuine.

Among the most important sites under the militants' control are four ancient cities — Ninevah, Kalhu, Dur Sharrukin and Ashur — which were at different times the capital of the mighty Assyrian Empire.

The Assyrians first arose around 2500 B.C. and at one point ruled over a realm stretching from the Mediterranean coast to what is present-day Iran. Also in danger is the UNESCO World Heritage Site Hatra, which is thought to have been built in the 3rd or 2nd century B.C. by the Seleucid Empire. It flourished during the 1st and 2nd centuries as a religious and trading center.

The damage to Iraqi artifacts in Mosul is the latest episode in that has targeted the nation's heritage.

In January, Islamic State militants ransacked the Central Library of Mosul, smashing the locks and taking around 2,000 books — leaving only Islamic texts. Days later, militants broke into University of Mosul's library. They made a bonfire out of hundreds of books on science and culture, destroying them in front of students.

The day after Baghdad fell to U.S. troops in April 2003, looters burst into the Iraqi National Museum in the Iraqi capital, making off with scores of priceless artifacts and leaving the floor littered with shattered pottery. The U.S. was widely criticized at the time for failing to protect the site.

Author: Sinan Salaheddin | Source: The Associated Press [February 26, 2015]

This kind of crept up on me but today is a day I have been looking forward to for awhile. Today Fiona Robyn will begin posting her novel, Thaw, on her blog. The book is a diary, so it's really a great way to check it out! I'm doing this today in place of a review, I hope you all give the first entry a try. Here is the first page:

These hands are ninety-three years old. They belong to Charlotte Marie Bradley Miller. She was so frail that her grand-daughter had to carry her onto the set to take this photo. It’s a close-up. Her emaciated arms emerge from the top corners of the photo and the background is black, maybe velvet, as if we’re being protected from seeing the strings. One wrist rests on the other, and her fingers hang loose, close together, a pair of folded wings. And you can see her insides.

The bones of her knuckles bulge out of the skin, which sags like plastic that has melted in the sun and is dripping off her, wrinkling and folding. Her veins look as though they’re stuck to the outside of her hands. They’re a colour that’s difficult to describe: blue, but also silver, green; her blood runs through them, close to the surface. The book says she died shortly after they took this picture. Did she even get to see it? Maybe it was the last beautiful thing she left in the world.

I’m trying to decide whether or not I want to carry on living. I’m giving myself three months of this journal to decide. You might think that sounds melodramatic, but I don’t think I’m alone in wondering whether it’s all worth it. I’ve seen the look in people’s eyes. Stiff suits travelling to work, morning after morning, on the cramped and humid tube. Tarted-up girls and gangs of boys reeking of aftershave, reeling on the pavements on a Friday night, trying to mop up the dreariness of their week with one desperate, fake-happy night. I’ve heard the weary grief in my dad’s voice.

So where do I start with all this? What do you want to know about me? I’m Ruth White, thirty-two years old, going on a hundred. I live alone with no boyfriend and no cat in a tiny flat in central London. In fact, I had a non-relationship with a man at work, Dan, for seven years. I’m sitting in my bedroom-cum-living room right now, looking up every so often at the thin rain slanting across a flat grey sky. I work in a city hospital lab as a microbiologist. My dad is an accountant and lives with his sensible second wife Julie, in a sensible second home. Mother finished dying when I was fourteen, three years after her first diagnosis. What else? What else is there?

Charlotte Marie Bradley Miller. I looked at her hands for twelve minutes. It was odd describing what I was seeing in words. Usually the picture just sits inside my head and I swish it around like tasting wine. I have huge books all over my flat — books you have to take in both hands to lift. I’ve had the photo habit for years. Mother bought me my first book, black and white landscapes by Ansel Adams. When she got really ill, I used to take it to bed with me and look at it for hours, concentrating on the huge trees, the still water, the never-ending skies. I suppose it helped me think about something other than what was happening. I learned to focus on one photo at a time rather than flicking from scene to scene in search of something to hold me. If I concentrate, then everything stands still. Although I use them to escape the world, I also think they bring me closer to it. I’ve still got that book. When I take it out, I handle the pages as though they might flake into dust.

Mother used to write a journal. When I was small, I sat by her bed in the early mornings on a hard chair and looked at her face as her pen spat out sentences in short bursts. I imagined what she might have been writing about — princesses dressed in star-patterned silk, talking horses, adventures with pirates. More likely she was writing about what she was going to cook for dinner and how irritating Dad’s snoring was.

I’ve always wanted to write my own journal, and this is my chance. Maybe my last chance. The idea is that every night for three months, I’ll take one of these heavy sheets of pure white paper, rough under my fingertips, and fill it up on both sides. If my suicide note is nearly a hundred pages long, then no-one can accuse me of not thinking it through. No-one can say, ‘It makes no sense; she was a polite, cheerful girl, had everything to live for,’ before adding that I did keep myself to myself. It’ll all be here. I’m using a silver fountain pen with purple ink. A bit flamboyant for me, I know. I need these idiosyncratic rituals; they hold things in place. Like the way I make tea, squeezing the tea-bag three times, the exact amount of milk, seven stirs. My writing is small and neat; I’m striping the paper. I’m near the bottom of the page now. Only ninety-one more days to go before I’m allowed to make my decision. That’s it for today. It’s begun.

Documentary producer Michael Burns and his team travel to remote Belize in an attempt to capture the “magic” of the last curandero (healer) on film. It is Burns hope to unearth some yet undiscovered medicinal property found native to the rain forest. He meets Kelly Montgomery, a ethnobotanist that is stationed in Belize with her husband. Burns is instantly drawn to her strength, her natural beauty. Burns and his crew discover that they have gotten themselves into more than they expected and soon find themselves in the middle of a local political battle.

THE FIVE LOST DAYS is a thrilling tale of ancient beliefs and local politics that will keep you begging for more.

Author's website: www.thefivelostdays.com

Shannon is another of my favorite blogging buddies. She blogs over at Books Devoured and her blog makes me happy. She has two kids and they contribute to the blog sometimes too! I love that she includes her kids! And she is also one of my very most favorite people to talk to!! She is just super awesome and amazing, and she doesn't judge Mean Ashley... :) She has put together an awesome top ten list for you today!

Top Ten Quotes:

This week topic was Top Ten Lists and I tried to think a little outside the box. Here are my top 10 favorite quotes from Contemporary Novels. Though the quotes I have chosen are from books that were not released this year, they are all ones that I have read for the first time this year. My top 3 all happen to be from Looking for Alaska by John Green!

10. “Moments, when lost, can't be found again. They're just gone.”
― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty

9. “Is it possible for home to be a person and not a place?”
― Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss

8. “Every story is part of a whole, entire life, you know? Happy and sad and tragic and whatever, but an entire life. And books let you know them.”
― Sarah Ockler, Twenty Boy Summer

7. “When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

6. “I mean, really. Who sends their kid to boarding school? It's so Hogwarts. Only mine doesn't have cute boy wizards or magic candy or flying lessons.”
― Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss

5. “You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.”
― Sarah Dessen, Keeping the Moon

4. “You have to know what you stand for, not just what you stand against.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

3. “I wanted to be one of those people who have streaks to maintain, who scorch the ground with their intensity. But for now, at least I knew such people, and they needed me, just like comets need tails.”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska

2. “Thomas Edison's last words were 'It's very beautiful over there'. I don't know where there is, but I believe it's somewhere, and I hope it's beautiful.”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska

1. “So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska

I love this post Shannon! I do wish that I paid more attention to specific quotes within books, but I totally agree that these are amazing quotes, definitely ones that I love as well!

Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly is another book I had been meaning to read for a while that became a prod from Allison to read now. And I am so glad that she pushed it so hard because OhMyGosh! This book is amazing and if you haven't read it yet you are so missing out and you need to go buy a copy right now because it shouldn't have to wait any longer and OhMyGoodness it's just so good! *deepbreath*

Drea is different. She has ADHD and a touch of Asperger's (on the Autism spectrum). But she's not that different. She processes the world differently from most people and a lot of social cues completely escape her, so it makes it harder to trust people and feel comfortable acting naturally around them. So up until now, she hasn't really had any friends. But her mom drags her to live with her grandmother (Drea is very opposed to this) but it is here that Drea meets both Naomi and Justin, people who will become very important to Drea.

Because Drea is our main character, we get to know what she is thinking and how she interprets things and it was fascinating. She's very high functioning and her diagnosis is actually for a 'touch of Asperger's'. So mostly, for Drea it translates into not understanding why people do a lot of what they do and being completely blunt. She has pretty much zero tact. She doesn't process it or understand it the way most people do. It was so refreshing to read a character who was blunt, but not cruel. Drea has a hard life. She's just this side of 'normal', so it's extra frustrating for her and those around her. It would be so hard to be put into situations again and again when you don't understand the nuances.

But the book isn't really about Drea and her Asperger's/ADHD. It's a huge part of it, obviously, because it's a huge part of Drea, but it's about so much more than that. It's about learning to love and let people in (because normal or not, pretty much all teenagers have a hard time with that) and it's about acceptance and growing up and finding yourself. And Tara Kelly has mastered that. In Drea, she has created a character that everyone can connect to and love and understand, because everyone has felt like they don't belong or don't fit in at some point. It's a part of growing up and I loved watching Drea learn that she really does have a place.

The other characters in the novel and painfully complex as well. Naomi becomes Drea's first and best friend. She shows up when they are moving in and starts chatting with Drea and decides right then that she likes her and she just befriends her, no questions asked. She wasn't my favorite person. She's troubled and she's also a perfect example of why I have never had even a tiny bit of interest in drugs. And, she gets Drea into bad situations too. But no on is perfect and she does some amazing things for Drea. So while I didn't really like her, I loved her.

Justin is another awesome character and he's just a solidly good guy. He's the type of guy that is awesome, but could still be a real person. He's there for Drea and he doesn't really let her hide behind her diagnosis. He pulls her out of herself, makes her recognize that there is more to life and more to her than he thought.

There are also some journal entries included in the book, as yet another way to learn more about Drea and I loved that they were included. The last journal entry is by far my favorite and it was just... just... just so much amazing. And the music. Guys, it's another book that has a lot of music references and it was brilliant. I just loved everything about this book. Seriously. Oh, and also, how can you not just love a cover that shows a girl celebrating the rain. Love. And I feel like that girl is Drea.

This is a book that I will read and reread. I reread parts while writing this review and I just fell in love with the characters over again. This book just leaves you with this feeling of fullness, of rightness and truth. It's a beautifully written story and one of those books that makes you think, makes you feel.

Architectural Factory of Pipes

The building for company T Bailey Inc is made as factory expansion on manufacture of steel pipes. The architect of the project — Tom Kundig from studio Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects — used huge pipes as a design element.

We Make the Pipes!

Total area of office of 1,100 sq. m. For construction of office architects used directly that product which is made by the customer. Visitors will get to a building on huge pipes. In a huge vertical pipe the large fan which will condition air at the main office is placed. The conditioner will be charged by energy of the sun.

The interior corresponds to stylistics. The concrete floor, open structure, a covering minimum. The roof inclination will direct streams of rain water to a garden, for watering of trees growing there.

VIA «Huge Pipes, As an Architectural Element»

I went to Iowa City this week for a class, and even though I'm there all the time for most of the year I feel like I'm at a destination when I'm not living there. I stayed with a friend and it almost felt like a little vacation. And what do I do on vacations? Buy books. More than I need.

My first stop was my all time favorite book store The Haunted Bookshop. No offense to Prairie Lights enthusiasts, but I think The Haunted Bookshop is the best bookstore in Iowa City. It just has so much class. For none ICers, the bookstore is used, rare, and out-of-print, but mostly used and that is why I go there. I justify my purchases by claiming I am recycling books. I went there to search for Ariel by Sylvia Plath or some Anne Sexton, but was not lucky in that respect. I did run into my fitness walking TA though, who I love mostly because she enjoyed the Pride and Prejudice reference I made in my fitness walking paper.* I did pick up three books though, Good Girls Bad Girls: Feminists and Sex Trade Workers Face to Face, Talking Ip: Young Women's Take on Feminism, and The Feminine Mystique. What can I say, The Haunted Bookshop has an awesome women's studies section.

But I was still sad I couldn't find Ariel so I headed to Barnes and Noble. I had a couple of gift cards and I decided to use one. Barnes and Noble is a less exciting bookstore, although I'll admit that I do like it there. The Iowa City one has some neat displays on Iowan writers and they have the best magazine selection I have seen at any Barnes and Noble. Ever.

But I must admit I missed the two lovely cats The Haunted Bookshop has.

*In case you were wondering about the Pride and Prejudice reference, we had to write a paper about how walking is perceived now. I talked about how people think walking long distances will kill them (at least that is my mother's reaction when I head off on a three plus mile trek), but people used to have to walk most places. For an example I used Elizabeth Bennett, and I said if she can walk to another town, in the rain, in uncomfortable shoes and clothing, then I can surely walk up to the grocery store.