2025 Books Read and Not Read

 As in previous years, here is the list of books read (or DNF) during 2025.  British authors in BLUE, Canadian authors in RED, American authors in GREEN, all others in BLACK.

January

Behind the Scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson (2nd or 3rd? time of reading, I always enjoy this British author!)

Normal Rules Don't Apply - Kate Atkinson

The Good Thief - Leo Furey

The Taming of the Queen - Philippa Gregory

February

The Last Gift - Abdulrazak Gurnah (loved this book)

Life After Life - Kate Atkinson (2nd time reading this, always find something new in it)

Mrs. Queen Takes the Train - William Khun (DNF)

The Seventh Son - Sebastian Faulks

March

The Last Murder at the End of the World - Stuart Turton (DNF... weird)

Luckenbooth - Jenni Fagan

Barkskins - Annie Proulx (713 pages!)

April

Death at the Sign of the Rook - Kate Atkinson

Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers

These Impossible Things - Salma el-Wardanay

The Quiet Librarian - Allen Eskens

Flesh - David Szalay

Long Island - Colm Toibin

May

The In-Between Book Store - Edward Underhill

Redhead by the Side of the Road - Anne Tyler

Wild Houses - Colin Barrett

Intimacies - Katie Kitamura

Confessions - Catherine Airey

The Other Story - Tatiana de Rosnay

Reptile Memoirs - Silje Ulstein (DNF, horrible)

French Braid - Anne Tyler

Mania - Lionel Shriver (DNF, horrible)

June

The Flicker Men - Ted Kosmatka

Back When We Were Grownups - Anne Tyler

Miss Morgan's Book Brigade - Janet Skeslien Charles (DNF)

The Chalk Man - C J Tudor

The Burning Girls - C J Tudor

Three Days in June - Anne Tyler

July

The Valley of Amazement - Amy Tan

The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan

Bear Necessity - James Gould-Bourn

Sourdough - Robin Sloan

Clock Dance - Anne Tyler

August

The ABC Murders - Agatha Christie

Noah's Compass - Anne Tyler

The Keeper of Stories - Sally Page

Leaving Time - Jodi Picoult

Lump - Nathan Whitlock

The Tin Can Tree - Anne Tyler

How to Find Your Way Home - Katy Regan

September

The Grandmother Plot - Caroline B Cooney

Human Croquet - Kate Atkinson

The Vow - Jude Berman

The Fellowship of Puzzle Makers - Samuel Burr (DNF too dopey)

Benjamin Franklin's Bastard - Sally Cabot

October

Redhead by the Side of the Road - Anne Tyler

The Vanishing Point - Paul Theroux

The Fox Wife - Yangsze Choo

November

Eat, Poop, Die - Joe Roman

The Rent Collector - Camron Wright

The Lost van Gogh - Jonathan Santlofer

The Ghost Bride - Yangsze Choo

December

Lost and Found - Brooke Davis (DNF, silly)

The Child Finder - Rene Denfeld

The Rent Collector - Camron Wright

The Things We do to our Friends - Heather Darwent

Fair Play - Louise Hagerty (DNF)

Open, Heaven - Sean Hewitt

Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid (liked this book!)

Blackout - Connie Willis (DNF not my style)

The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak (currently reading this for the second.... or is it the third?....  time.) (Loved this book, my grandchildren studied it at school this year.)

Not many Canadian authors on the reading list this year, I shall have to do better.

Milk Bag Mats

 Milk Bag Mats? What is that?

Here in Ontario, milk comes in plastic bags.  One colourful outer bag containing 3 smaller sealed bags of milk. These smaller bags fit into special shaped jugs that hold the bags steady. Just snip the corner of the bag and pour.

If course, all that plastic isn't ideal.... lots of plastic waste. So here's a way to save some of the plastic from the landfill sites, and be useful at the same time.

The outer bags are collected, snipped into loops, and threaded into strings which will eventually be woven into plastic sleeping mats. The mats can be used during disasters or for any one unfortunate enough to need access to a sheltered place to sleep. 

First strings of bags are stretched onto a wooden frame, and then more strings woven back and forth.... not too tight as it has to be soft..... until the whole frame is covered. I had no idea there were so many different grades of milk available, all with a different colour design, making the mats very colourful indeed.  It takes at least 450 milk bags to complete one mat, so save your milk bags everyone!

Weaving these mats is an ideal way for high school students to earn their Community Hours. Each student has to complete 40 hours of volunteer work in the community in order to graduate High School. The kids are helping people and also helping the environment, and helping themselves too.

The finished sleeping mats are lightweight, waterproof, easy to dry if they get wet, won't go mouldy, comfy to lay on...... and very much needed by those who do not have a bed to call their own.

Last year, over 100 completed mats were delivered to the Outreach offices and to the shelters from our Volunteer group. Many more groups are doing the same.

Signs of the Times

 

First game of the World Series on Friday October 24 2025.... Let's Go Blue Jays!

Edited: first game won 11-4. On to game two. Fingers crossed.

Fall Stuff

I've been a lazy blogger for the past month, somehow I lost the blogging-get-up-and-go, but here goes with what's been happening around the Rook's Nest.

Fall has been happening. This display of colour just outside the Community Centre windows.

And a Great Blue Heron is checking out the fishing rights at the local reservoir.

End of September always means a visit to Markham Fair to see the prize potatoes and cabbages and livestock displays. And the overgrown giant pumpkins. Check out these veggies.... all from a friend's garden.

Saturday night at Markham Fair is the Demolition Derby, lots of steam and smoke and noise and hot metal crunches. I sat up in the grandstand with Older Son and Oldest grandson. We munched fairground food.... blooming onion (very greasy but delicious) and polished off a couple of bags of those Tiny Tim Donuts. 

And now... the big excitement. The only Major League Baseball team in Canada.... the Toronto Blue Jays..... are battling with the Seattle Mariners for the Championship title, and the right to challenge the mighty Dodgers in the World Series. It's a best of 7 games. Blue Jays lost 2 games, then won 2, then lost1, then won 1, so tonight is Game 7.... which is a must-win for both teams.

Older Son managed to get tickets for Game 2 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Even though the team lost, it was a very exciting time to be in the middle of a noisy super-loud crazy crowd of almost 45,000 rabid Jays fans. Younger Son was watching on his TV and saw us in the crowd.... see the red circle!

Let's Go Blue Jays!

Update: The Jays are off to the World Series!

Through the Window

Lots of activity among the zinnias yesterday. My little Canon Point'n'shoot camera takes much better pictures than my rather ancient phone, especially through the window. 

I've had Ruby Throated Hummingbirds at my feeder all summer, and they are particularly active right now, preparing for a long migration flight to their wintering areas in Central and South America. This female was sampling the zinnia nectar. The wings can beat up to 53 times per second, so no wonder it's such a blur.

And not only hummingbirds among the zinnias, there were two of these green birds hanging onto the flower stems and sampling the seeds. Can anyone tell me what these birds are?

Dry

 Did someone pull out the plug on the big bath tub? Gurgle gurgle....

It's time for the seasonal scrub-a-dub-dub and fall maintenance of the local pool. It will be full of water and swimmers in a couple of weeks.

Co-operation Please!

I would have appreciated a bit more co-operation from this rather tatty Red Admiral butterfly. She (or he?) was happily flitting around the zinnia patch, enjoying the sunshine, and nibbling on the juicy nectar in the middle of the flowers. 

But she kept flapping her wings and fluttering about, and couldn't quite decide which flower was the tastiest, and I wasn't able to persuade her to stay still long enough for me to get a good photo. Perhaps she was camera shy.

I tried talking to her but she wasn't listening. When she landed on a flower, I crossed my fingers that she would show me her wings, and I told her how pretty she was but she ignored me, and kept her wings closed. Or with the occasional flap which was too fast for me.

Finally she landed on this blossom and opened her wings. She didn't stay long. She had places to go and things to do as I'm sure she is aware that it will be migration time very soon.

Thanks for visiting Ms. (or Mr.) Red Admiral.