Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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Archives for 2012

Before I Go To Sleep (a book review)

   Our fabulous little book club’s current selection is set for discussion this coming Saturday night. I just polished off the last page tonight after dinner, and I am giddy. You know that feeling after you finish a book that has exhilarated you since page one? No dry spells, no slow, laborious climbs to action or understanding? Some books leave me exhausted; this book has left me inspired, though not in the spiritual sense.
Introducing
Before I Go to Sleep
by S.J. Watson
Before I Go to Sleep: A Novel


   Okay, I do not groove spoilers. I will try to keep this short and sweet. 
   I would recommend this book to a wide variety of audiences, with the simple caveat that it offers up some salty language, violence (though nothing we don’t see in a standard PG movie) and the full spectrum of marital relations. Ahem. 
   Would I approve of my two beautiful teenage daughters reading this? No. But I do think they are both intelligent and sensitive enough to appreciate the story behind the scenery. 
   The premise is that a woman, the speaker of the book, has lost her memory and must live day to day rebuilding it (at least enough to survive and maintain hope) from what she has managed to write in a private journal. As the title suggests, her memory is wiped clean every night when she sleeps. Just take that in for a second and imagine the awful implications, the far reaching consequences of losing both your long term and your short term memory every single night.
   Whew.
   How could a book like this be inspirational? I’ll tell you. I am freshly inspired to treasure my memories, both good and bad, and to be grateful to be an active, viable liver of my own life. Captain of my ship, if you will.
   Watson builds suspense better than Stephen King, in my opinion. He must be incredibly gifted to be able to write such a complex story from such a limited perspective, and using such a repetitive format without causing the reader to get bored? Wow. And the ending is delicious… 
   Okay, that’s it. Anything more and I’ll be flirting with spoilers. Have you read this yet? I would love to hear your thoughts! Haven’t read it but want to? If you’re interested I’ll lend it! My loaning policy is that each person must write his or her name and a quick review on one of the inside covers. Circulate as much as you want. 
Books are meant to be Read a Lot!
Cherish your Memories!
xoxoxoxo
   

5 Senses Tour, Contemplative Tuesday in January

   Since its earliest hours, today has felt serious and more quiet than normal. I am wonderfully free from external pressure and hurry, unlike my husband who is at the salt mines again. I feel like we’re on the brink of something special, but something quiet maybe, and I don’t want to miss it. The easiest observation to make is that the animals are cuddling each other a bit more, wrapping up in closeness and affection against the chilly air that swept in overnight. Also, the gardens are turning inward, funneling all of their energy streams toward cold, dry roots and springtime fantasies. Today is a good day to take inventory, to reflect, and to nourish from the inside out.
What I See: Indoor plants newly fertilized and outdoor garden plots gone dormant, sitting expectantly like blank canvases or empty lined pages. Grassy, manure-covered rectangles teasing me for new designs this year and promising bigger, lusher harvests if I get around to building those raised beds.
“The violets  the mountains have broken the rocks.” ~Tennessee Williams
What I’m Reading: Three books this week, though the first one more than the others because it’s the subject of our Book Club dinner, which is this Saturday! 
    Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson. This is a page turner! Proper book review coming soon.
  Game Change, a behind-the-scenes account of the 2008 Presidential elections. Reads like a fiction, thoroughly enjoyable. 
   True Memoirs of Little K by Adrienne Sharp I’ve mentioned this one before, too long ago, and it is still unfinished because I didn’t read enough during the busy holidays. Review of this luscious book forthcoming too.

What I Hear: Very little apart from the gentle, sleepy murmurings of the animals. The guineas are free range now, all but four, and their songs pepper the farm from sun to sun.
What I Feel, What I’m Touching:  Lots of manure. My goal is to have the farm spotless by the end of the month or earlier and to have the gardens all spread with the rich, crumbly stuff well ahead of the spring rains.
This is a pile of chicken litter removed from our coop. 
See all the cool white shreddy stuff?
May I suggest if you have access to shredded paper, 
whether you use it as animal bedding or not, 
consider using it in your compost heap.
It retains moisture beautifully, lightens up our Oklahoma clay,
and keeps one more thing out of the landfills.

What I Smell: Cinnamon Scentsy, laundry soap, and my husband’s pillow while I write.


What I Taste: Orange juice, heavily buttered English muffin, and fried eggs.

   I can’t be sure exactly what’s on the horizon, friends, but I feel goodness all around us. I feel a surge of hope, an oceanic depth of love, and greater calm about our storms than I have felt in years. Happy Tuesday. Let me know if you see whatever it is I’m waiting on.

Feel Every Detail Today
xoxoxo
5 senses tour

Still Morning (Small Stone January 10th)

   At 6:38 this morning we creep outside for another Hot Tub Summit. The moon still rests high on her nighttime throne, gloriously full, casting brilliant silver light all over the hills and valleys and fields. I cannot detect the slightest breeze, no movement anywhere. Even the geese are quiet. The farm is still asleep.
   Oak, blackjack, red bud, and pine trees stretch their perfect, inky silhouettes out against the sky while we soak in the scalding water and unwind ourselves from the night.
   
   When the time finally comes to abandon the quiet, to begin a new day, that smooth gray canopy above us has clicked over to a deep shade of blue. The moon is politely receding into the western sky. And the guineas have started their morning song.

Chilly Sunday Afternoon (Small Stone January 8th)

   The air is cooler today than it’s been in a while, crisper and drier too. The sky is slate gray with only patches of blue here and there, and where the afternoon sun manages to scrape through the clouds, its light is a dull silver instead of the usual gold. The evocative fragrance of a bonfire mixes with the smells of hay, leather, and chicken litter, so that closing my eyes takes me back to our beloved Buffalo Mountain. 
   Out of nowhere a breeze kicks up, scattering a thousand fragile oak leaves and slicing through  my long but thin cotton sleeves. I am reminded gently that we’re still in the middle of January, that the sublime springtime fantasy these past weeks was exactly that.