Friday, April 01, 2005

Ah, the Washington weather...

Another grey day here on the West Coast, and as I'm typing there's a slight mist of rain starting to fall. It's an odd thing about rain- I love a good thunderstorm, or even just a good dark day with a heavy fall, but misting alternating with really weak sunshine just leaves me unfulfilled. The wishy-washy weather HAS reminded me that I have a Charlie Brown special tucked away somewhere, though, so I may pull that out as a pick me up.

It also appears that spring is finally here. I haven't seen any crocuses, but my mum was absolutely super and sent me everything I need to plant lavendar (including the dirt!). I've not had great luck with plants, but deep down I've always wanted to have a small flower/herb garden. I wasn't terribly keen on vegetable gardening, but somewhere in my mixed up mind the flower idea took root. (That was NOT intended as a pun, by the way. Forgive me.)

I'm also in the market for some new reading material, but I'm fresh out of ideas. Suggestions would be gratefully accepted! I've been reading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, but by the end of the sixth book the characters were getting irritatingly self-absorbed, so I think I'm going to put it aside for a while.

I'll leave you now with some contrasting views on the season, English major style:


The year’s at the spring and day’s at the morn,
Morning’s at seven’
The hillsides dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snails on the thorn:
God’s in his heaven –
All’s right with the world! (Robert Browning)


April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory out of desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in a forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers. (T.S. Eliot)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

(M)

Anonymous said...

My I suggest the Pern series by ANne McCaffery.

Specifically the Harper Hall Trilogy, it's a good place to start that world.

Dragon Song
Dragon Singer
Dragon Drums

Megin said...

Oh, wow- I haven't read those in years!!! Thanks for reminding me... Dragonsinger was a personal favorite. :)

Anonymous said...

I gave up on Pern when she got pissy about online roleplayers. #snorts#

Hmmm...You sure you want the whole list? #grins# Forgive me for listing anything you've read already.

Peter S. Beagle - The Last Unicorn
Michael Moorcock - The Elric Saga
Mervyn Peake - The Gormenghast trilogy
Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age
Saki (H.H. Munro) - Anything you can get ahold of. Trust me.
Spider Robinson - Lady Slings The Booze
Richard Adams - Watership Down, Shardik
Fritz Lieber - The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series (Swords Against Death, Swords and Ice Magic, etc.)
Mark E. Rogers - The Samurai Cat series.
Michael Ende - the Neverending Story
Robert Asprin - the Myth series
Douglas Adams - The Hitchiker's Guide series (timely, too, now that the movie's coming out)
Benjamin Hoff - The Tao of Pooh, The Te of Piglet
Peter David - Sir Apropos of Nothing, The Woad to Wuin
Mineko Iwasaki - Geisha, A Life (one title)
Harry Harrison - The Stainless Steel Rat series
Thomas Pynchon - Mason & Dixon
Rumi - Any collection
Terry Pratchett - Anything, but particularly Small Gods and Interesting Times
Roald Dahl - Everything

Well, it's a start, anyway :)