Hello and happy June 2nd! We've been enjoying a few breezier, brisker days here on the West Coast after a week or so of unexpected spring scorchers. A friend and I walked around Cattle Point this morning- a great way to start the day.
I know, I know. Totally creepy.
I checked out the My Idol App, and although it's totally in Japanese, I finally figured out how to make it work! It scans your face, and then you can choose and outfit/hairstyle/accessories that most look like you, and then you can watch yourself groove on the screen along to funky music. I have since deleted the app but I will always have this photo as a wonderful keepsake....
A bikeride to the park with Mark and Alison a few weeks ago! We had a delicous breakfast at Cora's first and then went to a massive book sale. It was our first anniversary weekend!
We have a two wheeled addition to the family! It's name is Big Red, and when I ride it, I become "Globehead". Daniel turns into "Astroboy". It's uncanny how those helmets can transform us!
We found a restaurant that has a games area downstairs!
A day out on the paddleboards:)
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Ok- now onto more important things- like the author of the month!
James Fennimore Cooper. I read "The Deerslayer" (and to be accurate I'm not actually totally finished yet), but I am really enjoying it! Cooper wrote a collection of books about the same main character: Natty Bumpo AKA the Deerslayer AKA Hawkeye, and these books follow him at different periods of his life. The Deerslayer is actually the last one that Cooper wrote but tells about Bumpo when he is younger than all the other books.
The setting is the wilderness of the Americas in the 1800's (the novel was written in 1841), where the "pale faces" and the "red men" are living, some in harmony, and some in the pursuit of "scalps" and revenge.
Surprisingly, the book has made me laugh more than any of our books so far... Monica and I have had a few good chuckles reading to each other lines from our books. (She is reading Last of the Mohicans").
For example, The Deerslayer is naive to romance, having been brought up among a tribe in the woods. He states his only love will ever be the trees and forest, etc. This is what he says when his friend Sarpant makes a slip in reasoning that the Deerslayer calulates is based on love:
"He'll never be the man he was till this matter is off hs mind, and he comes to his senses, like all the rest of mankind."- "We must sartainly manage to...have 'em married as soon as we get back... or this war will be of no more use!"
The manner of thinking has changed alot since this book was written, particularely in respect to human rights belonging to all humans regardless of colour and gender. It's quite interesting to be taken back to that world.
All for now- next month is Washington Irving!
Hope all is well wherever you are!
:)
I just finished reading Rip Van Winkle by this month's author, Washington Irving. It's a short story which I was able to print off the internet. I knew generally what it was about but had never actually read it. A nice, short, read with some early US history thrown in, so definitely worth the time to broaden my horizons.
ReplyDeleteAt long last I finished reading The Last of the Mohicans. It wasn't a book I could read a lot of at a time, but I did enjoy it. As always with these classic books, I learned many new words! As Shanna mentioned, there were many humorous moments, particularly when the Scout was talking about 'the gentle or the tender ones'. Notwithstanding how often it was mentioned how gentle and tender the females in the story were (and how small their feet!), they were also commended for their courage and fortitude and general strength of character.
ReplyDeleteFor this month, I read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I greatly enjoyed it, (partly because it was so short!) but was also somewhat surprised. All the adaptations and books and movies based on (or at least derived from) the short story had me believing it would be a darker tale, while in fact it is more of a humorous one.