I started writing this post two weeks ago and never finished, so it's a bit behind the times, but then, so am I!
I haven't reviewed any books lately, but I have read some good ones. The most emotional reading lately was a reread of Marguerite Henry's classic Misty of Chincoteague. I think I had already read it to the 8 year old, but she doesn't remember. It's the fourth or fifth time for me - Here's an old post from 2013 about reading it to my 4th grader - which would have been my college daughter. The story follows two young kids who help with the Chincoteague Island pony penning. Paul and Maureen have their hearts set on trapping and buying the wild pony Phantom, but they get in the bargain her new foal Misty. Since Misty is too little to be separated for her mother, so Phantom lets herself be corralled. The children do gentle both horses, and the next year they win the race. But they realize they that Phantom will never really belong to them - she will always be a wild thing. Again I broke down into tears the moment Paul decides to let the Phantom, his wild pony, go. Assateague, the unsettled, wild island is always calling her home, as is the Pied Piper, her stallion. Paul and Maureen accomplished what they desired - they were able to ride the Phantom in the Pony Penning race, and the Phantom stayed to raise her colt, but her spirit was never broken. Reading it this time, I again wondered why the title is Misty because the colt plays a very secondary role to the Phantom. Is it to divert young children's attention away from the difficult parts of the story? The entrapment of a wild thing vs. the quality of love that calls us to set something we love free? And yet how many children yearn to possess a wild pet - a baby squirrel, a monkey, a fawn? It's a desire that has launched a thousand books.
I need to find photos to show the 8 yr old of our pilgrimage to Assateague and Chincoteague when our oldest boys were small. I also want to show her the running of the Kentucky Derby - Amazing! Hats off to the underdog winner and the jockey who guided her. Youtube led me to this similarly impressive video of Secretariat winning the Triple Crown by winning at Belmont in 1973 by 31 lengths - the year I was born. His record still stands. Incredible.
I only saw the video because a horse loving friend shared it on Facebook. We were at the races ourselves today - the Texas private schools state meet. Our second daughter was a part of the first place 4x400 meter relay team. She also ran in the 4 x 200 meter team which placed 5th. I'm a little unhappy about that - not that 5th place in the state meet is something to be disappointed about, but because in the regional meet, the 4x200 took place immediately prior to the open 400m, which she also ran. But she didn't qualify in that race because she got confused about the finish line and slowed up early. The track was a 440 track, and had two solid lines on the track. If she weren't already tired from running the 4x200, she would have done better. It was also a hot hot day and she didn't eat and drink enough. She should have placed 2nd or 3rd in that race in the regional and 3rd or 4th in the state meet, but that's the heartbreak of athletics. I heard another girl crying under the bleachers after she went out in the pole vault about how she had to go to state. But she went out early and didn't qualify. Maybe a future scholarship was lost in an unlucky moment. Someone else might say that if you put in the practice time there are no unlucky moments, but that is a topic for another time.
Other books I have been reading are about gardens - I've planted some annuals (petunias, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, some hanging baskets with petunias and ferns) and some perennials - lavender, an azalea, black-eyed Susans, Shasta daisies (which aren't looking very good), and transplanted some hostas and sedum from my mom's house. They are looking pretty well rooted. This past weekend, my mother-in-law sent me home with some hostas and some kind of ground cover that we thinned for her, but those were further along when we dug them up, and they are looking a bit floppy instead of full. They may not survive the summer, which is already in full force with temps over 90 for the past two weeks. This weekend it will cool a bit, but I'm already anticipating the death of the petunias and transplants. We'll see if I can nurse along the vegetables and herbs. I never got raised beds made, but I stuck them among the ornamental shrubbery planted in the existing raised beds around the pool.
Other recent reads - a couple of best sellers for book club that took a couple hours to finish off after dinner like a tasty dessert- good at the moment, but not nourishing. Beautiful Ruins was about a filmmaker and actress and innkeeper on an Italian island in the 60's. A second plot follows an aspiring director and aspiring screenwriter. The dual plots eventually coincide. I can't say there were many surprises, but twists kept me turning pages and the characters were interesting enough. I also finished The Maid, a light mystery involving a neuro-divergent hotel housekeeper who gets mixed up in a drug-running operation. I didn't quite have the ending figured out in this one, but some outcomes were predictable. It was light and cheerful - not adjectives usually associated with murder mysteries, but the focus of the book was really more about this young woman's ability to live on her own after her grandmother who raised her passed away and about her perspective on human relationships.
More to come on recent developments - a college graduation, a high school graduation approaching, watching Downtown Abbey: A New Era with the girls, etc.
