Be Careful What You Wish For by Jeffry Archer

Be Careful What You Wish For

by Jeffry Archer

This is the 4th book in the Clifton Chronicles  series and it certainly helps if you have read the previous books that deals with the saga of the Clifton and Barrington families during the period of the late 19th century and the early and mid 20th century in Britain.

This book open on a dramatic incident when parents, Emma and Harry Clifton are rushing to the bedside of their son Sebastian who has been involved in a car accident. Later it is found out the accident has been caused by their past enemy, Don Pedro  Martinez who appeared in the book 3.

The plot line throughout the book continues on a similar theme; Don Pedro is out to avenge the wrong done to him by the Barringtons and nothing will stop him.

He arranges for the new liner being built by the Barrington shipping line to be high jacked during its building by a gang of IRA thugs and almost bankrupts the shipping line.He is finally outed but not before a plan is set up to bomb the maiden cruise of the new liner. This book ends just as the bomb is set and the reader is left wondering and now waiting until the author pens the next book in the series to find out just what happened.

Was this the end of the Clifton and Barrington families?

Is this the last we shall hear of Don Pedro Martinez.

A soap opera in book form but very readable.

"Clouds" - challenge painting

"Clouds" - challenge painting

'Clouds" acrylic  20"x13"

This was the challenge for the  February Monthly Challenge Painting  on Face book and I looked forward to this  subject as I have always like looking at clouds . 
We usually don't get many clouds in the area I live as the skies are often just blue with very whispy type clouds if any at all. Sometimes like today, so many low lying clouds they have all joined together and blanket the sky in grey.Not pretty to look at!

Just once in a while we do get a big storm rolling through with even the possibility of a tornado and then the clouds tend to be of the spectacular variety especially if you can catch them just immediately before or after the storm passes.That's when those wonderful photos of storms are taken.

I was wanting to paint  billowing storm clouds and I soon found out his was a hard job to capture . I checked out many photos to see if I could get into the feeling and felt that I just didn't get enough lightness in the painting.

Clouds  watercolor 13"x9"

So I tried again with another painting this time in watercolor as I thought it would be easier to get the light shining through using this medium.  I remembered the cloud in Oregon and remembered how overall grey the scene was so that's how I painted it with blowing clouds and grey skies. 

Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates

Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates

Carthage is the name of the town  in New York where this book takes place. It tells the story of a  well respected, loving couple and their two daughters Juliet ( the pretty one) and Cressida ( the odd and unusual one). It is a loving family but within the family are misunderstanding between the sisters and sibling rivalry. Into the family comes a young man Brett, who falls in love with Juliet , becomes engaged to her and then become a soldier who goes off to fight in the Iraq war. He comes back as a very disturbed and disabled man.The wedding is called off.

Soon after , the younger now 19. rather  odd daughter Cressida  goes missing and Brett is   thought to have had something to do with this . He is suspected of  murdering her. Under pressure he confesses. But why would he do this?

This could have been the end of the story but it is really just the start and continues with the telling of an intriguing story  with great writing and character description. By the end of the book you feel that you know this family.and  the justice and jail system . You can also understand a great deal about how a bad incident can change family dynamics and lead to many conclusions.Some wrong.

A very detailed book with good emotional understanding of people and their actions.

Seesaw Weather

Seesaw Weather

Chloe in the yard

Every year I get taken by surprise. I see the daffodils poking through the ground and we have a few sunny warm days. Why. it even got into the high 70s just a week ago and I think Spring is on its way .

Then we wake up the next morning and we have either a biting wind that takes your breath away or even worse, a late winter snow blizzard.
That's just what happened today. Just "flurries" the weatherman said but I'd hardly call what we got "flurries'.  It started about 9 am and continued all through the day and we ended up with about 4 inches of snow. We didn't care as we were not planning on going anywhere but the road were a real mess and lots of people were caught up in problems.

Natalie goes out to see Bud in the yard.

It looked pretty and for sure the dogs always love it. Lets hope that's the last of the white stuff until next year.

Goodbye Cooper

Goodbye Cooper

Cooper ( a while ago around 2013)

This week we said goodbye to another one of our resident pets.
Cooper was an inherited cat that we took in from a friend when she was dying. He was already close to 17 years old at that time and she said she couldn't have him put down as he wasn't ready to go .He was still very active.

We certainly found that out. He had always lived with other cats but never dogs so he treated the dogs in our family , just like he would treat the cats which means he would give them all a very direct stare from his beautiful blue eyes and No Pets would intimidate him. He was the Boss!
I can't say any of the cats, all female, really liked him but they tolerated him and found it just easier to keep out of his way. Occasionally there would be hissy , noisy fights but the other cats usually just ran off and being younger than Cooper, could move faster.

There was no doubt Cooper was a beautiful cat with his long white fur and blue, blue eyes. He never seemed to clean his coat like most cats do and within a short while I realized visits to the groomer were going to be necessary. Most times he would have to be shaved right down to his skin as the fine hair would just be so tangled up. It was hard on him and he hated the groomer as his back end and legs certainly had arthritis and it must have been very uncomfortable for him as he was being bathed and shaved. I bet the groomer hated him as well as although he couldn't scratch as he was declawed, he certainly would bite to get his way.

There was no doubt he was  a character. He got used to going out in the yard following the same route around the house each time.He would even go under the decks sometimes where the armadillos hang out. I wonder what they thought of him? 
He would also let out blood curdling yowls from time to time. a favorite time being in the middle of the night. This was not a cat you could ever keep in an apartment.We never understood why this happened.

I had noticed he seemed to be slowing down and was very irritable for the last week or so. He was getting close to 20 years old and was  losing his appetite yet demanding food at ever moment that he actually didn't eat . It wasn't until I saw these photos from about 3 years ago I realized how much weight he had also lost. But his disappearance and presumed death was still quite unexpected.

I got up in the morning and there was just no Cooper anymore.I thought he must have gone for an early morning walk, which he often did but sadly he didn't return. We looked all over for him and there was not the slightest sign of him- not a tiny piece of white hair anywhere, We asked the neighbors as well but  eventually realized sadly he had gone somewhere to pass on. 
We have had a few cats do this now.He had decided that it was now time to go and so he went. No fuss. This is what independent cats do.

 It is always sad when this happens but Cooper had had a good life and we will certainly remember him with love.

Challenge painting - Ah Coffee!

Challenge painting - Ah Coffee!

My painting.

This was again not a very interesting subject for me to paint. It was certainly challenging but I really couldn't get too inspired by it.
It is in water color and I find it difficult to get depth of color using this medium which I think is because I am so used to painting in oil and more often, in acrylic where rich colors are easier to obtain. The pattern on the top of the coffee was the most interesting to do.
Still it is by attempting we learn so I'll keep at it!!

The original photo

A Tap on the Window by Linwood Barclay

A Tap on the Window by Linwood Barclay

Carl Weaver’s son Scott dies in an accident and Carl, a private investigator, is determined to find out more about the accident and has strong suspicions that there is more to this than has been told. He is going to many of Scott friends trying to find the answers when one night during a bad rain storm he gerts a tap on his car window and picks up a young girl who knew his son.

From this encounter , Carl then gets pulled into involvement in a complicated investigation of the girl’s disappearance, a murder and a complex ongoing fight between the small town’s police force and the council and mayor..

It is quite a believable modern story and the mystery is complex. It is a story set in a small town and with  topical problems.

A good read if you like mysteries. I  was surprised by the end of the story and found it a sad ending.