Sylvia's Simple Shots

Ladybugs are brightly colored to warn predators that they taste bad and should not be eaten.  They do secrete a foul smelling substance from their body which makes them unappealing to those who may want to munch on them. 

I headed to the grounds of the Conservatory for my walk yesterday.  I am not sure yet about being indoors with other folks.  There was lots of room outside and I was there before the place opened at 10 am.  The parking lot was quite full when I got back to the car at 10:10 or so.  Our Covid numbers are climbing again so it behooves a person to be careful.

I found this Hosta bud just waiting to unfurl into beautiful blooms.

I love the lovely soft colors against the wonderful large green leaf.

We have had some rain recently which has allowed the plants some reprieve.  The lawns on the south side of most places are parched and brown.

I have not posted my books for a while.  This book was very interesting.  Again, I am struck by reading a book with a main character having mental struggles.  

A Cry in the Night by Mary Higgins Clark.

Divorcee Jenny MacPartland struggles to support herself and her two small daughters. The father and ex-husband is of no help. She works at an art gallery where one day she meets a new man. Rich, handsome Erich Krueger sweeps her off her feet, they marry and she moves to his mansion in the country. Everything seems to be perfect, and Jenny feels like a fairy-tale princess. But gradually the fairy-tale turns into a nightmare. Something is very wrong in the great house that has slowly, imperceptively, become her prison. Something that threatens her marriage, her life - and her children.

The ending is a big surprise but a welcomed end to the story.

Murder inside the Beltway by Margaret Truman. 

A Washington call girl is found bludgeoned to death in her Adams-Morgan apartment. As police detectives scour the apartment, they find a digital video camera nestled high among books on a shelf. Had she used the camera to video some of her clients during their sexual romps?

Then they discover a small, book-sized DVD case, full with the exception of two slots. Could they possibly get lucky? Is the murder on one of those disks?

As the investigation picks up steam, the business of Washington, D.C., rolls on. It's an election year and the sitting president, Burton Pyle, is running for a second term. His opponent, Robert Colgate, is odds-on to defeat Pyle.

Then, on a lovely Sunday afternoon on Washington's famed Mall, the daughter of Bob Colgate's closest confidant and advisor is kidnapped.  The these events connected?

But no one is prepared for the explosive development that erupts when the daughter of Colgate’s closest friend is kidnapped and Detective Mary Hall and rookie cop Matthew Jackson uncover a shocking connection between the abduction, the Curzon case—and a killer no one will see coming.   

I enjoyed the fact that the lead detective is a woman.  I will add this author to my list and check out more of her work.

This was the sun day before yesterday.  Rising red orange.  The haze in the air very visible.  

Forest fires still raging on all sides of our province. 

I discovered this 2 spotted lady bug on rose bushes recently. 

The whole purpose for the Ladybug being brightly colored with spots is to ward off predators. The Ladybugs want to let their predators know that they taste bad and could even be poisonous.  They do secrete a foul smelling substance from their body which deters predators.

Genes determines the number of spots on a ladybug.  They can be several different colors and have 0 to as many as 24 spots.

I had to replace the lamp switch when it stopped working.  The one on the lamp was a nice Bakelite kind of dark hard plastic. It screwed together very nicely.  The lamp is 30 years old so things were made differently then.  

Thank goodness for you tube.  I sorted out which wires went where. The cord did not have the ridges the video described so I had to mark the leads with tape to make sure they were attached properly to the new switch.  Part of maintenance when you own stuff for years and years.

I am always up for a book with tea in the tittle. I found this one at the small library at the park.

The Color of Tea by Hannah Tunnicliffe.

A story about following your dreams and passions.  

Macau: the bulbous nose of China, a peninsula and two islands strung together like a three-bead necklace. It was time to find a life for myself. To make something out of nothing. The end of hope and the beginning of it too.

After moving with her husband to the tiny, bustling island of Macau, Grace Miller finds herself a stranger in a foreign land—a lone redhead towering above the crowd on the busy Chinese streets. As she is forced to confront the devastating news of her infertility, Grace’s marriage is fraying and her dreams of family have been shattered. She resolves to do something bold, something her impetuous mother would do, and she turns to what she loves: baking and the pleasure of afternoon tea.

Grace opens a café where she serves tea, coffee, and macarons—the delectable, delicate French cookies colored like precious stones—to the women of Macau. There, among fellow expatriates and locals alike, Grace carves out a new definition of home and family. But when her marriage reaches a crisis, secrets Grace thought she had buried long ago rise to the surface. Grace realizes it’s now or never to lay old ghosts to rest and to begin to trust herself. With each mug of coffee brewed, each cup of tea steeped and macaron baked, Grace comes to learn that strength can be gleaned from the unlikeliest of places.

A delicious, melt-in-your-mouth novel featuring the sweet pleasures of French pastries and the exotic scents and sights of China, The Color of Tea is a scrumptious story of love, friendship and renewal.

I would recommend this book as I enjoyed it a lot.

This week was my second time camping and sleeping in my car. 

The bag on the left holds the window coverings I made for the car.  These are black and held in place with magnets. Quite effective actually.  The second photos is a small IKEA hanging container I put on the back of my front seat to hold my keys, my watch, and cell phone.  White makes easy to see even in the dark.  I have repurposed an old vinegar jug for drinking water while camping.  My sister is using squarer jugs which may be more stable as this one fell over and dripped water onto the carpet in my car.  I will check those out when I go grocery shopping this week. 

Sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #141 and Mersad who hosts Through My Lens #299