Indian Corn

So this is what is used on the Mitchell South Dakota Corn Palace.  The Indian Corn is grown in several places around the area in case of drought or tornado in order to have enough colors for the final product. I happened to be in Mitchell to view the Corn Palace in June of this year (2015). This particular corn was grown in Northwood , Iowa.  It is a beautiful color and really speaks of autumn.

Review: The Buried Giant

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The book progressed slowly, like the quest that the journey was based on. The story was beautiful in its prose, it's characters, and it's dreamy landscape. It read as a fairytale with an underlying sadness brought on by lack of memory due to the mist. Powerful use of the English language to set a mood and tell a tale.

View all my reviews

Review: A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is tough. I read this book for our bookclub. I did not read it as a child. Something about the science fiction of it held me back when I was younger even though my older daughter read the entire series and loved the books 5th grader. I guess I was more prone to Nancy Drew and mysteries at that age. So, as I read this book as an adult, I thought of other books that I have read including "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell and the Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis. These two books also had religious slants to them.
I liked the idea of a strong girl as a main character in the "Wrinkle in Time" book. I like the fact that she was not a mainstream kid, wore glasses, liked math and had a mind of her own. But the story's description left me somewhat cold and blank. The story concluded abruptly and that was that. I think if I had read it as a child it would of held more of a magical essence. Having read the book for the first time as an adult, it did not hold the magic that I think many readers found in this novel.
I do think that when Madeleine L'Engle wrote this book in the 1960s and the fact that she had a difficult time getting a publisher to take it seriousely does account for the fact that she pushed the boundaries of children literature at the time and opened new genres of book selections for young readers.

View all my reviews

Review: A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing

A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I try to describe this book singular words come to mind. Raw, sad, hopeless. It is written in a choppy sentenced word twisted sequence that took some time to get use to but I did eventually after a little rereading. I fell into its pattern and never looked back.
The lead character goes into a downward spiral during the book without support from family or friends as she tries to come to terms with her brother's brain tumor and eventual death.
More words come to mind such as hopelessness, lovelessness, lack of trust, and of course, guilt. Religious rigidity serves as a cruel paradox in the suffering of the lead nameless character in this sad story. Self inflicted pain serves as a temporary antidote to reality. But, it becomes too much. No one to trust, hope is a deadend, love is a single bond between brother and sister that leaves the sister alone and marooned without the hope of survival.
The story is gripping in its use of language and strong emotional upheaval. This is not for the light hearted. You will not read this and go away uneffected.

View all my reviews

Review: Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia

Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia by Tim Bascom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a well written and honest account of a high school age missionary kid in Ethiopia during its revolution in the 1970s. The author was frank about his moral and philosophical inquiries concerning spiritual, cultural, and political questions raised during that time of his life and even 50 years later. I found the book compelling and unique in that I have not read anything like it before.

View all my reviews

Day 1 and 2 Ghost Ranch. Trip through Kansas

Blog for Trip to New Mexico. 10/3/14 12:30 pm. Day 1 Heading south and then west. Southern Iowa is different from the northern part. Many hills and deep river valleys. It is definitely not as fallish with the majority of foliage still green yet starting to appear a little crispy. Lakes and rivers are full to capacity due to yesterdays rain. Big gusts of wind as we drive south. It is pushing us usually but occasionally we blow sideways as do others on the road. Pays to be alert. 610 miles 10:00. Day Two No pictures taken yesterday, even though we went through Wilson, Kansas, the Czech Capitol of Kansas and saw the worlds largest Czech egg. We passed many sorghum fields. We are in open country presently on the Santa Fe Trail. This morning we took in the historic marker of Pawnee Rock which is an unusual rock formation that signaled the half way point on the Santa Fe Trail from Independence, Missouri. Passed through a small town of Burdett, Kansas (population 237) that was the childhood home of Clyde Thombough, the astronomer who discovered Pluto. You may know or not that I met Clyde Thombough in 5th grade in my elementary school in Long Point, Il where he talked about Pluto and the discovery. I was gravely disappointed when they turned Pluto into a dwarf planet. But I digress. We stayed last night in a Days Inn motel. We had originally decided to tent camp on this trip. We packed food, tents, sleeping bags, etc. What we didn't count on was the of night low temperature of 35 degrees. We were not prepared for that. Therefore we stayed at a nondiscript motel. We ate at a Mexican Restaurant recommended by someone at the motel. It was packed with people and the food was good. They were also serving $1.00 margaritas. We did not indulge in more than one. Beersheba Passed a cowboy rounding up some cattle and a ditch full of large tumbleweed. Passed a prairie patch that was once the town of Beershiba that was founded by a group of Russian Jews. They could not make a go of it and it is now once again prairie. Used a roadside outhouse that was completely compostable. No odor. Why are there not more of these? It uses sawdust as an organic material to break down refuse. I was impressed.

Glacier Park-Day 7

We are currently on our way home on I-90 with 700 miles to go on it.  We stayed last night in Buffalo, Wyoming with the Bighorn Mountains in the distance.  Antelope are on the nearby hills basking in the morning sun.  We got going early this morning because we know we will lose an hour somewhere today.

Our last day at Glacier was bittersweet.  We did one more hike which was along the Saint Mary glacier lake to three waterfalls.  It was a more populated hike with many people on the trail.  It was hard not to think of going home and taking care of what needs to be taken care of.  So, we were transitioning to going home and the big drive.  We had perfect weather while we were at St. Mary.  Everyday was a beautiful day....sunny and warm during the day and cool at night.