I LIke Thursday #176

 It counts as an I Like Thursday post even though I post late Thursday afternoon/early evening right?  I am not too sure how it seems life seem to keep getting busier and busier.  I always looked forward to fall as a time that life kind of slowed down.  There was routine.  But with COVID and everything else it seems to be getting more hectic.  

Welcome to Fall!  I am not thrilled so far.  You know usually March comes in like a lion and leaves like a lamb, of course spring starts during that time also.  If the last few days are any indication of what fall and winter are going to be like....😲.  It has been pouring almost non stop.  A rubber bowl I use to give the chickens old milk, is full and running over.  It was raining so hard last night when I left for work, the water was actually pouring over the edge of the gutters, and we had cleaned the gutters this summer.  The temperature has went to needing the A/C on to I had to turn the heat on in a 48 hour time because my house was down below 60 degrees already.  

I am thankful that my dad finally got his kidney stone procedure done.  You can read a little about what occurred here.  My dad was in ICU for over 10 days and in the hospital for almost a month, in rehab for a week, and even though he came home, he just wasn't doing spectacular.  I didn't realize to control the pain they had him taking oxycodone...no wonder he just wasn't doing a whole lot.  He was taking the pain medication for 3 months because of COVID they had to keep canceling his procedure.  It finally happened and he has been weaned off of the Oxcodone and seems to be doing a 100% better!

I know I have a friend that her mother has been diagnosed with tumors in her colon (yes it is cancer) but they have had to postpone the surgeries to remove the tumors many times since March of this year.  My great aunt had a brain tumor and her procedure had been cancelled many times until last week.  The doctors removed the tumor except it had some "tentacles" they could not cut out, they are hoping now that the main body of the tumor is removed that those "tentacles" will die.  

I love seeing fall and Halloween things filling the store. I especially like all of the kitchen stuff this year.  I truly can't imagine decorating my kitchen for a holiday, heck I barely get it really cleaned once a week lately. 

A fun cake/treat stand! 

A jack o' lantern dish scrubby holder.

Candy corn looking gnome spoon rest.

Fun hand towels!  Happy haunting.

Skulls! 

A fun spoon stand which is very fall with the pumpkins and sunflowers.  

Of course I have spied some more interesting packaging.  I am not a wine drinker, but these make the consider.

Apple pie.

A spiced red wine.

Witches Brew Apple wine.  

I have been doing a little sewing, but unfortunately for a girl who loves red, it is a color which is not very prevalent in my stash, so I have had to do some stash enhancement.  Of course while shopping have you ever seen a fabric that you "gotta have"?  Yep these were definitely it for me. 

I loved the flowers and the gray, and especially the old stoves!  I also added a few yards of this which I use as a neutral.  I love the rainbow stars and hearts scattered across the field of white.

I had an eclectic mix of books for the week.   

The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl is a mystery based upon Edgar Allan Poe's last few days of his life and the fact that he seems to have gone missing for 5 days before he was dropped at Baltimore's Washington Medical College on October 3, 1849.  A young Baltimore lawyer Quentin Clark is determined to unravel the mystery. 

Do you find yourself drawn to certain books?  I seem to love stories about bookstores, or libraries.  Reading up a Storm by Eva Gates is the 3rd installment of the Lighthouse Library Mysteries. 

Lighthouse Librarian Lucy Richardson is fortunate to live above the library.  During a cold stormy night, while Lucy is curled up in a window seat reading a book, she spies lights along the beach, then notices a boat drifting dangerously close to shore.  Even though the two aboard the wrecked boat survive, one is killed just a couple of days later.  Was the boat wreck truly an accident?  Or was someone trying to murder the boat captain and Lucy foiled the first murder attempt?

The Broken Spine by Dorothy St. James.  Librarian Trudell Beckett is at a loss when the library she works at has determined to become a state of the art bookless library.  In defiance Trudell has been secreting select books from the boxes which are being sent to booksellers or *gasp* the dump, and setting up a secret library in the basement of the library.  When early one morning after hearing a huge crash, Lucy discovers a body, crushed under a huge shelf of DVDs.  The body is of the councilman who came up with the idea of the new library format.  Instantly Lucy is their number one suspect. 

Trouble on the Books by Essie Lang.  Shelby Cox has returned to her hometown of Alexandria Bay in New York's Thousand Islands region, to help her aunt open a 2nd bookshop on Blye Island at a historic castle.  Shelby discovers the body of the Castle volunteer coordinator in the grotto on the island.  Shelby is convinced the death has something to do with the history of the island, and smuggling. 

 A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman.  American Heiress Frances Wynn former Countess of Harleigh has discovered as a widow she has much more freedom than she had as the wife of her husband the philandering Reggie.  Unfortunately Frances has not provided the necessary "heir and a spare" only a daughter and due to the Primogeniture the ancestral home and title revert to Reggie's younger sibling.  Fortunately Frances' father had set aside a significant bank account in Frances' name, but when Reggie's family sues for that account as being part of the estate, and suddenly Reggie's death is questioned and perhaps Frances had a hand in it.  It becomes imperative that Frances discovers who is trying to ruin her name and reputation, especially since Frances is hosting her younger sister Lily for the season,  hoping to find her a spouse. 

The Norse Directive by Ernest Dempsey.  Book 5 in the Sean Wyatt action adventure series.  When a British Officer discovers a clue to a much sought after relic in 1801 it sets off a series of events that Sean becomes entangled in with a close friend in the current day.  A globe hopping game of cat and mouse with the mysterious Gerald Dufort who will stop at nothing to find the relic. 

Finally I decided I needed some fun so I read Swamp Santa by Jana Deleon.  This is the 16th book in the Miss Fortune Mysteries.  When Santa is found dead at the annual Christmas Festival in Sinful, Louisiana--Ida Belle and Fortune fly into lifesaving mode attempting to revive him.  Later on it is discovered that he was poisoned and therefore Ida Belle is going to be hospitalized just in case.  Big and Little Hebert the local crime family hire Fortune and the crew to find the killer. 

Thank you LeeAnna of Not Afraid of Color for encouraging us to weekly find things we like/love to share with others.  Thanks for visiting, even though it is a late post.  Now head back to LeeAnna's to check out the other I Like Thursday posts.