Bellingrath Gardens ~ Asian

Back in April I toured Bellingrath Gardens in Mobile Alabama. We had a warmer than normal winter so everything was blooming ahead of schedule. The Garden is divided into different areas. This is the Asian area. Here I am with the Grancy Graybeard.

This cute little frog caught my eye.

It was very peaceful here with the running water.

Swamp Iris

Koi pond

Bottle Bush.  And I have to admit to being a bit pleased that I am not the only one whose garden gets away from them sometimes.

I blogged about the Boat House and Magnolia Cafe at ATCAD

Happy Birthday to My Boo

The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld (Goodreads Author)

The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was a rather strange book, narrated by a deathrow inmate Arden ( we actually learn very little about him and the unspeakable crime he committed other than he likes to read and imagine himself far away) he tells about life in "the enchanted place" prison.

There is the young boy imprisoned for two years for joyriding in a car and used by a corrupt guard to reward Risk for being his informant. How the boys cries for help go unheeded and the boys despair when he realizes the guard will find a way to extend his prison term and the solution he devises.

There is York (ostensibly the main character) who wants to die, but whose execution is being reviewed by "the Lady". How the Lady finds the mitigating circumstances (born with syphilis, sexually abused) that would mitigate his sentence to Life, but allows him to make the choice to die.

The Fallen Priest who serves the prisoners as penitence for letting his girlfriend down and how his relationship with the Lady develops.

And the Warden who holds onto his humanity while surrounded by death.

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Flower Friday (April Flowers)

A sketch of the Banana Shrub it's actually a type of Magnolia.

Lantana

The tomatoes got off to a good start but then it started raining. I think I got two tomatoes off the vines before they died. This was NOT a good year for gardening the squash rotted, along with the honeydew Bo planted.

The oregano on the other hand did really well.

The raspberries ere a huge disappointment. I think we are going to lose them too. If we do we will probably replace them with muscadines
 

More Lantana

Purple heart.

Haunted (Michael Bennett, #10)

Haunted by James Patterson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The book opens with Brian in jail for selling drugs and Michael being haunted by regret that he wasn't there for his son when he needed him. Michael attempts to find who got Brian to sell drugs and a gruesome beheading of a young teen leads Michael to the "enforcer" who is a high-school student and eventually to the mastermind behind the ring but despite Michael's best efforts Brian is sentenced to prison.

The Bennett family head to Maine for a vacation and rent a house known by locals as "The Ghost House". Soon Michael is drawn into investigating the local drug ring when two teens go missing. Thanks to the help of a homeless girl, Sadie who was buried alive after she appeared to have Od'd on drugs by Dell Streeter they find the bodies of the teens along with others who have gone missing. They arrest Streeter but due to a corrupt system he is soon set free.

The townspeople threaten Streeter's life so Michael finds himself in the unenviable position of having to protect the drug dealer. When one of the local vigilantes is killed they suspect Streeter was behind his death but can't prove it. Then Sadie takes things into her own hands and goes after Streeter. After shooting him a couple of times Sadie gets the location of the drugs out of him but Michael knows that the confession will be inadmissible in court due to the way Sadie tortured it out of him. But with the information Sadie got from Streeter Michael is able to trick his bodyguards into giving evidence against him.

Michael ask Mary Catherine to marry him.

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Level 1 Kayaking Class

We learned about various paddles. I also discovered that I had the heaviest paddle in the class and that it was much easier to paddle with a lighter weight paddle.

This was a fun class we did some self rescues and some assisted rescues. I look forward to taking Level 2 when I am feeling better.

The Angel Court Affair by Anne Perry (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt #30)

The Angel Court Affair by Anne Perry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Pitt is tasked with babysitting religious fanatic Sofia Delacruz he at first doesn't take the task seriously. People don't actually kill each other over religious disagreements do they. But when she is kidnapped and two of her female followers viciously murdered Pitt is desperate to find her.

But was it really Sofia's religious heresies that got her in hot water? Pitt soon discovers that her cousin, the ultra respectable banker Barton Hall has secrets of his own, and that former classmate  Teague was all to eager to take advantage and play hero.



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Flower Friday

 Roses, these are blooming now and are very lovely. They bloom several times a year.

 Lantana with a Butterfly for your viewing pleasure. It is also putting on a show right now. I love Fall so many of my favorite flowers are blooming.

 A pencil sketch of a Cape Honeysuckle. The picture was out of focus so this is my way of fixing it. I have been very pleased with how often it blooms.

The roof of the Hummingbird Cottage.

 The Cuphea, this is another plant that blooms in Fall and Spring, it looks lovely blooming with the Goldenrod and Blue Sage now.

 Coral Bean it is a native plant and only blooms in the Spring (April) during the summer the seed pods are interesting especially when they burst open and display the red beans inside, right now they are just a mass of  green leaves and it dies back in the winter.

 More shots of the Butterfly visiting the Lantana.

 ~Alasandra