Fallen Into the Pit by Ellis Peters

I became a fan of Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter) when I discovered her "Brother Cadfael" mysteries. I loved the Cadfael books so much that when I found a title from a different series by Peters in my local used bookshop I had to get it. I prefer reading books from a series in order and the used book was not the first. I ordered the first book from Amazon and just now, more than ten years after the fact, got around to reading it!

Fallen Into the Pit is the first "Inspector Felse" mystery and was published in 1951. Perhaps this blurb from the back of the novel best describes the plot:

"All the school boys of Comerford look up to Chad Wedderburn, a classics master who was a hero of the Resistance in World War II. But they are puzzled by his unwavering stand against all violence. And when he is blamed for the brutal murder of a former German prisoner of war who settled in this remote Shropshire town, none of them believe he did it.

Policeman George Felse is also deeply troubled by this killing. His son Dominic discovered the body, and now the boy is doggedly pursuing clues in the isolated countryside to clear his teacher. As young Felse digs deeper, his father feels a mounting pressure. For Inspector Felse knows all too well that Dominic is playing with fire, and that he must close the case quickly - before the killer teaches them both a lesson in murder..."

A well-written mystery, as I would certainly expect from Ellis Peters, I don't think this novel appealed to me as much as the Cadfael books did. Perhaps the Cadfael books have just "gotten better" in my mind in the years since I've read them, or maybe it's just the difference in time and place between the two series. If I run across other Inspector Felse mysteries in a used bookstore I'll go ahead and buy them, but I won't take the initiative to order them new from Amazon.... especially seeing how expensive they've become!!

This book completes the Cozy Mystery Challenge for me and counts as my fourth in the Typically British Challenge.

July iPod Roulette

If iPod Roulette is new to any of my readers, you can click on this entry at Hal's to see what it's all about. My good intentions of playing monthly have obviously fallen short. I came up with a fairly diverse group of songs this time, but it still leaves out several genres.

So tell me.... would any of these show up on your playlist?

1. Sing, Sing, Sing (Benny Goodman) - my parents loved swing music and I listened to enough of it as a child to develop somewhat of an affection for it myself.

2. Fugue (Pachelbel) - From "Canon & Suites for Strings" performed by the Paillard Chamber Orchestra.

3. Hacia Belen (The Priests) - More classical music, but with vocals this time.

4. Stompin' at the Savoy (Harry Connick, Jr.) - From the soundtrack to "When Harry Met Sally"

5. Jaws (David Sanborn) - No, not the great white shark. Think jazz.

6, Catherine Howard (Rick Wakeman) - This is possibly my favorite selection from the "Six Wives of Henry VIII" album.

7. Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On (Neal McCoy) - I don't claim this one. It was downloaded at someone else's request. The sad thing is that I can sing along with it.

8. Lies (Glen Hansard) - Another soundtrack....this one from the movie "Once". Better known might be the song "Falling Slowly".

9. Let it Be (Beatles) - Does this one really need any explanation?

10. Paradise (Out of Eden) - Kind of a cross between Contemporary Christian and R&B.

11. Psalm 121 (Susan Ashton) - Praise & Worship, as you might gather from the title.

12. There'll Be Sad Songs (Billy Ocean) - I had forgotten that his "Caribbean Queen" wasn't a one-hit wonder.

13. French Suite #1 in D Minor, BWV 812-5. Menuet 2 (Glenn Gould) - I first became aware of Glenn Gould when I was a teenager studying piano.

14. Home is Not a House (Candy Dulfer) - Jazz saxophone. I really like her version of "Lily Was Here".

15. Wrapped Around Your Finger (The Police) - From their last album "Synchronicity". My favorite album was "Zenyatta Mondatta".

Pickled Squash

In the early years of our marriage there were quite a few summers that we planted a large garden... mostly tomatoes, squash, and purple hull peas. Although I found out quickly that only a couple of squash plants are necessary to feed a family of five all summer, there were several summers I planted extra so I could pickle the excess.

This has been a good year and I've found myself with more squash than I can use (or even give away). I decided to pickle some a few weeks ago. I dug out the basic recipe I had used, but it didn't include specifics. You'd think with all the pints and quarts I churned out in the past I would remember, but a few details escaped me. So.... I just dug out my canning utensils and set to work.

Before I got started I remembered to sterilize my canning jars and put the lids and rings in the hot water until I was ready for them. I peeled and thinly sliced squash until I had 12 cups.

Next I thinly sliced some white onion... about three cups.

I combined the squash and onion in a large bowl and sprinkled them with salt to "sweat" for about an hour.

Meanwhile, I cut up about 3 large bell peppers and placed them in a large pot along with 4-1/2 cups sugar, 3 teaspoons mustard seed, 3 teaspoons celery seed, and 3 cups white vinegar. I then brought it to a hard boil.

This is where things briefly got out of hand. While waiting on the mixture to boil, I was standing at the sink draining off the squash and onions. When I looked back at the stove, the mixture had gone from barely coming to a boil to boiling over! What a mess!! It left a sticky liquid all over the burner that immediately started to smoke, setting off the smoke detector (nice to know it works!) and terrifying the dogs!

Anyway, I got back on track and put the squash/onions into the mixture and brought it to another hard boil. I immediately filled the canning jars with the mixture and liquid to within about a half inch of the top. Then I placed the warm lids on the jars and screwed on the rims before putting them into a hot water bath for about 15 minutes.

I removed the jars from the hot water and set them on a towel to cool. When I checked on them later, the lids had "popped" down assuring me that I'd gotten a good seal.

Now all that remains to be seen is if it tastes as good as I remember. The jars need to sit in a cool place out of the sunlight for about a month for the flavors to set. Then I'll cook up a mess of purple hull peas, pile some pickled squash on my serving, and see how it tastes! I'll let you know.....

Bountiful Harvest

Our small garden got off to a rather slow start this year, but things have taken off in the past few weeks. We've had lots of summer squash and more tomatoes than we bargained for. The only tomatoes we planted were the yellow variety I started from seed earlier in the spring. However, tons of "volunteer" cherry tomato plants popped up in our plot. Instead of weeding some of them out, my husband just let them all do their own thing. As a result, we ended up with a jungle of tomato plants!! It's made for a near impossible job of picking, but I've done the best I could.

The best way to eat tomatoes is sliced and salted, right off the vine. I posted my favorite tomato recipe in an entry here. I've enjoyed reversing the colors on it this summer with yellow tomatoes and red onions rather than red tomatoes and yellow onions!

Odds and Ends

Check out this really fun link Tracy shared on her blog today: I Write Like. You provide a sample then it analyzes your writing and tells you which author you write like. Here are my results:

I write like
Arthur C. Clarke

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Jen shared some fun info in her blog this weekend, too. Did you know that Blogger offers stats now for your blog? Just look under Tools and Resources at the bottom of your Dashboard and click on "Blogger in Draft". Interesting to see, not that I was particularly surprised by my stats.

Life has been pretty busy since we got back from vacation. I'm behind on my magazines which, in turn, has kept me from reading books. The Book of Eli arrived from Netflix the other day and I have to say I was rather disappointed in it. The premise and previews had raised my expectations a little too high, I guess, since I thought it was slow and boring. Finally made it to a matinee showing of Eclipse, the third in the Twilight series. I thought it was much better than New Moon. More action and less angst. One of the best parts of the week was seeing our local arts center's summer musical. They did The Producers by Mel Brooks and it was a real hoot! I'm always pleased with what quality productions our community theater puts out.

Now, if I can just make myself turn this blasted computer off I might get some reading done....

Suzy's (not so) grand adventure

It's quite rare for my husband and me to leave home at the same time. Between all the dogs and the livestock, it's just too much trouble. Besides, I hate asking the house-sitter (pasture-sitter) to fool with the inside dogs since they're a little more "high maintenance" than the others. So... off went Mabel and Alice to the kennel. It was their second time to stay there and I think they handled it better than they did first time around.

Suzy had a different adventure. We took this as the prime opportunity to get her spayed and figured as active as she is it would be good to have her confined somewhere away from her sisters until the incision could heal a little. Her surgery was scheduled the morning we left town and of course I called from Vegas later that day to check on her. When we picked her up Sunday morning, she had already removed her own stitches saving us a trip back to the vet's later in the week. I should haved known if any dog would do that it would be her. She is SO naughty!! If anything, she seems to be worse than ever since we got back. She barks, growls, jumps up, climbs over the babygate, leaps unexpectedly into your lap wherever you're sitting, and worst of all....does not obey!! Doesn't she just exude naughtiness in these photos?? I've never had a dog that behaved like this. If I could find an obedience class anywhere around here I would sign up. One of us needs training!!

Wedding Bells

It's easy to get married in Las Vegas.   

Several weeks before our trip our older daughter received a ring from her significant other.  I suggested they get married while we were in Vegas and she told me they had already decided they would.  They had done a little research online and knew there were multiple options available... everything from wedding chapels in most of the major hotels to Elvis weddings not to mention countless other venues. 

I must say, they chose one of the more interesting options.  A drive-thru wedding!!  The whole family was picked up in a stretch limo at the hotel and transported to the drive-up window at the wedding chapel.  Vows were exchanged, everyone stepped out for pictures, then we were returned to the hotel.  Of course there is a lot more history to this story than I'm sharing here, but sometimes the less is better.  Let's just leave it at this:  The drive-thru wedding was a fun, memorable experience that I'm glad we all got to be a part of!  May they have a long, happy marriage! 

Viva Las Vegas!

I read somewhere recently what the percentage of revenue from gaming was in Las Vegas and it was much lower than I expected. I shouldn't have been surprised, though. There is a LOT more to do there than just gamble. In fact, there are far more things to do than can be squeezed into a four or five day vacation. Debby commented on a recent post that "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". While that might be true in some instances (and I'm certainly not telling all here), I don't mind sharing a few of the things we did.

I've visited Madame Tussuad's in Las Vegas, Amsterdam, and London. The Vegas MT is my favorite so I was glad we made it there on this trip. It was uncrowded enough that we had ample opportunity to snap pictures with all our favorite celebrities. I would post some of the photos here, but I'm not sure I could narrow down which ones to share.

We walked past the Lion Habitat at the MGM Grand just as they had two of them out on display. They looked too young to be the cub my younger kids had their picture made with on our last visit.

I love aquariums and Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay ranks right up there with the best of them. The first part of the aquarium is good, but the final room is the best part. You walk through a Plexiglas tube (surrounded by water) into the "shipwreck" where there is a spectacular display of predator fish swimming all around you! The aquarium also includes a fun "petting zoo" where you can touch little manta rays and horseshoe crabs.

It seemed like everywhere we looked on the strip we saw people carrying bright yellow M&M shopping bags. By the second day of our trip, so were we! M&M World is always packed with people. I remembered that from my last trip there. I also remembered the huge display of M&M dispensers where you can fill your own bags with every color M&M imaginable. I didn't see the coconut or pretzel varieties, but they had dark chocolate, peanut, almond, and peanut butter. Sold by the pound, it's amazing how quickly it adds up. I was proud of my restraint on this visit.

I think my very favorite Vegas attraction is the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur. This was my fourth time to see it and I don't think it will ever grow old for me! Part of the novelty is digging in to a meal served without any utensils. There's jousting, knights at the round table, dancing maidens, good guys, bad guys, horses.... huzzah!!

Most hotels have an "in-house" show. The Monte Carlo hosts Lance Burton, Master Magician. We booked that for our last night and had great seats, Row D on the Main Floor.

Oh....and we went to see the flamingos at ... where else but the Flamingo Hilton!

Many things got left undone. They'll just have to wait for another trip to Vegas.

Let's eat!

As you can imagine, Vegas has a zillion places to eat. Every hotel has multiple restaurants within it along with "food courts" featuring everything from Starbucks, to Haagen-Dazs, to McDonald's. Considering dining out is one of my family's favorite activities, we were all in hog heaven!

I know that Hard Rock Cafes are terribly commercialized, but I really think they're a fun place to eat. What a nice surprise to find out they'd opened a new location right across the strip from our hotel! We had often eaten at the old location, but the new one is lighter and roomier (but still loud!).

My son and I are both fans of the Food Network. When we found out that Bobby Flay had a Mesa Grill location at Caesar's Palace, we knew we had to eat there whether anyone else in the group wanted to join us or not. After some hesitation, everyone agreed to go and it ended up being one of our best dining experiences!! Definitely a place I would go again!

There were a couple of "Griswold" moments on our vacation. One involved the night we planned to eat at a Mexican restaurant we loved and would make a point to visit on each trip to LV. Turns out the hotel it was in has been torn down and is being rebuilt. So, despite the fact it still exists on a Google Map, it's not really there!! Hopefully when the new hotel is completed it will once again include the restaurant. So.... we detoured to Margaritaville at our older daughter's recommendation. Here's a photo of our granddaughter with a balloon ladybug they made for her there.

Our final night we had a show booked and didn't want to go far for dinner so we opted for the Outback Steakhouse right across the strip. Although there's an Outback about 70 miles from where we live, only three of our group had ever eaten at one. We all enjoyed our meal, but debated whether the bloomin' onion was better there or at a local eatery in our hometown.

Another place that we debated the merits of was The Cupcakery located in our hotel. I'll agree that it was totally overpriced, but the variety I ordered (the "Bugsy") was soooo moist and delicious!!

Next up..... some of the attractions and shows we enjoyed.

Vegas Vacation

No.....not with Clark Griswold and his family, but with my OWN family!!

I made my first visit to Las Vegas when I was in college, a long time ago. My husband and I took our first vacation there together the year after we married, returning annually each summer. Our last trip was about ten years ago when we took the younger two kids with us.

Due to a variety of reasons I won't go into here, our entire family has never taken a vacation anywhere together. A few years ago my husband made the promise that once our youngest was 21, he would take everyone to Las Vegas. The plotting and planning began in earnest several months ago. Work schedules had to be situated, flights booked, hotel reservations made, show tickets purchased, and most important-- a 21st birthday celebrated in June.

The seven of us left hot, humid south Arkansas last Tuesday morning and arrived in even hotter, but not as humid, Las Vegas mid-afternoon. The temperature while we were there ranged from 104 to 113! Humidity, though, never got above 29%. I know hot is hot, but I still say dry heat is easier to bear. Our humidity here rarely gets below 50% and is quite often 80 or 90% . Stifling!

Amazing how much has changed on the strip in the past 10 years! Hotels have been torn down and rebuilt, others gone forever. We've stayed several places in the past, some more than once, but tried a new one this trip: the Monte Carlo. It was centrally located for the things we wanted to do and turned out to be a good choice.

Overall it was a great trip and everyone had fun. I'll share more in the next few days.