A Turkey Tale

Ever since fall, we've been seeing a flock of 18 to 25 turkeys roaming through everyone's back yard, looking for whatever, and we've enjoyed watching nature close up. It had to have a downside, and this was it:

My brother-in-law puts out some corn for the turkeys, and the other morning he and his wife were at breakfast, when suddenly the electricity in the house went off. Searching to find the cause, he looked out to see the electric wire hanging off the pole and a downed turkey nearby, part of the flock that had flown in to eat. The turkey turned out to be okay, though, but he had some explaining to do when the repairman arrived. Only in West Virginia?

Hubby and I are enjoying our latest discovery, a Canadian series called "Wind at My Back" on INSP (the inspirational channel that also gives us "Little House on the Prairie" and "The Waltons"). It's not new, but it's new to us, and people here have been talking about it, so we checked it out, and liked it. Like the Waltons, it takes place in the 1930's, during the Depression. Very enjoyable on a winter day, and a nice change of pace from the soaps. Since our cable was downsized, we've been looking for good shows to watch and this is one of them.

Am I the only one who loved the classics we read in English class in high school, thrilling romantic novels like "Ivanhoe", and Thomas Hardy's "Return of the Native", "Silas Marner" "A Tale of Two Cities", "Macbeth", and the like? At my book sale I have a big display of the classics, but it's hard to drum up interest in them these days. There are a few diehard classic fans like me, but for the most part, it's all James Patterson and Nora Roberts. Yuck. Give me Thomas Hardy anytime.

Poet and memoirist Mary Karr says "Reading is socially accepted disassociation. You flip a switch and you're not there any more. It's better than heroin, more effective, and cheaper and legal."

I'm escaping this week in a memoir by Meredith Hall, called "Without a Map". Hall describes her expulsion from school in senior year when it was discovered she was pregnant. Giving up the child for adoption, she left home and traveled the world, mainly on foot without a map (thus the name), searching for herself and her lost youth. Maybe our grandkids will read this one in English class someday. On a Kindle, probably.

Our friend at Forgottenbookmarks.com had a lot of water damage in his store and lost many valuable books and also a collection of things he finds in books and writes about so interestingly. I will appreciate "my" books even more when I work this Friday, and I wish him well.

See you next week . . .