Reading and Roaming

UNWINDING IN MAINE

We are fortunate that the Maine coast this week is one of the coolest places in the country, the U.S. at large suffering through another wave of record-setting heat. For us, Maine is a time to slow down, read more, watch more, spend time with good friends and family, and just relax. Here are some samples of recent fare.

WATCHING

Grantchester (PBS Masterpiece)

Mrs. C. (Sylvia) & Leonard (cheatsheet.com)

This is Season 7 of Grantchester, and it’s an excellent one. There are six episodes, and we’ve now watched all of them. There is still a murder case to be solved in each one and the complexities of the cases are intriguing, but the real meat is in the focus on the characters. The separation between Geordie and his wife Kathy is one thread; another is Mrs. C’s angry and disruptive behavior as she deals with a health issue. And then there’s vicar Will, in love or lust with a woman named Maya, someone else’s fiancée, and attracted to Geordie’s sister-in-law Bonnie. How these relationships evolve and grow makes for wonderfully satisfying viewing. The writing is superb, and Tom Brittney both plays Will Davenport and directs this season. It is definitely one of the best seasons of all. Highly recommended!

A light production moment with Geordie (Robson Green) and Sylvia (Tessa Peake-Jones)

Endeavour (PBS Masterpiece)

In contrast to Grantchester, I thought Season 8 of Endeavour fell short. Endeavour is falling apart, is lax on the job, and resorting to alcohol. There are cases to be solved with Detective Thursday, but in at least one episode, the ending did not satisfactorily bring all the pieces together. There are three episodes, and this is said to be the next to last season. Perhaps it has run out of oomph.

READING

Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

I decided to explore this author’s work after reading her recent obituary in the New York Times. A journalist for The Guardian for many years, Steiner went on to write three crime novels set in Cambridge, England featuring DS Manon Bradshaw. This is the first one. A 24-year-old woman, Edie Hind, daughter of a wealthy, well-connected father, goes missing, and a wide-ranging search is undertaken to locate her. This has all the elements of a well-done police procedural and is told from several perspectives, principally that of investigator Manon, but also that of constable Davy, Edie’s mother Miriam, and others.

The writing is graphic and punchy. Despite that, the book moves slowly and never really catches fire until about three-quarters in when the pace picks up. I liked this novel enough to stay with it, but haven’t decided if I will read the next one in the series.

The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly

With the grand, but neglected estate garden at Highbury House at its center, this historical novel is the interlocking story of several women, each of whom has some role in the creation of the garden. It’s a novel of women who aspire to meaningful lives, often greater than what society allows or expects of them. Along the way, they find fulfillment and love.

In the present day, Emma, owner of her own garden design business, has taken on the restoration of the Highbury garden for clients Sydney and Andrew. In 1907, Venetia Smith designed this series of garden rooms, and her story is the bedrock upon which the others unfold. During WWII, Highbury House is requisitioned as a convalescent hospital and the owner’s widow, Diana Symonds, cook Stella Adderton, and land girl Beth Pedley must each in her own way deal with the shortages and sorrows of wartime.

I found this a most absorbing novel both for the characters and the intricacies of designing a beautiful garden. It shines a light on matters of class, ambition, and the role of women. Kelly has written several other historical novels, and she’s on my list to explore her work further.

Note: Header photo is of a cove on Southport. ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

Tidy Tidbits: Summer Fare

THE LIBRARY’S MISSION BEYOND ITS WALLS

The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles

This mostly gentle novel is for my librarian friends—and for other lovers of libraries. When I was in high school, I was a page at my local public library. I worked in the children’s room checking out books and doings lots of re-shelving. The library used the Dewey Decimal System, and I became very conversant with the classification and what subjects were where. In this novel, I was charmed by protagonist Odile’s love of reading and her intricate knowledge of the Dewey numbers for very specific topics. She thought in terms of Dewey Decimals.

Taking place in Paris in the WWII years and in Montana in the 1980’s, it is the story of Odile’s work life as a librarian at the American Library and then the later friendship between Odile and her young neighbor, Lily. It’s based on the experiences of real library staff and how they kept the American Library functioning once France was occupied by the Germans. The parallel story profiles Odile 40 years later and how Lily learns from Odile not only French, but ways to interact with the world around her. This is not a particularly suspenseful novel, and the narrative arc is shallow, but it’s an enjoyable read and adds to one’s understanding of the importance of libraries, particularly in times of war.

MAGNIFICENT LIBRARIES

A friend alerted me to a recent article in Architectural Digest entitled, “15 Stunning University Libraries Around the World You Need to See.” One reason for the referral was for the inclusion of the Linderman Library at Lehigh University where I spent considerable time. I was pleased to see that four other libraries that I know or have visited were also included.

I worked at Cornell University one summer when I was in college and have been in the Uris Library. Likewise, I was a librarian at Penn when the Fisher Library underwent its renovation. Some years ago, I visited Yale and toured its libraries including the Beinecke Rare Book Library. And as my faithful blog readers know, I was in Dublin recently and was awed by the Trinity College Library Long Room. Other featured libraries are in Spain, France, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Perhaps I’ll get to one or more of them!

CRIME IN A GRITTIER DUBLIN

Redemption (Prime Video)

Detective Colette Cunningham is working in Liverpool when she receives a call about the death of her estranged daughter Stacey in Dublin. Colette relocates to Dublin to take care of her two teenaged grandchildren. The Dublin police accept Colette on a transfer and give her low level responsibilities. Meanwhile, she has questions about her daughter’s suicide and begins to raise questions and do her own research.

Interactions with her grandchildren are tense and challenging, Stacey’s old boyfriend and the kids’ father are somewhat dodgy characters, and Colette’s work environment is just tolerable. This is a slowly unfolding story of Colette’s investigations showing some of the seamier sides of Dublin life. While the viewer might question Colette’s judgement and actions at various points, they make for good drama. There are six episodes and each is about 45 minutes long.

LOCAL ASIAN EATERY

Spice Station in Sarasota

I had previously checked out the menu at Spice Station, but not eaten there. This time, while in Sarasota for appointments and errands, we decided to try it for lunch. We were not disappointed. It’s a very attractive space in the Rosemary District (sort of behind our favorite Artisan Cheese shop) and did a lot of takeout orders while were there. There were other diners so it’s obviously popular. Their menu includes both a wide selection of sushi along with Thai curries and noodles. We opted to try the potstickers which were light and tasty followed by a curry for each of us, one red curry and one green, each with chicken.

The menu showed one pepper and said the curries were medium spicy. They were very good, but a tepid medium. We learned later that you could order spiciness on a level from one to ten peppers. We’d order up a few more peppers next time. The portions were nice-sized, and I took some of mine home for lunch the next day. The Chief Penguin is a fan of seaweed salad, and he ordered it and approved. We liked the overall ambiance of the place and our helpful waitress and plan to return!

Note: Header image of Florida sunset ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Summer Lollipops: Reading & Watching

ADVENTURE IN NEW CALDONIA

Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce

This novel about female friendship is a joyful romp of a book. Thanks to my sister Ann for recommending it. It’s funny, painful, poignant, and just plain good! The setting is London, 1950, and Margery Benson and others are still dealing with the losses and shortages of the Second World War. In a fit of pique, middle-aged single Margery leaves her job as a teacher and decides to embark on a quest to find an elusive gold beetle in New Caledonia. A beetle collector since childhood, she adds to her collecting equipment and advertises for an assistant to travel with her.

Most of the candidates are unsuitable, but when one withdraws, she ends up with the flamboyant, uneducated Enid Pretty. Margery (or Marge as Enid calls her) and Enid are complete opposites both physically and in personality. Margery is large and plain and somewhat quiet. Enid is petite, lovely, and a nonstop talker. Each has a past with secrets and hurts.

How they find their way to the northern tip of New Caledonia, the adventures they have collecting specimens in dense tropical forests, and how their tribulations bring out the worst and eventually the best in each of them, make for a delightfully absorbing story. It’s a book about finding and accepting the best in yourself and learning how to befriend someone else. The following quote reflecting Margery’s state of mind sums it up nicely:

The differences between them—all those things she’d once found so infuriating—she now accepted. Being Enid’s friend meant there were always going to be surprises. …However close they were, it didn’t entitle her to Enid’s memories and neither did it allow her to be part of Enid’s life before they’d met. Being a friend meant accepting those unknowable things. …’Look how marvellously different we are, you and I, and yet here we are, together in this strange world!’ It was by placing herself side by side with Enid that Margery had finally begun to see the true outline of herself. And she knew it now; Enid was her friend.

CRIME IN AIX

Murder in Provence (Amazon Prime)

Fans of TV’s Endeavour series might be surprised to see jowly Detective Thursday as the debonair and svelte Antoine Verlaque in Murder in Provence. Judge Verlaque, a Chief Magistrate works alongside his romantic partner, Martine Bonnet (played by Nancy Carroll), who is a criminal psychologist. Slim and beautiful, Martine is always attired in simple classic designs. Together with the police commissioner, this threesome investigates and eventually solves their cases.

Set in Aix in Provence, the series is sun drenched (nary a cloud in sight) and bright, meals are taken in a series of cafes, and the wine flows freely. It is as much a paean to the beauty of Provence as it is a detective story. It isn’t quite a cozy mystery series, but it has a gentle quality that makes it relaxing to watch and perfect for summer. Based on mysteries by Canadian author, M. L. Longworth, there are three episodes in the first season. Each is about 90 minutes long. A second season is slated to become available in 2023.

RETURN AND RE-ENTRY

It’s true what you’ve been reading about travel in the summer of 2022. We loved being in Ireland but coming home turned out to be a big slog. The Dublin airport has been the scene of long lines, lines to just get into the terminal building. Everyone was directed to one set of entrance doors with Do Not Enter signs at other doors. We checked out the lay of the land the afternoon before our flight and noted where the Delta counters were (opposite end from Aer Lingus).

Even knowing that, we arrived at the airport at 6:30 am for our noon flight, quickly entered past the do not enter sign, and found almost no line at Delta. The lines for security and then clearing U.S. immigration ahead of our flight (something new) were long, but we still had a few hours to sit until our flight boarded.

The transatlantic flight itself was uneventful, and we landed at JFK about 2:30 in the afternoon. We had a long layover (schedule change well before we left home) until our 8 pm flight to Tampa. Around 5 pm, we got the news that our flight would now leave at 12:01 as in just after midnight. Inquiring revealed that we were awaiting the arrival of a co-pilot. Further checking showed that all the next day flights to Florida that would be closer to home were sold out. More long hours hanging around the airport lounge with lots of other people!

A bit after 11:00 pm, we optimistically walked to our gate, eager for a change of scene. Flight departure time was now delayed until 12:19 and then 12:55 am. About 12:40, we boarded, and all seemed in order. Then some quiet waiting.

Eventually, the pilot came on to say that we should be leaving very soon after dealing with “some passenger discrepancy.” The next thing we knew, two police boarded the plane and proceeded to march a couple (ordinary looking man and woman) down the aisle toward the door. All the while, one police officer was heard saying to the man, “Keep moving, we’ll talk outside.”

We took off just before 2:00 am and landed in Tampa at about 4:30 am. I expected the airport to be empty, but no, quite a few folks around, probably there for a very early flight. The Chief Penguin could have kissed the ground. I was relieved to finally be in Florida! By 6:00 am, we were in our own driveway, our 30-hour journey at its end. It’s taken us a week to recover and feel human again, but we didn’t get Covid and we’re glad to be here!

Note: Photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

Around Ireland: More Galway

SPECIFICS

Galway in County Galway is on Ireland’s west coast and sits on the River Corrib. With a population of around 83,000, it is the fourth largest city in the Republic of Ireland. It is a city of bridges and canals and strong breezes off the bay. One is never far from the honk of seagulls. The main center, around Eyre Square, is compact and walkable with a number of shopping streets closed to traffic.

Our original plan was to spend our second day in Galway with an excursion to one of the Aran Islands. The weather was lousy the day before, and the prediction for this day was for on and off light rain and temperatures hovering around 58 degrees, so we decided to bag the trip. Light rain here can mean an intense burst of rain for 15 minutes and then a brightening sky. Consequently, we spent all day partly inside but broken up by three separate walks. Said walks were taken between the rainy skies. Once, we got caught in an unexpected short shower.

EYRE SQUARE

Eyre Square, although somewhat small, attracts people throughout the day and evening. Whether to wait for a tour bus, sit on the grass, or gather to hear a street musician, it’s a popular venue. Here you see banners for the tribes of Galway and a seated sculpture of the first modern Irish writer. He initially wrote short stories in Gaelic.

Banners represent tribes or families of Galway

Padraic O Conaire, early author of stories in Gaelic (1882-1928)

CHURCHES

Like many Irish cities, Galway has several large churches. One is the Galway Cathedral (Roman Catholic), and another is St. Nicholas Collegiate Church (Church of Ireland or Anglican). St. Nicholas was built in the 16th century and has been open for worship ever since.

I liked the simplicity of the sanctuary of St. Nicholas

Galway Cathedral, the official name of which is Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St. Nicholas, was actually built in the late 1950’s and completed in 1965. With its Renaissance style, it seems to be of a more historic time. The massive green dome dominates the city skyline even from a distance.

OTHER SIGHTS

On this quiet Sunday morning when the sun was shining, we took a lovely walk on a path along the river. Several men were out fishing and across the way was the occasional old stone building.

Later in the day, we walked through the Spanish Arch and along the Long Walk in the dock area. This arch is part of what remains of a city wall originally built in the 16th century; the name Spanish is probably not connected to Spain. The Long Walk was added much later and intended as further protection for the docks.

FOOD

We have eaten very well here. As you would expect, potatoes feature prominently at both lunch and dinner. Often as chips (fries) or crisps (potato chips) or sliced Lyonnaise style, sweet potato chunks, or just little round potatoes in their skins. A favorite lunch item is a toastie (usually grilled ham and cheese on sourdough), and we each had several. The so-called classic Caesar salad served in Ireland has lardons of bacon in it in addition to croutons, and sometimes thin slivers of Parmesan, but not always.

Breakfast buffets usually included some cold sliced meats and cheeses along with juice and pastries. And you could also order off the cooked breakfast menu, a full Irish breakfast or some eggs, sausage, pancakes, and always smoked salmon. At various evening meals, we enjoyed excellent fish and seafood, everything from turbot and sea bass to cod and hake plus shrimp and crab.

Our final dinner in Galway was at a relaxed place with a tasty menu aptly named the Brasserie on the Corner. The Chief Penguin and I shared the little bites on a seafood board and then tucked into our entrees. He had a perfect stuffed chicken breast with broccolini and mushroom cream while I savored every morsel of my sea bass with Thai red curry sauce. It was a delicious capstone to some wonderful eating adventures.

Sea bass with coconut rice and tempura prawns

After all this wonderful food, great sights, and friendly people, we head back home, trading cool days for Florida’s heat and humidity.

JOTS & JAUNTS

UNWINDING IN MAINE

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