Sunday morning my husband thought Pixel was better and let her lay out under our front bushes.
When it started to rain a short time later, we went to bring her in, but she was gone. She wasn’t a cat prone to wander very far so we figured she was on the property somewhere. She wasn’t that we could tell.
She never came home and we can only assume she went away to die somewhere.
We’d had her about 10 years. I don’t really want to write more about it right now but thank you for everyone who sent us well wishes as our cats went through this virus. It was very much appreciated.
I am in a very deep depression and just keep thinking of our kitty alone, cold, and scared when she died.
Aloha Betrayed, a Murder, She Wrote book by Donald Bain and “Jessica Fletcher,” is the 41st book in the 63-book series. Bain wrote 47 of those books.
This is the fifth book I’ve read from this series and, no, I have not read these books in order, and I don’t feel you need to.
This was a fun, slower paced mystery and my only complaint is that there were a couple of plot points left hanging at the end and that Bain seems to have done that on purpose.
He left us not totally sure if the victim was a totally good person or not but mainly making us think she was being manipulated in some way, while not totally confirming if that was true or not.
Here is a quick description of the book from the publisher:
Jessica is on the Hawaiian island of Maui, giving a lecture at Maui College on community involvement in police investigations—a subject she knows well. Her co-lecturer is legendary retired detective Mike Kane, a behemoth of a man who shares his love of Hawaiian lore, legends and culture with Jessica.
Sadly, all the talking stops when the body of a colleague is found at the rocky foot of a cliff.
Mala Kapule was a botanist and popular professor at the school, known for her activism and efforts on behalf of the volcanic crater Haleakala. The high altitude crater is already the site of an observatory, but plans to place the world’s largest solar telescope there split the locals, with Mala fiercely arguing to preserve the delicate ecology of the area. Was someone trying to muffle the protestors? Or was Mala’s killer making a more personal statement?
Now, it’s up to Jessica, along with Mike, to uncover who was driven to silence the scientist…and betray the true meaning of Aloha.
I read some reviews of this book that said the Hawaiian history mixed in with the story slowed the book down but I actually thought the history was naturally woven into the story with information being given to us through conversations between Jessica and the other characters.
It was not an “info dump” by any means.
Donald Bain wrote Jessica very naturally. He was a ghost writer for many years, and he clearly learned how to write from the point of view of a woman very well. All the books are in first person (from what I have read so far) and I often forget that Jessica is being written by a man.
He writes Jessica as tender, but not too tender, sensitive and concerned, but not too much of either, and more concerned about the feelings of victims and the perpetrators than a male sleuth would most likely be — or at least show.
He also wrote her as someone who thinks deeply about the issues of the world.
“I’ve had many discussions with Seth Hazlitt, and other friends in Cabot Cove about how today’s frenetic lifestyle, fueled by all the technology that surrounds us, takes away from precious time to think. I needed think time. We all need think time to avoid making some of the mistakes we humans are prone to.”
This is a good one to read if you are looking for a quick escape and not anything super deep — similar to the show.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
Even though our vet wasn’t initially sure, we now know that what has been making our cats sick is some sort of virus. We know this because a couple of days ago, our oldest cat started exhibiting the same symptoms as the other two — mainly being lethargic and refusing to eat or drink.
All of our cats have been vaccinated for distemper, so we aren’t sure what virus this is and neither does the vet.
The vet actually wanted us to bring our middle cat, Scout, to them Thursday to be observed all day but Wednesday night she perked up and not only started eating, but using the litter box.
I felt weird constantly observing her to see if she was going to use the litter box and was grateful when Little Miss saw her. I texted a friend and my husband when she finally went to the bathroom. This is where my life is — telling people when my cat has peed.
As was the case when the youngest started all of this, Scout started to feel better about the time our oldest cat, Pixel, started not to feel good.
Pixel is my buddy, similar to Scout, but more mouthy and sassy. If she chooses to lay on my chest or on my side (at night) then she pushes her way there whether I want her there or not. She often pushes her way into a cuddle when I am trying to work on my laptop or read a book or go to sleep. She sometimes doesn’t appreciate being moved in those moments, either. She will hiss and bite at me if I try to push her off, but luckily not every time.
She’s also the cat we call “fat cat” and she’s gotten fatter since I started feeding her wet food. One day she was sitting in our living room, a bit above me, and when I looked up at her I couldn’t see her chin.
I asked what had happened to her chin, she was so fat I couldn’t see it anymore, and she slowly turned my head and gave me this look :
A look that said, “Excuse me?”
Because, honestly, I’m having a similar issue with my chin and I knew she was thinking, “You don’t have anything to say, lady.”
Unlike Scout, Pixel has moved a little bit more in less time. Yesterday morning, about three days since her symptoms started, she jumped onto the bathroom sink counter, which she does when she is well, to get a drink of water. We have dishes of water down for the animals but I guess she wants it from the source. I was encouraged to see her looking for water that way.
She is still refusing to eat, however, which is what Scout did as well. And Pixel can be a lot more stubborn, so I really hope she pulls through.
I’m guessing by the way she was able to rip herself from the towel we had her wrapped up in to give her her antibiotic yesterday morning, though, that she must be feeling a little bit better. We have an antibiotic, but since it is a virus, I don’t really think she needs it. This will have to run its course like a virus does for a human, I think.
Yesterday The Husband, the kids, and I visited a college town about an hour from us and stopped in to a small, used bookstore there.
Most of the books were political or historical from one standpoint, but there were a few treasures in the children’s section, including a stack of Hardy Boys books, which I only chose two from. One of them I grabbed by accident because I already have a copy of it, but the later, revised version. This one was published in 1939
I also found an Applewood Books version of a Hardy Boys book, which is a reproduction of the original manuscript.
I rounded out my purchases with The Giver by Lois Lowery and a collection of short stories and essays by Mark Twain.
The Husband also purchased a book of “booklover stickers” for me at the Barnes and Noble in town that I can’t wait to add to my reading journal.
I didn’t visit the Barnes and Noble because that one doesn’t usually have any books I am interested in. It’s a college town so there are a lot of romances and textbooks. I’m sure we will go another time and if we do I’ll check it out and see what’s there that I might like.
What I/We’ve Been Reading
Just Finished
Aloha Betrayal by Donald Bain. This was a Murder, She Wrote mystery, and it was very good, but I wanted a more definitive ending in some ways. It was a little open-ended but that made it more interesting than some of these assembly-line style book series that are out there.
In Progress
I am slow reading StillmeadowDaybrook by Gladys Taber. Since each chapter is a month, I plan to read a chapter a month. I am also reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.
I am also currently reading The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie for the 2026 Christie Reading Challenge and Thrush Green by Miss Read.
Up Soon
On tap soon is StolenPast – An Amish Inn Mystery and The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.
What The Family is Reading
The Husband just finished, The Big Gold Dream by Chester Himes. Little Miss and I are reading Heidi and she is reading TheDragonRider by Ted and Rachel Dekker.
What I/We’ve Been Watching
I am watching BlandingsandLadies of Letters.
This past week I watched the movies Enchanted Apriland A Month In The Country.
I’ll be watching the Bette Davis movie Dangerous this week.
Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.
Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night, but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link party.
Now It’s Your Turn
What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing?
I’ve heard about the book The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim, and the movie based on it, in the past, but didn’t know what it was about. I wanted to give it a try after I read up on what the book is about earlier in the year.
I ended up really enjoying the book, so I rented the movie this week and liked it as well. The book was released in 1922 and, to me, was progressive in the idea of women needing to have their own free time.
The 1991 movie dropped the “The” and is just called Enchanted April but was exactly like the book, which was nice. They didn’t “modernize” it or add anything inappropriate. It was just subtle with wisps of suggestions of difficult or hard subjects but nothing blatantly dark or heavy, just like the book.
Both the book and the movie left me with a hopeful, uplifted, and relaxed feeling. They were both just sweet escapes that I would definitely read and watch again.
The book and movie are about four English women who rent a medieval castle in Italy for a month. The stay starts as a way for our two main characters, Mrs. Lotty Wilkins and Mrs. Rose Arbuthnot, to escape their mundane lives and dying love life with their husbands.
The two women have seen each other around their part of London but officially meet when Lotty approaches Rose at a ladies’ club after she sees Rose looking at an ad Lotty also saw for the opportunity to rent the castle. Lotty bluntly tells Rose she knows she is also miserable and needs to do something for herself and suggests they split the cost to rent the castle for a month.
Rose is taken aback and initially declines.
In the book, Lotty pesters Rose a few more times before Rose finally relents and agrees to do it. The movie condensed that timetable a bit.
Lotty is married to a solicitor who is very strict about money, and she feels like he loves money and his work more than her. She’s going to pay for the castle out of her nest egg.
Rose is married to an author who writes memoirs about the mistress of kings and writes under a pen name. Rose is very religious and feels her husband’s work is a sin and she also feels he cares more about it than her, which he does. They have money so she’s going to pay for her part on her own
In the movie, he is attending a party held for him to honor his new book and meets Lady Caroline, which will come into play later.
The two women decide they can’t actually afford the castle on their own and invite two other women to join them – Lady Caroline, who wants to get away from the grabbing paws of lecherous men and Mrs. Fisher, an elderly widow who clings to the past and likes to name-drop all the famous poets and writers she’s known over the years.
One thing I will suggest whether you read the book or watch the movie, is to not go to worst-case scenarios. If you think something “untoward” is going to happen — it isn’t.
There are moments where I worried something painful was going to happen but, thankfully, it didn’t. Despite that there was still enough plot twist in the second half of the book to keep me interested.
This was not a fast book or movie by any means.
They are both very slow but still engaging, at least in my opinion.
The only slight complaint (very slight) I have about the book is how many times Lady Caroline and everyone around her point out how pretty she is. We got it. She’s gorgeous! Sheesh!
It’s an important plot point, though, because Lady Caroline is sick of only being pretty. She’s sick of men always grabbing at her and flirting with her and being all ridiculous around her because of her beauty.
One of the reasons she’s so snappy and snarky during the book is because of a side of her she calls “Scrap”, which is what Von Arnim calls her in the book when her mean or ‘saucy’ side comes out. It was a little confusing when she would switch back and forth with the names but I caught on fairly quickly and thought it was a very creative way to show the reader that Lady Caroline knows she’s sad and twisted upside, that she has this dark side to her, and doesn’t like it.
Yes, there are times the book seemed slightly repetitive (about Lady Caroline’s beauty and her hatred of her beauty — I kept thinking of that shampoo commercial from the 1990s… “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.”), but I found the characters and their development so lovable I was willing to skim those paragraphs so I could find out it all turned out.
Polly Walker played Lady Caroline and, well, she is gorgeous.
Joan Plowright was absolutely perfect as Mrs. Fisher and I think that subconsciously I was picturing her already during the sections with Mrs. Fisher as I read the book even though I didn’t even know until I watched the movie that she was in it.
Josie Lawrence plays Lottie and Miranda Richardson portrays Rose. Alfred Molina portrays Lotty’s husband and reminds me of a nicer version of his character in Chocolat. Jim Broadbent is Rose’s husband.
There is a 1935 movie called Enchanted April but after reading about it, I don’t think I’ll watch it. It is based on a play that was based on the book and switches the occupations of the two husbands for some reason.
According to TCM, Von Arnim, who was born in Australia but lived in England, wrote the book while going though a rough time in her life.
The castle in The Enchanted April is called San Salvatore and Von Arnim named it after a castle she was staying in to recover from a domineering marriage to a German count who went to jail for fraud. The movie was actually shot in this same castle, which I just thought was so cool.
After the count died, Von Arnim started an affair with H.G. Wells and later with Sir Francis Russell, who she married impulsively and which ended in disaster. It was after the marriage with Russell ended that she wrote The Enchanted April.
Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about it.Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
When you post online, you expect people to be mean these days, but when they are, it still sometimes can be a shock or sting. Especially when what they are upset about isn’t that big of a deal.
Today I opened up my Facebook page and I had spelled the name of a celebrity featured in a video I shared wrong and instead of politely telling me I had made an error a person wrote, “Gerald McRaney would appreciate you spelling his name right.”
The person who wrote that seemed to be a woman in her 60s or 70s, someone who should know better, and I was shocked by how nasty it was that I actually teared up. It wasn’t necessarily that it was directed at me that hurt me, it was that it reminded online how cruel, hurtful, and mean people can really be. I didn’t even know this person. They don’t know me. Why would they speak that way to me?
I went offline for much of the day after that, but when I was online, I focused on being kinder in my responses and reactions to people so I won’t be like that woman, who is spreading negativity and making people feel awful.
I also stopped and thought about the times in the past that I have lashed out at people because I was annoyed about something else. I made a mental note to be/do better in the future.
Now, let’s introduce our current hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:
Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!
Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblingsshares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.
Cat from Cat’s Wire is a bookworm, movie fan, crazy cat lady, armed with beads, cabs, wire and a very jumpy brain which loves to go down rabbit holes!
Rena from Fine, Whatever writes about style, midlife, and the “fine whatever” moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she’s been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.
We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!
WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!
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This spring, I have been watching Bette Davis movies, and this past weekend, I watched Jezebel from 1938.
Wow. What a wild ride.
The tagline for this one could be — well, that escalated fast.
Especially as the movie gets toward the end.
It just races forward like a freight train out of control, but in a good way.
Bette stars in this one with a very serious Henry Fonda (I think he’s serious in every movie he is in).
George Brent, who was also in Dark Victorywith her, is in this one too.
George Brent and Bette Davis. This is not my photo. Copyright Warner Bros.
Our story takes place outside of New Orleans in 1852.
Bette portrays a woman named Julie who comes from a wealthy family and is engaged to a banker named Preston. Preston is often busy, and this irks Julie, who is very headstrong and self-centered.
When she is getting fitted for a long white ballgown she is supposed to wear to a special ball, she sees a red dress and decides she’s going to stand out and wear that one.
Everyone in the shop and in her family is horrified.
You just don’t wear red in “polite Southern society” at this or any ball.
Forget that, Julie says, even when Preston sees the dress and tells her there is no way she is wearing it. She is wearing it, she tells him, and that is that. The dress is gorgeous, even in black and white, by the way. I wanted to see it color and looked online, but couldn’t actually find an official photo of it anywhere. There are some colorizations of it, but those were done by others, that I can see.
A Photoshopped-colorized image of Julie’s forbidden red dress. Not my photo.
All of Bette’s clothes in this movie are stunning.
Back to the movie, though….Preston is furious but takes her to the ball anyhow. At the ball, people part like the Red Sea, not because they are impressed. They are scandalized by the dress and act like Julie is a — well, you know.
Preston returns Julie and her family home later that evening and says to Julie’s mother he wishes her a goodnight. To Julie, he says, “Goodbye, Julie.”
This is after they had known each other as children and always expected to marry. Oof!
Julie doesn’t believe it’s really happening, but things get real when Preston moves to the North to run a bank and leaves her behind.
I won’t ruin the rest of it for you. I will tell you that there is a reason the movie is called Jezebel and it is because Julie is called it by someone she knows.
Promotional image for Jezebel from Warner Bros.
For those who are not familiar with the name Jezebel, it refers to the wife of King Ahab of Israel, who was not a very nice woman at all. She would be called “immoral” by many.
I don’t tell you some of the details of the movie or the ending, but I will caution you that you need to fasten your seatbelt after this point in the movie if you do decide to watch it. There is going to be betrayal, talk of slavery failing the south on an economic level, slaves singing as part of the nightly entertainment, a yellow fever breakout, a dual, and so much more.
Your head is going to start spinning before it is all said and done.
Bette in her white dress. (Not my photo.)
Overall, I enjoyed the rush of this movie. I couldn’t look away. It was a bit like Gone with the Wind but shorter. I was somewhat horrified at how women were expected to act and dress a certain way during that time, but, of course, knowing the history, I know it was true.
While I am on the subject of Gone with the Wind, Bette Davis tried out for the role of Scarlet, but didn’t get it.
That worked out well for her in the end. This movie was her first big-budget film, and she won an Oscar for it in 1939. Bette’s co-star, Fay Bainter, who played her aunt Belle, also won an Oscar for best supporting actress.
Vivien Leigh won hers in 1940 for playing Scarlet O’Hara in Gone With The Wind.
Henry Fonda was very good as the brooding Preston, who was also facing his changing ideas of what the South really was.
I haven’t seen him in a ton of movies, but the ones I have seen him in, he was a lot older, so it was fun to see him so young.
Henry Fonda and Bette Davis. (Copyright TCM)
The acting from all of the cast was really very strong, and pulled me right into the time period. The black actors were great but I have a bad feeling they didn’t get the credit they should have at the time.
Warner Bros. had started planning Jezebel as a way for Davis to break out in a big movie as far back as 1935. They were going to buy playwright Owen Davis Sr.’s failed play back then, but passed on it.
But then the book Gone With The Wind took off.
Warner Bros didn’t get the rights to that, so they went back to get the rights to Jezebel.
They hired one of Hollywood’s top directors of that time, William Wyler.
Bette and William started an affair and when he later married another actress, Bette was said to be devastated and in later years called him the love of her life. They paired up again in a professional capacity in The Letter (1940) and The Little Foxes (1941).
So far, I would say this one, next to It’s Love I’m After, is my favorite movie of Bette’s I’ve watched so far.
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Today’s prompt is: Authors You Wish Were Still Writing Today
I only came up with eight authors I wished were still writing, all of them long dead, but I think it’s a good list.
Agatha Christie
The fun she’d have with modern times and modern toys to mix in her plots. The only drawback is that some of her plot points might not work since we now have so many conveniences and cameras and things that could make getting away with murder even more difficult. That might be a challenge Agatha would love to take on, though.
Margery Allingham
Margery would also love to use some of the more modern elements to knock off a few victims, I think. But she would write it in a much more poetic way than Agatha. This woman’s way with words….wow.
Erle Stanley Gardner
Perry Mason on his cellphone telling Burger to stuff it where the sun don’t shine. Also, just more great stories with other characters — Bertha Cool on a podcast, telling everyone stories about her greatest cases.
L.M. Montgomery
I would love to read more sweet, touching stories by her. Whatever she wants to write. Clean, no swearing, just writing about every day life in a beautiful rural setting in Canada.
Donald Bain
Donald was a prolific ghost writer, but I just need him to write more Murder, She Wrote books that feel like authentic Jessica. I love how he makes her so real and fleshed out. He writes it from a first-person point of view and adds in her thoughts about her late husband Frank. She’s always so caring about her friends too. I mean, I really forget it is a man writing it. I feel like he’s truly seeing Jessica’s world through the eyes of a woman. I also love when he adds in history and facts about Maine or whatever city or country Jessica is visiting. He completely immerses you in the story.
Mildred Wirt Benson
I love Mildred’s children’s mystery books. If you don’t know, she was the author who helped create the Nancy Drew books and was the first Carolyn Keene. She later went on to write other children’s books with girl detectives, such as the Penny Parker series
I loved the plots she came up with and always find her plots in the Nancy Drew books so much better than ones written by other authors using the pseudonym.
Mildred wrote 130 books for juveniles and a few for adults. I hope to look up those adult ones soon.
J.R.R. Tolkien
I would love if Tolkien was still writing and would infuse some of his wisdom and purity into fantasy books of today. He would, however, probably find some of his work edited so we don’t have to read so many descriptions of trees.
C.S. Lewis
I would love to particularly read Clive’s theological thoughts in relationship to the unique challenges of our modern world, which really aren’t that unique, but feel like they are. I would love to know what he thinks of the modern church, our crazy leaders, Christians who are so obsessed with politics that they’ve lost sight of Jesus…and so much more. I have a feeling he would anger so many people.
Are there any authors that you wish were still writing today?
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
1. For Bloggers, you can link unlimited posts related to books and reading. They can be older posts or newer posts. These can be posts about what you’re reading, book reviews, books you’ve added to your shelf, reading habits, what you’ve been reading, about trips to the bookstore, etc. You get the drift.
2. Link to a specific blog post (URL of a specific post, not just your website). Feel free to link up any older posts that may need some love and attention, too.
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Have fun everyone and I hope you find some wonderful book recs by visiting the links throughout the month!
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I shared this on my business Facebook account today because I am absolutely disgusted with AI and the push to integrate into everything we do.
I have another page on here where I share old movie and TV show content. About two weeks ago, Facebook told me they would not recommend that page or its content because its “technology” had determined my content was unoriginal.
I curate clips, write captions, create posts, etc. All by myself.
I don’t care that much if they recommend the age or not, but what upsets me is that the only thing I see on my feed for this page and my personal page now is AI slop. These are accounts that are 100 percent AI. They are making up information, creating fake images, and they are being recommended to me. They are being recommended. That is what Facebook wants. Fake information, photos, and garbage.
Facebook doesn’t care what kind of engagement it gets…as long as it gets it and what’s really disgusting is they are pushing out actual human beings from interacting with other human beings about topics they enjoy.
If you don’t see a bigger issue at hand here, an attempt to separate and isolate humans as a way to have more control over them, then I really feel you should look a little closer at it all.
It is so scary and dystopian to be told “technology has determined that you..” anything.
Calling me unoriginal is fine, but telling me a piece of technology determined what I was or was not, is not okay.
