Weekly update: turtles, music, sewing UPDATE!, and reading

It rained all day Friday -- 1.8" accumulation, which helps compensate for the severe drought we had in 2021.  Saturday was glorious:  80 degrees and sunny!  I walked the entire 2.5 mile trail at Pine Dunes.  I saw two turtles and three hawks.  

The Lake County Symphony Orchestra's annual jazz + classics concert was Saturday evening featuring five compositions by Dave Brubeck followed by Dvorak's New World Symphony.   Wonderful music!

There was a Covid outbreak among the church choir members after the Easter service.  No choir this morning and we were back to alternating pews and masks required.  (Follow up is that no one got terribly ill.)

(We got our second Pfizer boosters on Wednesday.)

Rotary helped with a diaper drive this afternoon -- just long enough for a photo op.  

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In the studio:   The tote bag body is complete.  Hooray!

I should have a Finished Object soon.   

I finished it later on Sunday.  Now I can link up to OMG. 

I'm up to 64 asterisk blocks. (I'm aiming for 90.) 

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This week's reading:  

I've had the ARC (advance reader copy) of The Vanishing Half on the TBR shelf for a year and a half.  When the AAUW Jane Addams Branch announced it as the April book club selection it was time to read it!   "People thought that being one of a kind made you special. No, it just made you lonely. What was special was belonging with someone else." (p. 88) Identical twin sisters Desiree and Stella Vignes escape the confining, limiting expectations of their Louisiana hometown and create very different lives for each other. Desiree identifies as Black and escapes an abusive marriage by returning home with her daughter. Stella passes as white and marries a wealthy white New Englander. They settle in southern California and also have a daughter. The sisters lose all contact with one another. Years later their daughters unexpectedly cross paths -- one a college athlete and the other a wanna-be actress -- and long-held secrets come to light. I don't recall who recommened Eight Flavors, but I'm glad I followed up and borrowed it from the library.   There are many interesting (and tasty!) nuggets of information in this history of eight ingredients that are now indispensable in American cooking. Food historian Sarah Lohman writes about pepper (1700's) vanilla, chili, curry powder, soy sauce, garlic, monosodium glutamate, and sriracha (1970's.  Recipes are included. "The American kitchen is not static; it's cumulative, and it evolves," Lohman concludes. "All it takes is a special event that creates an interest in a flavor." (p. 221-222) Linking up with  Oh Scrap!  Monday Making    Design Wall Monday One Monthly Goal