Not new but I like it.

 

The young man who mows my lawn came by today to say we might as well go back to twice a month.  In spite of water and fertilizer nothing is growing but some weeds.  The smoke has left us in a half light for weeks now.  Good for my budget not so good for his.  It has produced some early fall colors.  Tomorrow I think I will drive up into the hills to the south and see if I can get some pictures.

 

I just finished reading the most recent translation of the Wallender mystery novels, "The Troubled Man."  It was good if dark but then Mankell's mysteries are always on the dark side as is Wallender himself.  The author made it the last one for the protagonist who is aging, has diabetes, and is dealing with the beginnings of dementia.  So it's a mystery, wrapped in the issues of aging.  I sent it to a friend of mine to add to her collection of Wallender books.  I will miss them but I intend to visit some of Henning Mankell's other works.

 

Today from Amazon, I got two copies of "Scared Sick: The Role of Childhood Trauma in Adult Disease."  It's subject that has interested me for some time.  I'm sending one to my sister.  My family history is rife with traumatic early childhoods.  My paternal grandfather was virtually orphaned at 4 or 5, with his slightly older brother.  Their mother died, their father left, and they raised themselves on the streets of London.  They became sailors, Grandpa's brother having been conscripted into the British Navy at 14, Grandpa on a merchant vessel at 12, and made to this country in their early teens.  They jumped ship off their different vessels and stayed here.  My maternal grandmother and her sister, as toddlers, ended up in an orphanage several states away from their large and poor family.   Now we have several adopted as well as (hopefully) soon to be adopted foster children in our family.  I say hopefully as the foster to adopt process is a long and stressful one.  One child is only 16 months old and was mistreated by someone along the way.  This baby startles easily and even after many months of a stable home with many loving people still doesn't sleep well, waking several times a night, not for long, but you have to wonder what is circulating in this tiny person.  So tonight I am going to a Dr. Foster Cline Love and Logic seminar about "Parenting all children and parenting children who struggle with illness or challenging behaviors."  Sometimes it takes more than love to raise healthy kids.