More books; fire in N. CA

Reader Beth Murray left a comment on my post about books I'm currently reading. She mentioned she liked the author Nevada Barr, and especially her novels that take place in the National Parks. I have seen Nevada Barr on library shelves but for some reason I've never read one of her books. So I found her website and got a list of books that feature the national parks. Firestorm is one, and it takes place at Lassen Volcanic NP, which as you know is where I was a camp host in 2009. Coincidentally, there were fires in and around the Butte Lake campground that year, and I worked hard to help evacuate the campground, as well as to accommodate the numerous fire fighting companies that came from all over California.

I looked on Amazon and found Firestorm, used, for $.01, so of course I ordered it. The shipping is $3.99 so my grand total for this book is $4.00. I definitely want to read it and hope I find some parallels with my experience in 2009. That's an outrageous amount to pay for shipping one paperback book, but I think I will want to keep the book rather than return it to a library so I will just pay the four bucks!

As I was glancing through the Sunday paper this morning I see that a fire caused by lightning is burning in the vicinity of Manton to Shingletown, which is my shortcut when driving to Lassen from Sac. I cut over from Red Bluff and then take the beautiful and usually isolated back roads to Shingletown where I meet up with the highway to Lassen. I hope they can contain it before it gets to the Park.

I was up early this morning to get to the farmer's market before the crowds arrived, as well as before the music started. I did well on both counts, and was soon on my way back home. I bought some organic strawberries that are gorgeous! The peaches looked good too, but they are just too darned sloppy for me to bother with. Now if Billy Bob would come up with a recipe for a cake using fresh peaches I could get some next week!

My granddaughter has enjoyed Italy, including Venice, Tuscany, a beach somewhere on the Italian Riviera, and Rome. Right now she's in Barcelona which she likes, but didn't care for Madrid. She will be returning to Germany soon and travel in the south of that country before returning home. I think she will love Munich, although my favorite has always been Nurenburg.

Well, I'm going to try to work the NY Times Sunday crossword puzzle while it's still cool enough to sit outside in good light. I'll get it started at least, and then turn it over to my daughter to finish.