Rain Drops Keep Falling on North Wales

Simon and I were in north Wales last week, intending to get in two days of hiking. How silly! Don't we know that it rains A LOT in north Wales? We did, though, manage to get in one lovely but soggy hike.

This is not a stream. It's the trail.

The trail crossed this bridge.
And that's not a dry, grassy field.
It was a swamp the day we were there.

We passed this ancient burial chamber.

And then we cautiously passed this horse,
who didn't seem to mind our being on its trail.

Books Read in August

Pearl, Matthew: The Poe Shadow
Oats, Joyce Carol: American Appetites
Kessel, John: Good News from Outer Space
Atwood, Margaret: The Robber Bride
Taylor, G.P.: Shadowmancer

Shadowmancer stinks on ice! Taylor has been compared to J.K. Rowling and C.S. Lewis. Well, I hope Lewis' ghost is haunting this writer for churning out such a heavy-handed, didactic load of nonsense.

The novels by Oats, Kessel, and Atwood are all excellent. Pearl's The Poe Shadow, though, is a bit of a dud. If I wanted to read about obsessive characters in 19th century American, then I would read Poe -- not someone writing a la Poe.

Coming soon . . . snaps from our trip to north Wales and England!