In the High Peaks
















Monday, December 26, 2011

Garnet Hill Lodge Week

My leisure plans are on hold while I fulfill a dream and help the new owners of Garnet Hill Lodge launch their resort.

A year ago, Garnet Hill Lodge, a beautiful cross-country skiing and mountain summertime resort, fell into terrible times--so terrible that I feared the lodge might remain vacant for many years. BUT! Wonderful news in early December! One of Ken's clients, who is a neighbor across the Kibby Creek wilderness behind us, won Garnet Hill at auction and, thank goodness, Garnet Hill moves forward!

I'm so happy that Don Preuniger and his partner Mindy Piper are the new owners. With the two of them at the helm, and Pat Connor by their side, they are all set to resurrect the wondrous beauty of Garnet Hill in North River, New York.

I'm beyond psyched. But a fly in the ointment. Only a few inches of snow at Christmas on the ground at the moment. Help! Please send snow!

On the 23rd of December, the day after I picked up my final exams, I sat on the couch and brainstormed how I could help them with the lack of snow situation. I phoned and offered them lots of guided nature excursions for their guests.

Yeah, I'm a naturalist nut, so I'm overwhelmingly busy this week until New Year's, guiding their guests in the wilderness. Cool!

But, all this discussion is to tell you I'm not reading this week.

Hopefully, after New Year's Day. Happy holidays to all!

Friday, December 16, 2011

Five Weeks and Two Days

Prepare the reading couch! My winter break is here. Naturally I'll have final exams to grade, but I'll wait until after Christmas for that. I'm hoping for snow and cold and more snow.

Right now I have a passionate ambition to be a recluse. I hope to indulge this desire for several days. Lovely!

I need lots and lots of time to sit and write and reflect. Late December is perfect for this activity. Dark afternoons, dark mornings, candlelight, a fire, warm dog by my feet, yum.

Books: I've been reading The Winter of the Lions by Jan Costin Wagner, a German crime novelist. This title is, I think, the third book in the series featuring Kimmo Joentaa, a Finnish police detective. Part of the problem I seem to be having with the book is that there aren't enough setting details so that I can fully picture the action. As a reader, I seem to need much, much more in the way of setting, so it's been slow going for me. I'd like to try another Wagner crime novel because his books are supposed to be so "atmospheric." I won't make a judgement on this author until I read another book.

At this moment I don't have any idea what I'd like to read next, although I am anxious to read Ian Frazier's book about traveling in Siberia.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

P.D. James? A New Book?

I'm mystified!

P.D. James has published a new book! I must admit I was flabberghasted when I heard the news and heard her interviewed on National Public Radio. Wow! James had said, after the publication of The Private Patient, that that was her final book.

Now I need to figure out all over again exactly how old she is. Her late eighties, to be sure. I will verify this fact eventually.

But I'm not sure I'm wowed over her choice of subject. She's continuing the lives of the Darcys from Pride and Prejudice, has given them two healthy boys, and boom(!), a murder is committed.

Well, of course I'll read it, but I have my reservations. How many "sequels" to Pride and Prejudice have there been? And I haven't been inspired to read any of them.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Guess What's New? I'm Reading!

Hope is in the air! First of all, I received a wonderful email, very early in the morning of a cold, dreary day. A college to the north of us has told me they're interested in me teaching a couple of courses in the Fall 2012 semester. That will help with our 2012 financial shortfall.

Secondly, I downloaded an inexpensive murder mystery onto my Nook, Deadmistress by Carole Schmurak,and am finally reading. Not just any old kind of reading, but loving reading. Blissful sigh! (Can you hear that in your neck of the planet?)

Deadmistress is no work of art, but it's a marvelous potboiler about the death of a headmistress at an exclusive boarding school. Such fun. Fun dialogue. No setting, really. But enough stuff to keep me happy turning the pages. All of this, thanks to Maxine of Petrona!

Two weeks of classes left, but, you know, I already feel more relaxed, like a hyperactive clock with batteries that are slowly running D-O-W-N.