A book, some fiber (the wool kind) and some other fiber (the veggie kind)

Oh. My. Gosh.  This book was SO. GOOD.



I literally could not put it down.  I stayed up really late reading it, then woke up really early thinking about it so I had to pick it up and keep reading.   I heard about this book on the Books on the Nightstand podcast.  It was one of the hosts most recent reads.  He was right in saying that you shouldn't read this book unless you have someone to talk to about it (meaning that they have read it too). So, when you read it, feel free to talk to me about it.  I'm waiting for my mom to finish reading it because she's the only other person I know reading it right now!

Here is the Amazon description of the book:
"Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.

Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. Andy must. He’s his father. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own—between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.

Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis—a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control."

Seriously.  Read it.  Then call me!  Or email me!  Or write something in the comments section!

In Fibery News:
When I haven't been trying to catch up on the sleep I lost reading that book, I've been doing a lot of spinning on my spinning wheel. (Notice I didn't say "Knitting News" - I haven't been knitting for several days!)  I'm working on spinning 8 ounces of merino roving.

It starts with this:

Ok, it really starts with a sheep.  But I'm not even going there.  At this point, I have no interest in shearing a sheep, cleaning the fleece, carding/combing it, and dyeing it.  I'll just buy it ready-to-spin thank you very much.

Then I do this:

and this:

to get this:

This picture most accurately represents the color!

Then I will spin another bobbin-full and then spin them together to make a 2 ply yarn.  Results upcoming.

In Gardening News:
The beans rallied after I talked to them about their poor performance and weeded out some of the bad influences (2 plants seemed to just up and stop growing and turn yellow, so I pulled them out!)

The pumpkins are out of hand (just as my friend Yvette told me they would be!):

I can't believe only 3 seeds did all this.

They are growing up on the sides of the fencing:

I had to do some hacking away on the inside of the fence since the huge leaves were covering up my zucchini and my tomatoes.  I'm sure I'll get a thank you note from the bunnies for the pumpkins that are growing outside the fence.

Speaking of zucchini and beans, my first pickings:

I got one more zucchini after this and made zucchini bread!:

It was yummy, but a teeny bit under done in the middle (see how it's kind of sinking in the middle on the top?).  I'm super vigilant about not having dry bread/cake/cookies etc, so I always start checking for done-ness way before the recipe calls for it to be done.  I used a toothpick, but aparently not in enough places.  We're eating around that part.  I got my recipe from the Smitten Kitchen blog here:  Zucchini Bread  LOVE her blog, by the way.  Lots of yummy stuff and great writing.

And the tomatoes are going to be plentiful:

Can you see all those yellow flowers?????

So, then, because I was all in the mood for zucchini and didn't have any more to pick, I bought some at the grocery store to make this Stacked Summer Vegetable Salad: (click there for the recipe)

AND I found a recipe for Grilled Beer Brined Chicken (click there for the recipe) that I tried.  Here is the chicken in the beer (Bass Ale), water, salt and sugar brine:

And the grilled result:

It was YUMMY!  Nice and moist and flavorful.  It didn't taste like beer.  There is a rub you put on it after brining and before grilling which gave it the flavor.

And here's Phoebe (taken while Paul was taking pictures of me spinning):