Whew. March was one blustery month. Literally: the wind howled all month long, sometimes with a storm and rain to accompany the wind, sometimes just the wind. Thankfully we only had to chase down a few loose items that took flight, and dodged the worst of the weather. And it’s mostly warmed up now, although we had heavy frost last weekend and next week has potential too. Crazy weather, y’all, crazy. It was a good month for reading, and I am consistent this year: finishing 7 books each month so far! March has been the best overall reading month, as you’ll notice with the star-ratings down below, and I’m hopeful the trend will continue into April and beyond.
📖 The Elopement | Gill Hornby | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
📱 Murder at Rough Point | Alyssa Maxwell | ⭐⭐⭐⭐
📱 The Farmer’s Wife | Helen Rebanks | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🎧 The Matchmaker’s Gift | Lynda Cohen Loigman | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
📖 Three Bags Full | Leonie Swann | ⭐⭐⭐
📱 Daughter of Egypt | Marie Benedict | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🎧 This Story Might Save Your Life | Tiffany Crum | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Clearly I enjoyed my reading in March, and while the 3-stars for Three Bags Full looks much lower compared to everything else, it really wasn’t a bad read. The combination of a German author + the POVs of a dozen Irish sheep took some getting used to, especially in terms of pacing, but once I got into the story it was a cute read and I look forward to seeing the movie.
I’ve read my first mysteries for Cozy Mystery Bingo, although I’m still wavering between officially choosing Regular or Hard Mode. I’m keeping a spreadsheet with the prompts that each book fulfills, so I can get an idea of which card/level I gravitate toward.
It would also appear that I’m reentering my historical fiction and/or biographical fiction era, which is always an interesting time. The amount of books on my TBR is growing faster than I can read, but I am so excited about so many of them – I think it should be a good reading season.
Listening:
Mostly my audiobooks, but it’s been so windy I can’t hear when I’m outside so that slowed down the listening a lot. I’m hoping the wind calms down, since garden watering season is officially underway and flower-cutting is starting to increase. Fun fact: while cutting flowers, I have to listen to instrumental music only or my counting gets off. When you need a specific number of stems-per-bunch, counting is important. But if I’m deadheading, I can go back to my audiobook.
Watching:
With the Olympics fading into {glorious} memory, our attention can turn to other things on the screen. We’ve got a growing “To Watch” list, as Masterpiece has quite a few intriguing options on deck. It’s a busy season for Mr at work, so watching is limited, but we are starting to make progress.
- 📺 Bridgerton (Season 4) | Netflix
We waited to watch until the whole season dropped, and then made it our “weekend show” for the month. While I liked this season better than Season 3, nothing has come close to Season 2 so far. There were a lot of inconsistencies in this one, and I am so disgruntled at the way they are handling Francesca’s storyline. - 📺 What I Like About You (Season 1) | Netflix
I loved this show when it first aired on the WB, a million years ago it seems, and had recently been thinking about it again. Imagine my delight when I saw it available on Netflix! {When I looked before, it was only available to rent by the episode on Prime}.
On the Blog:
March sees the return of more balanced posting, with feasts and kitchen chatter mingling with the finished book blanket and garden work. Rounding out the variety with Women’s History book recommendations and a pictorial recap. It was a busy month, and as the temperatures rise and the growing things grow, “busy” will be the theme.
I’m looking forward to the return of Garden Tours and a Flower Farming update will be coming soon. Since the chickens have birthdays {Pecan, Pepper and Penguin’s is today!} in April, we may have to do a chicken update as well.
Another goal for April is to better keep up with the blogs I read! I felt scatterbrained during March and would find myself scrambling to play catch-up reading every 10 days or so, and I know I’ve missed some posts. If you’ve posted something I missed that you feel like sharing, please feel free to post it in the comments. And I want to share more of the awesome posts I find too!
How was March for you?
Did the weather play nice? Is Spring starting to arrive?
What was your favorite read?
What are you looking forward to in April?
