Bookmarked: March

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?

3 comments

  1. Its been windy over here too and its generally came with such an icy feel to it that its not been as warm outside as it looked. So yesterday completely threw me by being in the 20s and actually feeling it too. I knew it was going to be warm and used sun cream yet I still got slightly burnt 🙈

    What a wonderful reading month. Its always lovely seeing lots of high star ratings in a wrap up 🥰 Im pretty sure I have some Marie Benedict books on my unowned TBR 🤔 and I’ll have to look up The Matchmakers Gift as the cover paired with that rating has definitely intrigued me.

    Omg I was flicking through IMDB yesterday and saw the trailer for The Sheep Detectives movie, I didn’t make the connection to your read until you said though. I’m oddly intrigued by it as it was giving me Knives Out vibes but with a lot of animals 😂

    Im glad you got to find a show you’d been craving a rewatch of. It’s always frustrating when there’s one you long to watch again but struggle to find.

    Good luck with your catch up plans too. I have a review to write this morning, then a buddy read to catch up with but after that I’m hoping to make a major dent in my own catch up plans 🤞 although my determination not to let it take over again means I’ll be doing the rest gradually for an hour or two a day after a larger stretch of time devoted to it today.

    I hope you have a wonderful April and happy birthday to Pecan, Pepper and Penquin 🥰🥰

    Liked by 1 person

    • I got a strip of sunburn on my lower back cutting pansies, where my shirt slid up a little bit, and I was utterly shocked! It’s too early for that 😂

      I hope you enjoy the Matchmaker’s Gift if you pick it up – it’s a slow-paced, kind of quiet story with a lovely magical realism thread. Plus the cover is absolutely gorgeous.

      I hope we’re both able to stay better caught up! 🤞 And read all the good books with good adventures in April! ❤

      Liked by 1 person

      • Definitely weird weather all around. Now the wind chill is back here 😂 hope the sunburn not too bad.

        Thank you 🥰 the magical realism sounds intrigued and I do enjoy a slow paced read sometimes. Generally fantasy where the worldbuilding is rich but we’ll see.

        Here’s hoping 🤞

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