Here is a link to probably the best artist site I have found, and within which your coloered pencil fever will find sustenance.
Fueled by Clouds and Coffee featuring Urban Sketching, and illustrated with Seattle neighborhoods including the area where I enjjoyed such good baked goods and coffee at Cloud City Coffee, in Maple Leaf, Seattle. Happy times.
My favorite places to eat are Asian restaurants, of which there are many, including Yummy Pho!! Love the food and the atmosphere. 
This one has interesting fans as well, and is a rather hipster place, with great food, nice people and fantastic baked goods!! 
Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as a bunch of self-published on AMAZON novels that aren't bad. You really have to be careful in the area of the self-published stuff, so very many are just drek. I have read the worst book a few times, but try to stay away from anything that has bad reviews with which I can relate. So far the best self-published stuff I have come across is the light series of Folly Beach mysteries by Bill Noel, the Roman era series by Robert Colton, and a few others. If I feel inclined I might do a book review occasionally of one or more of these books. If I mention them I recommend them, be sure of that. I don't write negative reviews. I try to write positive reviews and if the book has any merit at all I do that. If it does not I skip writing. The art of crafting a novel or any book at all is difficult. The problem with self-publishing is that lots of people do it with little or no concern for the element of talent. All those editors at publishing houses that spend time reading books submitted by hopefuls have my utmost sympathy.
Having returned from a trip to Seattle and Kirkland, I have to say that I thank God for the quick tickets on Delta Airlines.
had us on the plane within 5 hours of an early morning phone call. That was in March. Things are going well now, and that lets me write a bit more about Kirkland and Seattle. First, kudos to the staff of Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland. A wonderful staff, hospitalists, nurses, therapists and every one of the ancillary staff were helpful, professional and proactive in the best sense of those words.
I like it out there. The number of used bookshops is incredible, the verdure is awesome, the air is crisp except when it's so full of moisture you feel like you need gills, and all in all it's a great place to be.
The family lives in the Saint Edward State Park area, and the drive up is scenic indeed, with drop offs to Lake Washington providing idyllic views. There's also a good Mexican eatery right on Juanita Drive, small but really tasty!
. Getting around is getting easier, and this time I actually knew where I was at several points driving around. One very important discovery was that Trader Joe's is a block downhill from Evergreen Hospital, which came in handy. I love Trader Joe's and wouldn't have been able to discover that unless I had been to Seattle! Although they headquarter in MA, there is no store here in Vermont. There should be, and I wrote and told them so. The second nice store I must mention is Hancock Fabrics. Again, no store here in that corporate line. Now, lest you think I am all about retail, let me sing the beauties of Juanita Bay Park, Saint Edwards Park, and just the scenery on a good day in Kirkland. Cloud City Coffee appears in these photos, again, a great place to sit and surf or just sit and enjoy, and with all the rainy days, getting out to coffee is one of the main passtimes both in Seattle and Vermont as well! In between visiting Washington, I plan my next trip out. I've never been there in the Fall, so maybe that is the next step.
I finished The Yiddish Policeman's Union over the long weekend. I started it a few days before the weekend, and I attempted to make it last longer, but it just would not. It captured me and tunneled me through that oddest of looking glasses and into a parallel universe of Jewish Sitka just before reversion. I lived in Okinawa just previous to that island's reversion to Japan, and there is indeed a surrealistic component to the temporary state of mind in a place which is neither one nor the other quite yet. In Sitka, the reversion has its upheaval religiously and socially, no one knows their fate. To be tossed out ignominiously into a cold world is nothing new to Jewish life, but the population had ignored the 60 year inability to make the Jewish state in Alaska permanent, and was confused and depressed about the coming abyss. Into this Meyer Landsman falls over a body in his flophouse of a cheap hotel whose identity and fate become an obsession for the policeman. Meyer has his own problems - an ex-wife he loves, a friend he counts on, and assorted characters who come and go through Chabon's brilliant world. His fascination with the chess pieces of the dead man's life becomes an unfolding story of a miraculous life, a Holy Man who found the modern world and its convoluted motives too much. I can't say any more because as usual, Michael Chabon has written a completely original novel which has to be read. Any fluid language of bookish critique would be exceedingly superfluous. Do I need to add that I think Chabon the most brilliant writer on the scene? I missed his book signing in Seattle last year by one day, and I still rue that I didn't change that plane ticket...
I finally finished the entry on Seattle from last July! I had pictures to add, and I must say that the picture coding here on blogger is confusing. After many trials, I have the text wrapping well, but the pictures aren't in the order I had envisioned. Here's the link to Seattle entries. I once again found I couldn't stop myself from starting a Ludlum book. This time it's The Aquitaine Progression. In eReader, my new updated version for Windows of eReaderpro, I am reading Prester John, a dated novel by John Buchan. While a swashbuckling adventure, it does illustrate the colonial prejudices common in its time. I love his writing, and have previously read several of his novels set in and around WWI. The new version of eReadPro has a handy bookshelf feature which the software badly needed. I have no idea why it was so long in coming. The Mac version doesn't have it so far. Soon?
