From highly supernatural to a taste of the unusual and the witchy… Romeow and Juliet by Kathi Daley is the first in the “A Whales and Tails Mystery”. Aptly named for the central family’s connection to both whales (a brother runs a whale watching company) and tails (cats, cats and more cats). 

Straddling the line between a devote and conservative Irish Catholic family and friends who embody alternative Caitlin is a single girl on a mission. Running a cat sanctuary with her independent Aunt Maggie, trying to start a business with her best friend Tara (Coffee Cat Books… now there is a great idea – cats, coffee and books), and spending plenty of time with her quirky friends who include:

two witches, hippie neighbors, and a cat who apparently has some sort of magical powers. 

I have only one minor beef with this book. I was somewhat overwhelmed with the sheer number of characters introduced in passing at the very beginning of the book. This does illustrate successfully what a large family (diverse as well) Caitlin comes from and has you taking peeks at a number of the eccentric neighbors, but I found it a bit daunting and my fingers itched for a spread sheet to write everyone out… just a little.

Once you get past the first chapter the characters quickly flesh out and start standing out. I especially enjoy the undercurrent of kitty romance between the stray Romeo who has adopted Caitlin and her neighbor Francine’s (used to be friend of Aunt Maggie now main competition for the city council spot) pedigree kitty Juliet. 

Such a busy lady has little time for murder… until she walks in on a corpse and feels the need to figure out what happened. Enter TWO potential love interests – her first (and brother’s best friend) who ran off years ago to join the Navy and the bank manager (sexy, good with cats). There are multiple mysteries to solve, and only one is solved in this volume. The BIG mystery but there is a niggling little one that leads you into a definite wish for the next book! you really don’t feel a lacking in the ending, just an interest in continuing on to the next book in the series. Well played Kathi Daley… well played.

OH make sure you go to the end of the book… there are RECIPES!

‘A rather timely cozy murder mystery as we have experienced our first canning this year with produce fresh from the garden. Mary Ellen Hughes’ The Pickled Piper is the first book in “A Pickled & Preserved Mystery” series. The main character in this story is Piper who owns her own pickle store. After breaking up with her fiance who has up and decided to travel the world himself, Piper moved to Cloverdale to follow her dream and live near her Aunt Judy and Uncle Frank.

The story begins with the start of the Cloverdale Fair where Piper has her own pickle stand complete with a giant barrel of homemade pickles. Everything seems to be going well until the following morning when Piper finds a local antique store owner dead… in her pickle barrel! With a cast of interesting small town people, some store owners, others friends this book has a wonderful flow to it.

Piper is a strong character with an interesting history. With a handsome Christmas tree farmer visiting occasionally and a murderer on the loose Piper balances pickling things (and suggesting some yummy and unusual items to do so with) with running her business and working to clear the name of her employee’s boyfriend. Nate, a newcomer to the town is a musician who had a run in with the deceased in the middle of the fair is only one of many who did not get along with the rather aggressive man.

This is a great light read. The romance is light, the mystery interesting and the main character a delight. To top it off, included in the back are two pickling recipes and some pickling tips! I would definitely suggest this first in a new series for any lover of cozy mysteries! I look forward to the next book!

Thursdays are always a little hectic since Ken has his weekly “game night” with just the guys. This means our evening has to be cut short so that we can squeeze in dinner, baths and the like before everyone gets here. Today is even more rushed as Ken had to run out to Walmart to get some things from the weekly sale that ends tonight. My photos from yesterday’s sale were NOT there… oddly enough no record of them though I have BOTH my emails. Oh well, gives Ken something to do tomorrow.

Homeschooling went relatively well today… we did the letter K which was a huge hit just because it mentioned kangaroos and kittens (starfall had cute bits for each). We used buttons to decorate the capital K’s and glue tails on kites. I really need to get my hands on some kites, I am relatively sure where my little fabric one is stashed and the boys have never flown one, maybe next week we will get some favourable kite flying weather and go find a park and have at it.

K is for Kite

Of course there was more painting of puzzle pieces. Emanuel wanted black so of course black paint ended up all over! Brown is officially empty and red looks rather pink to me. We will see how it looks after we put them on the frames tomorrow. All I can say is thank goodness the paint is WATER based. I really need to hunt down MORE things we can make with puzzle pieces as well as some green spray paint and some more brown paint so we can get together our kits to make Christmas trees!

We read one more story today – I skipped up to the number 7 in the series as 6 wanted you to figure out what word endings should be added into the sentences and the boys are simply not ready for that. There still is not a lot of interest in these stories so I am hoping after the weekend to move onto the BOB series or the Hooked on Phonics books we were given and see if we have better results. Trial and error!

Story of the Day

I sent the boys out for some bike riding in the morning – well bikes and scooters. First Gavin game in with a skinned knee from falling off his bike – he was peddling too quickly. Small band-aid and he was ok.

Gavin's Band-aid

Then in came Emanuel in total tears from falling off his scooter – this one I am a little suspicious of. I am thinking maybe someone on a bike “nudged” the slower moving scooter and caused the crash. Either way the back of his leg was rather scuffed though he wanted me to  take a picture of the band-aid to go on the computer – so he could show Grandma Anna (hope she reads this lol). Thankfully that marked lunch time anyway.

Emanuel's Band-Aid (and Big Boy Undies!)

Ken and I had a special lunch to celebrate his increased good health (less AND shorter naps no less!) and his enjoyment of the job! Donairs and slurpee talk about yum! And relatively affordable as the place in the nearest mall has their donairs at 5.50 a piece!

Nom Nom Nom

I asked for help with my math search on my egroups and have gotten a deluge of info to go through. We did cut up some cardstock and get some math cards made – matching number with number of objects. The stickers were from Nathan and Ada’s wedding – Nathan’s mom sent home the left over craft supplies that the kids had to play with and they were the perfect size!

Number Game Cards

I plan to spend the weekend going through the free lapbooks and get something together we can start when we get a little further along in the alphabet. My mom says she has file folders and coloured printer paper we can have so that is a load off my mind! Add that to the 5.00 I got from doing a survey in the mail today and I am able to get some more fun stuff for the kids to use while we learn! Sadly Ken was not able to find the game in the series we played last week. I hope to be able to look myself once we get this photo mess cleared up.

The boys and I got in a game of Candyland tonight too, though Trinity was quick to try and steal the pieces and grab the cards. It was fun and we all made it to the Fiesta!

Dora Candyland! (Gavin red)

Stitching wise I have been working on the first of 3 little monsters for the boys for Christmas. I think I would have finished it tonight if not for the counting error I made. It is a UK pattern so the half stitches are not crisp like I would like so I am altering it slightly. I am not sure how I am going to finish these but they suggest putting them on little books. I also have to glue on googly eyes but I don’t want to do that until I am ready to finish them.

Little Monster

I am on the look out for whole wheat recipes now. I have half a barrel of the stuff and Ken is not fond of the taste. The best advice to date is to half it with my oatmeal applesauce cookies. So I am going to try that for the Sunday School batch. Tonight I made apple muffins, tomorrow the cookies and then the weekend off to mom’s. As it is I think we have one batch of applesauce left up the tree, sort of sad since next year we are pretty sure we WON’T be at this rental. So I will have to keep an ear open for people who have apples to get rid of! And watch for sales in stores.

So Ken has put up my donation button to go with the free patterns and possible commissions. Hopefully by tonight my Chemist themed stitch will be up on the site as well! I am getting rather excited about getting all of these patterns up! Feels so accomplished!

So tomorrow we prep to spend Saturday with Grandma… always seems like we need to take a van full for just one day. Changes of clothes, diapers, wipes, snacks for Trinity… the list goes on and on. It will be nice to get out of the city though and spend some time as a family out in the open.

Cutie Patootie