When You Just Can't Get That Jar or Bottle to Open

 I've never been big on promoting products, but last week I realized that something I bought about 18 months ago was a very satisfying purchase. It's nothing exciting or fancy. In fact, it's rather a dull item. I was reading a story on a review site, and the topic was jar openers. They declared that the Swiss-made Kuhn Rikon Gripper Jar Opener was hands-down the winner, but many of their reviewers thought that it might be too bulky. 

I wasn't worried about that. I have a drawer in the kitchen for odds and end items like that, and I really needed a product like that. There are certain containers where I struggle every time I open them. Admittedly, it's a bit expensive. I bought it from Amazon, but it can be purchased direct from the Kuhn Rikon site for a better price (not sure what shipping costs are there). 

For such a boring item, it's proven to be invaluable. I use it all the time, and it's never failed me yet. Here's a video (not mine) to show it in action.

I hope that someone finds this to be helpful.

Best Wishes,

Myrna

Why I Love to Plant Cosmos Flowers

I used to plant cosmos, the tall brilliant orange kind (below) along my driveway. They're very pretty, and they also come in a stunning pink and white variety. Unfortunately, they're also very tall and they kind of got in the way when driving in and out. So I eventually stopped planting those.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago. I had a bare patch of ground that I had never tried to grow anything on. It's at the end of some low shrubs and, because it's on the border of my property and the neighbor's, it's a convenient place for the mail carrier to cross over. Still, there was room at the end for something pretty. But...the ground had never been worked. It was hard and not very great soil. I could have spent time digging and adding compost, but the space wasn't large and I was lazy. So I bought some dwarf cosmos seeds (I didn't want them falling over into the neighbor's space), very lightly scraped the ground with a hand cultivator (probably one I bought at the dollar store or a garage sale since I don't use them much) and just scattered the seeds on the ground.

Then I sprinkled a bit of dirt on the top, watered lightly and left them alone. They germinated quickly and soon I had a nice little plot of flowers. Super simple and they require no care other than watering when it doesn't rain for awhile. They also bloom all summer long. Perfect!

Another nice thing about these flowers? They produce lots of seeds and they're super easy to gather. When a flower dies, wait a few days and you'll see brittle brown seeds at the end of the stem. Just pluck them, stash them in an envelope (or whatever) and you'll be ready to replant the next year and then some. I ended up with so many seeds that I was able to plant a row along a hedge in the back of my property in a strip of ground that was too full of roots to dig properly. Since no digging was necessary with the cosmos, I soon had a pretty row of bright flowers there, too.

I hope you have lots of wonderful flowers in your life.

Best Wishes,

Myrna

Replanting Late in the Season

Sigh. Every April I plant pansies in a whiskey barrel in front of my house. After the spring bulbs (I have mostly daffodils because the rabbits eat the tulips), pansies are my first pop of color and always make me smile. After I plant them, I feel as if summer is truly on the way. It's a good feeling.

But as summer moves along, the pansies become leggy and begin to die back with the warmer weather. They're definitely a cool weather flower. At that point I should pull them out and plant something else, but it's so difficult to pull out the few remaining flowers. It feels wrong. The solution, of course, would be to transfer those to a pot and move on with new flowers in the barrel. Ideally, that's what should happen.

Instead, this year I took care of my other plants and ignored the dying pansies until it was so late that they were mostly dead, the whiskey barrel was mostly bare dirt, and I couldn't find good substitutes at the garden center (I usually sub in vincas). Rather, I could find some zinnias, but they were too pricey, considering that summer is already waning a bit. So, I found a pot of marigolds on sale, brought them home and removed the whole bunch from the pot.

They looked something like this, only not quite as healthy (I forgot to take a photo).

Once out of the pot, I found that the bottom was a mass of intertwined delicate roots. Ugh! Carefully, I split the mass of flowers open, pulled them apart in chunks and replanted them in the barrel. I was nervous because of all the roots that ripped or even fell away. 

In the end, it worked...sort of. They don't completely fill the barrel, but the original pot was only ten dollars and I didn't want to go back for another one. This will do for the rest of the summer, and despite the torn roots, they're surviving. I'll chalk this up as a partial win, and next year I'll make the switch earlier.

Have a great day!

Myrna

It's August and the Dahlia Show is Beginning

Most years I plant dahlias. It started on a whim years ago, a chance encounter with tubers on sale at the local big box hardware store, but it's grown into much more. I order them months before planting time. I cage them in to protect them. I diligently monitor them and at the end of the summer, I dig them up and attempt to save them over the winter, so that I can repeat the whole thing the next summer. 

But at some point of every summer (usually in late July) I begin to question why I do this, because most dahlias take a long time to reach the bloom stage. After planting I fret until they emerge from the soil. Then for weeks I fret some more. Should I pinch them back so that they'll produce more buds? What's chewing on the leaves? Am I watering enough? Am I watering too much? Is that a slug on one of the leaves? Should I fertilize? Am I overfertilizing? Why is the plant so very tall and yet there are no blooms?

Because that's the thing about dahlias. They're really not difficult to grow, but they require patience. Lots of patience, because some of them bloom quite late.

And then...

Patches

They begin to bloom. One at a time, the flowers demonstrate the magic and beauty that is a dahlia.

Ova Joy

And I realize...oh yes, that's why I grow dahlias. Despite the long wait, they're like butterflies slowly emerging. Just beautiful.

I hope you have many flowers in your lives to brighten your days.  (If I remember, I'll update this post with photos as more flowers appear).

Best Wishes,

Myrna

 

Movies I've Watched Recently

 Besides reading (and reading and reading), we tend to watch a lot of movies. I confess that I only occasionally stream movies. For the most part, we watch Blu-rays or DVDs which we either get from the library or buy at library book sales or estate sales. 

When you watch that many movies, there are bound to be ones that don't appeal (at least to me. I'm sure the ones I don't care for may be someone else's favorites). But there are always some surprises, movies you thought might be just okay, but strike a chord. Two of the ones we watched recently fall into that category: The Holdovers, starring Paul Giamatti and American Fiction, starring Jeffrey Wright.

 

What makes a movie (or a book) work for me always comes down to character. If a movie is all action with little character development, I'm not interested. But both of these movies had wonderful actors and great character development. The fact that Paul Giamatti plays a teacher and Jeffrey Wright plays a writer might have played into my own personal preferences a bit, but even if I hadn't been a teacher and a writer, I could have related to these characters. These will both go into my "to watch again someday" stack.

Have a great day!

Myrna

What I'm Reading Now (and some cute puffins)

I've been reading Jenny Colgan's Little Beach Street Bakery series (I've read most of her series and loved them all--such great characters). I highly recommend them. They take place predominantly on an island, a seaside resort in Cornwall, connected to the mainland by a causeway that is only above water twice a day. Of course, there's romance and interesting neighbors, drama and--because Polly, the main character, is a baker--recipes.

There's also an adorable puffin, Neil, who plays a part. So here's a video of some other cute puffins (I recommend--as always--that you click on the full screen button).

I hope you find something you love to read as much as I enjoyed these books. Have a great day!

Myrna

Larkspur Adventures

For years I've had larkspur in my yard. I'm not sure where the flowers came from. They weren't here (at least not that I remember) when we moved in years ago, but along the way the wind or a bird must have carried some seeds our way, and there's always been a small patch with a few odd ones elsewhere here and there. 

They're supposed to be somewhat toxic to rabbits, and though we have a lot of rabbits, they never touched the larkspur, or so I thought. Then, two years ago, I saw a baby(ish) rabbit nibbling away, and he (she?) pretty much ate the entire main patch of flowers. 

I've tried growing them from seed, but without much luck even though I've chilled the seeds (they require stratification). So...I figured that was it for my larkspur summers. But then something happened. I grow (as mentioned here many times) dahlias, and I've usually just planted and staked them. My husband, however, suggested that with all the rabbits and squirrels, maybe we should enclose them (a good idea, since a squirrel lopped off the entire top of one I had in a pot). So, last year we did that. When the dahlias began to grow, I noticed that there were also a few straggling larkspur plants. 

Larkspur flowers reseed themselves, so those that were protected in the dahlia enclosure, safe from rabbit nibbling, had plenty of opportunities to spread their seeds unmolested. The result is that this year I actually had difficulty finding places to fit in the dahlias amidst the larkspur (they show their first hints of green earlier than a lot of other flowers). Now, the two types of flowers are sharing space, and it looks pretty nice. I'll have to take care not to let them take over the entire space, so I can still plant dahlias, but for this year, I'm very happy. (Oh, one more note: they've gotten very tall, much taller than they ever did in the past, so I'm wondering if the rabbits weren't munching on the tops of them all along and I just didn't see it happening). 

Now if I could just figure out what's gotten into my Cosmos patch. I'm guessing earwigs or snails, but I could be wrong. Another mystery to solve.

Have a wonderful day! 

Myrna

What I've Been Reading Lately (Sort of)

This is really more of a post about contemporary romance, something I rarely read (I know. That sounds a bit odd since it's what I write/have written). Back when I first started publishing, I tended to stay away from reading contemporaries because I didn't want to risk accidentally (subconsciously) absorbing something from a book I'd read and then somehow incorporate it into my own work. Plus, I like historical romance a lot and that, along with some odds and ends fantasy, science fiction, literary and nonfiction tends to be what I focus on the most.

But there are some awesome new (or newer) contemporary romance writers, and their work is part of what I've been reading lately. I just finished The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. This isn't the first book I've read by her and it won't be the last. She does a great job of world building (her books are set in the scientific community because the author works in that world) and the dialogue is sharp and snappy and funny. I highly recommend her.

Then there's Helen Hoang's The Kiss Quotient, the first in a 3-book series. The heroine of the book is on the autism spectrum, as is the author. She has said that she originally wanted to write a gender-swapped Pretty Woman, and that is a good description of where the book begins. I've read the two other books in the series and also loved both of those. 

Then there's Abby Jimenez. Her books tend to deal with serious subjects. The one I'm recommending today, Yours Truly, is actually book 2 in her Part of Your World, 3-book series. I've read all three, but for some reason, I read them out of order and this is the last one I got around to. The heroine is an ER doctor and her brother needs a kidney, badly. The hero, a new ER doctor at her hospital, suffers from severe anxiety, something which creates problems for him and doesn't always endear him to others. He's also the man who is going to get the promotion she wants, and he becomes her brother's donor (I'm not giving anything away. It's in the book description). Oh, and she's on the verge of finalizing her divorce after her husband cheated on her with her best friend. There's a lot going on here, but it all worked for me.

Lastly (for today) is Emily Henry's Funny Story. There's been a lot of buzz about her books, and two of them (I think) are being made into movies. The Goodreads description of this one is "A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common."

I've read most of her books (maybe all. I might have missed one), and enjoyed every one of them. The heroine initially get together in a unique and intriguing way. 

So those are the contemporary romances I've been reading lately. If you want to give them a try, there are a number of books available from each author.

Happy Reading!

Myrna

Why Would An Author Retitle Books? Here's My Story

For the first twentyish years I was writing and selling books, Harlequin was the publisher of all of my books. Then I moved on and started requesting that the rights to some of my books revert to me. I re-edited them, got new covers and republished them myself, but Harlequin and I had reached an agreement wherein they still retained the manga rights of some (not all) books, while I retained the English publishing rights. That meant when readers looked for the book under the original title, all they would see was the manga cover, so it looked as if the book was just a cartoon graphic novel. To find the other version, you had to click through. So, in the cases where Harlequin was/is still publishing a book in manga form, I've changed the titles, either slightly or completely. However, in the book description, I always note what the original title was. I hope that clears up any confusion and prevents people from accidentally buying a book of mine that they already own. 

Here are the pertinent books. If you click on the cover, it will take you to the Amazon version, although (of course) they are available at other booksellers, such as Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Smashwords, etc., or via the library (not sure about the manga versions, but I've enabled all of my republished books to be available in libraries). 

Then there are also the books that had originally been published one at a time (not as a series), but where the books and main characters were definitely related. The Wedding Auction, Wedding Auction 2, Secrets, and Sloane's Cove Twins books all meet that criteria. In those cases, the only change to the title was that I put the series name first to show that they were linked. The remainder of the titles (after the colon) are the same as the originals, except for Secrets: The Rebel's Return, which was originally titled The Scandalous Return of Jake Walker.

Lastly, there are two books where...well, I just disliked the original title (The Daddy List and Morning Beauty, Midnight Beast) so much that I decided to change them. Here they are below with the new titles (and most recent covers) and as they were originally published. Of course, the originals are still available as used paperbacks in various places on the internet.

So, those are the many reasons for my book title changes and, hopefully, as mentioned above, a way to clear up any confusion and make sure that no one accidentally buys the same book twice.

Have a wonderful day!

Myrna

Cicada Chorus

Since I posted the other day, the cicadas have multiplied. When I go out to pick up the newspaper every morning, my clematis plants are covered in them. And apparently they really like one of the lilacs.

More than a few have ended up inside the house. I have to check my clothes when I come inside, because they 've been known to hitch rides (or even crawl under an article of clothing). Yikes!

Weirdly enough, we visited an arboretum about a half hour from our house and there were far fewer cicadas there, despite all the trees.

It's all very interesting, and I'm glad they're having their fun in the sun (and their chance to live above ground), but I won't be sad when they're back underground and I can garden without having them fly in my face (they apparently set their sits on anything that's vertical).

Have a great day!

Myrna