BW13: Two Look at Two by Robert Frost

Deer Creek by Dona Gelsinger

Two Look At Two 

 by 

Robert Frost

Love and forgetting might have carried them 

A little further up the mountain side 

With night so near, but not much further up. 

They must have halted soon in any case 

With thoughts of a path back, how rough it was 

With rock and washout, and unsafe in darkness; 

When they were halted by a tumbled wall 

With barbed-wire binding. They stood facing this, 

Spending what onward impulse they still had 

In One last look the way they must not go, 

On up the failing path, where, if a stone 

Or earthslide moved at night, it moved itself; 

No footstep moved it. 'This is all,' they sighed, 

Good-night to woods.' But not so; there was more. 

A doe from round a spruce stood looking at them 

Across the wall, as near the wall as they. 

She saw them in their field, they her in hers. 

The difficulty of seeing what stood still, 

Like some up-ended boulder split in two, 

Was in her clouded eyes; they saw no fear there. 

She seemed to think that two thus they were safe. 

Then, as if they were something that, though strange, 

She could not trouble her mind with too long, 

She sighed and passed unscared along the wall. 

'This, then, is all. What more is there to ask?' 

But no, not yet. A snort to bid them wait. 

A buck from round the spruce stood looking at them 

Across the wall as near the wall as they. 

This was an antlered buck of lusty nostril, 

Not the same doe come back into her place. 

He viewed them quizzically with jerks of head, 

As if to ask, 'Why don't you make some motion? 

Or give some sign of life? Because you can't. 

I doubt if you're as living as you look." 

Thus till he had them almost feeling dared 

To stretch a proffering hand -- and a spell-breaking. 

Then he too passed unscared along the wall. 

Two had seen two, whichever side you spoke from. 

'This must be all.' It was all. Still they stood, 

A great wave from it going over them, 

As if the earth in one unlooked-for favour 

Had made them certain earth returned their love. 

*****************************************************

For all our Brit Trippers, keep following Ermine Street to York. We end the first leg of our trip in historic wonderful York! Famous for its walls, Roman history, Viking history, and War of the Roses. 

Rabbit trails: A Walk Through York  Other York Attractions  Sculptures at Harrogate

******************************************************

Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading.   Every week I will put up  Mr. Linky which will close at the end of each book week.  No matter what book you are reading or reviewing at the time, whether it be # 1 or # 5 or so on, link to the current week's post.

BW12: March Equinox

Bluebells and Wild Garlic in Blarney - Courtesy of Vagabond Tours of Ireland

The March equinox is upon us and Spring is in the air in the Northern Hemisphere and Autumn in the Southern half of the world. I'm feeling a bit flighty this week so I have a mini challenge for you.  

Read a book with any of the following:

1) AIR in the title
2) Something AIR like in the title - Wind, breeze, Sky, etc. 
3) Something in the Air on the cover - Plane, clouds, birds, etc.
4) Subject contains something to do with Air - Man versus nature
5) Character has a job in the Air - Pilot, trapeze artist. etc. 
6) Read three books and spell out AIR
7) Contains Air within a word in the Title of the Book - stair, affair, millionaire, etc. 
8) Unscramble Air - Ria, Ira, Ari - and read a book with that word in the title or by an author with that name.
9) Substitute another word for air that relates to the March Equinox and choose any of the above. 
10) Choose any word relating to the March Equinox including Equinox, Hemisphere, Vernal, Autumn, flowers, etc and plug it into the Word unscrambler. Choose any 4 letter word and read a book with that word in the title. 

Use your imagination and have fun following rabbit trails of flight. 

Given angel's wings, where might you fly?

In what sweet heaven might you find your love?

Unwilling to be bound, where might you move,

Lost between the wonder and the why?...

~Nicholas Gordon, poemsforfree.com

*****************************

For all our Brit Trippers, keep following Ermine Street and travel East and West Riding of Yorkshire. Yorkshire is one of the largest areas in England and well … this will explain how it’s divided up better than we could!

Rabbit trails: Haunted Brodsworth Hall  Coinisbrough Castle  Cleveland Way  Bird Watching  Scarborough  More Robin Hood! Whitby Bronte Waterfall  Fossils

***********************

Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading.   Every week I will put up  Mr. Linky which will close at the end of each book week.  No matter what book you are reading or reviewing at the time, whether it be # 1 or # 5 or so on, link to the current week's post.

BW11: Maeve Binchy and John Connolly

Our author choices of the month are the literary novelist Maeve Binchy and crime fiction author John Connolly.  

Maeve Binchy was born May 28, 1940 in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Ireland.  She became a French language teacher and worked in a Jewish school. She was gifted with a trip to Israel and since she didn't have much money, went to work in a Kibbutz. She would send long rambling entertaining letters home to her parents which were so good, they sold them to the newspapers. Her writing career was born. She started working for the Irish Times in 1968 and My First Book, a compilation of the letters was published in 1970.  She wrote two short stories, Central Line in 1978 and Victoria Line in 1980. Her debut novel Light a Penny Candle was published in 1982.  She went on to publish 16 novels, various short stories, nonfiction and plays as well as write dramas for radio and television.  She passed away at the age of 73 in 2012.  Her very last novel, A Week in Winter was published after her death.  Chestnut Street, a collection of unpublished short stories she'd written during her life, was published in 2014. 

Find out more about Maeve Binchy with Piers Dudgeon interview,  Remembering Maeve Binchy, and Bookpages:  Maeve Binchy: finding the heroes among ordinary people.

*************************************

Courtesy of TLC Books

John Connolly was born in Dublin in 1968.  After graduating from Dublin City University with an Masters in Journalism, he became a freelance journalist for the Irish Times.  He began writing his first crime fiction novel and introduced Charlie Parker to the world with Every Dead Thing in 1999 and he was awarded the Shamus Award for Best First Private Eye Novel in 2000.  He's written 17 books in the Charlie Parker series as well as other series - Chronicles of the Invaders with author Jennifer Ridyard,  Samuel Johnson, and standalone books including The Book of Lost Things.   His latest novel in Charlie Parker detective series, The Woman in the Woods will be released April 5th in the U.K and June 12th in the United States.  

Find out more about John Connolly through A Q & A with John Connolly, a Guide to Charlie Parker,  Talks to Ginger Nuts of Horror and TLC Books interview with John.  

Be sure to check out both Maeve Binchy and John Connolly soon! 

******************************************

For all our Brit Trippers, this week we'll be travelling through Nottinghamshire which is the famous home of everyone’s favorite outlaw and an interesting connection to the Pilgrim fathers.

Rabbit trails: King John’s Palace   More On King John’s Palace  More Robin Hood   Creswell Crags Mr. Straw’s House

******************************************

Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading.   Every week I will put up  Mr. Linky which will close at the end of each book week.  No matter what book you are reading or reviewing at the time, whether it be # 1 or # 5 or so on, link to the current week's post.

BW10: March footpaths from Dublin to Dorsey

Oscar Wilde - Courtesy of  Sandro Schachner

Time to bid February adieu as we say Dia Dhuit to March. Are you ready to walk in the footsteps of  Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Frank McCourt, and Maeve Binchy?  We're going to follow the footpaths from Dublin to Dorsey, exploring both classic and contemporary authors from Ireland. We have much to celebrate this month including Women's History Month,  Irish American Heritage Month, St. Patrick's Festival, plus International French Language Day,  Forests,  Nowruz Day, World Poetry Day as well as the March Equinox.  

Our author choices of the month are Maeve Binchy and John Connolly who I'll talk about more next week.  Meanwhile, let's take a book tour with Ireland by the Book, Blue Book's Literary Tour, or Culture Trip's Literary Tour of Dublin with Yeats, Joyce and Swift. Learn more about Irish authors through Irish Central's Irish Authors and Writers You Should Know, or Twenty Irish Novels You Should Read Before You Die.  Also check out Goodread's Best Fiction Set in Ireland as well as Popular Irish Mystery Books. 

Our Blossomology challenge takes us back to Ireland's ancient Druids.  Our flower of the month is a three leaf clover plant commonly called a Shamrock. Not to be confused with the rare four leaf clover.  The Shamrock comes from the gaelic word seamróg which means little clover.  The shamrock is the unofficial national flower of Ireland.  Three was an important number to the druids who considered the plant to be sacred.  St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland used the three leaves to explain the Holy trinity.  It became a symbol of rebellion when it was adopted as the emblem for the 1777 Irish Volunteers. The Nationalist's movement in the 19th century used the shamrock and harp as one of their emblems.   

There are a number of directions to go with this challenge. You may choose to spell out the Shamrock or Clover.  Read one book per letter using either the title and/or the first or last name of the author.  Yes, you can mix it up.  You may read a book with the name of the flower, color of the flower in the title, or on the cover.  Another possibility is a book which takes place in the time period or flower's country of origin or has some cultural significance and/or symbolism of the flower.  The choices are unlimited.  

For all our Brit Trippers, whether you are on the Detective or Rebel bus or hanging out with Bertram Wooster, this week we’ll be traveling through Northamptonshire and Rutland, the English counties where George Washington’s ancestors immigrated from. More important it’s the location of Princess Diana’s childhood home.   

Rabbit trails: Peterborough Cathedral

Have fun following rabbit trails and see where it takes you. 

*******************************************************************

Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading.   Every week I will put up  Mr. Linky which will close at the end of each book week.  No matter what book you are reading or reviewing at the time, whether it be # 1 or # 5 or so on, link to the current week's post.