April arrives with some lovely blooms...

Hello everyone!  Hope you are all well and that spring has come to your area.  Hope you're getting to see some blooms.  I have a couple of pictures from my morning walks to share.  Spring is finally here!  The picture above is actually from my brother-in-law's yard in the Austin area.  And, yes, those are bluebonnets.  He cultivates them every year and they were gorgeous.  We travelled to Austin last weekend and saw lots of them along the roadsides.  Not too many in our new town of Kerrville, but I'm still hopeful.  Fredericksburg and Johnson City had loads of bluebonnets.  I say 'thank you' every year to Lady Bird Johnson for making roadside wildflower seeding a 'thing' in Central Texas and indeed all over Texas.  

I had to take a quick shot of this redbud tree that is blooming right outside the Kerrville History Center.  Very cheerful and I've always loved these trees.  I was heading inside that building to attend the 'Talking Texas' Book Group.  I told the group members that I took a picture and several jumped up, headed out, and took their own pictures.  Ha! 

We've begun some of our renovations at our new-to-us house and we're glad of that.  Other things have kept us busy, but I've been around reading your blogs even if I haven't commented too much.  I've attended a couple of book groups since I last posted and enjoyed discussions there.  March had a 5th Thursday, so that was a 'day off' of book group attendance.  I'm busy reading a couple of the books that will be discussed in April and I've managed to read a few new books as well.  

My reading list is below and I enjoyed all of them.

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James - I liked this one quite a bit.  The author has a way of including some 'maybe' supernatural, but 'maybe-not'.  Tends toward the Gothic side of mystery.

Nine Lives by Peter Swanson - A good one by an author that I've enjoyed in the past.  Not my favorite of his, but I did listen to an interesting interview with him in a podcast.  Our 'Shrouded in Mystery' Book Group will discuss an earlier book of his, Eight Perfect Murders, in May.

The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey - This book is the 3rd in Massey's Perveen Mistry series.  I liked it very much and hope this series will continue.  The protagonist is based on India's first female lawyer and it's set in 1920's India.  

The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths - I just could not wait for the 14th Ruth Galloway book and so I ordered the hardcover from the UK.  This series is published in the UK in early spring, February usually, and in the US in late June.  I had a gift card and so...why not?  Loved this one.  I thought the author did a good job of including the pandemic in the story and there are some startling revelations about certain characters as well.  Of course, this means that I'll have to wait longer for the next 'Ruth' book.  Ha!

The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye - This was re-read for the 'Historical Fiction' Book Group meeting that will take place Thursday.  I had read and discussed this one with another group several years ago, but I couldn't remember a lot of specifics other than that it told of the beginnings of the NYPD way back in the 1840's.  I remembered why I liked it so much.  It is a little gritty and I'll be curious what other members of the group think about it.

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I think that's about all the news I have.  My husband has been going back and forth to Austin a bit for his 'so far' one-day-a-week in the office.  We got to spend some time with family eating out this last weekend.  It was nice to catch up with our daughter and son-in-law and my husband's extended family.  We're looking forward to being able to host them here in a few months.  Otherwise, all seems to be well.  Take care everyone and get out and enjoy some 'blooms'!