Pam Webb

a writer's journey as a reader

Archive for the category “Reflections”

02 Sep 2025
6 Comments

Reading Roundup: August 2025


August has traditionally signified the end of summer for me since returning to school was just around a calendar flip away.

However, retirement means I will be still in bed (probably) when the school bus rumbles past our house. And I will most likely be reading since that has become part of my routine due to still waking up at 5 am (dratted body clock) after so many years of doing so and not wanting to start my day quite that early.

All that reading as certainly impacted my accumulative reading states. To date my Goodreads Reading Challenge total is now at 116, nicely surpassing my 101 goal. I’m wondering if I can hit 200 this year. Hmm…

Five star reads of August:

The Last Escape by ECR Lorac

Goodreads image

Aptly named, The Last Escape is the last mystery readers will sleuth along with Inspector Macdonald. After 40 (!) mysteries to solve it appears the unflappable CID man will retire to Lunesdale on the farm he purchased a few stories back (Crook o’ the Lune). Once again Lorac begins the novel with a smidgen of backstory which leads into the principal players and when a crime is committed Macdonald is on the scene.
These books have been all interlibrary loan derived and I have found each one does well as a standalone. I have many more cases to solve with the Scottish inspector and look forward to the next book that comes my way.

Harry’s Trees by Jon Cohen

Goodreads image

A grown up fairytale complete with one simple fairytale embedded in the plot makes this an unusual book and entertaining tale.

I was embarrassed to realize as I got into the story I had read it before—that “Gee, this is a lot like another book I’ve read” feeling. This either means I’m reading too many books or I read the book too fast or the story didn’t resonate at the time.

This time the story did resonate as it was a fun lounging-in-the-summer-hammock read.

Just Like Beverly by Vicki Conrad

Goodreads image

An excellent picture book biography of beloved children’s book author Beverly Cleary. Focusing on her as a child who lived books and wanted stories about children just like her provides a better understanding of how her stories have a timeless appeal. Illustrations and text are complementary and the additional material adds to the overall appeal.

I’m looking forward to the cooler days of fall and I am anticipating some really good reads coming up as my TBR list is quite plump.

Posted in Reflections and tagged , , , , , ,
23 Aug 2025
5 Comments

How Cliché: Say “yeS”


Today’s batch of cliches focus on the “s” range. It’s “yes” to cliches with “s”.

Scarce as hen’s teeth: When something is very rare.
Don’t use this one much. It makes me wonder how it came into use. Some farmer having fun counting his chickens before they hatch?

Scared of his own shadow: Someone who is often afraid.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel: Taking whatever is left behind.

Reddit image

Second banana: Second in command.
I prefer being second banana. Less pay, true, but less responsibility than the top banana.

Shape up or ship out: Do what is right or correct.

Shoot the breeze: Casually talk about things.

Signed, sealed, delivered: The task is complete.

Skeleton in the closet: scandalous events in someone’s past.

Slow and steady wins the race: Going too fast could cause you to fail.

Squeaky wheel gets the grease: speaking up can get something accomplished.
This one is a personal favorite as I tend to get things done that haven’t been done. Some call that being proactive. Others consider it being squeaky.

Articulate Persuasion image
Posted in Reflections and tagged , ,
21 Aug 2025
2 Comments

Bard Bits: Bard in the Park


I’ve experienced Shakespeare plays (one experiences his works, versus watches them—a bit pompous sounding,sorry) in a variety of forms: live on stage (several as an audience member and once as Horatio—very brief); large screen theater; small screen TV; reading, and teaching.

One favorite form is watching a performance in the park, as it is open air, much like a Globe performance. Plus there is the anticipation of lively audience response, the atmosphere being one of shared spaces and camaraderie. And the plays are usually free, at least the one that comes to our fair city is.

Every year in August the Montana company arrives and performs one of Shakespeare’s popular plays in a local park. This year they presented a As You Like It, which is one of Shakespeare’s more popular comedies.

Laughing Out Loud
Bard in the Park

Arriving at the park 40 minutes early I discovered the space already teeming with people, but no matter since I prefer the back for that quick exit to avoid the parking lot tangle.

As the sun drifted behind the trees the temps cooled down and the stage action heated up with runaway sons and daughters, tangled romance, and character arcs. As You Like It is a fun romp and the audience showed its appreciation with plenty of applause and laughter.

Bard in the Park signifies the transition from summer fun to back to school readiness. And Jacques mentions going to school in his famous “All the world’s a stage” soliloquy.

Anyone catch a Shakespeare in the Park performance this summer?

Posted in authors, creativity, humor, Literature, Reflections, Shakespeare, summer and tagged , , , ,
15 Aug 2025
5 Comments

Word Nerds: Yes, that is a word…


A Redbubble poster after my own heart

Your search for that precise descriptor has ended with this batch of discovered words. I must admit I am familiar with “twaddle” and have come across “quidnunc” no doubt due to those old English mystery novels from the forties that I favor.

kyoodle: to bark or yelp noisily or foolishly

gloze: to explain away

twaddle: silly, tedious talk or writing

otiose: serving no practical purpose or result

recondite: relating to, or dealing with something little known or obscure

parlous: full of danger or uncertainty

drouk: to drench

elucubrate: to produce (something) by long and intensive effort

opprobrium: harsh criticism or censure

quidnunc: person who seeks to know all the latest news or gossip

I need to find a way to work “kyoodle” into a conversation.

Posted in everyday expressions, humor, Reflections, Words and tagged , , ,
09 Aug 2025
7 Comments

BBQ Feng Shui: Part Two


Recap: Part One addressed the situation of setting up a really boss BBQ area in the backyard only to have proximity issues with a new neighbor.

As Paul Harvey used to say:
“Now for the rest of the story…”

Got the table-

Ready—-

Got the BBQ kettle-

Set

Got a lovely setting-

No go-

Yes-it was a No Go for the BBQ area because of the neighbors.

They had moved in right after we had arranged everything and set up their living space so close to ours it was going to be awkward to hang out in our backyard.

Plus, wanting to be good neighbors we accommodated their needs to raise a family so we moved the BBQ grill around to the other side of the yard and forwent using the cozy cafe corner so diligently decorated. The magnificent fern in the background (an annual volunteer) clinched the Feng Shui vibe and we were sad to forego the Feng Shui. We abandoned all of it for the sake of the neighbors.

Granted, we still used our backyard, and unfortunately we got into the habit of peeking over towards the neighbors before we utilized our yard. Just trying to be considerate but maybe our intentions were misunderstood.

I thought we were coexisting pretty well until we noticed it was pretty quiet on our neighbors side.

Then we realized overnight the neighbors had disappeared. Just like that. Barely a month in residence and vanished.

We wondered if it was something we did or said and then we realized that it really comes down to location, location, location.

And our new neighbors must have decided to raise their family in a more private area.

I have to say though they did overstep their sense of boundaries as I did catch them sometimes cutting through our yard.

“Don’t mind me-just passing through.”

Yes, our new neighbors were a pair of Pee Wees—no relationship to Herman. Delightfully cute little birds who decided to build their nest on top of a utility ledge just above our outdoor dining area.

Gone. No forwarding address.

Mama bird diligently stayed nest bound for a couple of weeks and though we tried to be courteous and reduce our backyard use our birdie neighbors abandoned their efforts to set up their family.

Now that they are gone we miss their presence. Isn’t that how it goes? Something that was once inconvenient becomes favorably reflected upon once absent? I haven’t seen them around in the neighborhood. I do hope their new place worked out for them.

Have you ever had to readjust your lifestyle to accommodate a bird nest?

Posted in Reflections and tagged , , , ,
05 Aug 2025

Reader Roundup: July


A baker’s dozen read through July. Most were pretty good, a couple not so good, and a couple were really good reads.

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton

This was my 100th read of the year!

An unexpected debut in that the author in all likelihood didn’t expect a book, a bestselling book at that, would be a result from her making the snap decision to rescue a leveret, a baby hare, seemingly abandoned in the February snows of the UK countryside.

By rescuing the leveret Dalton made a commitment to keeping it wild and not a pet, knowing that raising a hare in captivity is rarely successful. Hares haven’t been domesticated like rabbits, which Dalton acknowledged and respected. She changed her entire way of life to accommodate the leveret’s needs.

It’s a truly engaging story of how a wild animal can be nurtured by a human without becoming a Disney movie. Dalton writes with honesty and a poet’s eye as she describes her symbiotic life raising hare. She reflects on how it awakened her appreciation of nature, to take in the moment instead of pursuing her goals with blinders to the beauty surrounding her.

As for the hare? It lived an unusual life, benefitting from human companionship without obligation while keeping to its natural tendencies to raise a family and stretch its legs out about the countryside. Highly recommend for those who seek out positive reads involving nature.

The Cost of a Hostage by Iona Whishaw #12

Can’t Wait For the Next One

This twelfth entry of Lane Winslow and her adventures is a treat. The author places our plucky former SOE agent in Mexico with her inspector husband Frederick Darling. Kidnappings, bandits, nefarious war criminals are the main plot—meanwhile, in Nelson BC, Ames and Terrell man the police station, with the help of newly appointed April, and are caught up in their own crime situations of kidnapping and drug running. Both plots are well-paced. But what really stands out in this entry is the characterization,. Whishaw continues to develop and provide fully developed characters, each with their own distinctive personality.

It’s always difficult finishing one of these Lane Winslow books because it means having to wait at least another year for the next one.

I’m trying to par down my TBR list and yet so many tempting titles are out there! Anyone else have difficulty passing up a possible good read?

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01 Aug 2025
13 Comments

Hello, August


Well, it’s August 1st and at this point I used to see the hourglass sand of summer quickly slipping away.

the sands of summer slipping away

August would be the month that all the school supplies lining the aisles of stores and all those incessant reminders to get ready to go back to school would curb my enthusiasm to embrace the rest of summer vacation. A tiny spark of anticipation would form and increasingly grow larger as each day of August ticked by until the inevitable email would land into my inbox reminding me of all of my obligation to attend all the in-service meetings at school.

Ah–but that was then and this is now.

Three years into retirement and I welcome August and recognize summer is not over. So I shall celebrate with an original poem.

July
by
Pam Webb

July arrives in dragonfly fashion
on star-spangled wings
dancing in after June’s somewhat fickle days
flitting here and wandering there.
The days are full of hammock reads, lazy BBQs,
and required air-conditioned nights.
July is the true summer month.
And when its fulsome days
have dwindled down to rest

Suddenly–

July forsakes glad company
and speedily zooms

into

August.

How do you view August? Is it your true summer month or the nudge that summer is ending?

Posted in Reflections and tagged , , , , ,
29 Jul 2025
5 Comments

The Road Less Traveled


I’m wondering how Robert Frost would react to these signs lately posted in my neighborhood:

First hint of decision making
Yet another hint for a serious response
Seriously, reconsider this particular road, dude
Yes, this means you

The county has had this road closed since June. Unfortunately it is a popular route to reach the local mountain where there is biking, hiking, eating, and other activities during the summer. It’s a popular tourist, and local, hot spot. People want to get there via the road most traveled. The road less traveled, sorry Robert, is causing some perplexed responses. BTW: There are two other alternative routes so a detour is not a big inconvenience.

However–

Even with all these signs that the times have changed people still drive up to the barricade as if concrete barricades don’t apply to them. Actually, cyclists, those pedaling and those zooming, have made that determination.

After nearly two months of watching people navigate this road of fair impossibility (refer to cyclist note) I have decided there are three categories of drivers:

  1. Illiterate: obviously they can’t read and ignoring these signs serves as both a metaphorical and literal ignorance.
  2. Determined: these are the ones that you watch on the Instagram clips, the driver you drives through the cascading, overflowing waters across the roadway because the desire to get to their destination overcomes common sense.
  3. Entitled: as in the sign can’t possibly apply to them, so impervious ignorance sets the pace and I can’t help but snicker when they drive clear up to the barricade (which is clearly seen at the entrance of the road) sit there puzzled before making a U-turn and follow the detour sign.

Robert Frost’s poem may have spoken of the road less traveled, but I would reckon he would adhere to a detour if it deemed the better route. Then again, maybe he would have zipped through on his Harley, given the opportunity.

Poets are known to be wild when it comes to veering off the beaten path

Posted in Reflections and tagged , , , , , ,
23 Jul 2025

Bard Bits: ‘Tis Summer


I always look forward to summer, and I especially look forward to the outdoor Shakespeare performance that comes round in August. It’s not easy waiting another month, so with the prompting of a recently vowed Folger Shakespeare Library post I will pass on some of Shakespeare’s best summer quotes because he must have really liked summer having mentioned summer over 80 times throughout his writing.

Alas, I doth forgot my SP30

How shall we beguile
The lazy time if not with some delight?
—Theseus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V, scene 1

But with the word “The time will bring on summer,”
When briers shall have leaves as well as thorns
And be as sweet as sharp.
—Helen, All’s Well That Ends Well, Act IV, scene 4

As a fair day in summer, wondrous fair.
—Pericles, Pericles, Act II, scene 5

This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
—Juliet, Romeo and Juliet, Act II, scene 2

O Westmoreland, thou art a summer bird,
Which ever in the haunch of winter sings
The lifting up of day.
—King, Henry IV, Part 2, Act IV, scene 3

Thus sometimes hath the brightest day a cloud,
And after summer evermore succeeds
Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold;
So cares and joys abound, as seasons fleet.
—Gloucester, Henry IV, Part 2, Act II, scene 4

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York,
And all the clouds that loured upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
—Richard III, Act III, scene 1

And of course the most summery of his summer tributes is Sonnet 18.

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Here’s to you with a hope you can catch an outdoor summer Shakespeare performance. A wondrous season indeed exalted by a wondrous writer.

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17 Jul 2025
2 Comments

How Cliche: “R” You Ready?


As we move on down the line of our cliché alphabet let’s get ready to take a running leap at a few “r” entries.

Raining cats and dogs: raining heavily. The origin of this common cliché isn’t certain, although it does possibly go back to Norse mythology and the obsolete word “catadupe” (waterfall) and was associated with it raining so hard that animals, most likely cats and dogs, were found drowned in the streets; hence, the logic being the skies must have released animals in the rainstorm.

Read between the lines: to understand what is being said without it being actually stated. Secreting messages within messages via code or invisible ink used to be common practice around the 19th century, which meant people might literally be reading between the lines to get the actual message. Modern day application involves listening to what is not being said to get the possible true meaning of a message.

Rags to riches: going from poverty to wealth. Fairly self-explanatory and who doesn’t appreciate a good old destitute to millionaire story? Horatio Alger was known for this particular theme in his stories and present day rags to riches real life examples include J.K. Rowling who went from welfare mom to millionaire author with her Harry Potter series. Movies and stories like The Great Gatsby and Slumdog Millionaire remain popular as audiences cheer for the underdog.

Rack your brain: to think very hard. Torture is not a means people voluntarily chose to recall some bit of knowledge, yet this was a method often employed to nudge a person into relaying some knowledge they had. The inquisitor would place the person with the needed knowledge on a device called the “rack” (refer to most medieval movies for the gruesome details) and applied pressure until the knowledge was revealed. One has to ponder if the revealed information was truly believable at that point.

Rain on your parade: to spoil someone’s enjoyment or ruin plans. It’s a common phrase but a relatively new one since parades came into popularity around the 18th/19th century, going from serious celebrations such a military pomp and circumstance to the traditional splendor of Macy’s annual Thanksgiving parade. Barbra Streisand popularized the phrase with her well-known song from Funny Girl.

Raise the roof: make a lot of noise. One origin story is how a community would come together and build a barn (aka a barn raising) and hefting up a barn roof took a whole lot of effort and was probably a bit noisy.

Raise your eyebrows: something that initiates a response of surprise or shock. It’s a human response to show surprise or shock with the facial expression of lifting up one’s eyebrows and the phrase came into popular use around the Victorian era when people had certain standards that when jeopardized might cause the subtle response of eyebrows indicating disapproval.

Raise Cain: to be disruptive or display rowdy behavior. Cain refers to the biblical brother story where Cain slays his brother Abel and it is thought the expression is to behave so unacceptably that one could raise the dead. Brotherly squabbling takes on a new context with this revelation.

Ring a bell: something sounding familiar. One origin story is how church bells have been employed through the centuries to toll time, honor the fallen, and to sound alarms—their use being a familiar part of life. While church bell ringing isn’t as common today, our familiar cell phone alarms do an adequate job of reminding us to get up and go to work.

Rake over the coals: to harshly scold. Another tortuous origin story. If the rack wasn’t enough to get someone talking there was always the method of dragging them over hot coals, perhaps giving way to the expression of hotly denying an accusation.

Rock the boat: disrupting an otherwise stable situation. This one makes absolute sense: don’t upset the boat otherwise you will end up in hot water (or maybe not, but that is an idiom that comes to mind).

Read the riot act: being chastised for unacceptable behavior. The British created the “Riot Act” of 1714, which involved reading a proclamation to dissemble any unlawful gatherings of 12 or more people or risk being charged with a felony. While riots still occur today, and with consequences, being read the riot act usually involves an unpleasant scolding. 

Well, there “r” a few more clichés we could explore, but a dozen is fine without the need to rack up more Word Nerd points.

On to “S” next post…

Posted in Reflections and tagged , ,

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