Flowers blooming and learning resources

Beautiful weather lately (if you can deal with the pollen that is being distributed by the winds) and we are already getting blooms!  My Mahalo iris plant has lovely reddish-violet blooms and I can't wait for the other iris to display its beautiful bi-colored blooms.. It's funny, I bought both plants from the local iris society through a serendipitous visit to...you guessed it...the library!  I cannot stress how useful one's local library is to anyone who wants to learn about new things and I am delighted that I learned about these new varieties of iris which are fortunately still alive despite the very harsh frosts we had this year.

I am VERY fortunate in that the library in my city belongs to a large county system and the next city down the freeway is only minutes away yet has its own collection that frequently receives and catalogs new books before my local library.  Needless to say, for awhile I had notoriety at both places but I have settled down to a dull roar because I have so many review books to write up and I am starting to receive more edits which keep me very busy.

Nonetheless, I remind you of the other resources that you can often obtain through your library, including but not limited to:  basic educational instruction and/or assistance with homework (particularly helpful when faced with children's homework nowadays), learning new languages through Mango (I was startled to show this aspect to a friend of mine and have her exclaim "Greek"--since I had not even noticed that this was one of the languages being offered), car repair resources such as the manuals for many makes and models of cars and many other things, and, at least at my local county library...access to the wonderful online university 'Ed2Go'.  I knew that there was no way to keep up with classes for this session given the number of titles I was juggling but I have managed to take several very useful classes through this...as long as I enroll through my library site, I can take up to three classes and use the code that I obtained through my library card.  What a great bargain and a wonderful way to keep the brain stimulated (and occasionally frustrated, lol).

And, speaking of flowers blooming...the poppies (Calilfornia's state flower) are well in bloom, just in time for our local Antelope Valley Poppy Festival which celebrates everything related to the California Poppy (except, perhaps, the drug related references, lol).  It will take place over the weekend of April 20 and 21 and usually includes live entertainment, lots of vendors and food, and interesting displays.  Alas, it is the same time as the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books so you can imagine which one I am most interested in...particularly since I have discovered that Robin Hobb and Raymond Feist are having a discussion!  (after all, I have poppies growing in the backyard...and I can always drag the hubby--and his breathing mask, poor guy--to the Poppy reserve, lol)

Learning tools through the library

I am always amazed by what is available through my local county library.  I treasure libraries since they have provided me with many an hour of entertainment, especially as a child when I could not afford to purchase books.  They help me keep my current book budget down to a dull roar since I am fortunate to have two different library systems to draw from (and yes, both library cards get a workout).

I have mentioned before that there are several resources that I take advantage of through the internet and my county library card number, one of which is called Freegal which allows me to download three songs per week without any piracy concerns.  There is quite a wide range of things available, including a profanity laden but hilarious recording of Robin Williams discussing the planning that went into the formation of the human body called Intelligent Design as well as the ethereal songs recorded by young Jackie Evancho and several works by some of the smooth jazz artists that I like.  I am ashamed to admit that I haven't kept up with the foreign language lessons that I started through Mango but intend to get back to them one of these days and lately have discovered that there is another educational tool called 'Ed2go'.  I am intrigued because there are a breadth of classes that can be attended at one's convenience online and I was delighted to discover that some of them address writing and publishing so I am taking a beginning class in editing.  It's amazing what is out there for free and I urge those of you with local county libraries to look into what they can offer access to, it is pretty amazing.

And, what have I been reading from the library?
Lauren Dane's poignant tale Never Enough which gives Adrian Brown's love story, the entertaining anthology Hex Appeal which includes great stories by Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, P.N. Elrod and husband and wife team Ilona Andrews , as well as the delightfully spicy Hot in Handcuffs which has tales by three of my favorite authors in their field, Shayla Black, Sylvia Day and Shiloh Walker!  Unfortunately, I have been so busy reading that I haven't written up the reviews so I will have to rectify that.  Support your local library (I tend to donate a lot of my review books to one of my local libraries but they also can use volunteers to help shelve or perform other tasks).  My sincere thanks to the dozens of authors at RWA who cheerfully donated books to help supplement the collection at the Wanda Kirk Library in Rosamond!