I love reading a good book about the American pioneers who gradually settled the western part of the United States. If I have another life sometime in history I think I would choose to be part of that great westward movement. My latest literary find about this subject was a novel by Nancy Turner, These is my Words, The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901, Arizona Territories. I found it in Epilogue Books, just before they closed their wonderful store in Ballard, Seattle, in late summer 2009. (The demise of Epilogue in Ballard was a sad tale indeed.) When I saw this book in the shop it looked a bit daunting for its size and fine print but the title was intriguing and I do love a good diary. The book reminded me a bit of the Mildred Walker books I also found in Seattle. Good historical novels, soundly researched. And about a part of the West that I haven’t read very much about, apart from Larry McMurtry’s books. Arizona was the last of the original 48 states to be admitted to statehood – in the year 1912, the year my mother was born. It does not seem all that long ago, not even 100 years.
On the subject of books here are a couple of others I have purchased recently. 
Yet another book to help me learn Irish. And then in the sale bin at Hughes and Hughes I spotted another book by the same author, Mícheál O Siadhail, this one a book of poetry – none of the poems in Irish, to my disappointment.
Now here’s what I intended to do this morning rather than writing this blog. I want to try painting with acrylics. The watercolour painting I did of my stash didn’t really show the colours to their true advantage. So I want to see what I can do with acrylics. 
Janet's thread 