The Summer Sun Shone Round Me

THE summer sun shone round me,
The folded valley lay
In a stream of sun and odour,
That sultry summer day.

The tall trees stood in the sunlight
As still as still could be,
But the deep grass sighed and rustled
And bowed and beckoned me.

The deep grass moved and whispered
And bowed and brushed my face.
It whispered in the sunshine:
"The winter comes apace."

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Moonlight, Summer Moonlight

'Tis moonlight, summer moonlight, 

All soft and still and fair; 

The solemn hour of midnight 

Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere,

But most where trees are sending 

Their breezy boughs on high, 

Or stooping low are lending 

A shelter from the sky.

And there in those wild bowers 

A lovely form is laid; 

Green grass and dew-steeped flowers 

Wave gently round her head.

~ Emily Jane Bronte`

Blog Tour! To Capture Her Heart Book Review!

Title: To Capture Her Heart.

Author: Rebecca DeMarino.

Genre: Romance, Christian, Historical Fiction, Sequel, Drama.

Plot: On the day of her wedding to her childhood sweetheart, native princess Heather Flower is captured by a rival tribe and forced to watch as her new husband is killed. Then she is whisked away by her captors who demand a high ransom for her, only to leave her behind to die when they receive the payment. However, her story doesn't end there. Heather Flower is rescued by the dashing Dutch Lieutenant Dirk Van Buren and taken to the home of her childhood friends, the Horton family where she stays with an aunt.

Recovering from her loss takes time and the quiet support of those around her. But heal she must, for two men are patiently waiting for their chance to try for her affections and she must chose one sooner or later.

Likes/Dislikes: To be perfectly honest, I haven't finished this book yet. The tour dates snuck up on me and I wanted to get this review posted. But there's also a strong chance that I probably won't finish this book for a long time because, right from page two, it's very unrealistic. She has two guys practically falling instantly in love with her, even though she was just happily married to her sweetheart who died. If I were her, I would never marry another man for years after something so tragic happened. I don't know if Heather Flower waits for years to make her choice, but I doubt the guys will wait that long. Also, I have this sinking suspicion that she'll marry the childhood friend instead of the exciting handsome Dutch dude, even though he has a little bit of a creepy side to his character. If and when I do finish the book, I will update this review. Oh and one more thing; I didn't realize this was a sequel. I'm all for sequels, but only after I've read the first book. This one is so obviously a sequel, full of references and characters interacting with each other that bogs down the story of Heather Flower for me.

Rating: Unavailable.

Date Review Written: July 18th, 2015.

I received a free copy of this book via Revel Publishing House in exchange for an honest review. I wasn't required to write a positive review and the opinions expressed in the above review are my own.

Bolthouse Farms Smoothies and Juices Review

So my sister, baby, husband and I have been sampling fruit smoothies at our local markets for a couple months now and I' finally getting around to pounding out a lovely group review on the many flavors we've tried. Up today is Bolthouse Farms.

Bolthouse Farms makes their juices and smoothies from one hundred percent juice, are non-GMO and don't use preservatives or high fructose corn syrup. And they are sweetened with fruit, not added sugars. I don't know if they're organic or not, but in this day and age it's tricky to find affordable organic anything really.

One of my favorite smoothies is Berry Boost. Made with an outstanding assembly of raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, boysenberries, blueberries, elderberries, apples and bananas, this is a thick sweet drink with a delicious berry flavor. I love berries to boot! While bananas aren't my favorite fruit, a little bit does add a lovely texture to this smoothie and I can't taste the banana at all. There are twenty-four grams of sugar in it. I usually get the smaller bottle but it comes in two sizes which is nice. The baby always squeals until I let her try my smoothie and then she ends up drinking half of it because she loves it so much.

I've tried Green Goodness smoothie. Made with pineapple juice, apple juice, mango puree, bananas, kiwi, spirulina powder, green tea extract, spinach powder, broccoli powder, barley grass powder, garlic powder, wheatgrass powder, Jerusalem artichoke powder, and Nova Scotia dulse powder, this smoothie packs a punch with several interesting ingredients. When I first tried it, I didn't know that Spirulina is an algae and that Dulse is a seaweed. Very interesting what you learn when writing a review. *wink* Anyway, while this smoothie tastes good, there was one ingredient that wasn't gelling well with all the others, though my sister and I couldn't put our finger down on which one. So it's not a favorite with me. My sister likes it though. There are thirty grams of sugar in it {probably from the apple and pineapple juice}, and comes in three sizes.

My favorite Bolthouse smoothie is the Multi-V Goodness Cherry smoothie. Cherries are my favorite fruit and having them blended with such delights as pomegranate, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, cranberries, apples, peaches and bananas along with several vitamins makes this smoothie a real treat. The texture is thinner than some of the other smoothies, making it more juice like. I don't mind this in the least. The baby really loves this smoothie too and my sister liked it as well. There are twenty-six grams of sugar, which is a surprising amount given how many sweet fruits are in it, and it comes in three sizes.

My husband's favorite smoothie is Banana Strawberry. While I think there is way too much banana in it {see above about not liking bananas a lot}, he loves it. I thought the blurb about it at the website was clever: "We have a sneaking suspicion that strawberry and banana always knew they were meant for each other. So they were probably really excited when we put them together to make our classic Strawberry Banana Smoothie." This smoothie has twenty-two grams of sugar and comes in three sizes.

The Stone Fruit smoothie was good but not very high on anyone's favorite list in my little circle. Made with nectarines, pears, apples, peaches, plums, bananas, apricots, ground chia seeds, acerola cherries and a few added vitamins, this smoothie has the classic thick smoothie texture but the flavors don't jump out and grab your attention like some of the other blends do. There are twenty-three grams of sugar and it comes in two sizes for all your smoothie needs.

About the only smoothie nobody liked was the Tropical Goodness smoothie. Made with coconut water, pear juice, apples, bananas, pink guava puree, pineapples, orange juice, dragonfruit puree, ground chia seeds, acerola cherries and some added vitamins, this smoothie was unexciting and had a funny taste to it. I love some of the ingredients on their own {though I have never tried guava or dragonfruit} but blended together they didn't do too good. Even the baby didn't like it. There are only nineteen grams of sugar and it's available in two sizes.

Some of the other Bolthouse farms products we've tried are 100% Carrot Juice, Mocha Cappuccino and Salted Caramel Latte. My sister loved the carrot juice while I thought there was a hint of dirt to it. There are only thirteen little grams of sugar in it so it's definitely safe on the sugar side of things.

The Mocha Cappuccino has low-fat milk, coffee extract, whey protein, agave nectar, cane sugar, dutched cocoa powder, salt and carrageenan which may or may not be a good thing depending on what you read. I was personally glad there wasn't any soy in it. There was a lovely chocolatey flavor to this coffee drink and it tasted good, though not as good as the coffee my husband makes. There are twenty-nine grams of sugar in it.

Our favorite coffee drink from Bolthouse Farms is the Salted Caramel Latte. Made with low-fat milk, coffee, caramel syrup, agave nectar, whey protein, sea salt and a few other things, this drink is cool, refreshing and delicious. The first time I tried it, I could taste a hint of salt. The second time, I couldn't taste the salt as much but that could have been because it was warming up. Either way, it was yummy. There are a surprising twenty grams of sugar in this drink that comes in two sizes.

While there aren't too many of Bolthouse Farms' products that I haven't tried, the following are some that caught my eye and which I will now be on the look-out for while grocery shopping.

Pomegranate Juice has been hit and miss for me but this one looks good.

I just want to try this one cause it's purple. *smiles*

I love mint, lemons and watermelon, so now I must this lemonade twist and try it.

I like almond milk so this looks appealing.

Love on a Dime Book Review

Title: Love on a Dime.

Author: Cara Lynn James.

Genre: Christian, Romance, Historical Setting, Rhode Island.

Plot: Lilly Westbrook is a lady of society, keeping up with the latest fashions and attending numerous parties hosted by the elite of society in bustling Newport, Rhode Island in 1899. But secretly, Lilly earns her own income by shutting herself away in her bedroom and furiously typing out dime novels under the name of Fannie Cole. Little did she know when she first set pen to paper that her stories would soar to the top of the popularity charts, though of course, no respectable member of society would darn get caught reading such “trash,” let alone writing it.

But when Lilly’s world is flipped upside down by the sudden and unexpected arrival of her former sweetheart, Jackson Grail, who vanished the same night he secretly proposed to her six years ago, Lilly fears her secret will come to light. And what with a blackmailer sniffing around, her flirtatious sister-in-law threatening social damage and her current beau about to propose, Lilly begins to wonder if she’s in over her head.

Likes/Dislikes: So I admittedly wanted to read this book mainly because it was set in Rhode Island, and partly because the main character is a writer. And while the first quarter of the book was very interesting and set the plot up pretty well, the rest of the book really lagged and left me bored, disappointed and mildly frustrated. There was a sad lack of historical detail about Rhode Island – the characters never discussed current historical events or even left their pretty little mansions for long. It was all gossip and repeated bland information. Oh my gosh, the repetitiveness of everything! Lilly whined so much about her stupid reputation and how her family would react to finding out she was a writer that I wanted to slap her. Jack was a really interesting character except for the fact that he whined a little too much about Lilly being, well Lilly, and that she wouldn’t let him help her – which was stupid. She should’ve accepted his help a long time ago and trusted that he would take care of her. The ending seemed very slap-dash, though I was skimming by then, and I seriously doubt everyone would be all happy-happy and have everything mostly resolved the way it was portrayed in the story. This was just a big disappointment for me. It was fun to read some of the more flowery passages to my husband and watch him roll his eyes though.

Rating: PG-14 and up, it’s a very clean though bland story.

Date Review Written: July 6, 2015.

Raaw Juice Review

Okay so I'm trying a new review tactic in an effort to broaden my library of reviews. And today's product is Raaw juices. *smiles*

I have recently tried three different juices from the company Raaw. The obvious first place winner was Strawberry Purple Carrot. Made with the juice of eight strawberries, three and a quarter purple carrot, apple juice and a few other ingredients, Strawberry Carrot tastes sweet, flavorful and refreshing. With only twenty-four grams of sugar, you'd think it would have a higher sugar content just from the taste, Thankfully, it doesn't. I let my seventeen month old try some and she loved it. The colors of the juice and bottle are very attractive too, which helps.


The second place juice is Very Berry Wheatgrass. I love berries {except for blueberries by themselves; they remind me of a horrible yogurt experience when i was pregnant but in other things, they're great!} and have recently wanted to try more healthy drinks and such, so the wheatgrass caught my eye. The only problem I had with the juice was that in addition to the juice of two cups of mixed berries and one and a half ounces of wheatgrass was apple and pineapple juice. Normally that's fine, but the pineapple juice tasted very strong to me and I didn't think it blended very well at all. Take the pineapple juice away and you'd have a really great drink. There are twenty-grams of sugar in it but it doesn't taste as sweet as the Strawberry Carrot. The baby was unimpressed.

And in third place of the Raaw juices I've tried is Cucumber Pineapple. I really wanted this one to taste good because I generally like cucumbers and pineapples. Sadly, it tasted a lot like dirt to me. My sister disagreed so it really could've just been me, but it didn't taste very good. Made with a whole cucumber and three-quarters of a pineapple, this juice has twenty-eight grams of sugar in it. When I let the baby try some, she made a face and spit it back out.

The Raaw juice I've decided I want to try next is Raspberry Lemongrass. It's made from two and a half cups of raspberries, and one and a half ounces of lemongrass, among other juices that the website won't give me. *smiles* There are twenty-seven grams of sugar in it. I generally really enjoy raspberries {if you've seen my Pinterest feed lately, you'll notice a trend in pinned recipes that feature luscious raspberries}, and I had lemongrass when I was a kid. It wasn't nearly as lemony as actual lemons yet was still delicious.

While these opinions on these delicious juices are my own, feel free to check out the company's website for more information and try some of the juices yourself. There are nine yummy looking flavors in all. :)

Bed in Summer Poem

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day? 

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

In Spring and Summer Winds May Blow

In spring and summer winds may blow,

And rains fall after, hard and fast;

The tender leaves, if beaten low,

Shine but the more for shower and blast

But when their fated hour arrives,

When reapers long have left the field,

When maidens rifle turn'd-up hives,

And their last juice fresh apples yield,

A leaf perhaps may still remain

Upon some solitary tree,

Spite of the wind and of the rain . . .

A thing you heed not if you see.

At last it falls. Who cares? Not one:

And yet no power on earth can ever

Replace the fallen leaf upon

Its spray, so easy to dissever.

If such be love, I dare not say.

Friendship is such, too well I know:

I have enjoyed my summer day;

'Tis past; my leaf now lies below.

~ Walter Savage Landor