My neighbor Toby came over for a little visit.  He does that sometimes. I painted eyebrows on him and sent him home.  He is the kind of dog that walks across the street by himself (a quiet little cul-de-sac) and opens his own front door.  Quite a character.  His mom took a picture of him and sent it to me, asking who was this dog and where was her Toby?  hahaha, we laughed at him all day.

This week I was on jury duty for 3 days.  This was my second time to serve on a jury, and while I think it is an honor and a positive experience, this time it was very distressing.  It was a spousal abuse case where we heard and saw two days of evidence showing degrading, vulgar and explosive threatening verbal and written assaults.  Because he never actually went through with any of his threats, he did not understand how they were abuse or why he should respect a restraining order.  We took less than an hour to deliberate a guilty verdict on all four counts, and when it was read, the accused rolled his eyes and smirked.  I thank God for my small and simple life, and for my kind, practical and non-explosive husband!  The victim in this case, I'm afraid will live in fear of him for the rest of her life, restraining order or not.  She has moved to the top of my prayer list.

Coincidentally, the two books I recently finished are also about domestic violence.  Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is a must, a spooky who-done-it written in two voices, his and hers.  It keeps you guessing, there is a twist of course (I was guessing correctly, have to brag) but the ending is not what you will want to happen.  Maybe a sequel?  Broken Harbor by Tana French, another who-done-it.  It takes place in Ireland with well rounded characters and the investigating detective as the narrator.  I loved both.

I thought I had read every Ivan Doig book, but not so.  Whistling Season was new to me and is a charming coming of age story set in Montana, of course, as that is where all his books are set.  Perhaps not my favorite of his, but still loved it.  It's quick to read, and I read it to get myself in the Montana mood for his NEW book out this week The Bartender's Tale, set in the 60's in Montana.  So exciting, I'm starting it today, it's like opening a present.

Ahh, so nice to be home today with no jury duty.  Today I'm going to to have lunch with mother, do all my errands that were left undone, do some baking, reading and tend my garden.  Bliss.

Nails brought to you today by OPI's Flashbulb Fuchsia and flowers from a big dahlia bush in my back garden that comes back year after year.  This cozy corner is being set up prettily with flowers because I plan on planting myself there tonight and use these fingers for some knitting.