Gentle SPECTRUMS discussion

I'm thrilled you're launching my first challenge with me! Sign-up a Goodreads profile, or other public website at the originating blog. Then please enjoy this group to introduce yourselves, discuss books, and acquaint each other. Veering off topic is fine, if it leads to friendships and great conversations. Yours Truly, Carolyn. http://cmriedel.wordpress.com/gentle-...

Yaay, hello everyone! Topcho here :) There are actually 4 more hours till the challenge oficially begins at my end of the world :D
I hope everyone will have a great weekend. Mine will be full of manual and textbook rereads that sadly don't fit in any challenge :D

Thanks for stepping through the door first, Nina! What are your textbooks about? They might fit the "gentle subjects" or even "ethereal", which includes alternative healing and miracles. :)

Oh well, my next (and thankfully last) exam is about genetics. It is an interesting subject, especially the parts about immunogenetics and pharmacogenetics but they are all so hard to learn.
I mostly avoid counting manuals to any challenges. It feels like cheating - after all, I don't have much of a choice reading them.

I *want* manuals in my groups. That's why they're different. What's the approximate English title of those two? When you see how many books are in my house, you'll know that I have to read them too!

Lol! Well the titles are pretty boring: I have "Basics of medical genetics" and "Lectures of medical genetics"
Few years ago I was busy mostly with Grey's anatomy, now that would have fitted perfectly!

I was seeing if it had anything to do with plants or ethnicity. All of my groups are very flexible. But I understand about those two. What year are you in?

I am in the middle of my forth year. Last year we had Phytotherapy - that would fit too and was really interesting as well.
I wonder if any other students are joining. My best friend is studying Computer programming and design and each and every of her textbooks would fit in the QUINTUPLED category, lol!

Hi, I'm Laurel from north-east England! Looking forward to the challenges :)

Good luck with the studying Nina!
And Good Luck with launching your first challenges Carolyn!

Invite her, Nina (scary as her reading is - eek)! Tell your colleagues I invite reading/reviewing in any language you wish. Multilingualism is important to me.

Laurel, you made it! :) Thank you and I can't wait to see where you're signed-up at Wordpress! You cheerful ladies are bringing wonderful vibes already. Hugs!

Aaah, I've tried hooking her on all kind of challenges, reading sites and blogs but even the giveaways on GR didn't tempt her. I guess she is just a lonely reader!
Thank you Laurel! Best of luck to you too!

We need more people in "Ethereal". The contests I have in mind will be amazing. I edited the Wordpress description to clarify. Anthologies, novels with 'vampires / zombies / werewolves' are okay *IF* there's a ghost or more ethereal things. We don't want to lose those ghosts, heeheehee! I don't see Laurel linked at Wordpress yet but I'll definitely smile when I do.

I've linked up my post at the website but decided to join this group. I've been on goodreads for years but never joined a group until a couple weeks ago for another challenge, so figured I might as well go for another group!

I live in a small town in Utah that's located conveniently close to Salt Lake City.

I'm glad you're here too Sue! Worry not, this isn't a duplicate. I ask everyone to sign-up at the blog linky buttons regardless. This is a companion to the "Gentle Spectrums" challenge. When I roll out prize activities; pictures are best put here. I'm in rural Manitoba on dial-up and they would bog my WordPress site down, whereas this is a separate spot from my Goodreads profile. It works out as a nice place to communicate too.

Go figure you were a slam dunk for colours and surprised me by hopping aboard the word games! A friend motorcycled through Utah years ago and said it was the cleanest, most courteous camp site he ever experienced. People take care of those towns very well.

Hello! I am due to follow-up the first event held at our main blog, 'RIEDEL Fascination' and roll out activities for guests solely in Gentle Spectrums or Ethereal. I'll post them at Wordpress soon. Would those in this Goodreads chat forum like to introduce themselves, if they haven't? There is Vicky, Mave, Sarah, and recently Shonna. (Kristine, Emma, Margaret are unsure they have time to officially take part but are glad to follow along and discuss the same books they read). How is everyone these days? Any updates about reading, yourselves, summer where you live: share. :)

A happy reminder to those in this group: this gives us an easy place to tell you: I am drawing for the winners of our 2015 groups right now! My fiancé, Ron, as always is helping me draw the names for our overall, year-end winners of: ETHEREAL, MY KIND OF MYSTERY, and GENTLE SPECTRUMS! I hope you all join me in 2016. Thank you for adding your special characters and having been a part of them.

Each initial name we choose will be e-mailed to see if you accept, as long as I have your e-addresses from last year; so keep your eyes on your in-boxes. I hope you recall Ethereal 2015 has a unique prize for the year we are finishing today: numerology or tarot readings offered by our fellow participant, Hazellie! Yours sincerely, Carolyn.

I'm Erin from central Florida. Nice to meet a mixed group here and bond over books.

I am from eastern Mass. Glad to meet you Erin :)

Are there major cities other than Boston? Do you get hurricanes? How about Erin? Interesting about Manitoba: we might get darn cold but have wonderful versatility of temperature. We can also be as hot as Florida. Another benefit to our less popular niche in the world is that there are no dangerous snakes / reptiles / amphibians and our only dangerous storm is a blizzard. This would be perilous to anyone out of doors but it isn't something like a tornado / hurricane / typhoon that could threaten anyone's home.

Boston is by far the biggest city but in the middle of the state there is Worcester (pop. ~1 million) and in western MA there is Springfield (pop. ~700,000). I live about halfway between Boston & Worcester.

Boston gets hurricanes but I live far enough inland that they are just very windy rainstorms. And of course, we get blizzards.

Do you really not have any dangerous snakes? We don't have many - when I lived in Georgia, that was one of the things that spooked me at first. Water moccasins and rattlers and other reptiles...

It's cool to know more about where you are from! You are among the earliest writing to me here. I knew it was upper east United States with three unique kitties, a husband, and two David Bowie memories. You might know I am halfway to Winnipeg west and a little further from Ontario east. I could be in the U.S. in two hours, in another direction. North: Manitoba goes all the way to the Arctic circle. My instinctive response was going to be that somewhere that doesn't hold a +Celcius temperature all year can't have dangerous reptiles or insects but you sound like you have a few.

In Canada, British Columbia has rattlers but that's it across the board. Quite a safe land, if you don't bother mammals who are Mothering. Otherwise even the black bears that stroll through our own property are fine. We watch them go by if we have a chance and they keep going. Only scary moment was setting a massive flock of Canadian geese after me in the city about 7 years ago. Those guys are powerful and chase you quite far!

What has me revise my answer is that Ron has been reading a nature book and says there is more to it than us not staying warm enough for other reptiles or insects. While garter snakes are extremely common and completely harmless, apparently Canada's home for them is rare in the world. I wouldn't have known. I keep our cats from bothering this sweet little guys when they happen by. I saw them more our first year here but the cats must keep them from our flowerbeds and the periphery of our house.

C. wrote: "Are there major cities other than Boston? Do you get hurricanes? How about Erin? Interesting about Manitoba: we might get darn cold but have wonderful versatility of temperature. We can also be as ..."

Florida gets hurricanes, but thankfully we haven't had one for several years. Since I'm in Central Florida, we're a bit protected compared to the coast. If central Florida completely floods, it would mean that Florida was underwater since I'm at one of the highest points.

C. wrote: "In Canada, British Columbia has rattlers but that's it across the board. Quite a safe land, if you don't bother mammals who are Mothering. Otherwise even the black bears that stroll through our own property are fine. We watch them go by if we have a chance and they keep going. Only scary moment was setting a massive flock of Canadian geese after me in the city about 7 years ago. Those guys are powerful and chase you quite far!
"

I have a phobia/fear of snakes, especially vipers and rattlesnakes. Florida has all US Poisonous snakes and all US poisonous spiders. I actually haven't seen a rattler in the wild here though (thankfully)

Besides a gigantic amount of bugs and snakes, we mainly have wildlife that's water related like gators and turtles, a few black bears (although again I never see them, they're not in my area) and the standard wildlife like deer and raccoons in certain areas.

I think snakes and spiders would want to run away. Nice place to live if you have that phobia; places where yours actually bite! I allow spiders to live in our house because their webs catch mosquitoes, when it's mosquito season. If I see them, I carefully scoot them across the floor so they don't get stepped on. Clearly someone used to no insects being dangerous where we live! Black bears would also prefer to run away. We once beheld a gorgeous, large Mother with three cubs! She started into our east field with them but as soon as she heard our enthusiastic voices at the window, she veered them into the woods.

Speaking of creepy spiders, one dropped into my car the other day but I couldn't find it and had to drive with it in there *shudders*

I've never seen a bear in the wild. We do have smaller bears in Florida but not around me. Neat animals.

I think it is spiders and insects who are rightfully scared: most humans have a habit of killing them on sight. Eek! Other than mosquitoes, which will not shoo away and sending woodticks down the drain, I don't. I would try to get them on a piece of paper and flip them outsider the door. However if you didn't know what kind your spider was, with biting ones a possibility in Florida; no doubt it was scary to drive away wondering where it is!

On the subject of where I am from: it is Manitoba and this is July 1st. HAPPY CANADA DAY! from our country on its one-hundred-and-forty-ninth birthday!

The day after Canada day is highly special in a personal way. Today, July 2nd, thirty-four years ago, a cat dear to our family was born! She physically lived twenty-one of those years. We promised her, in an engraving, to remember her lifetime throughout all of our larger ones and we do. I am sharing this because telling people about this wonderful family member means people are still hearing of her, longer than her biology could have continued. Physical limits cannot interfere with our love nor new people's acquaintance of dear souls. Twenty-eight is the longest-lived cat I have heard of, so here is her name still spoken well after. Happy birthday to you, Thumbelina!

They are probably so long lived because you take such good care of them :)

Have you always lived in Canada? Would you like to live elsewhere? I'd like to move out of Florida but am staying for family/friends.

That was my comfort with Thumbelina and I was urged to feel the same about Love. Seemingly born with a heart defect that suddenly blew on July 31, 2014 (keep me strong *that* day); I am urged to believe good care brought him 4 years into adulthood. Instead of the heart stopping in infancy. I was an equally good Mother to him so a sensitivity about longevity interferes less with time. I wondered why you said "they". I heard of a 28 year-old cat; I have not had one yet! Other than Love and one precious girl in my young childhood, there was no other death. Every other is still with me! McCartney at 16 is our next eldest, going strong. Thank you for remembering Thumbelina's birthday with me!!!!

I would never live anywhere but in my home and native land. In fact I am an hour from the city in which I was born and raised. However there is one province I would be willing to live in because there is so much that is special about it. I'll save mentioning provinces until after you get a chance to name our easy ten. :) Before Love died of course and rests here, I was tempted to move there. Neighbours were so noisy and dogs barked to such an extreme daily degree that it ruined our life for two years. I even looked up a property I wanted, for a good price. My job doesn't matter but Ron's does and he would be a hard sell. Before Love died. Now, I can't. I'm not ready to be separated from what remains of his physical self for some time. I'm unworried about distance from family because both brothers could afford to visit as much as they liked and my parents could stay for as long visits as they liked. That house would have offered space!

Pre-house buying and large cat family, Ron & I used to vacation all around our province annually and fly on a more adventurous trip every two or three years. Couldn't afford it like many people but have gone places a great deal more than others. Including ours, I have stood upon six countries. Our ties are about loving Canada, not unwillingness to move within it or visit other places.

What's the name of my province, frequently associated with cold weather but also an extreme span of the warm and cold spectrum? Well, it's the beach place to be today! We hit 37.4 Celcius, which is 99 Fahrenheit! We might as well be in Australia or India today! Lovely and a pleasure. :)