Here is the rest of the scale trail ....

Not all dragons have scales, at least in the books I've read, but the one in Dragon, by Jody Bergsma does and so will be included in this post. :-) This is a beautiful book, Bergsma (a local artist) is extremely talented, and I loved the Celtic elements of her illustrations.

As much as I enjoy looking at scale model train layouts, I really didn't want to read a book about how they are made so I was pleased to discover Playing With Trains: a Passion Beyond Scale, by Sam Posey. Sam loved trains as a child, moved away from it as a young adult, but when his first child was born returned to the scale model trains with a vengeance. I liked that his layouts were .... quirky .... there was a manufacturing plant that polluted a river, the workers were asleep on the loading docks surrounded by beer cans, that sort of thing. Seems tiny details are important, and, if you look closely, often humorous, as in the man heading for an outhouse underneath an ad for Ex-Lax. Someone named John Allen is a master at this, having buildings with windows which show an office or apartment where you might see a messy desk, and so on. Pictures would have been a nice addition, but overall this was a good read.

If you've ever considered a small farm, The New Horse Powered Farm: Tools and Systems for the Small-Scale Sustainable Market Grower by Stephen Leslie is full of useful information. Every thing to get you started, from learning the basic skills (there are farms that offer courses), to selecting the best horse(s) for what you want to do, and how to care for them. There are chapters on plowing, seeding, harvesting, even maple sugaring and logging and whether it's best to use one, two, three, or four horses. All the various types of equipment are explained as well. There is a new interest in this sort of farming and even if you never intended to walk behind a horse with a plow this a great armchair read.

And of course, those pesky musical scales with which all musicians are so familiar! I have several books in my piano bench, the old staple Hanon: the Virtuoso Piano, and for the French Horn, Pottag-Hovey Method for French Horn, Book One, by Max P. Pottag and Nilo W. Hovey, and Rubank Elementary Method for French Horn in F or E-Flat and Mellophone by Joseph E. Skornicka.

From my viola playing friend, comes this recommendation (well, of sorts, she said she liked doing her scales about as much as she did eating her veggies). (A sentiment with which I totally agree)! Scale System: Scale Exercises in All Major and Minor Keys for Daily Study, by Carl Flesch and Max Rostal sounds just as captivating as Rubank! (Ah, the memories ....)

And, a sort of post script this time, a book I have not read. I will not do this very often, but this one, found on amazon, sounded most interesting!

Musical Scales of the World, by Michael Hewitt explores the great variety of scales used around the world. There are scales we recognize with our Western ears, diatonic scales, those used in jazz, in Greek folk music, Asian music, African music and more. The reviews were good, and said that this is an excellent resource for composers for everything from pianos to computers.

See what happens when my original idea doesn't work out?!

Reading Hermit With Dog