Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

True confessions time: I went for a hike yesterday instead of working on my photos and writing this post. So the weekend post is going up mid-day on Saturday. I also have a problem: a quick skim through my photos from the West Coast Trail (a mere 4-day trip and less than half the whole trail) had me selecting over 80 photos I want to share. I had to trim that down a LOT.   I did this hike in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on the west coast Vancouver Island July 18-21 with  my friend Sumi. She handled the logistics of permits and transportation--a non-trivial effort for which I am very grateful! Our hike was intended to be 2 night and 3 days, but because they warn that the trail can have issues--washouts, high water, inconvenient tides--we got the permit for 3 nights. By the end of the first day we had figured out two things: miles on this trail are a lot longer than on other trails, and we wanted to stay out there as long as we could. That led to an easy decision to shorten our

Another of my random history reads.     Title: Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War Author : 
Lynne Olson. Read by Arthur Morey & Kimberly Farr Publication Info : Random House Audio, 2017, 19 hours. Original hardback by Random House, 2017, 526 pages. Source: Library 

Publisher’s Blurb (via Overdrive): 

 A groundbreaking account of how Britain became the base of operations for the exiled leaders of Europe in their desperate struggle to reclaim their continent from Hitler, from the New York Times bestselling author of Citizens of London and Those Angry Days When the Nazi blitzkrieg rolled over continental Europe in the early days of World War II, the city of London became a refuge for the governments and armed forces of six occupied nations who escaped there to continue the fight. So, too, did General Charles de Gaulle, the self-appointed representative of free France.     As the only European democracy still

Participating this week in the fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle . Check out his blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. I've been discovering some great reads there. Title: Red Fox Road 
Author : 
Frances Greenslade Publication Info : 
Puffin Canada, 2020. 238 pages (Kindle edition) Source: Library 

Publisher’s Blurb: 

 A thirteen-year-old girl on a family vacation becomes stranded alone in the wilderness when the family's GPS leads them astray. A compelling survival story for ages 10 to 14, for fans of Hatchet and The Skeleton Tree . Francie and her parents are on a spring road trip, driving from British Columbia, Canada, to hike in the Grand Canyon. When a shortcut leads them down an old logging road, disaster strikes. Their truck hits a rock and wipes out the oil pan. They are stuck in the middle of nowhere. Francie can't help feeling a little excited -- she'd often imagined how