Month: November 2017

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12 Months of Trails: Stony Man Mountain, Shenandoah National Park

I can’t believe that Friday will be December, and this hiking year is almost at an end!  We’ve had some amazing experiences on the trail this year, and November’s hike was no different.  What with Steve being a little under the weather, we haven’t been able to get on the trails as much this month as we’d have liked to, so by Thanksgiving weekend, I was really craving a good hike.  With my parents being in town for Thanksgiving, I also wanted to do something a little special with them.  Once it became clear that our plans to escape to the mountains for a couple of days after Thanksgiving were going to work out, I started researching the best family-friendly (read: kid-friendly) hikes at Shenandoah National Park, and Stony Man Mountain immediately jumped out as the hike to do.

There are two ways to hike Stony Man.  The main trail, which hits only Stony Man Mountain, is a 1.6 mile out and back with 340 feet of elevation gain – basically, the easiest possible way you could ever expect to climb a mountain.  There’s also a longer, and a little more challenging, trail called the Passamaquoddy Loop, which covers Little Stony Man as well.  That would normally be our choice, but with Steve still recovering and the babies not getting any easier to carry, we opted for the shorter trail this time.

Someone would have liked to hike on his own two feet, I think.  Soon, little man!  (Really – soon.  Mommy isn’t going to be able to schlep you forever.)  He was also desperate for a hiking pole of his own – that’s Nana’s, collapsed all the way down.  Too funny!

The trail was beautifully maintained all the way up.  My parents are used to hiking on Adirondack boulders, so I think they enjoyed the groomed trails in Shenandoah.  There were still plenty of opportunities for bouldering.  My dad is part mountain goat!  (I’d have been up there with him, but I was carrying 36 pounds of my heart’s most precious treasure on my back.)

Even with the relatively gentle incline, I was still feeling it.  This is one densely-packed little boy!

But even so, it seemed like no time at all before we reached the summit.  The final “push” to the peak was anything but – just a flat, gentle trail through the woods to the overlook (we’d already done all of our climbing).

Looking forward to that view!

Breathtaking!  The valley floor with the long mountain ridge in the background was absolutely stunning to behold – and there were two peregrine falcons swooping through the skies.  I think my parents were definitely not disappointed with this one.

Nana is a bird!

Just off to the left, the mountains reach back and back and back in shaded layers of azure, cerulean and sky – our Blue Ridge.

Summit snaps!

It was a lovely day on the summit.  The sun was warm and there was no breeze to speak of, so we were comfortable lingering, taking pictures, and goggling at the view.  (My dad was a little disappointed that I wouldn’t take the kids out of the backpacks to pose for pictures with the grandparents, but that was one thing I wasn’t comfortable with – the dropoff after the boulders was pretty steep.  Next time they come, I promised, we would take them to Great Falls – the kids can run around there.)  We spent about twenty minutes at the summit, just soaking in the payoff of a wonderful hike.

Another wonderful national park experience!  We love having Shenandoah in our backyard, and we hope to get there a lot more in 2018 – and it was fun to take my parents there for the first time.  We all share a love for the national parks and for hiking, so a family visit to Shenandoah was long overdue.  Can’t wait to see where our family adventures take us in 2018!

What’s your favorite national park?

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It’s Monday… Night (Oops)! What Are You Reading? (November 27, 2017)

Happy Monday… evening… to you, my friends!  Sorry this post is coming so late in the day.  I usually try to have it up in the morning, but things have been moving at a whirlwind pace over here.  So – let’s catch up!  For my American friends – did you have a lovely Thanksgiving?  I hope so!  We sure did.  My parents arrived on Tuesday and just left this morning, and I was hardly at my computer (other than for work, of course) between then and now.  I put in a full day at the office on Wednesday, but came home ready to have a wonderful weekend full of family time.  As you already know, we had a fabulous Thanksgiving.  On Friday, we hung around, enjoyed family time and decorated the house for Christmas.  The kids loved decorating the Christmas tree – maybe a little too much.  Nugget is completely obsessed with his vintage fire truck ornament, and I’m sort of afraid he’s going to snap it (it’s the 2016 White House ornament, so not exactly replaceable – much like the 2016 occupant of the White House… please come back, President Obama!).  I also found some of my prized (breakable) ornaments hung near the bottom of the tree, and fortunately was able to rescue and move them before anything too destructive happened.

On Saturday, we all loaded up and drove out to Little Washington – for non-locals, that’s Washington, Virginia, a tiny town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains near the entrance to Shenandoah National Park, which also happens to house one of the most acclaimed restaurants in the world, the Inn at Little Washington.  Steve’s mom had very generously given us a gift certificate to the Inn last Christmas, and we finally got the opportunity to use it.  The meal was just as splendid as we expected, and will definitely rank among the top dining experiences of our lives.  After dinner, we even got the special treat of being escorted back to the kitchen, and having the privilege of meeting Chef Patrick O’Connell, the famous chef-owner of the Inn.  Chef was a gracious and kind host, and the kitchen – every inch of which was hand-sourced by Chef himself, on his travels around the world – was amazing to see.  We worked off the incredible meal on Sunday, hiking with my parents and the kids to one of the highest overlook points in Shenandoah National Park – more on that to come on Wednesday.  It was a wonderful weekend!  And now I’m back to reality.  I can already tell this week is going to be off-the-charts in terms of the stress level.  Well – at least I have the memories of an amazing meal and a gorgeous hike.

  

Reading.  It’s been a bit of a slow reading week around my parts.  That’s to be expected with all of the socializing and family time I’ve been enjoying for the past few days.  But I did manage to finish The Stone Sky – which was good, but I was confused throughout most of the book.  It would’ve helped to read the trilogy in closer succession, I think; reading the books as they were released, I’d pretty much forgotten everything that happened in the first two books and spent way too much time puzzling over questions like wait, who is Ykka again? and what the heck did Nassun do to Jija?  Anyway.  Next I picked up The Shell Seekers and I am loving it, but also wanting to take my time and savor it – which is fine, because I discovered that I have to leapfrog China Rich Girlfriend due to library deadlines.  So I’ll be starting that as soon as I press “publish” on this post.

Watching.  The usual.  Lots and lots of Curious George – especially A Very Monkey Christmas – and Star Wars.  George and Vader are the big celebrities in my house.  I tried to get the kids to watch my favorite Christmas movie of all time – A Muppet Family Christmas – but it was a non-starter.  Booooooo.

Listening.  Not as much earbud time as I usually get in over the course of a week, because I had two fewer days of commuting (<–no complaints).  But I’m almost done with the first “book” of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text – just eight minutes to go in the final regular chapter episode, plus the wrap-up episode!  I am still loving, loving, LOVING this podcast.

Moving.  Not a bad week of movement.  It was lacking on the yoga front, but I was really craving some cardio, and I squeezed that in with a five-mile turkey trot on Thanksgiving Day, and a 1.6 mile hike up and down Stony Man Mountain on Sunday.  Moving my legs felt good.  Must keep it up.

Blogging.  I have a great week of content for you!  On Wednesday I’ll be sharing pictures from Stony Man Mountain, which will count for our November hike, and on Friday, I’ve got my November reading round-up post coming to you.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  Waking up to this morning’s news that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are engaged was such a delight!  They look so happy and in love, and I was smiling all day thinking about the royal wedding (Peanut is excited!) and – whenever I got a break – reading news coverage.  The proposal?  LOVE.  Prince Harry dropped to one knee as Meghan was “attempting to” roast a chicken.  Can we get a collective awwwww?  And Harry saying that Meghan and Princess Diana would have been “best friends” and “thick as thieves” brought a tear to my eye.  I love the British royal family and I DON’T CARE WHO KNOWS IT.

Asking.  What are you reading?

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Thanksgiving 2017

Just popping in quickly to say hello – HELLO! – and that I hope all of my friends are having a fabulous day filled with leftovers and family.  We’re getting ready to decorate our Christmas tree over here, and we have fun hiking plans for this weekend – but first, just a couple of photos of our day.  It was a busy one, and I was the chef, so I didn’t snap too many pictures.

Started the day running the Alexandria Turkey Trot, a five mile race through Del Ray (not our neighborhood, but close enough to walk).  Steve and the kids dropped me off near the starting line at the local middle school, and I cranked up my show tunes and enjoyed a brisk run through the streets.  It was a tough race thanks to the freezing cold weather – literally freezing; it was 30 degrees at the start – weird to run in such a chill when just a month ago I ran the MCM 10K under a heat advisory.  My legs felt strong (thank you, yoga and barre!) but my lungs felt like they were encased in ice and I did a lot of walking as a result.  Still was good to get outside and move before the cooking began, and I even saw a colleague from work, who spotted me on the course and introduced me to his running buddy before they cruised on ahead.  So funny to bump into a friendly face in the middle of a big race.  Those experiences are what makes a hometown, and I spent the next mile or so feeling grateful – a good feeling for Thanksgiving! – to live in a place where there are so many people I care about.

I walked home from the finish line and – after a quick shower – rolled up my sleeves and got right to work along with my sous chef.  Cooking and baking is Peanut’s favorite thing to do, and she was particularly pumped to help me make stuffing.  (Unfortunately, there wasn’t much she could do with the stuffing, since so much of it was done over heat.  But she helped with the artichoke dip, the mashed potatoes, and the dessert – apple tart with spiced pastry cream, which we didn’t eat because everyone was too full.)

While Peanut and I were busy in the kitchen, there was silliness afoot in the living room.

It’s not a holiday until someone is wearing sunglasses in the house, and someone else has a trash can on their head, right?  (We hadn’t even opened the wine yet.)

Some other people tried to stay out of it.

End of the day – by 6:00, I had a big and delicious dinner on the table for the fam – turkey, stuffing (which I hate and will never eat, but the rest of the family said was good), mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (with marshmallows, thankyouverymuch), roasted brussels sprouts, celebration kale salad, and cranberry sauce.  Is it any wonder no one had room for the tart?

Happy Thanksgiving, again, my friends!  I’m grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life – and if you read my random musings here, that includes you! 

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#ReadingValancy: The Power of Names in The Blue Castle

(Not quite the wild woods that Valancy and Barney wander in, but I feel sure they would be at home on this golden path in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.)

It’s a sad fact of the reading life that when one is in love with an author who is no longer living and writing, one will eventually run out of new books from that author.  I faced this fact with my beloved L.M. Montgomery years ago, and have been rationing out her books ever since.  Oh – they stand up to re-reading, of course, but there’s nothing like the experience of reading one for the first time.  So it was with trepidation that I picked up The Blue Castle to read along with Naomi and Sarah.  What if I didn’t love Valancy as much as I love my friends Anne Shirley, Emily Starr, Jane Stuart and Sara Stanley?  Worse – what if I loved Valancy just as much, or even more, and then I’d have met her and never get to meet her again for the first time?

Well – in the end it was the second (and let’s be honest, inevitable) scenario that came to pass.  But I can’t regret meeting Valancy, even if it means that we’re now friends and the fun of the first impression is behind me.  After all, I can re-visit her, and I will.  LMM’s books, as I said, reward re-reading by yielding something new and different every time you read them.  Of course, this time, it was all new for me – and I found that what made the biggest impression on me – other than the nature writing, which was as finely-wrought and evocative as always – was the power that names had in the story.

LMM has a fascination with names and their importance.  Take, for instance, our kindred spirit Anne Shirley.  Names are tremendously important to Anne.  First of all, would you please call her Cordelia?  And if you won’t oblige there, at least you can be so good as to spell her name Anne-with-an-E.  Anne values names highly, and she spends a lot of time thinking about them – not just her own name, but others’ as well.  She dislikes her last name, Shirley, but is proud that her parents had romantic names – Walter and Bertha.  She refuses to call Gilbert by name – he’s “Gil- some of the others” when she’s worrying about losing her place at the head of the class – at least, until they become friends and he earns the right to a name.  (A right which he lost by calling Anne names – the terrible “Carrots.”)  She’s pleased as punch to have a best friend with a romantic name such as Diana – and Diana shows her love for Anne by naming her daughter after her – “Small Anne Cordelia.”  Cordelia.  Of course.  In Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne expresses delight that an acquaintance, Katherine, spells her name with a K instead of “smug C” – and then is dismayed when the next note from said acquaintance, rejecting Anne’s overtures of friendship, is signed “Catherine” – with a C!  Anne is fixated on names and their importance, and it seems her creator is too, because this thread runs through The Blue Castle too.

Warning – spoilers ahead!  Stop here if you plan to read The Blue Castle and don’t want me to reveal its twists and surprises.

Take, first, the heroine: Valancy Jane Stirling.  Valancy’s name matters to her a great deal.  She’s fixated on her first name – as LMM tells us right off, Valancy doesn’t much like her middle name, Jane, but she is very fond of her first name.  To start with Jane, I thought it was interesting that Valancy doesn’t like it – since she reminded me of no other LMM heroine more than Jane Victoria Stuart.  I wondered if LMM meant it to be significant that both heroines have the letters V, J, and S in their names, and that while Valancy rather dislikes “Jane,” Jane Stuart absolutely loathes “Victoria.”  I found it particularly fascinating, because I believe that had Jane not discovered PEI and had her summers with “Dad,” she would have grown up to be Valancy – at least, Valancy as we first meet her.  I’ll come back to this.

Then, there’s the matter of a first name.  Valancy has a nice ring, and our heroine does like it – but her family insists on calling her by the nickname of her babyhood, “Doss.”  Not only does “Doss” have nothing to do with “Valancy” (as far as I can tell) but – ugh.  I don’t blame Valancy for favoring her given name over the one hissing syllable her family allows her.  And she has my hearty sympathies, because I, too, am saddled with a hated nickname.  I have relatives – and a few people from high school, although I’m not in touch with many – who will never, ever, ever give over calling me “Jackie.”  I’ve pretty much accepted this, but still – there’s nothing that sets my teeth on edge quite like being called “Jackie.”  It is not my name, and more than that – it is not me.  Hearing it spoken aloud shoves me right back into middle school.  So I don’t blame Valancy for the cold grip of irritation she feels every time one of her family members calls her by the hated “Doss.”

Finally, the last name – Stirling.  Has there been a more evocative surname in all of LMM’s bibliography?  Stirling – the perfect name for a family of upstanding, status-obsessed, well-to-do and thoroughly disagreeable relatives.  To me, Valancy’s maiden name is very suggestive of her family’s place in their insular community, and – even more – of the self-congratulatory view they hold of their family.

Of course, Valancy doesn’t keep the name “Stirling.”  She trades it in (for another S name – is that an LMM thing?  Shirley, Starr, Stuart, Stanley, and Stirling – that can’t be unintentional).  After receiving a letter from her doctor bluntly informing her that she has incurable heart disease and no more than a year to live, 29-year-old Valancy decides to make herself happy.  She starts by slipping out from under her domineering mother’s thumb, shocking her family by saying precisely what she thinks instead of biting her tongue and playing the role they’ve all assigned her – of cowed, colorless “Doss.”  Then she ventures further – leaving her mother’s home to take a job as nurse and companion to a disgraced peer, Cissy Gay, who is dying of tuberculosis.  I didn’t think it was a coincidence that Valancy, seeking happiness and life in what she believes to be her last year, flies from the home of the (upstanding) Stirlings to the Gay household.  Her flight shocks her family, and they embark on an unsuccessful campaign to lure her back home to salvage her reputation, which she has apparently damaged by her association with the Gays.  Valancy, for her part, figures – whatever, she’s dying.  She likes Cissy and her father, she feels more comfortable in their home, and she couldn’t care less about her reputation.  So she stays on until Cissy dies, and then she shocks her family even more, by marrying local scoundrel Barney Snaith and moving out to his ramshackle cabin on an island “up back” in Muskoka.  (Shades, again, of an adult Jane Stuart – defying snobbish relatives for a chance at happiness, keeping house, and feeling needed – first by caring for Cissy Gay, and then embracing her own little space, warming it and tidying it and bustling about in it.  Jane would do these things – Jane does do these things, when she and Dad set up house on Lantern Hill.  Had Jane grown up without Dad, without PEI, I believe she would have become what Valancy was at the beginning of the novel – colorless, cowering before her indomitable elders.  Jane, like Valancy, yearns to be needed, and Jane, like Valancy, finds fulfillment in feeding and caring for those around her.  Jane, like Valancy, longs for a home to call her own, and Jane, like Valancy, finds herself a gifted housekeeper when she gets that home.  The difference between them is that Jane is 12 and Valancy 29, and Jane finds hearth and happiness with her father; Valancy with her husband.)

Snaith – what a name.  The Stirlings and the rest of the local society can’t abide him, and they’re all convinced he’s done something terrible and shameful – a misapprehension he encourages – and they gleefully speculate about Snaith’s dark deeds over dining tables and coffee.  One can’t entirely blame them, because with a name like Snaith… After all, the “sn” sound can’t be trusted.  Think of the other words that it heralds.  Sneer.  Snicker.  Snide.  Snark.  Sneak.

Snaith does seem to do many of those things.  He certainly has a way of sneering and snickering – more than once are his “mocking” smiles and laughter described.  Valancy, for her part, doesn’t care about anything he’s done.  She loves him, she’s dying, she wants to be happy.  And Snaith does make her happy – giving her a home on a private island in the Ontario wilderness, leading her on tramps through the woods, canoe trips in velvety twilight, red-cheeked ice-skating races – a life of adventure and joy.  As Valancy Snaith, our heroine is filling up on a lifetime of fun while she can.

Of course, Snaith has secrets.  (How could he not, with a name like that?)  He has his “Bluebeard’s Chamber” – a lean-to he forbids Valancy to enter.  Valancy doesn’t care what Snaith has in the lean-to, and she’s not particularly interested in what he does there.  (Much speculation has ensued on why Valancy isn’t more curious, and why she seems so unconcerned that her husband has secrets; I believe she’s simply not interested.  She was open – both with Barney and with herself – about her expectations of marriage.  She didn’t think it was going to last long, and all she wanted was a little earthly happiness and companionship before her time was up.  Barney holds up his end of the bargain – gives her that and more – and she is content.)  To Snaith’s secrets – they, too, have to do with names.  And more to the point, with his other names – because he has two.

Barney Snaith is John Foster – a nature writer Valancy admires.  When cowed by her mother, Valancy was not permitted to read novels, and her one joy in life was the (non-fiction, but one step away from poetry) nature books written by her favorite author, John Foster.  Barney flatly refuses to discuss Foster with Valancy, and he sneeringly dismisses Foster’s writing as “piffle” when Valancy does browbeat him into listening to her quote a passage.  Allow me to pat myself on the back for a minute?  I guessed immediately that Barney was John Foster, and that what he was doing in his “Bluebeard’s Chamber” was processing photos and writing the luminous nature books that Valancy devours.

Barney is also Bernard Snaith Redfern – only son of a multi-millionaire who made his vast fortune in inventing and selling tonics and pills (which Valancy’s stiff relatives swear by).  As a boy, Barney is mocked for his father’s business, yet is also sought-after for his wealth – and the pain of being simultaneously bullied and pursued stays with him his entire life – until Valancy comes along, ignorant of his vast wealth and its embarrassing origins, and pleased to paddle around in a canoe and cook potatoes over a campfire.  As Bernie Redfern, he had no chance of love.  As Barney Snaith, he has a companion and lifemate who has fallen in love with him for who he is, not for what he can buy.  One can only imagine the happiness.

I won’t get deeper into plot, other than to assure you of what you already knew – this is LMM, after all – it all comes right in the end.  Valancy doesn’t die (it was all a mistake!  woohoo!) and her family is more than happy to accept her as “Mrs. Bernard Redfern” after cutting her out of their lives when she was “Valancy Snaith.”  Such is the power of a name.

Have you read The Blue Castle?  Did you love it?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (November 20, 2017)

Hello.  I would like to share with you the most amazing book!

I have been itching to see The Book of Mormon ever since it opened to such acclaim on Broadway, but I was never able to make it happen.  The touring cast appeared in Buffalo three times while I lived there, and I could never get a babysitter!  We finally saw the show on Friday night at the Kennedy Center, and it was everything I expected, and more.  Wildly inappropriate, of course, but also absolutely hilarious.  As you know if you’ve been reading these Monday posts for a hot second, I’ve been listening to the soundtrack on repeat since we got back from our trip to see Hamilton on Broadway, but – once again – seeing the show in person was ten times better than listening to the soundtrack.  Elder McKinley – sequined-vest-wearing, tap-dancing Elder McKinley – was my favorite part of the show.  Well – second favorite.  Seeing Steve laughing helplessly was my favorite part.  (He had not listened to the soundtrack, and said afterwards that while he loved the show, he thinks he would have enjoyed it even more if he had known the music in advance – more than just the standards “Hello” and “I Believe.”  We’ll make a theatre geek of him yet, kids!)  The rest of the weekend was pretty low key.  It was Steve’s birthday weekend – the big 4-0, you guys! – and what he wanted was a laid-back weekend at home, so that’s what he got.  On Saturday we walked out to the library and the playground, but that was the extent of the activity.  And Sunday was even more low-key – Nugget and I made a grocery run, but other than that, we just hung around the house.  I read like a maniac, Steve watched football, and the kids played and watched cartoons to their hearts’ content.  I gifted Steve with a camping growler and a cozy down blanket from REI – hoping we get some use out of both of his presents this summer!  (He also is getting a very extravagant experience gift as a combination birthday/Christmas present – racing three supercars around Dominion Racetrack – but that’s not until July.)  All in all, I think he had a great weekend – the perfect balance of fun and relaxation, and even a date night to a musical with all the swears.

  

Reading.  I had a great reading week.  I began the week with We Were Eight Years in Power, the new collection of essays by Ta-Nehisi Coates.  The essays had all been published in The Atlantic, so I’d actually read a few of them, but it was a privilege to revisit them.  Coates is an extraordinary writer, and he never fails to make me think and question.  Once I finished the Coates, I turned my attention – finally! – to The Blue Castle, which I am reading for the #ReadingValancy readalong.  It was an absolute joy, and I read like a fiend all weekend, then was terribly sad when it ended – the mark of a great book.  I ended the weekend on the couch with The Stone Sky, the final volume in N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy.  The first two books were so well-done; I’ve been eagerly anticipating the third – but dreading it a little, too, because Essun’s journey through motherhood is absolutely searing.  Anyway, I’m just a very little way in, so too soon to say how it’s going.

Watching.  Another great week, because I watched live musical theatre again!  Before this year, it had been so long since Steve and I went to see a show, that seeing both Hamilton and The Book of Mormon in the same year feels decadent in the extreme.  We had a fun date night on Friday and spent the evening at the Kennedy Center with Elder Price, Elder Cunningham, Elder McKinley, Nabalungi and the gang.  It was everything I could have hoped for.  Pink sequined vests!  If you can see it – do.  We just loved every minute.

Listening.  So, a few weeks ago, my friend Susan and I attended an “Austen in Autumn” happy hour, put on by our local JASNA chapter.  (That’s “Jane Austen Society of North America,” for the uninitiated, and yes, it’s a terrible name.)  At the happy hour, we discussed everything from our “favorite Austen rogue” – I named John Thorpe as my favorite, because we’ve all dated John Thorpe, amirite ladies? – to medieval IT support.  Susan and I left high-fiving each other for being social and making new friends, and I also had with me a podcast recommendation – for “Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.”  The premise, in a nutshell, is this – hosts Casper ter Kaile and Vanessa Zoltan, both Harvard Divinity School graduates, discuss and analyze a chapter of the Harry Potter books in each episode as they would analyze the Bible, Torah or Q’uran.  First they talk about the chapter of the week through the lens of a broad theme such as “friendship” or “commitment” or “white privilege.”  Then they move on to a spiritual practice such as lectio divina (sacred reading) or spiritual imagination.  And finally, they each choose one character who appeared in the chapter, and they give that character a personal blessing.  You guys.  I am binging it.  I cannot stop listening.  I am kicking myself that I didn’t know about this podcast back in September, when they did a live episode in D.C.  Because I seriously – seriously! – can’t get enough.  They are a few chapters into the fourth book now, and I predict that both my podcatcher and my Audible account are going to be seriously neglected until I catch up.

Moving.  So – as full of activity as this week has been in other areas (see above) there wasn’t much moving.  I skipped yoga and barre on Tuesday and Wednesday, because Steve was still under the weather from last weekend (actually, he kind of still is even now) and I didn’t want to leave him alone to start the kids’ mornings.  I did make it to power yoga on Friday, because it was my last class with my favorite instructor before she heads off to Africa and the Peace Corps.  But other than that – it was a slow week.  I am feeling the effects, too – I need more movement next week.

Blogging.  Coming up this week, I have a loooooooooong post with my musings on The Blue Castle on Wednesday, and on Friday I plan to tell you about our Thanksgiving celebrations.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  There is so much I could talk about this week.  Renewing my old love for musical theatre!  The upcoming Thanksgiving holiday!  But more than anything else, I am loving Steve on his birthday weekend.  We have been together for a really long time – we started dating when I was 19 and he was 23 – and it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that he’s 40.  I feel so honored to be the person by his side as he journeys through life.  He’s everything I dreamed of in a husband – kind, caring, loving, a wonderful hands-on father, and a true adventure buddy.  Happy birthday, Prince Charming!  Here’s to many, many, MANY more.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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A Day in the Life: November, 2017

It’s been a long time – years, maybe? – since I’ve done a day-in-the-life style post.  I can’t even remember the last time, to be honest.  But now seems as good a time as any, and as luck would have it, #OneDayHH 2017 just took place.  So what better day to feature?  (For those not familiar, #OneDayHH is an annual social media event, hosted by Laura Tremaine of The Hollywood Housewife, in which participants are challenged to capture and share snapshots of an entire day’s activities.  It’s always in early November, and always on a weekday, because the idea is to encourage people to look for the little moments that are worth preserving in their everyday lives – not just the big events or particularly photogenic shots.)

Anyway, #OneDayHH took place on November 9 this year – a regular Thursday for me.  Here’s what I was up to.

6:20 a.m. Nugget is up and therefore so am I.  It’s a workout off day, so I try to maximize my sleep, since it has been so crummy lately, thanks to a bad cold going around the house (anytime anyone has a cold, it means less sleep for Mom).  I didn’t set my alarm, so I just wake up whenever my human alarm clock goes off, which is 6:20 today.  I get him out of his crib, change his diaper and let him play for a few minutes while I get ready for my day, until Peanut gets up and we go downstairs.  I set them up at the kitchen table with their breakfast and “Doc McStuffins” on the iPad, then make Nugget’s lunch.  He is getting soup, green beans, cheese, a blueberry breakfast bar, and homemade plum applesauce, plus a yogurt for his “second breakfast” once he gets to the nanny share.

7:15-7:30 a.m.  Back upstairs and it’s time for Nugget to get dressed for the day, which he does not want to do.  Peanut is already dressed and ready to go – as is the rest of the family.  I chase the lone holdout around his room until I finally catch him and wrestle him into sweatpants and a cozy long-sleeved t-shirt.  Then we’re all out the door together.

7:45 a.m.  Steve, Peanut and Nugget drop me off at the Metro station – I’m the first stop in the morning circuit.  They head onward to Peanut’s school and then Nugget’s nanny, and then Steve will go back home to work (he works remotely from home).  Meanwhile, I wait on the platform for my train into D.C.

8:15 a.m.  I’m off the Metro and back above-ground at Gallery Place.  Normally I would go straight to work, but I need to make a stop first.  In the hustle of getting everyone ready this morning, I forgot to eat.  So I head for Bakers & Baristas, the neighborhood indie coffee shop, to grab a quick breakfast to bring to my desk.

8:20 a.m.  In line at Bakers & Baristas.  I order a London Fog (half vanilla steamer, half Earl Grey) and a pastry to take to my desk.

8:25 a.m.  Tea in hand, walking to the office past a row of Capitol Bikeshare bikes.

Still 8:25 a.m.  On my other side, the National Portrait Gallery is looking lovely under the grey morning sky.

8:30-11:45 a.m.  I’m at my desk.  This is my favorite corner, which I decorated with some of my favorite pictures and mementos – Instagram prints, birthday party invitations, and Adirondack 46 mountain patches from the peaks I’ve bagged.  I can’t show you the rest of my desk, as it is (neatly) piled with confidential client documents.  Anyway!  I fire up my computer, read news alerts and emails, and then look over the pleadings in a case that I’ve just been pulled into – getting up to speed on the issues so I have a better sense of what documents are going to be relevant.  Three hours go by in a flash.

11:45 a.m.  I am starting to get a headache (something is going on with the generator, and it’s making our whole hallway smell electric).  I decide a pick-me-up is in order, and use my favorite teapot to brew some “Earl on the Beach,” a loose tea my BFF, Rebecca, sent me from her local tea shop in Virginia Beach.  (Later, I will be dismayed to discover that the brand-new replacement basket I ordered for my tea leaves has a hole in the mesh.  Grrrr!)  Back to my desk, and my reading.

12:30 p.m.  Lunchtime.  Normally I would walk outside to either pick up lunch or just get some fresh air, but today we have a CLE (that’s “Continuing Legal Education,” for my non-lawyer friends) program scheduled – and lunch is provided.  I eat a cheese and veggie wrap while listening to a presentation on best practices for crafting and managing litigation holds.  In my day-to-day world, this is very important and high stakes stuff – mistakes can be very costly, and we are extremely serious about getting it right.  I found the presentation really informative and interesting – good use of my lunch hour!

1:30-2:15 p.m.  I work on some administrative tasks that are not a lot of fun, but have to be done.  My headache is coming back, so I decide it’s time for some fresh air.

2:15-2:45 p.m.  I feel my headache coming back, and I think fresh air would help, so I decide to walk to the courthouse – might as well make productive use of the time – and pick up a form I need for the Virginia Bar.  (I am licensed to practice law in New York and Washington, D.C., but am in the process of applying for a license to practice in Virginia, too.  Virginia requires a huge stack of forms and documents, so I’ve been on a bit of a scavenger hunt to gather everything I need.)  When I get to the courthouse, I put my bag down to be scanned, and tell the security guard, “I’m here for a–” and before I can finish, she interrupts me: “Certificate of Good Standing?”  I laugh and ask how she guessed, and she said, “You were just too poised when you walked in here.  Usually people look nervous.  I though, either she’s here for Good Standing or she’s filing something.”  Ha!

I walk through the metal detector and down to the Attorney Admissions Office, where there is no line – so I am out the door, my Certificate of Good Standing in hand, in less than five minutes.  (For my non-lawyer friends, a Certificate of Good Standing is a piece of paper from the powers-that-be in a jurisdiction, saying that my license to practice law in that jurisdiction is active and current – meaning I haven’t been suspended from the Bar or gotten behind on my dues.  I need them for both of my states in order to submit to the Virginia Bar.  For New York, I have to write a letter and get the Certificate mailed to me, but for D.C. I have the luxury of just walking down the street.)  On my way out the door and back to my office, I look around at the courtyard, which has been improved since I was last here a few months ago.  I particularly like the quote: “All citizens are equal before the law.”  I think of Tuesday’s election results in Virginia and smile.

2:45 p.m.  I am back in my office, and I have a text from our sweet nanny.  Every day, she sends me the pictures she snaps of Nugget and I save them to my camera roll (one reason my phone storage is shot).  Seeing his little face always brightens my day.  Today she sends a bunch of pictures of Nugget with the other kid in the nanny share – they’re such good friends!  So cute.  I spend the rest of the afternoon working on my Virginia Bar application, including making a 30+ minute call to Virginia Bar IT Support.  Oof.  (They’re very helpful, and it turns out I alerted them to a problem with a hyperlink that could have impacted 500 people, so I guess that’s my good deed for the day!)  I spend most of the time drafting answers to the Character & Fitness questionnaire, update my scavenger hunt spreadsheet (where I am tracking the status of all of the documents I have requested) and chat with a partner who stops by my office just to say hello (so nice).

5:15 p.m.  I save and close my Virginia Bar application and head home.  I am not loving how dark it is, but I do like the pretty twinkle lights that the vendors have strung up in the Thursday afternoon farmers’ market that I walk through on my way to the Metro.  I always think I should stop and buy something, but I am always in a hurry to get home – today is no exception.

5:50 p.m.  I’m home!  Peanut and Nugget are finishing their dinner in the kitchen.  Every day when I walk into the house, they scream with joy – it’s the best way to be greeted, EVER.  Today, after they finish shrieking their happiness, Peanut goes back to the lolly she was working on, and Nugget asks for “uppy!”  Of course, at that moment, I get a work email that needs an immediate response, so I jump back on the computer and quickly take care of it.

6:25 p.m.  I take both kids upstairs to get ready for baths.  Peanut plays contentedly in her room, but Nugget – the Pisces – has to be involved in any activity that includes water.  Somehow, I manage to get the bath prepared.  He almost falls in (fully clothed) three times, but this is not my first rodeo, and my bathtub-dive-rescue instincts are sharply honed.  I bathe both of the kids while Steve is downstairs taking care of his own urgent work email.

7:10 p.m.  Both kids are clean and cuddled up in their coziest jammies (our upstairs Thermostat was on the blink yesterday, and it got kind of cold overnight – Steve fixed it, but I still wanted the added insurance of fleece pajamas).  It’s time to start winding down, but Nugget is in hardcore bedtime-avoidance mode – running around, wearing Peanut’s hat, and playing “picnic.”  Eventually I get both the hat and the basket away from him.  He’s not very happy about it.

7:25 p.m.  Ready to read!  Nugget chooses “A-B-C-3PO” for a bedtime story.  Usually, we do two or three – or sometimes more – but he did so much stalling that we only have time for one story tonight.  Fortunately, “A-B-C-3PO” is a long one.

7:35 p.m.  See?  Still reading.  It’s a really funny book that we all enjoy.  My favorite parts are the breaks I get every few pages, because whenever Darth Vader appears (quite frequently, as it happens) Nugget must sing the Imperial Death March, shout “Luke, I am your father!” and profess his undying love for the Sith.  After we finish the story, I tuck him in and Steve sings to him while Peanut and I start reading in her room.  We are reading Mr. Popper’s Penguins – a chapter every night – and after we finish our chapter for the evening, she gets to pick out a picture book.  Tonight, it’s “The Princess and the Pea.”

8:00 p.m.  Both kids are in bed, and I am downstairs and STARVING.  I heat up a bowl of homemade vegetable soup with pinto beans, and stir in plain yogurt for extra protein and creaminess.  Meanwhile, Steve shows me the treat he bought for us to enjoy after dinner.  Yum!  He sits at the table while I eat my dinner and we talk about our days.

8:35 p.m.  Couch time!  I cuddle up under my favorite blanket to finish The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou.  I’m almost done, so I wrap it up after only a few more minutes of reading, then turn to Jane Gardam’s The Flight of the Maidens, which is out of renewals at the library.  About an hour and a half of reading and sipping the stout we are sharing, and then it’s time to turn in – I have early morning yoga tomorrow.

10:00 p.m.  Lights out!  All too soon, my alarm will be ringing and it’ll be time to get up and do it all again.

 

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Marine Corps Marathon 10K 2017

Whew!  It’s been awhile since I put up a race recap, hasn’t it?  I can’t even remember the last time.  The past year or two, it’s been hard to run and train for races – I’m sure I make lots of excuses, but there it is.  I don’t love being away from Nugget for long stretches, even now – I figure there’ll be plenty of time for half marathons (and maybe longer races?) when he’s older.  And between job-hunting, planning a move, and then trying to get used to a new job (I’ve been at my current job for over a year, and I still feel like I’m learning the ropes) something had to give, and it’s been running.  But I miss the feeling of accomplishment that I used to get from training for and running races, so I have very gradually been dipping my toes back into the local running scene.  I’m not doing anything too crazy right now, which was why my “big” race of the year was a 10K – but what a 10K!

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The day before the MCM10K, I drove over to National Harbor to pick up my packet.  It was a total zoo, but somehow I made it in and out with my bib and mock-turtleneck (#RockTheMock).  Loud singing along to The Book of Mormon soundtrack on the way there and back was a big help.  Back at home, I laid out my “flat runner” – we’d gotten a heat advisory email from the race organizers, so I planned accordingly with a tank top that weighs less than a sheet of tissue paper.

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Race morning dawned clear and sunny.  It was actually a little bit brisk, and I was chilly as I waited at the start line, but I knew I’d be glad I had the lightweight tank on later (spoiler alert: I was).  Eventually, the gun sounded and we were off!  I got chills as I ran under the “Marine Corps Marathon” starting arch.  Maybe someday I’ll run through this arch on my way to 26.2.

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The full marathon course starts over by Iwo Jima, but the 10K starts on the National Mall – which is very nice, because the scenery begins immediately.  We ran past a line of Smithsonian museums, and before long, I could see the Capitol over my left shoulder.  (I hummed “dark as a tomb where it happens” as I ran past.)

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Rounded the corner, and headed down past the Smithsonian Castle and toward the Washington Monument.  I have really missed running local races around these streets.  It’s SO nice to be home.

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Hello, George!  I put my camera away and before I knew it, we were crossing the bridge into Arlington.  I didn’t get too excited at that point, because most of the 10K is run in Arlington.  We still had a long way to go.

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A good portion of the race (10K and I think marathon, too) is run on highways in full sun – hence the heat advisory and the warning to dress appropriately for the weather.  I was glad that I made the apparel choices I had – I was always comfortable and didn’t really feel like I was baking in the sun (I did hear later that a few people were taken off the course in ambulances due to the heat, so it was no joke).  There was also a fair amount of shade on the 10K course, which provided relief, and even when we were in full sun we could count on cool scenery – like the Pentagon.

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I could tell we were getting close to the end when I ran through this row of American and Marine flags, and I started to get a little misty-eyed.  I made sure to thank every Marine I saw on the course for their service – others were doing so, as well.

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Soon we found ourselves running past the marathon starting corrals – all empty.  It was surreal to see the corrals silent, with all the runners gone.  Maybe someday I’ll be standing in one, ready to race the full.

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And before I knew it – the end!  The last little bit of the course was an evil, heinous – extremely steep – uphill, so no pictures from that part.  I went through the finishers’ corrals, collected my medal, and found my cheering squad – Steve, the kids, and my mom.  It was hot, exhausting, and completely exhilarating and inspiring.

Are you a runner?  What’s your favorite race?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (November 13, 2017)

Hi, friends.  No fun weekend report for you today.  Steve was under the weather all weekend, so it was just me and the kids from sun up to sun down, and we were in survival mode in a big way.  On Friday afternoon, I took them to the library, both to get them out of Dad’s hair and also so I could return a book that was due back and get more that were on hold – and that was the best thing that we did all weekend.  They played in the children’s section for awhile, and we read a bunch of books and then picked a few for them to check out.  And then it was all downhill from there.  I spent the rest of the weekend arbitrating disputes over toys, pulling them off each other, putting them in time-out, and running errands.  Seriously, running errands seemed like a really relaxing thing to do because any time they spent strapped into their car seats was time that Nugget wasn’t pulling out fistfuls of Peanut’s hair, and Peanut wasn’t trying to gouge out Nugget’s eyes.  You think I’m kidding, but I’m not.  The best thing we did all weekend was drop off a donation to the D.C. Diaper Bank, which made me disproportionately excited because it had been sitting in my dining room for way too long.  They were pretty decent on Sunday (see above: car seats), so I took them to the playground and it was a total disaster – tackling, hair-pulling, face-grabbing, the works.  So, yeah.  That was my weekend.

  
  

Reading.  One good thing I can tell you is – I did a lot of reading this weekend.  This week, too, but mostly this weekend.  Since the kids had to be separated a lot of the time (or it would mean the start of another round of the Hunger Games) Peanut spent a good amount of time playing in her room while Nugget played in his room and I sat in his chair and read as best I could while Nugget drove his trucks over my face.  It was for my sanity, really, but I justified  it by reminding myself that it is important for me to model reading for enjoyment so that the kids can see that.  (I do think that’s true.)  Anyway, over the week I burned through Little Fires Everywhere (which was incredible), Coronation Summer (really, really funny!) and The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (powerful and breathtaking).  Late in the week I started The Flight of the Maidens, which wasn’t long but sort of felt like a slog to me.  (It is beautifully written, so I suspect that the reason it felt like a slog was that I had a pending library deadline, so read it over other things I wanted to read more, and that always makes a book feel like work a little more than it otherwise would.)  I put it aside to read the very slim and absolutely stunning The Origin of Others, which I finished in just a couple of hours on Saturday morning (I just couldn’t wait), then went back to The Flight of the Maidens.  Finally finished that on Sunday evening, and I’m now about a quarter of the way through We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy, the new collection of essays about the Obama presidency by Ta-Nehisi Coates.  I’ve actually read a few of the essays already, because I read The Atlantic, where they were published, but I am re-reading them in the book and Coates’ writing is, as always, uncomfortable, thought-provoking and necessary.  (It was a very Coates weekend for me.  He also contributed the introduction to The Origin of Others.)  Anyway, I’ll continue with the new Coates over the next couple of days, and then I plan to pick up The Blue Castle for Naomi and Sarah’s readalong – I’ll have thoughts about it coming soon!  (Sorry no links to their blogs – something is going on with my WordPress and my link function is not working.)

Watching.  We had a family movie date on Saturday afternoon – starring Darth Vader, of course.  Nugget is starting to realize that Darth Vader is a “bad guy,” and I think he’s having some questions as a result.  He still asks to skip to the “Darth Vader parts,” but he also seems to be contemplating switching his allegiance to his new buddy, Yoda.  We’ll see!  Other than Star Wars, we have been watching a lot of Doc McStuffins lately, which I tolerate because Peanut says she wants to be a doctor and I think Doc McStuffins is the reason.  (Doc herself seems like a cool kid, but her toys set my teeth on edge – especially Lambie and Stuffie, both of whom make me want to bang my head against the wall.)  The kids have been alternating Doc with Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas, because I’ve decided that it’s not too early for Christmas shows.  Especially George, who I can actually stand to watch on repeat.

Listening.  All podcasts, all the time this week.  Of particular note were the one-year birthday episode of Tea and Tattle, which had me searching for Chalet School books on Abebooks, and the latest episode of Sorta Awesome, all about boundary-setting for the holidays (always a good topic to revisit around this time of year, and something I’ve struggled with in the past – although I’m getting better at it).  I have to complain about my podcatcher, though.  I listen to podcasts on iTunes, and it got swept up in the latest iPhone iOS update, and – I HATE the changes.  It is so much less user-friendly now and I’m having a really hard time figuring out a new system for listening.  I might have to switch to a new podcast app – any suggestions?

Moving.  Pretty slow week and very slow weekend, although keeping Peanut and Nugget from killing each other is quite a workout.  I made it to power yoga on Tuesday and Friday, and that’s it – no Barre3 and no Saturday vinyasa.  With Steve being under the weather, it was just all I could do.  Hoping for a more active week next week.  Definitely need to get some more runs in as the Turkey Trot approaches.

Blogging.  I have a recap of the Marine Corps Marathon 10K coming up for you on Wednesday (belated, but there it is) and a day-in-the-life post, inspired/facilitated by #OneDayHH, on Friday.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  I know I have complained a lot about them in this post, but I have to tell you about one cute thing – Nugget has started calling Peanut “sweetie.”  It’s the cutest, funniest, darlingest thing.  I’m sure he’s heard us call her that, but it’s sooooooo much more adorable coming from him.  In the mornings, he’s usually the first one up, and she will come looking for people once she wakes up – and when she joins us, either in the kitchen or in Nugget’s room, he greets her in his squeaky little toddler voice: “Hiiiiiiiiii, sweetie!”  IT IS SO ADORABLE.  I die, you guys, I actually die.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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Seven Days, Seven B&W Photos

Well, I’m guessing that most of my friends have encountered the latest social media challenge to make its way around Facebook and Instagram.  I’m not normally one to get into doing social media challenges; I rarely participate in Instagram month-long daily prompts and I usually roll my eyes hard at Facebook challenges.  But my friend Rebecca challenged me twice to do the B&W challenge, I figured I’d better go along with it, or she’d never stop.  😉

The rules of the challenge are: post a black and white photo every day for seven days; no pictures and no explanations.  Challenge another person.  I followed along and posted my photos noting only what day of the challenge I was on, and at the end, challenged my sister-in-law Danielle.  Now that I’m done, here’s the whole challenge in all its glory, with some more details about the photos and the processing, and at the end, a lesson I learned that surprised me a bit.

Day One

Place: Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands National Park, California
Date: August, 2017
Camera: iPhone 6s Plus
Processing: Silvertone

I was really pleased with the way this one came out.  I snapped this picture on my phone as Steve and I were hiking the bluffs on Santa Cruz Island, and I liked it, but it was sort of a grey day and the views weren’t as dramatic as they are when the sun is shining.  It didn’t occur to me to process it in black and white (that almost never occurs to me) but I really like it.

Day Two

Place: Great Falls National Park, Virginia
Date: August, 2016
Camera: iPhone 6s Plus
Processing: Clarendon (Instagram) and Noir

I much prefer this picture processed in color.  It’s actually one of my favorite photos that I have taken while hiking – not that it’s the best or most dramatic, but Great Falls is my favorite place in the world.  I don’t feel like the black and white processing does the picture any favors at all.  Perhaps if I’d taken this during the winter, when Great Falls is pretty much black and white anyway, I’d feel differently.  But I remember taking this picture, and the whole day was a riot of color, and it was our first hike back after moving home to Virginia, and my cousin Jocelyn was there.  If there’s ever a picture that should be processed in color, it’s this one.

Day Three

Place: Pamlico Sound, Frisco, North Carolina
Date: July, 2015
Camera: iPhone (older generation)
Processing: Silvertone

Longtime readers may recall that when I recapped my 2015 summer vacation to the Outer Banks, I included a post with one sunset picture from each day of our trip that I had snapped on my camera and processed/shared on Instagram.  This was one of the outtakes.  I didn’t use it because I didn’t like the big dark expanse in the foreground.  I think the black and white processing has improved this picture.  Normally I would never process a sunset picture in black and white, because what on earth would be the purpose?  But I think the Silvertone filter gave the sky a really cool look, and I like the silhouette of the windblown tree.

Day Four

Place: Hall Ranch, Lyons, Colorado
Date: November, 2015
Camera: iPhone (older generation)
Processing: Rise (Instagram) and Silvertone

This was my favorite photo of the challenge – in part because I remember this hike as one of the happiest I’ve ever done (it was in Colorado with my family, my brother and sister-in-law, and we had such a wonderful time soaking in the incredible scenery and enjoying being together) and in part because I was surprised how much I love the black and white processing on this.  I think the layered filters really made it look cool.  I almost never process my pictures in black and white, and this one is making me wonder why.  (It also doesn’t hurt that when I posted it on Facebook, one of my mom’s friends commented that it looked “Ansel Adams-like!” – picture me blushing hard.)

Day Five

Place: Old Man of Storr, Isle of Skye, Scotland
Date: September, 2008
Camera: Nikon D5100
Processing: Mono

The only picture of this set that wasn’t snapped on an iPhone, this is also fairly early in my photographic experimenting.  I’ve always liked the pictures I shot on Skye, which has to be one of the most photogenic places in the world.  What you can’t tell from this picture is that the grass was almost electric green.

Day Six

Place: Fort de Soto Park, Pinellas County, Florida
Date: September, 2017
Camera: iPhone 6s Plus
Processing: Clarendon (Instagram) and Noir

Out of the seven black and white photos I posted over the week, this one got the most love from my Facebook friends.  I can understand why – it’s certainly dramatic.  I also think it illustrates that you don’t have to have a ton of skill to shoot a cool-looking nature picture (although skill would help) if you happen to be in the right place at the right time.  I was actually closer to this egret as it took off than it appears from the picture, but I’d have loved to be closer still.  Either way, I do really like this picture – the white bird against the dark mangroves, and the reflection in the water, I think are nice effects.  I also loved this in color, but it’s more attention-grabbing in black and white.

Day Seven

Place: Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens, Santa Barbara, California
Date: August, 2017
Camera: iPhone 6s Plus
Processing: Lark (Instagram) and Noir

I wanted to end with a mountain, so I saved this one for the last photo.  I love the sky effect here – in reality, it was a brilliant blue, but it looks almost stormy with this processing.  Choosing a black and white filter was tough for this one.  Silvertone looked terrible, but I was really torn between Mono and Noir.  Steve liked Mono, but I thought Noir showed off the craggy mountain a little better and gave the meadow some glimmer.

So – I had a surprising amount of fun with this.  I’m really not a big joiner, but after Rebecca prompted me twice I thought if I kept ignoring her she’d kill me, and I found myself really enjoying the process of choosing a picture each day and then selecting the best filter to give it the effects I wanted.  And by the end of the week, I was feeling really inspired to play more with black and white processing, which I suppose was the whole point.

While I love photography, and I really enjoy playing with processing and filters, I have been really resistant to black and white.  There are a couple of reasons for this – one is that I think black and white processing is almost like cheating, because it forgives so many lighting and formatting sins.  It’s hard to process a picture in black and white and have it NOT look good.  I also think that color processing, while more challenging, looks far better when it’s done well.  (I don’t always do it well, but I am learning.)  Especially when it comes to landscape and nature photography, I’d much rather look at a really well-done color photograph than a black and white one.  But after last week, I think I learned that there is a place for black and white photography in my own albums.  I’ll definitely be playing more with this in the future.

Did you get pinged to do the black and white challenge, too?

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A Project 24 Update

As my friends may recall, I’ve committed to Simon’s Project 24 for the year – meaning that I’m restricting myself to only buying twenty-four books All. Year.  Long.  This may seem easy, but I assure you it is not.  Anyway, it’s been awhile, so I owe y’all a quick update.  I’m pretty sure I’m still on track with Project 24, although I have gotten slightly disorganized about it and there’s a chance I might have forgotten a book purchase or four.  Here’s what I’ve purchased through today:

January

  • The Red House Mystery, by A.A. Milne (Folio Society)
  • The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge (Folio Society)
  • Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery (Folio Society)
  • Anne of Avonlea, by L.M. Montgomery (Folio Society)

February

No books!

March

  • Envelope Poems, by Emily Dickinson (The Gorgeous Nothings)
  • Mary Barton, by Elizabeth Gaskell (Folio Society) – out of print; purchased from Abebooks

April

  • Wives and Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskell (Folio Society) – out of print; purchased from Abebooks
  • North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell (Folio Society) – out of print; purchased from Abebooks

May

  • Anderby Wold, by Winifred Holtby (Virago)
  • The Land of Green Ginger, by Winifred Holtby (Virago)

June

  • Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome (Folio Society)

July

  • Before Lunch, by Angela Thirkell (Virago)
  • A Memoir of Jane Austen, by Edward Austen-Leigh (Folio Society)
  • The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien (Folio Society)

August

  • Father Brown Stories, Vols. I and II, by G.K. Chesterton (Folio Society) – out of print; purchased from Abebooks

September

  • After Many Years: Twenty-One Long Lost Stories, by L.M. Montgomery (Nimbus)
  • Sylvia’s Lovers, by Elizabeth Gaskell (Folio Society) – out of print, purchased from Abebooks
  • Ruth, by Elizabeth Gaskell (Folio Society) – out of print, purchased from Abebooks
  • 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Washington, D.C., by Renee Sklarew and Rachel Cooper (Menasha Ridge Press)

October

  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Illustrated Edition, by J.K. Rowling (Arthur A. Levine)

November

  • The Blue Castle, by L.M. Montgomery (Sourcebooks)

By that count, I’m at twenty-two books for the year.  (The Chesterton stories are in two volumes, so even though they’re together in one slipcase, I’m counting them as two books.  And I’m counting the hiking guide, even though I really purchased it for the family.  I’m trying hard to be upstanding here!)  That leaves me with two books left for the year – I’ll probably purchase one more this month and one in December, since I don’t usually spend money on myself in December anyway and often find books under the Christmas tree.  It’s been an interesting exercise, and I’ll reflect more on it after the conclusion of the project, in a few months.  In the meantime, I’m off to peruse my wish lists and try to decide what to order next…

Have you ever done Project 24?  Did you survive?