First things first: happy Labor Day to my American friends!  I hope you all have something great planned to close out summer.  Fun story: as some longtime readers may know, I majored in Industrial and Labor Relations in college.  By Labor Day, we’d already be back on campus and while most of the colleges and major programs at Cornell didn’t do anything to celebrate the day – it was class business as usual – the ILR School would close early and throw a picnic, where there would be hot dogs and hamburgers, a union song singalong (Solidarity Forever was my favorite) and speakers, with the keynote address usually given by someone high in the ranks of international union leadership.  Solidarity forever, the Union marches on!

Anyway, this year – what I really wanted to do was go up to New York to visit my family.  I haven’t been back since last Christmas and it’s really beginning to feel like too much time has gone by between visits to my grandmother.  (I will do a better job with this in 2020.)  But when I looked at the calendar, it just couldn’t be done.  I had a court appearance on Friday, and the kids are expected at school bright and early tomorrow for a “welcome back open house.”  (The official first day is Wednesday.)  So we decided as Plan B to do some local adventuring.  On Saturday morning we drove over to Lake Burke for a hike; it had been awhile since we hit the trails at all, and even longer since we were back at this park, which is a family favorite.  Steve and I used to circumnavigate the lake before the kiddos joined us – it’s about 5.5 miles.  Now we hike segments, and this weekend we did a different one than we usually did.  There were several families out on the lake in kayaks and canoes, and Steve and I both found ourselves eyeing them jealously, so we decided a paddle is definitely in order, and soon.  On Sunday we hung around the neighborhood – rode the trolley to the waterfront, ate lunch at our favorite local pizza joint, and biked to the playground.  The only thing we didn’t manage was the pool.  Today – we’d been hoping to spend the day at Lake Anna, swimming and kayaking, but when Steve googled for directions he discovered that there has just been a harmful algae bloom, and no one is allowed in the water.  Gross!  So we’re planning a paddle in the District instead, at our old favorite spot – Fletcher’s Cove.

Reading.  I had a busy reading week – yay!  Spent the bulk of the week working my way through The Tenth Muse (in print) and Daisy Jones & the Six (on audio – which I definitely recommend).  But at some point midweek, I decided to sit down with one of my favorite art books, Summer Places, featuring Simon Parkes’ paintings of Long Island and New England, and read it cover to cover.  I’d flipped through it before but never read Angus Wilkie’s wonderful essays – about the plein air painting tradition and the summer communities in the Hamptons, Cape Cod, and coastal Maine.  It was a quick read and then I was back to my regularly scheduled reading.  Finished up the two I had on the go, then turned my attention to Louise Penny’s first Chief Inspector Gamache mystery, Still Life, which my aunt had been pressing me to read.  Finished it last night and loved it!  Now I’m trying to finish up a volume of poetry about gardens, which I’ve been picking at all summer, then it will be back to the library pile.

Watching.  I’m pleased to report that Steve and I actually finished Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, last night!  It only took us, what a month?  Steve blames our current state of parenting-induced exhaustion – not the movie itself.  There’s some good watching coming up, too – as new seasons of The Good Place and The Great British Bake-Off are set to drop on Netflix soon (or already have, don’t @ me).

Listening.  Most of my listening last week was done on Audible, as I tried to finish off Daisy Jones before the Metro opens (now they’re saying September 9th – sigh; there’s still a lot of construction around the station, and I check for progress every day).  Once I bid goodbye to Daisy, Billy, Camila, Karen, Graham and the gang, I went back to podcasts – needed something more bite-sized.  My podcatcher is always out of control, and it gets worse when I’m listening to an audiobook, so expect this category to be all podcasts, all the time, while I try to get nominally caught up.

Making.  Since grilling is required over Labor Day weekend, we made a big burger dinner on Saturday evening.  Steve and I have been loving Beyond Burgers lately – Peanut likes them too, but Nugget doesn’t, which is kind of a bummer.  He’ll come around.  I also made a batch of rice and beans, and have more food prep on the agenda for later today, after we get off the water.

Blogging.  August reading recap coming to you on Wednesday – it’s a long one, thanks to vacation reading – and a PNW lighthouse hike on Friday.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  I’m just going to leave this here:

Asking.  What are you reading this week?