Over the summer, my team started discussing the possibility of getting together for a week of working in the same place – and some meetings and workshops to take advantage of the opportunity. It was a great idea, and I was super into it, but when the dates were announced it happened to fall over my birthday week. Rather than ring in a new year alone in a hotel room, I brought my celebration crew with me to Seattle. (It’s nice to work for the coolest team leader in the company.) My meetings started on Monday, but we flew in early on Saturday morning to enjoy a weekend of Seattle sightseeing together. First stop – the Seattle library.
Most of the library was still closed off to casual visitors due to COVID, but we were able to take in the massive windows – too, too cool.
The kids needed some down time, so our next stop was the spectacular children’s section.
They loved wandering the stacks, and they both picked out a few books to crash with on the comfy couches.
They probably spent a good hour – or more – reading their way through their piles, and then they asked if they could check books out. Sorry, kids, we don’t live in Seattle. (I need to take them to the library back at home. One of these days.)
Still looking for indoor activities (it was COLD, and wet) we hit upon the Seattle Art Museum and its “Monet at Etretat” exhibition. I love all things Monet and a curated exhibit was enticing.
Gorgeous! The colors and the play of light on canvas – I can never get enough.
After slowly working our way through the Monet exhibit, we wandered the rest of the gallery, taking in the eclectic mix of art from several centuries.
Beautiful! We loved the Seattle Art Museum – even the kids enjoyed themselves (and it was rather a lot to ask after a day of travel).
Next week: day two of our family weekend in Seattle, and we get quite a skyline view.
Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby. I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book. Here are my reads for December, 2021.
Romola, by George Eliot – I started the month with Romola on my kindle during a business trip out west. Not much to say now, because I’ll have a full review (for the Classics Club)… one of these days. I didn’t love it – partly because I was completely mistaken about what it was actually about, but mainly because it was no Middlemarch.
The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2021, by Lia Leendertz – I love reading Leendertz’s seasonal guides month by month through the year, and I’m always a little sad to read the last chapter. This one was a delight, as were its predecessors. Focusing on the Romani people and on migration and movement, every chapter was wonderful.
A Single Thread, by Tracy Chevalier – I’ve never read any of Chevalier’s historical fiction novels before. This one – focusing on a “surplus woman” who leaves her mother’s house seeking freedom and a life of her own, and falls in with a group of Cathedral embroiderers – was fun, although I found the ending a little unsatisfying.
Orchard: A Year in England’s Eden, by Benedict Macdonald and Nicholas Gates – Another month-by-month read through the year, I really enjoyed Macdonald’s and Gates’ vivid descriptions of the seasonal shifts, flora and fauna, in a traditional English orchard – one of only a few remaining. The authors make a beautifully written and compelling case for preserving these habitats.
No Holly for Miss Quinn, by Miss Read – I was feeling a bit grinchy this holiday season, so I kicked off Christmas reading with an old favorite. Miss Quinn is looking forward to a quiet Christmas of redecorating, when she is pressed into aunt service to look after her nieces and nephew while their mother is in the hospital. It’s just the shot of Christmas spirit Miss Quinn needs, and it was just what I needed, too.
Frost Fair, by Carol Ann Duffy – A new discovery this year: Carol Ann Duffy’s Christmas poems, which have been published one each year in tiny and beautifully illustrated volumes. I picked up a couple, and started with this poem about the Great Frost of 1683. It was gorgeous.
Tied Up in Tinsel (Roderick Alleyn #27), by Ngaio Marsh – I’ve been wanting to read more Ngaio Marsh, and this Christmas country house mystery, recently reissued in the Hatchards Library limited edition set, was just the bump I needed. It was fun – and a unique twist, with the entire household staff of “Halberds” made up of convicted murderers (!!!) but I found it slow going in places.
The King and the Christmas Tree, by A.N. Wilson – I was so excited to read this nonfiction account of the reason why the people of Oslo send a Norway spruce to the people of London every Christmas – and it didn’t disappoint. The story of the King of Norway’s daring escape from the Nazis and his welcome in England is as good as a thriller. A.N. Wilson’s book is written for YA audiences, but anyone would enjoy this.
The Christmas Chronicles: Notes, stories and essential recipes for midwinter, by Nigel Slater – I normally don’t sit down and read a cookbook cover-to-cover, but as the subtitle makes clear, this is far more than “just” a cookbook. Slater loves winter and Christmas, and his beautiful notes and gorgeous photographs amply demonstrate why. I would like to make a few of the recipes (which I skimmed) but the real value in this book was the evocative writing about a season so many people struggle to love.
Dorothy Wordsworth’s Christmas Birthday, by Carol Ann Duffy – Another of Carol Ann Duffy’s Christmas poems – this one features Dorothy Wordsworth, who walks through the snowy landscape, welcomes carolers, and hosts Samuel Taylor Coleridge for a birthday dinner at her brother’s table. Quiet and sweet.
The Twelve Days of Christmas: A Correspondence, by John Julius Norwich – This is a Christmas Eve tradition for me – ten minutes’ worth of laughing, which I can always use by this point in the season. There’s no antidote to holiday stress quiet like Norwich’s hilarious letters from frazzled “Emily” to her overbearing fiance on the occasion of his gifting her a partridge in a pear tree and… you get the picture. Unless, that is, it’s Quentin Blake’s absolutely perfect illustrations.
A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book, by Philip Rhys Evans – Another Christmas tradition – I have read this on Christmas Day every year since 2018, always taking a break amid the detritus of Christmas morning, before it’s time to get up and cook (or at least help with) dinner. The “There’ll Always Be an England” segments are my favorite, but really it’s all gold.
The Country Child, by Alison Uttley – I have had a lovely Folio Society edition of this book for years, and finally picked it up for the Comfort Book Club’s December readalong. Having loved A Traveller in Time, I had high hopes for Uttley’s semi-autobiographical The Country Child. It was gorgeously written and evocative, but not as tightly plotted or drawn as A Traveller in Time, and while I loved it, I did bog down in spots.
The Carols of Christmas: A Celebration of the Surprising Stories Behind Your Favorite Holiday Songs, by Andrew Gant – This was under the Christmas tree (thank you, Steve!) and I excitedly opened it on the day after Christmas to get in one last holiday themed read for the season. It was really fascinating, although I expect I’d get more out of it if I knew more about music history… or music theory… or music, at all, really.
A Year of Scottish Poems, ed. Gaby Morgan – I’ve been reading this pretty volume all year, one poem a day more or less (I’ve gotten behind a few times and had to plough through several weeks’ worth to catch up). It’s a lovely way to end my day, and I really enjoyed this selection – which was a good mix of classic and new poetry, all from Scotland.
Whew! What a way to end the year, right? Fifteen books, many of them absolutely wonderful! The highlight of the month was definitely “The King and the Christmas Tree,” although I also really loved the Nigel Slater, and it was fun to revisit Miss Quinn, of course. For January, I already have a stack of wintry reads awaiting – just need some snow, now.
What were your reading highlights for December ’21?
Good morning, friends – happy New Year! I hope 2022 is off to a roaring (in a good way) start for you. So far, so good here… two and some change days in. Steve and I made it to our midnight kiss on New Year’s Eve, so I think that’s a good omen for the year to come. (I fell onto my pillow and was asleep 0.2 seconds later; he stayed up another hour – pretty standard for both of us.) On Saturday, we kicked off the new year in our traditional way – with a hike. This time, at Riverbend Regional Park – our favorite; we also hiked there on New Year’s Eve because we’re nothing if not predictable – and the trail and river were shrouded in mist, appropriately mysterious for a new year that’s still a mystery, too. I spent the rest of the day cuddled up with my book, so if that’s a sign of things to come I think I’ll be okay.
On Sunday, we hiked again – this time at Rust Nature Preserve, another favorite – and I banged out a 10K later in the afternoon. It was grey and rainy, but warm at least – and now winter is arriving with our first predicted snowfall of the season (we’ll see if it materializes; around here it often doesn’t). The kids’ school has already announced a snow day.
Reading. What a reading week! This is what happens when I’m home on an actual staycation, forced to relax, with work not intruding. I finished The Carols of Christmas – one last holiday-themed read – a few days before the New Year, and then spent most of the week over Patsy, which I had out from the library. (Liked, but didn’t love.) But there was also some New Year’s reading in there – finishing up A Year of Scottish Poems, which was my poem-a-day anthology for 2021, on New Year’s Eve, and starting the year right with Edith Wharton’s novella New Year’s Day on – what else? – January 1. The highlight of the reading week had to have been Welcome to Dunder Mifflin, a spot-on Christmas gift from Steve. I finished it on Sunday (sad to turn the last page, and already itching to re-watch the show) and started A Time to Keep Silence, which I have in a gorgeous limited edition from Hatchards. 2022 reading is off to a very strong start indeed.
Watching. It was a good watching week, too! We’re almost done with Mary Berry’s Country House Secrets – only one episode left, and I’m going to be so sad when it ends. (Steve was skeptical, and I started watching the first episode of the four-episode series one morning, and then he was immediately interested. This tends to happen… wink, wink.) We also watched Ivy and Julie: A Happy Balance from the American Girl movie franchise for New Year’s – Peanut’s choice, although the plot actually revolves around Chinese New Year, not January 1, but details, details. And we finally watched the final Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker. Still processing. I’ll have to watch it again now that I actually know what happens and I’m not tied in knots with anxiety about Chewie, Finn, Poe, Rey and the gang.
Listening. So, not much listening – I did start on Melissa Harrison’s lockdown podcast, The Stubborn Light of Things, named after her wonderful book. Although it begins in the spring, it has a very New Year’s-esque feel to it. I’m enjoying it so much, although I didn’t get much chance to listen, just a couple of episodes while running errands. More next week, I hope.
Making. Our traditional New Year’s Eve dinner – cheese fondue – for starters. Steve said it was the best fondue he’s ever had; don’t tell our friend Stephen who learned to make fondue in Switzerland and used to host regular fondue nights at his house before the pandemic, but I’m dusting off my shoulders. Neither of the kids were big into it, so I was waffling between telling them that their Swiss ancestors are rolling over in their graves and shouting More for MEEEEEEEE, neither of which is a particularly good look, but there you are.
Moving. I was on my feet a fair amount last week – three runs, including a 10K on Sunday, and three hikes, plus the usual walking and getting in my 10,000 steps each day. Strength training needs to come back, so does yoga. But running is feeling fun these days so I’m going with it.
Blogging. December reading recap coming atcha on Wednesday – get comfortable, it’s a long post – and travel recaps are back on Friday. We’re headed all the way across the country, to Seattle. (Slowly but surely, I’m catching up to current. Still a long way to go, though – our PNW trip was in October.)
Loving. One of my sorority sisters posted this screenshot of a tweet on Facebook, on New Year’s Eve, and it’s everything:
That is exactly what I hope for all of us. I hope 2022 is a whole year of Toyota Corolla – for you, my friends, and for me.
covered in flour 