Month: March 2022

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (March 7, 2022)

Good morning! It was downright warm here yesterday, and we slept with the windows open last night. Spring is most definitely on the way. On that note, rewinding to Saturday, Nugget and I decided that it would be our last mountain day of the ski season. We are lucky enough to have an indoor ski center just twenty minutes or so from us, so he can take lessons all summer and keep his skills sharp for next year! But with the weather warming up steadily, there will be no more trips up to Pennsylvania until December at the earliest. So we shoved off early on Saturday morning, determined to make the most of our last day on the slopes for many months. It was almost sixty degrees (Nugget wore shorts under his snow pants instead of his usual base layer) so the snow was basically slush and there was mud poking through the base in sections, but the flip side is that there was almost no one at the mountain and we sailed through almost every lift line. We made twelve runs, including a couple from the top of the mountain, and at the end of the day I introduced Nugget to apres ski and we toasted our ski season at the mountain tavern (him with lemonade, me with a Blue Moon). It was a great day – and a great season, and I’m sad it’s over. But the silver lining is that paddling season is right around the corner.

Anyway, Sunday was quieter. I spent the morning on the couch with my book; it had been weeks since I did that and it felt so good. Mid-day, we did our usual rush to swimming and soccer. (Last week of that – swimming will continue but indoor soccer is officially done for the season. Spring really is coming.) And after soccer, we took advantage of the warm day to get in a family hike at Riverbend Regional Park, our local favorite – it had been ages since we hit the trails as a family, due to Nugget’s and my ski schedule this winter. The first crocuses are out, my bulbs are sending up shoots in the front yard, and spring is almost here – with all the fun that warmer weather will bring.

Reading. Bit of a slow reading week – thanks partly to the fact that I was slammed with work (still catching up after vacation – I think I finally have now) and partly to a mini-reading slump brought on by the fact that I was bogging down a bit in The Dud Avocado. On Monday, I finished A Poem for Every Winter Day and pulled out A Poem for Every Spring Day, and also turned back to The Dud Avocado. I’d started it before Costa Rica, but left it home – I travel with my kindle only, these days – and took awhile to get back into it upon my return. It was very good, but just not what I wanted to be reading in the moment. Eventually, after some self-discipline, I finished it up on Sunday evening and turned (with some relief) to The Fairy Tale Girl. I love Susan Branch’s artwork, and this book is as beautiful as all her others.

Watching. We finished up The Book of Boba Fett this week; I definitely enjoyed the latter part of the season more than the first few episodes (which were still good, don’t get me wrong, but the series really picks up when the Mandalorian returns). Aside from that, we watched a couple of episodes of Rock the Park and an episode of National Geographic: The National Parks – read on for why.

Listening. I always want quiet after traveling, and I did the first few runs and walks of the week without my earbuds. But toward the end of the week I did ease back into listening – my summer playlist came back out, prematurely but probably as a result of the warmer weather, and I put in about half an hour on Agatha Christie’s The 4.50 From Paddington (read by the incomparable Joan Hickson) on Audible. I’m feeling drawn back to nature podcasts, too, so maybe a few of those are on the agenda for the coming week? Who knows.

Making. So much this week! Progress on Nugget’s knitted scarf and the beginnings of fingerless mitts for me. A pile of edited photos (almost done!) from Costa Rica, and a start on a Shutterfly album of the trip. But most exciting making of all – we made more travel plans! (We always have to have an adventure on the horizon.) Flights and lodging booked for a summer family vacation out west to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and we are super stoked! We watched Rock the Park and National Geographic episodes about Yellowstone and Grand Teton (but mostly Yellowstone, where we will spend the bulk of our time) to get the kids excited about the trip, and I’ve started a list of hikes to check out. Between work trips and family travel, it’s looking like a busy spring and summer season ahead and I don’t mind in the least.

Moving. Not as much movement as I’d like, thanks to a jam-packed conference call schedule last week. I do try to make movement a priority but sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day, and it was one of those weeks. But I got in some running and plenty of walking, and kept up my 10,000 steps a day streak, so that’s something. Back to yoga and strength training this week!

Blogging. I’m planning to have another Classics Club review for you on Wednesday, but I haven’t written it yet – so we’ll see if it happens. And on Friday, more travel recaps (Friday will be travel day for the foreseeable future, so get comfortable).

Loving. I’ve already waxed rhapsodic so I won’t go on and on, but it has been so much fun skiing with my little adventure buddy all winter! I’m constantly impressed by how game he is for literally anything, and he threw himself into mountain sports with the same energy and openness that he does everything else. (Last week he said to me, “Mama, I thought skiing would be pretty cool but then I realized that, whoa, skiing is really cool!”) In just five (or six? I’ve lost count) trips up to the mountain this winter, he’s gone from never wearing skis (well, we tried once when he was two but he cried until we took them off and he didn’t actually do any skiing, so that doesn’t count) to riding every chairlift at the mountain and confidently skiing down even long green circle runs. I’m excited for his indoor lessons all summer and already can’t wait to see what he does next winter.

Asking. What are you reading this week?

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Colorado & Utah 2021: Uncle Dan’s Dinosaur Tour, Part I – Eggs!

One of my brother’s very favorite things to do is play tour guide and show visitors around the places he calls home. Since moving to western Colorado, he has leaned into the dinosaur territory in a big way, and when we decided to visit for Thanksgiving he promised to take us all on his ultimate tour of all his favorite fossil spots.

Part I of Uncle Dan’s Dinosaur Tour started in a non-descript pull-off from a back road. No signs, no trail markers – just desert. Dan and Danielle love to poke around and “find stuff” and on one weekend’s ramble they came across a big boulder studded with circular shapes that the local dinosaur club (society?) confirmed were eggs. It was tucked away, deep in the canyon, but Dan and Danielle led us there expertly.

Unmistakably eggs of some sort! Looks like they hatched – hopefully – so… dinosaur babies! Too cute.

It was so cool to not only be able to get close to these egg fossils, but to actually touch them and see how they were preserved in nature – rather than in a museum case. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good natural history museum, but this was just a totally different, very unusual experience.

We scuttled downhill and back to the car, and drove about ten minutes to the next stop – another non-descript pull-off. This time, there was no short hike – just a big natural stone pillar right by the road, with this:

Friends, that is a bone imprint. It looked like something out of The Flintstones. Too big for Pebbles to wear as a hair bow, sadly.

This was just the beginning! Uncle Dan had more dinosaur fun in store, but first an off-roading interlude – next week.

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Reading Round-Up: February, 2022

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 February, 2022.

The Worshipful Lucia (Mapp and Lucia #5), by E.F. Benson – It’s hard to choose a favorite from this sparkling, witty series – but this might be it? Lucia tries on a new identity as a financial guru and is wildly successful, much to Elizabeth Mapp-Flint’s chagrin. Absolutely hilarious, fully reviewed here.

Yummy: A History of Desserts, by Victoria Grace Elliott – I borrowed this adorable graphic history of popular desserts – from ice cream to cookies, to cake, and even macarons – from Peanut. Mom achievement unlocked! It was cute, made me hungry, and I actually learned quite a bit about the history of sweets.

Trouble for Lucia (Mapp and Lucia #6), by E.F. Benson – Sad to say goodbye to Queen Lucia Pillson, Elizabeth Mapp-Flint, and the rest of the quirky and endearing residents of charming Tilling. Lucia, now risen to Mayor of Tilling – with Elizabeth as her Mayoress – is in for a bumpy ride, but Lucia is never down and out for long. Fully reviewed here.

The Man in the Brown Suit (Colonel Race #1), by Agatha Christie – I listened to this early (1920s) standalone thriller on Audible – it was okay, but definitely not up to Christie’s prime standard; the casual sexism and entrenched gender roles did the story no favors, even if it was of its time. I did enjoy seeing the influence of Christie’s around-the-world British Empire Exhibition promotion tour, which she must have either just completed or been in the process of completing as she wrote the book; for instance, her heroine goes surfing in South Africa – something Christie herself did on that trip. (Christie’s letters and photographs from the tour are collected in a fun volume curated by her grandson, Mathew Prichard, called The Grand Tour.)

Diplomatic Passport: More Undiplomatic Diaries 1946-1962, by Charles Ritchie – I wanted to read something travel-related as I embarked on my first international trip in years, and Ritchie seemed like a good travel companion – as a Canadian diplomat, he got around the world rather a lot. I read the first volume of his diaries, which mostly focused on his posting to London during the Blitz, in 2019 and loved them, and these were nearly as engaging. Richie’s career really takes off in this volume, and he spends time at the Canadian Embassy in Paris before going on to be Ambassador to Germany, the United Nations, and eventually the United States. His writing voice is charming and compelling and I loved his stories.

Cluny Brown, by Margery Sharp – Cluny Brown’s problem, at least according to her family, is that she doesn’t know her place. Cluny does things like going to tea at the Ritz, just because she feels like it and has the money, and that’s simply not done for a respectable working class London girl. But Cluny’s attitude to life is: why shouldn’t I? Why shouldn’t she go to tea at the Ritz, if she can afford it? Why shouldn’t she have a martini or accept a party invitation? Cluny’s guardians are at their wits end, so they send her off to “good service” in Devon – hoping she will finally learn her place. Upstairs/downstairs shenanigans ensue, of course, and I think it’s hardly a spoiler to tell you that Cluny does learn her place – but it’s not quite what her relatives have in mind.

A Poem for Every Winter Day, ed. Allie Esiri – I really, really try to stay up to date on reading a poem a day, and Allie Esiri’s seasonal collections are my choice for 2022. In fact, I got woefully behind on this one, but caught up at the end of the month and the poems in here were truly a delight. I bookmarked a few for future reference.

Short month, short reading list! February was interrupted by a vacation, and I never read much when I’m traveling – I prefer to take in the sights, and spend time with my traveling companions; reading is more of an at-home activity. But in the few hours I did actually devote to books this month, I read some good ones. Cluny Brown was a highlight, as was Diplomatic Passport. And of course, any visit to Lucia and Mapp in Tilling is a total joy.

How was your February in books?