As the mercury drops, I’m remembering more and more how perfectly winter hats hold earbuds in ears – a nice little side benefit to knitwear. Here’s a selection of some of my fall listening highlights:
Lovely War, by Julie Berry. Still really enjoying my routine of switching between listening to an audiobook, then catching up on my podcatcher – I listened to Lovely War on long neighborhood walks and commutes between October and November. It’s a bit of a tome and the audiobook was nearly 12 hours, even on 1.1 speed (over 13 if you listened on regular speed, but I’ve found 1.1 sounds more conversational to me and keeps my listening pace where I like it). I really enjoyed it, but did bog down occasionally and have to take breaks for more bite-sized content via Apple Podcasts.
Podcasts – always. Speaking of which, that long audiobook gave me plenty of time to stack up a whole library’s worth of recent episodes in my podcatcher. Since wrapping up Lovely War I’ve been gradually working my way through these, and also sprinkling in some back holiday content from The Mom Hour, my favorite parenting podcast (actually the only parenting podcast I can bear to listen to).
Music – especially ’90s jams. The kids – especially Nugget – prefer to listen to music in the car and will complain if I put on a podcast or audiobook, so we’re always scrolling through my iTunes library. Recently, Nugget got the beginnings of his R.E.M. education. But more than anything else, lately, I’ve been listening to ’90s music – I think it’s the Peloton causing this blast from the past. I did a few “90s rock rides” and found myself shouting “I love this song!” and singing along to the Red Hot Chili Peppers way more than I would have expected. Especially when Robin Arzon is choosing the playlist, I just can’t get enough. It’s like having the best part of high school back, without all the drama.
The sounds of nature. A few weeks ago, the kids were miraculously quiet for a couple of moments on a hike and we got to actually hear the forest around us – the whistling of wind in the trees, the soft rushing of the Potomac river on its banks just a few feet away, the scurrying of a small animal in the underbrush. It was such an unexpected joy – like our own little Autumnwatch mindful moment – that Nugget was inspired to play a game of “I hear with my little ear” all the way back to the car and we walked along listening to the sounds of the woods and whispering our observations to each other. It was, unsurprisingly, lovely.
Morning, friends! Happy Thanksgiving – one more time – to all who were celebrating this weekend. I hope you had a delicious feast, some time with family, plenty of fresh air, and a chance to curl up with a book. I got all of those things this weekend and it was wonderful. Of course, now I am staring down a pile of emails to start the week off – c’est la vie.
The reading was good indeed. On Monday, I finished up War in Val d’Orcia, which was an incredible read and certainly in line for one of the top ten books of my reading year. Next up, I wanted something short and quick, so I picked up A.N. Wilson’s new bite-sized book about Queen Elizabeth II, Lilibet: The Girl Who Would Be Queen. I loved The King and the Christmas Tree, which Wilson published last year, and this new edition was just as delightful. It took me longer to read than it ordinarily would because in the intervening time I had a day of trial (that went until after 8:00pm my time) and my Thanksgiving houseguests arrived. But Lilibet provided a nice distraction. The rest of the week, when not cooking or entertaining, I churned through A Poem for Every Autumn Day – I was way behind, having fallen off the daily poetry reading wagon back in September. So instead of catching up and finishing out November with daily poetry, I figured – I’m already reading this in a couple of big bites; might as well just finish it. So I did. Finally, I turned back to The Historian on my kindle. I’d started it on the plane to Seattle earlier in the month and was planning to save it for my next flight (I have one more business trip coming up in 2022) but it feels like such a November read and I really wanted to finish it this month. I still have a few hours of reading left – it’s getting very spooky – and haven’t really given any thought at all to what I’ll read next. We’ll all be surprised.
Thanksgiving tradition – turkey trotting! I went for the Turkey Day 5K this year because it was near my house and had a one mile run for Nugget. He was actually fighting a cold, but still banged out a sub-eight minute mile. Unbelievable! I was much slower in the 5K.
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend and aren’t too behind to start the week! What are you reading?
Our last morning in Costa Rica was spent kayaking the Rio Penas Blancas with a “float safari” group – I’m not doing a full post because it actually was the only experience we had in Costa Rica that wasn’t great. We did see some cool animals, including long-nosed bats, squirrel monkeys, several kinds of kingfishers, an American crocodile, and a juvenile sloth way up in a tree.
I was also a little on edge because when we got back to our hotel, we had our COVID test scheduled – this was the days when a negative COVID test was required to get back into the United States, and while I felt fine (and had barely been inside for the last week and a half) I was terrified of the idea of a positive test stranding me in Costa Rica. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the test was over – and negative, so we were cleared to go home the next day, whew – and we decided to celebrate with one more adventure. Our guide from Monteverde, Felix, had recommended a trail called the Bogarin Trail, which starts from practically the middle of downtown La Fortuna.
We ate a quick lunch, then drove over to the trail and decided our mission was going to be to spot a sloth.
This looks promising.
We’d seen a sloth about a hundred feet up in a tree in Corcovado National Park, and a young one nestled – and well camouflaged – in a tree on the Rio Penas Blancas that morning, but we wanted a really good view before we went home. The first clue came when we saw a cluster of people gathered around a guide with a scope, peering up into a tree.
Well, there you are!
This was an adult female, very slowly and meditatively chewing her way through a lunch of green leaves.
We walked a bit further along the trail and were stopped by another group, who pointed out a small spur trail and promised an extra special treat just on the other side of a line of trees – a mother sloth and baby! We thanked them, hurried over the spur trail, and found several guided groups gathered around and taking in this sight:
It does not get cuter than this.
Eventually, the mother sloth decided to move up the tree, and we watched as she cautiously picked her way along the branches.
I seriously could not get over those fuzzy little arms and legs clinging to Mom. Reminded me of Nugget, but you know – fuzzier.
Eventually, Mom and baby made their way up into the higher branches, and we decided to move on and see if we could find “our own” sloth – i.e. without the clue of a big group of tourists clustered around a guide. We picked our way along the trail at sloth pace – it was definitely the slowest we’ve ever hiked – craning our necks up into the treetops. Eventually, we were rewarded when Steve pointed and called out that he’d spotted something:
That’s another mom and baby pair!
Such an amazing sight and a total treat – definitely the best way to say goodbye (for now, because we’ll definitely be back) to Costa Rica. We watched this pair for a long time, then – grinning broadly – made our way back to the trailhead. There was one more treat in store for us, though: the park staff had a suite of birdfeeders and tropical fruits that they kept constantly replenished, and a rainbow of colorful birds were hopping around enjoying the feast.
What a way to bid Costa Rica farewell! We were ready to go home – missing the kids, that is; I think we could have stayed for years if they were with us. But we were bringing home a store of memories of adventures and surprises, and definitely planning to return. For now, though, it was time to get back to real life.
This is the end of our time in Costa Rica – for now, anyway, because as noted above we’ll definitely be back. But it’s not the end of Friday travel posts! I’m still way behind and have plenty of adventures to share. Next week, it’s back to Central America: over the summer, Steve and I spent a week being “digital nomads” in Roatan, Honduras – scuba diving in the mornings and working in the afternoons. I won’t go day by day, but I do have some underwater highlights to share with you. Check in with me then!
Still liking my streamlined and pared-down Monday posts, so still looking at a quarterly catch-up to show you what other media I’ve been into lately. It’s hard to believe that it’s already the end of November – Thanksgiving tomorrow! – because I feel like summer just fizzled out yesterday. But here we are, staring down another holiday season. As life gets busier, television and movies tend to be the first thing to go – I’ll prioritize reading when time is limited – but I did manage to watch some good stuff despite an especially hectic fall.
Hamilton at the Kennedy Center. Highlight no. 1 of fall viewing was Hamilton, performed live by the Philip Tour company at the Kennedy Center in D.C. This was the third time I’ve seen the show live – once on Broadway, and another time at the Kennedy Center – and it was as wonderful as ever. Something I really enjoyed this time around: seeing the actors put their own spin on lines I know so well from the soundtrack, the original Broadway cast on Disney+, and other performances. For instance, in the song “Non-Stop,” when Hamilton sings the line “Burr, you’re a better lawyer than me,” Leslie Odom Jr. has sung his response “Okay…” in a manner suggesting that he’s skeptical of where Hamilton is going with this. This time, the actor playing Aaron Burr sang the line “Okay!” as if to say “Finally, you acknowledge that I’m better!” It was a little thing, but fun to look out for those little differences in tone and to spot the different actors bringing their own interpretations to these much-loved characters. In case you can’t tell, I had a great time.
Nugget, sports-ing. Highlight no. 2 of fall viewing – this is a highlight in any season, really – was Nugget, tearing it up on sports fields and race courses and swimming pools. He’s gotten into sports in a big way lately and he’s a shockingly good athlete (no idea where he gets that from). This fall, he played pre-travel soccer, leveled up twice in his swim lessons (and is on the final class level before he graduates from Goldfish Swim School and has to decide whether he wants to join their swim team or bid goodbye to his Saturdays in the pool) and ran his first in-person running race (the Marine Corps Marathon Kids’ Run). We don’t push him to do any of these things – he is genuinely enjoying himself. It’s so cool to see him come into his own and experience the excitement and joy of reaching his goals. I’m a proud sports mom.
Andor. Family viewing lately has been the most recent Star Wars series to drop on Disney+ – Andor. I really liked the character of Cassian Andor in Rogue One, so it’s been fun to watch his backstory. We’ve been watching the series as a family (or at least, Steve and Nugget and I have been watching; Peanut drifts in and out and often reads during family TV time, which is fine with me) and just finished it up recently. I liked it much better than The Book of Boba Fett, but not nearly as much as The Mandalorian, which is still the gold standard of TV in my house.
The Pale Horse. After listening to Agatha Christie’s weird and chilling tale of murder by supernatural… or maybe ordinary… means, I wanted to watch the recent television adaptation with Steve. Turns out it was nothing like the book.
The Great British Baking Show. Whew! That’s a lot of intense television viewing – more so than usual, and as someone who gets stressed out during cake decorating shows, it’s been a lot of heart-pounding. We’ve been sprinkling in the latest season of The Great British Baking Show – every weekend when a new episode drops – to calm down and get some restful viewing in too. We all just love this show and can’t get enough of it.
Well! First of all, happy Thanksgiving week to my friends in the U.S. I hope your plans include some time to sit and sink into a book – that’s something I am always thankful for.
Bit of an up-and-down week in terms of reading. As far as the reading quality went, it was all up – everything I read over the last week was wonderful. On Monday, I finished up Things Fall Apart, for my Classics Club challenge. Full review to come but it was a really magnificent, compelling read. Then I turned to Iris Origo’s World War II diaries, which I’d been saving. (I always like to read diaries, but for some reason I’m especially drawn to them when the nights draw in and the weather gets colder.) Origo was an Anglo-American writer married to an Italian nobleman. A Chill in the Air covers 1939-40, when Italy’s entry into the war was not a foregone conclusion, and tracks the slow slide to combat. War in Val d’Orcia, covering 1943-44, is the more famous of the two diaries and is an incredible read – matter-of-factly recording Iris and her husband Antonio’s efforts to shelter and protect streams of refugees, bombed-out children, Jews, escaped Allied POWs, and Italian partisans fighting against the Fascists – often at great personal risk to themselves. It’s an amazing read; I thought I’d finish it yesterday but a headache kept me from turning pages (BOOOOOO) so I expect I’ll wrap it up tonight. I’ll be sad to say goodbye to Iris, Antonio, and the rest of their little band – but I do have The Merchant of Prato, Origo’s book about daily life in Italy during the Middle Ages, still on my shelf.
Separately, via Audible, I finally finished up Lovely War. This was trending toward a solid three stars for me – I liked the story but was starting to bog down – but the author’s note at the end, which was absolutely marvelous, bumped it up to four. I did really enjoy this, even if it was an absolute tome, and I definitely recommend listening to the audiobook version, if you can get it. The cast of narrators do a wonderful job. I especially loved Aphrodite – she’s never been my favorite Greek goddess, but she was an absolute delight. While I’ll always love Artemis the most, I might have a new second favorite Olympian.
Next up, I just got A.N. Wilson’s new YA book, Lilibet: The Girl Who Would Be Queen, and it’s calling to me.
Our Costa Rica agenda was funny. We started in Osa, the most off-the-beaten-path corner of the country – accessible only by boat or small plane (unless you wanted to drive probably ten hours over bumpy dirt roads) and sought out generally by the most hardcore of nature lovers. Then we moved up to Monteverde, which was definitely more populated and more visited by tourists, but relatively relaxed all the same. And we finished our trip in Arenal, based in the bustling town of La Fortuna, which – thanks to an abundance of hot springs – is probably the most touristy part of the entire country. But all the same, we were not planning to seek out the biggest tourist attraction in La Fortuna – Catarata Rio Fortuna. Instead, we had designs on renting kayaks on Lake Arenal, and taking in the imposing view of Arenal from the water. Arenal had other plans, though: it kicked up a massive rainstorm that sent us fleeing inside from the restaurant deck while we were eating a pre-paddle lunch, and scrambling to find another activity for the afternoon (because even after the rain stopped, the wind and waves continued).
Enter the Rio Fortuna waterfall.
Steve suggested it as an alternative; I agreed without any idea of what the activity was all about – I hadn’t even researched it past hearing it was a big tourist attraction and deciding to skip it (since we’d already seen the incredible Catarata Rio Celeste). My first indication that it was something different came at the Disney-esque ticket booths just off the parking lot, and the lines of bikini-clad tourists. This doesn’t seem to be an ordinary hike to a waterfall? Suspicions were confirmed as we walked along the manicured path past a snack restaurant and a large gift shop – all of which we passed before catching our first glimpse of the waterfall.
The only ones dressed for hiking, not swimming – ready to walk 500 steps down to the waterfall.
We climbed down the stairs – I’m not kidding about there being 500, that’s exactly how many there were, and with each step down I worried more about the climb back up – and picked our way over the rocks and around the swimmers to check out the waterfall. (Hiking boots do come in handy, folks.) Going by the grimaces on the faces of the few people who had actually gotten in the water, I gathered it was very cold.
We sat on the rocks and took in the view for awhile – touristy, yes, but darn spectacular all the same. The water cascaded down in a thinner stream than Catarata Rio Celeste, and the pool below was a deeper green-blue: just stunning. After a few minutes of sitting and gazing, though, I started to get a bit of an itch. A little voice in my head started to whisper…
It would be a shame to come all this way and not jump in.
You’ll probably never come back here. This is probably your only chance.
It’s an adventure.
Wet clothes will feel nice walking up all those stairs.
Well, I’m not one to turn down an adventure. I took off my boots and socks and waded onto the first layer of submerged rocks, then jumped forward. The water was frigid and the waves kicking back from the waterfall kept slapping me in the face so that I could barely see anything but water.
I think I had a giant grin on my face the entire time.
I think I stayed in for about ten minutes? I don’t really know – it was cold, and time seemed to slow down. I did manage to tread water while several couples hopped in and then out, shivering, so I felt pretty bad@$$ for that.
Jumping into Catarata Rio Fortuna with all of my clothes on definitely wasn’t the plan for the afternoon – but it was an experience I won’t forget.
Next week: wrapping up our time in Costa Rica with an encounter with one of its most iconic wildlife species.
My favorite race of the year is the Marine Corps 10K, run on the same day as the Marine Corps Marathon – everything from the start on the National Mall to the finish at Iwo Jima and the U.S. Marines on hand to pass out medals is just iconic. I ran the race in-person before the pandemic, ran it twice as a virtual event – good to keep up with it, but not the same – and this year was back (woefully undertrained as usual, but at least I had months worth of Peloton to draw upon) toeing the start line at the National Gallery of Art. And this year was extra special because we had two events to enjoy – starting on Saturday with the MCM Kids’ Run.
Nugget ran the virtual MCM Kids’ Run – then called the “Semper Fun Run” – in 2020, and when I asked him if he was interested in trying out his first in-person race he was all about it. The guy has yet to meet a sport he didn’t immediately love (and excel at) and I suspected he would be all about this. (He also has three medals already on his Jurassic Park-themed medal rack and has been itching to add more.) So I signed him up and on Saturday morning, Steve, Peanut, Nugget and I made our way down to Long Bridge Park in Arlington.
We took our time checking out the scene, listening to music, and taking pictures – and Nugget got a balloon from the Navy Federal tent at the race-day expo – until his wave was called and it was time to send my little runner through to the corrals! Did I cry a tiny bit? You know I did.
He just looked so big and brave walking through the check-in tent and getting ready to tackle his first race. Sniff! After he was settled in the corral, we found a spot to watch the runners take off – just a partially obstructed view, but we were able to see him cross the start line. Once he was off and away, we left the start area to find a good spot to stand and watch the finish (the course was secure and kids-only – except for race staff – so we couldn’t cheer him on mid-race). Steve and Peanut set up near the finishers’ area, but I found a space to squeeze in by the last corner on the course. I was behind a man, who kindly told me to let him know if I saw my kid and he would step aside so I could hop in front and take a picture. I thanked him, and he asked what Nugget was wearing – so I said a blue shirt and reddish-orange shorts, and my new friend pointed and said, “Is that him?” No, it couldn’t be, I said, he just started the race a few minutes ago and he’s just a little guy. But I peered at the little runner coming down the last hill and – wait! It was him!
Over the finish line in just around seven minutes – unreal! And he started near the back of the crowd and had to weave through a bunch of kids, so he must have actually picked up speed and been clocking closer to a six minute mile by the end. The kid is just insane.
He had an absolute blast and proudly wore his race shirt and medal all afternoon and all the next day – and he’s been begging me to sign him up for another race ever since. I asked him if the race bug had bit him and he said “Pretty hard.” Steve, for his part, jokingly groaned that we drove thirty minutes each way for Nugget to run seven, and made me promise that his next race will be closer to home. (I found a turkey trot with a 1-mile kids’ run – and race medals – about ten minutes from my house, so that’s the next one. Nugget could definitely train for and run a 5K at his age, given his level of interest and activity, but I would rather play it safe and stick to the 1-mile distance until he’s eight. He agrees!)
Saturday’s fun wasn’t the end of the weekend excitement, either. On Sunday morning, at the crack of dawn, we all piled into the car and Steve and the kids dropped me off on the National Mall for my race. Someday I would love to run the full Marine Corps Marathon, but for now a 10K is better suited to my busy life.
The course was just as fun and beautiful as I remembered! Running past the Capitol as the sun comes up – always a thrill. I’ve been living in the D.C. area since 2003 – except for a three-year hiatus in Western New York – and it never gets old. I still have those I can’t believe I live here moments on the regular, and this is definitely one of them.
After the Capitol, the course heads back up the Mall toward the Washington Monument, snakes through a few D.C. streets, and then heads for Arlington via the 14th Street Bridge. I’ve heard that this bridge is an absolute bear at mile 20 of the marathon, but at mile 2 of the 10K it’s not that bad.
Once in Arlington, the course winds through Crystal City (I did consider peeling off to my office and getting an Uber ride home, but decided to stick it out) and then ends up on highways for the last couple of miles. Those last few kilometers are a bit of a slog, and I looked forward to hitting the – now empty – Marine Corps Marathon starting corrals, because that meant we were hitting the last stretch.
Mile 26! Someday.
One more corner to go! The course ends on a hideous uphill – woof. I was dragging up the hill until I saw Steve and the kids waving and cheering. I ran to them for hugs and high-fives, then set off on the last 0.1 mile stretch to the finish line with an extra kick in my step.
Tired and bedraggled but proud! It felt so good to be back out absorbing that race day energy – I hadn’t run a race in-person since before the pandemic. Definitely high time to get back out there. And now I’m fired up and ready to run that turkey trot (a little better trained this time, hopefully).
I flaked on you last week with this post – sorry about that. Have you ever seen the meme that reads “Adulthood is saying ‘next week things will calm down’ over and over until you die”? That’s my vibe right now. And here’s how I know it’s really hectic: every year I set a goal on the Goodreads Reading Challenge and it’s always the same number: 104, which works out to exactly two books a week, and since I typically read between two and three books a week – sometimes more and sometimes less – that’s been about the right number for me. Knowing that summer and fall are my busiest seasons, I try to build a cushion early in the year, and it’s a good thing I did this year. I’ve been checking my progress periodically and it’s dropped from eight books ahead of schedule, to six, to four, and yesterday it said “You’re on track!” My reading pace has dropped so much that I’ve burned through my entire cushion. Ouch.
Things have been so frenetic that I can’t remember offhand what I was reading the week before last – and yes, I could go look it up but I’m not going to do that – so let’s just blow past that one and talk about last week. I’d been saving The Starless Sea for a long time and decided it seemed like a good book to read in November. It was definitely a chilly-season-appropriate choice (the action pretty much all takes place in January) but I bogged down in it. After loving The Night Circus, I had high hopes for this but found myself agreeing with my BFF, Rebecca, who had been a bit disappointed. The story just felt disjointed, and while I loved the wealth of creative detail at first, eventually even that got overwhelming and I was just ready to be done. Can’t win ’em all.
After The Starless Sea I was looking for something much shorter and quicker to read, and I had Things Fall Apart out from the library with a looming deadline (haven’t been in that situation in awhile!) so I turned to that and read it in almost one sitting. It’s a slim novel – my edition clocked in at 207 pages – but packs an outsized punch and I found it incredibly compelling. I finished it this morning over my coffee, so watch this space: full Classics Club post coming soon. Next up I’m planning to read the first installment of Iris Origo’s World War II diaries, A Chill in the Air, and am really looking forward to it; I expect it will be fascinating.
Another bluebird day on the trail yesterday, and I was so mad at myself for forgetting to charge my wildlife camera – because we saw TWO bald eagles and an adorable screech owl, and there I was with only my iPhone. Rookie mistake.
After the Arenal 1968 trail, our next stop was just a few short minutes down the road – Arenal Volcano National Park.
We thought that hiking another trail to another volcano viewpoint might be a little bit redundant, but we weren’t willing to miss out on a beautiful national park when we had the opportunity to visit it. And the clouds were finally starting to clear, so it seemed like we might have another chance at a view of the entire volcano, this time not shrouded in clouds and mist.
Setting off down this short trail, Steve remarked, “I feel like I’m in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!” I knew exactly what he meant. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised to see an elephant-sized ant come wandering down the trail.
Eventually we made it out of the dappled sunshine of the trailhead and into a shadier forest.
Most of the trail elevation gain was via a couple of green-painted metal staircases that blended in with the canopy.
Before we knew it, we reached a clearing and got our first really good volcanic view of the day. The skies had cleared and Arenal was out in all its imposing glory.
We spent a long time looking out over the volcano and taking in all the details – like this heart-shapped fissure.
It was fascinating to watch the clouds roll across the landscape and see the interplay of light and shadow on the volcano.
This was a really fascinating day. In addition to all the flora and fauna of the trails, it was just fascinating to see the volcano and talk about it. I felt a little guilty about enjoying myself so much – it felt a bit jarring to be out on the trail, soaking up sunshine and enjoying movement and fresh air and this compelling landscape when I knew that this volcano was deadly and was the source of a horrific tragedy within my parents’ lifetime. Interesting to reflect on how hiking can be personally enriching but we are walking through landscapes that have much larger context.
The trail back was fascinating too. It was always cool to see the famous walking palms (socratea exorrhiza). The trees “walk” from sunlight to shade by growing their roots in the direction they want to travel and then allowing old roots to lift out of the ground and die – wild. Did we call them Ents? You know we did.
We also saw a massive kapok tree, which we especially loved because Peanut starred as a caiman in a play called “Save the Great Kapok Tree!” in her kindergarten class.
Back at the trailhead! What a special place and a beautiful, fascinating hike.
Next week: when in Arenal, you swim in Catarata Rio Fortuna.
The other day, I was doing a Peloton ride with my friend Amanda, and the instructor – Robin, for those of y’all who are fellow Peloton-ers – said “The only thing gettting lit in my house after 9:00pm is a pumpkin spice candle!” As my friend Katie is fond of quoting, “You don’t find candles lit in frenetic houses.” Well, my house is definitely frenetic, and there is not much candle-lighting going on by the time I finally crash on the couch, later and later every evening. But I’m still finding little joys… the cozy season is definitely upon us, y’all. And it struck me that it’s been a minute since I shared the little luxuries that are making every day a little nicer and happier.
First, there’s that Peloton – not sure if it qualifies as a “little” luxury, considering it weighs as much as a baby elephant. But the ability it gives me to squeeze in movement even during the busiest workweek is definitely a luxury. I got it back in the spring, and as you can see based on this entry in Nugget’s “my mother’s favorite things” book which I received for Mother’s Day, I’ve been loving it since the moment it arrived in my house.
I’m not the only one who is enjoying it, unfortunately. The kids have adopted it and think it’s their new ride (wrong, kids, the Peloton is Mommy’s toy).
Related – in a busy week, the opportunity to get out, feel trail dirt under my boots, and breathe in fresh air definitely feels like a luxury. I get in neighborhood walks and runs as often as I can, but between a busy job and weekends that are getting more and more packed with kiddo sports, trail time is definitely a luxury, and one I’m trying to protect by making sure we carve out time for family hikes at least once a week. Views like this are a lovely bonus.
Another luxury, and one I enjoy anytime throughout the year – date nights with Steve. A couple of weeks ago we went out to a delicious Italian dinner in a historic mansion in our small town, then drove into D.C. to see Hamilton at the Kennedy Center. Third time we’ve seen it live, and it never gets old.
Those are some big luxuries, actually. A smaller one – delicious applies, which we picked at the beginning of the month and which we’ve been eating out of hand ever since. I was planning to reserve some of these for a pie, but we’re actually almost done with this half bushel – insane! They were just so good this year – crisp and sweet. I’ve been putting them into the kids’ lunches and snacks every day, and reserving a few for myself too.
And with the falling mercury has also come cravings for tea again. Recently, I dug out my electric kettle – a Christmas gift from my parents, years ago – and plugged it in. Only regret was: why didn’t I get this back out long ago? I used to keep it in my office and it has been sitting next to my home office desk since I cleaned out my desk after leaving my law firm in 2021. Now it’s out and being pressed into service multiple times a day; Steve has gotten into drinking tea recently too and has his own stash, while I’ve been drinking my way through a big basket of loose leaf tea that, to be honest, isn’t getting any younger. It’s been a good time to rediscover one of my favorite little luxuries, as I’ve been trying to cut back on the amount of coffee I was drinking; now I’m down to one cup of coffee in the morning – generally while I dash around making breakfasts, school lunches and snacks – and then I switch to black tea if I want more of a perk, and green or tisanes in the afternoon. It was surprisingly easy to cut down to just the morning coffee when I made the connection that it’s the hot beverage that appeals to me, and it doesn’t have to be caffeinated; hands curl around a teaming mug of herbal tea just as happily.
Lastly, this is another year-round luxury, but there’s nothing like a beautiful book – like a gorgeous Folio Society edition of Elizabeth Gaskell – and a cozy blanket. This soft woven throw from Tribe & True is my favorite for cuddling up with all year, but especially in the fall and winter.
covered in flour 