Last weekend, Peanut had a Brownie meeting at Green Spring Gardens – a beautiful park not far from our old haunts in Alexandria. We’d been there once before – for a children’s beekeeping event organized by the park – and always meant to go back. Funny we should find ourselves driving down there after moving away from Alexandria, but it turned out it wasn’t that far away. I brought my new mirrorless camera, fully tricked out with a lens that isn’t even released to traditional retail yet (I got it direct from Nikon) and planned to drop Peanut off with her troop and then take a photography walk around the gardens.
That wasn’t to be. Peanut was having a mommymommymommy kind of day and I couldn’t leave. But it turned out the other moms were pretty much all sticking around too; we stood together in a clump discussing the kids’ COVID-19 vaccines, upcoming holiday plans, sports schedules and the like.
While Peanut worked on her letterboxing “log book,” I did sneak off to photograph the Children’s Garden, at least. We had wind in the forecast and I suspected – and was confirmed by the park employee who was leading the Brownie event – that this was probably the last weekend of fall colors before all of the leaves would be on the ground for the duration.
As the temperature started dropping, I rushed off to the car to pick up Peanut’s heavy coat. On the way back, without breaking a stride, I managed to get a few more snaps of the gardens in their fall glory.
When I got back to the Brownies, they were nearly done with their projects, and almost ready to go on a walk to search for the Green Spring Gardens’ letterbox and stamp their new logbooks. All the moms (and one dad) came too.
The girls found the Green Spring letterbox by a beautiful pond, and lined up to stamp their logbooks. What a fun event! I think we’ll definitely be seeking out other letterboxes in our area so Peanut can get more stamps in her “passport.”
As for me – I got my fall color pictures after all! Still getting to know my new camera, but I think they came out well, and I can’t wait to experiment more on other photography walks.
How is the foliage where you live? Still going strong, or is the season pretty much over?
Yawn. Morning, friends. How were your weekends? Mine was wonderful, but tiring – I could use another day. I haven’t said that many times since starting my new job, but it’s definitely true this time: we were on the go all weekend, and I need a day to recover from all the rushing around. It was a very kid-centric weekend, which was nice – fulfilling. On Saturday, we were up and out the door early for Nugget’s final soccer game of the season. He has loved playing this fall, and I’m thinking of finding him an indoor league to play this winter, although I haven’t decided yet. Both kids also take swimming, and I am thinking of signing them up for indoor ski lessons (yes, that’s a thing!), and I don’t want to overschedule us. So the jury’s still out on indoor soccer. Anyway – the weekend. The game was a total blast (and much warmer than last weekend’s!) and after the game, the coach passed out donuts and trophies. Each kid got his trophy individually and the coach had prepared individual remarks for everyone – it was the sweetest. I tried to video Nugget’s, but screwed up and somehow pressed stop right away, but the gist was – “soccer lover” Nugget came to every game with the biggest smile, worked hard and learned so many new skills, and never, ever, got tired. Sounds about right! After soccer, we rushed home for a quick lunch, and then Peanut and I were back out the door for a Brownie activity at Green Spring Gardens, a beautiful park near our old house. The girls learned about letterboxing, made their own letterboxing log books, and then took a group walk to locate the park’s letterbox. Fun!
Still with me? Saturday was exhausting, and we moved slowly on Sunday morning. I had big plans to go for a long run, but ended up crashed on the couch with my earbuds in, listening to my audiobook. Not a bad way to start Sunday. By late morning, I had zero motivation but had to get off the couch and get the kids to swimming – same old story. But we had fun afternoon plans – a meetup with my law school BFF, Carly, and her husband and kiddos. Carly had her eye on a new-to-us playground near the National Cathedral; it was gorgeous. The kids had a ball running around, trying out the “flying fox” zipline and a steep, fast slide – and more – and Carly and I caught up on the past several months. There’s nothing like a few hours spent with a friend who gets it. We shared joys and vented frustrations, and it was good to talk and listen and be in a safe space with a friend who understands my struggles (and won’t judge) and knows that I understand hers (and won’t judge). It was needed.
Reading. So, I have an achievement to share! Last week (or the week before?) I hit my Goodreads goal for the year. I always set a goal of 104 books (sounds random, but it’s not, it’s two books per week) and I’m now sitting at 106. To celebrate, I obviously decided to read a gigantically long book. After finishing Blitz Writing midweek, accordingly, I turned to the next book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire, Framley Parsonage. I’ve been rationing these, because I love them so much. Framley Parsonage is wonderful – I’m reading it slowly and at press time am a little more than halfway through – although I think I still love Doctor Thorne the best. But Framley has the benefit of several beloved old friends appearing – the Grantlys, Greshams, Proudies, Miss Dunstable, and even Mr Harding all make appearances. So fun! And then around the margins, I’ve been listening to The Sittaford Mystery on Audible; I’m about two-thirds done and forming all kinds of suspicions.
Watching. Speaking of suspicions, the whole family is getting into Miss Marple. Steve won’t admit it, but he’s hooked. We’re working on A Murder is Announced right now. When not solving crimes, we’ve watched another episode or two of The Great British Bake-Off, and several episodes of a Pokemon cartoon (the kids got their first COVID-19 vaccine doses, and we let them pick).
Listening. As noted above, audiobook time. And lots of music, especially when driving the kids places, because they are rudely intolerant of Agatha Christie. Who are these little cretins I am raising?
Making. Progress on Christmas knitting – I made a big error in the infinity scarf, but I fixed it and I hope (???) it looks even cooler now. Please don’t tell me if it doesn’t, lucky or possibly unlucky recipient.
Moving. A little of this and a little of that – a couple of runs (I’m getting my feet back) in the cold, and some walking with my audiobook, and some yoga. Good stuff all, just need more of it.
Blogging. Well, the plan is to have pictures of fall colors at Green Spring Gardens for you on Wednesday; I took my camera and had a lovely time snapping away. But I have to upload and edit them, so we’ll see. And then on Friday, more Shenandoah. The travel posts may continue for many weeks to come and I’m not even mad about it.
Loving. It was so much fun to play in the shadow of the National Cathedral on Sunday! It’s been awhile since I have been up this way, and I forgot how much I love the neighborhood. The National Cathedral reminds me of something I’d have seen in Europe; it’s so beautiful. Peanut asked what a Cathedral “looks like inside,” so I explained it was like “an extra big and glorious and amazing church.” She nodded, said “That’s what I thought,” and went about her business – but I think we will need to make another trip out here soon, and go poke around. It’s been too long since I stepped inside.
Apparently, spending Labor Day weekend in Shenandoah is our thing – at least, for the last two years it has been. In 2020, we drove out for the day, but in 2021 we decided to make a weekend of it; it was so much fun that I can absolutely see it becoming a tradition. We bunked up at Skylands, a park concessions facility right in the central district of the park, surrounded by some of the best hikes for miles – perfect location. After rolling in on Friday afternoon and spending the first night exploring our surroundings, we woke up on Saturday morning ready to go.
Our first hike – of about seven we planned – was Bearfence Mountain. Although we’ve been to Shenandoah quite a few times before, we’d never hit this one before. The trail included a segment of the famed Appalachian Trail! So cool.
In researching our hikes for the weekend, I planned a mix of repeats and new ground, and I also targeted hikes that – while they may include a more “advanced” route, had an alternate route that would be suitable for the kiddos. Steve downloaded the maps into his phone, and following his directions we quickly came up against – scrambles. They started out relatively easy, but they got intense quickly.
The kids did a fabulous job following directions and climbing safely, but I started to get more and more anxious as the scrambles got more intense.
Eventually, we came up against this monster – the route to the summit. You can’t see from this picture, but there’s a sheer dropoff of a few dozen feet, at least. Although the kids had been game, I just wasn’t comfortable with them scaling this beast. Down we went.
After a huddle, we realized what had gone wrong – the map downloaded was the “more advanced” route to the summit, and while the kids had done wonderfully well with it (and wanted to continue) it was never the route I’d intended them to take. We carefully picked our way down the scrambles to the spot where the trail had split off, then we started to climb again, this time up the more “family friendly” route.
Much better.
Eventually, our circuitous route finally deposited us at our goal – the summit! Views for miles.
These boots are made for walkin’.
It was a bit more roundabout of a hike than we’d intended – but that’s fine. More time in the woods is always good, right? It is in my book.
Next week: an old favorite hike, with summer colors.
What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden. And how easy it would have been to come into the world without this, and possessed instead of an all-consuming passion, say, for hats, perpetually raging round my empty soul! I feel I owe my forefathers a debt of gratitude, for I suppose the explanation is that they too did not care for hats. In the centre of my library there is a wooden pillar propping up the ceiling, and preventing it, so I am told, from tumbling about our ears; and round this pillar, from floor to ceiling, I have had shelves fixed, and on these shelves are all the books that I have read again and again, and hope to read many times more–all the books, that is, that I love quite the best. In the bookcases round the walls are many that I love, but here in the centre of the room, and easiest to get at, are those I love the best–the very elect among my favourites.
What a medley of books there is round my pillar! Here is Jane Austen leaning against Heine–what would she have said to that, I wonder?–with Miss Mitford and Cranford to keep her in countenance on the other side. Here is my Goethe, one of many editions I have of him, the one that has made the acquaintence of the ice-house and the poppies. Here are Ruskin, Lubhock, White’s Selborne, Izaak Walton, Drummond, Herbert Spencer (only as much of him as I hope I understand and am afraid I do not), Walter Pater, Matthew Arnold, Thoreau, Lewis Carroll, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Hawthorne, Wuthering Heights, Lamb’s Essays, Johnson’s Lives, Marcus Aurelius, Montaigne, Gibbon, the immortal Pepys, the egregious Boswell, various American children’s book that I loved as a child and read and love to this day; various French children’s books, loved for the same reason; whole rows of German children’s books, on which I was brought up, with their charming woodcuts of quaint little children in laced bodices, and good housemothers cutting bread and butter, and descriptions of the atmosphere of fearful innocence and pure religion and swift judgments and rewards in which they lived, and how the Finger Gottes was impressed on everything that happened to them; all the poets; most of the dramatists; and, I verily believe, every gardening book and book about gardens that has been published of late years.
Morning, friends, and happy new week to you. I hope it’s a good one! For me and for you – goodness knows I could use an upswing. Last week was not bad, per se, but not my favorite. On Tuesday we voted in elections for state offices – Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General – and for our House of Delegates members, while the entire country watched. I try not to get political on here, so I won’t say much about it, other than that I hope the result doesn’t do too much harm after all the progress we’ve made in the last decade. The new governor-elect is actually from my town, and his underage son attempted to vote – twice – at my polling place; it sounds like things got contentious. These are the times we’re living in. And the week didn’t get much better – a couple of unpleasant Friday afternoon surprises (nothing I can’t handle) and a personal bummer on Saturday made for a grumpy weekend. I hate grumpy weekends; I want my weekends to be happy and glorious all the time. But that’s not quite realistic, is it?
It wasn’t all bad. We had soccer on Saturday morning – the penultimate game of the season; it was supposed to be our last, but since we were rained out last weekend the league is allowing makeup games. As you can see, it was frigid. The entire field was frosted over and there were a bunch of little red-nosed soccer stars running around. I spent most of the game hopping up and down and hugging myself, and conducting a lengthy Halloween post-mortem with Nugget’s friend M’s mom Kate. Nugget did well but his feet got pretty cold; by the fourth quarter he was begging to switch to the other field, which got more sun (at his age, the kiddos play four-on-four over two small fields). The coach was reluctant to put him in, because – as he explained – they were trying to keep the score relatively even between the teams, and it was already lopsided in our favor, and Nugget is just too good. I pulled all my persuasive skills out of my bag and talked the coach into putting Nugget in on the sunny field anyway; he just had to promise to only play defense and not score more than two goals. (See, Nugget, never say having a lawyer mom didn’t do anything for you.) It took a few hours to thaw out after the game, but by midday the temps had climbed and I headed out for a run (!!!) – and not just any run: my favorite run of the season, the Marine Corps 10K (virtual again this year, thanks for nothing, ‘Rona). And then I figured I had earned a couch potato afternoon – after Nugget and I put a pound cake in the oven. Yum.
Sunday was, if anything, busier than Saturday – not the fun kind, though. After swimming, Peanut was invited to a birthday party at Dave and Busters (which necessitated a Target run to buy a noisy game for the birthday boy). Y’all. My twenty-month birthday party-free streak has ended, long live the birthday party-free streak. And guess what we found out! Dave and Busters is the new Chuck E. Cheese! Peanut hated every second, but she showed up for her friend. And we left as soon as the party was over. I was just grouchy all day – the lingering effects of the unpleasant Friday surprises at work and the personal disappointment. Well, can’t win ’em all… next week should be better.
Reading. If it wasn’t the best week in reality, at least it was a good week in books. I finished Paper Girls Vol. 1 on Monday and am already looking forward to continuing on with the series; it’s as weird-interesting as you’d expect from Brian K. Vaughn. Then I spent most of the week slowly reading Murder by Matchlight, one of the ten or so E.C.R. Lorac titles that the British Library has recently brought back into print. I loved it! After really enjoying Crossed Skis, which Lorac wrote under an alternate pen name (Carol Carnac) I started stockpiling other titles, and am looking forward to curling up with each of them in turn. Then Saturday was for the latest issue of Slightly Foxed; it was wonderful from cover to cover, as usual, but the final essay was the best. I also churned through Meet Mr Mulliner this week – between a couple of commuting days, a few walks, and dinner/dishes via Alexa – I finished the entire book, and cackled consistently throughout. (Augustine Mulliner was my favorite.) And finally – last but not least, I’m just in the beginning stages of Blitz Writing, but can already tell it’s gorgeously written and I’m going to love it.
Watching. For a week that was kind of cruddy, comfort viewing is required, and that’s all I watched. Three episodes of The Great British Bake-Off, more Miranda on YouTube (I’m almost through the backlist, whatever will I do) and some Gardeners World. It was all I could face.
Listening. As you can see (above) I am back on audiobooks after a short podcast break. After Meet Mr. Mulliner, I fired up The Sittaford Mystery, by Agatha Christie. Am only about fifteen minutes into it, so just breaking the ice. And on Sunday I wasn’t even in the mood for “convalescent literature” – only music would do, and specifically The New Pornographers. “In the Morse Code of the Brake Lights” on repeat. Can confirm loud singing.
Making. Creative juices were flowing this week. In addition to the regular rotation of home-cooked dinners: Nugget and I made this pound cake (from a Dorie Greenspan recipe – the classic “Perfection Pound Cake” out of her Baking: From My Home to Yours cookbook). We ate it with clotted cream and jam like Proper English People (please note I am neither proper nor English) and it was everything. Also made: progress on Christmas gift knitting – I’mma do it this year, people, just watch – and a completed 2020 family yearbook, because punctuality is for dorks. I haven’t ordered yet, but I will soon – my stackable coupons expire next week. I just want to let it percolate for a couple of days before doing a final proofreading.
Moving. All right, here – I finally have something to tell you. It was race week! (Sort of, because as noted above the Marine Corps 10K was virtual again, thanks to the stupid endless pandemic.) I planned to drive over to run it on my favorite trail, but in the end couldn’t be bothered to get in the car and just ran in my neighborhood instead. I even ran by the home of one of Peanut’s friends from Brownies and waved like a weirdo. Rest of the week – less exciting. Walks. Yoga.
Blogging. I have a lovely long Elizabeth von Arnim quote for you on Wednesday, and the first of a series of Shenandoah hiking recaps on Friday. Tally ho!
Loving. If you’ve been reading for a hot minute, you have probably figured out that I am in almost constant motion. Now that I am finally out of the trenches of new motherhood, and free from the soul-crushing dazed dread of a career I am only just beginning to realize I truly hated, I am back to my natural high energy levels and not a bit mad about it. But sometimes I do want a lazy afternoon on the couch (especially after a freezing cold soccer game followed by a 6.2 mile run) and I had the best one on Saturday, because of this mug and the tea that was inside it. Starting with the mug, it’s from Sussex Lustreware and I’ve had my eye on it for months, but it was sold out. They finally restocked and I pounced. Isn’t she lovely? The picture does it no justice; the pink is absolutely luminous. And of course I love the message. As for the tea inside it, I am spoiled: my best friend, Rebecca, sent me a sampler pack of August Uncommon tea for my birthday, and I broke into it on Saturday. I tried a smoky black tea with burnt sugar and banana notes, and it was delicious. August Uncommon is Rebecca’s favorite tea – she says she loves it even more than Mariage Freres. I’m not sure I’m prepared to take such a drastic step, but am willing to be persuaded. It was certainly a beautiful tea, and made more so by the love with which it arrived. I have the best people.
Asking.Why is it so much fun to crunch dry leaves? And what are you reading this week?
After a week of working, adventuring, and eating our way around Lake Placid, we woke up on Saturday morning ready to head back to the anklebiters – but we had one more adventure planned on the way home: a stop at Mt. Van Hoevenberg for mountain biking (me), walking (Steve), and hopefully riding the mountain coaster (both).
Mt. Van Hoevenberg is right outside of Lake Placid, and housed the sliding sports at the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Winter Games. I’d been wanting to check it out for ages. The complex now boasts a network of trails for cross-country skiing (in winter) and mountain biking (in summer); the trailhead for Mt. Van Hoevenberg itself (part of the LP 9’er hiking challenge); a bobsled experience; and a mountain coaster. On my agenda: exploring the trails via my mountain bike, and – hopefully – riding the mountain coaster. I’d tried to buy advance tickets earlier in the week, but they were sold out. Still, I thought there was no harm in at least asking if there was a chance, and the desk attendant explained that they under-sell advance spots and reserve room for walk-ins depending on track conditions. She was expecting the track report in about half an hour, if we could wait? We could. Steve and I wandered around the facility, checking out the old bobsled and other Olympic paraphernalia, until we got the good news – track conditions looked good, and there were two spaces for us on the mountain coaster. Hurray!
But first things first! Adventure Annie was raring to hit the trails.
One of the complex employees, seeing me wheeling my mountain bike in the direction of the trail network, helpfully pointed out the sites. “If you’re not back by sunset, we’ll send out a search party,” he told me gravely, “and you should know that the search party is a big black bear.” I laughed and assured him I’d only be an hour, as I now had mountain coaster (!!!) tickets.
To the trails! This bike is way too clean.
This is the face of someone who has been enjoying some truly epic single track:
After tooling around looking for the best trails, I barely felt like I was getting my wheels under me when it was time to head back to the main facility and meet up with Steve for the mountain coaster ride. I was bummed that my mountain biking had flown by so quickly, but seriously stoked for the next adrenaline rush.
I quickly locked Adventure Annie back on the car, then met up with Steve by the main lodge.
We checked out the scenery – including the historic bobsled track; so cool! – while we waited for our turn on the mountain coaster.
Ready to fly!
Each rider had his or her own car, styled like an Olympic bobsled. Steve was Team Canada, and I was Team Austria. Each repping (part of) our own family heritage!
Snapped one last picture on the initial incline, then tucked my phone away so it didn’t fly out of my hands on the descent. What a ride! It was totally exhilarating, and I could have flown around the mountain all day – but we had to get back to Albany and the kiddos. As we headed for the car, grinning broadly, we had one last surprise – I heard my name shouted, and turned around to see our mutual friend Jeff and his daughter Lucy waiting in line for the mountain coaster. Small world! We chatted to Jeff for a few minutes, then left them to enjoy their Adirondack weekend and headed back to our own rugrats – refreshed and pleasantly exhausted from a week of adventuring.
This ends Adirondack recaps (for now; we’ll always be back!) but not travel recaps. Next week I’ve got the first of a series of posts to share with you about Shenandoah National Park. Stay tuned!
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 October, 2021.
The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot #2), by Agatha Christie – At this point I think I’ve probably read half or more of Agatha Christie’s prolific output, but this was one I’d not yet tried out. I enjoyed the second installment of Poirot and Hastings, in which the friends travel to France after they are summoned by a desperate letter, only to find they have arrived too late to prevent a murder. But the murder itself is not quite what it seems – fortunately Poirot is on the scene to unravel the knotty threads. I listened to this on Audible, and it was such fun.
O, the Brave Music, by Dorothy Evelyn Smith – The new British Library Women Writers series has been on my radar since it was announced, and I am trying to stay current on releases (I am getting in near the ground floor, which helps – by the time I started buying BL Crime Classics there were too many to stay up-to-date on). O, the Brave Music was a good place to start in both buying and reading: the coming-of-age story of Ruan, an ugly duckling who suffers great losses but is sustained by friendships. I adored it.
The Stubborn Light of Things: A Nature Diary, by Melissa Harrison – I’ve been a fan of Melissa Harrison’s seasonal anthologies (read on) and have been gradually reading them all year. The Stubborn Light of Things is a collection of Harrison’s Nature Notes for The Times, and is a restful and rejuvenating read.
Longbourn, by Jo Baker – Although I normally don’t enjoy Jane Austen adaptations, I’d heard such good things about Longbourn that I decided to give it a try – and it did live up to the hype. “Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of the servants” is the most common descriptor, and that’s technically correct, but there’s much more to it than that. Longbourn housemaid Sarah is the primary character, and she has a story and romance all her own; her life and interests definitely do not revolve around who the Miss Bennets will marry. I loved the different perspective and the new take on one of my very favorite books.
Come, Tell Me How You Live: An Archeological Memoir, by Agatha Christie Mallowan – After divorcing her first husband, Archie Christie, Dame Agatha found love again with Sir Max Mallowan, a renowned archaeologist. Come, Tell Me How You Live is her fascinating memoir of the months she spent traveling in Syria and Iraq with Max, accompanying him on his lengthy archaeological digs. It was both hilarious – I literally LOLed many times – and fascinating.
Frenchman’s Creek, by Daphne du Maurier – Daphne du Maurier is best known for her suspense novels, so I figured Frenchman’s Creek, which I’d not yet read, would make a good chilling choice for the lead-up to Halloween. Joke’s on me, because the action took place over a sultry midsummer; it’s a classic example of hot weather making people behave badly. Bored, restless Lady Dona St. Columb flees her wine- and mischief-soaked life in Restoration London, taking her two children and their nanny to her husband’s country seat in Cornwall. There, Dona is titillated by her stuffy neighbors’ stories of French pirates ravaging the coastline. Soon enough, she finds herself face to face with the pirates’ swashbuckling captain – and obviously, she is immediately and deeply attracted. Dona falls head-over-heels in love with the Frenchman, but when the local gentry mounts a determined effort to capture him, she will have to choose between her desire for a footloose life of romance and adventure, and her equally deep attachment to her young children. I loved this, and will revisit it over and over again – but next time, in summer.
Ghostways: Two Journeys in Unquiet Places, by Robert MacFarlane, Stanley Donwood and Dan Richards – As a fan of Robert MacFarlane’s poetry, I am always looking out for his work and I picked this up in Old Town Books this month. The title seemed appropriately eerie for Halloween, and it was that indeed. Ghostways includes two short pieces: Ness, about a weapons-testing wasteland, and Holloway, about a hidden half-underground world. I loved Holloway, but was underwhelmed by Ness. (Also, note that Ness includes two completely unnecessary swears. Demerits were issued.)
Autumn: An Anthology for the Changing Seasons, ed. Melissa Harrison – It’s a Melissa Harrison month! I enjoyed the last of her seasonal anthologies I’d not yet read, Autumn, very much – although I think Winter is still my favorite.
The Daughter of Time (Inspector Alan Grant #5), by Josephine Tey – Here’s one I’d been meaning to get to for ages, and it didn’t disappoint. The Daughter of Time finds Inspector Alan Grant laid up in hospital, recovering from a leg injury sustained while in hot pursuit of a criminal. Faced with weeks of endless boredom, Inspector Grant is unexpectedly captivated by a portrait of Richard III, one of England’s most notorious kings (he supposedly murdered, or commissioned the murder of, his two young nephews – the Princes in the Tower – to secure his claim to the throne). Inspector Grant finds it hard to believe that Richard III, with a face more suited to the bench than the dock, could be a murderer – or at least that he could have been responsible for this particular murder. He enlists the help of a young researcher and applies his formidable brain to answering the questions: was Richard III responsible for the Princes’ murder? And if not, whodunit? I was glued to every page and my only complaint was that it was all over too soon; I’d have wandered through the sixteenth century with Inspector Grant for hundreds more pages.
The Story of the Country House, by Clive Aslet – A book I unashamedly bought for the cover alone (look how gorgeous!), The Story of the Country House was a fun and fascinating read. Exploring the architectural history of English country houses from the Roman villa to the suburban sprawl of present day, Aslet goes into detail about building materials, architectural trends, and the like. I was expecting a little more diversified subject matter: there was some upstairs-downstairs, some food, some entertaining, etc., but not as much as I thought there’d be. So if you read this, don’t go into it expecting Downton Abbey. But it was incredibly interesting and a beautifully produced book – definitely one to keep on the shelves and refer back to time and again.
The Manningtree Witches, by A. K. Blakemore – I preordered The Manningtree Witches after hearing about it on the Slightly Foxed podcast; the author, A. K. Blakemore, is a celebrated poet so I figured the writing would be gorgeous, and it was. Plus, I can’t get enough historical witch material; you know me. Of course, it gave me nightmares. But as Halloween reading – perfect. (And I did finish it on Halloween.)
Pumpkinheads, by Rainbow Rowell – My annual tradition for three years running now has been to pull out Pumpkinheads as soon as I turn off my lights, blow out the jack-o-lanterns, and bring in the candy. I love this sweet story of friendship, succotash, and hayrides – and the art is the perfect accompaniment. If you’re looking for a Halloween read for next year and you can’t handle anything too scary (connection!) put this on your list.
Whew! Busy bookish October, indeed. My summer reading slump-ish thing is definitely over – even with a weeklong business trip to Seattle (during which I was too busy to read much at all) I managed to knock back twelve books, and enjoyed them thoroughly. The du Maurier and the Tey were definitely my highlights of the month, and any month that includes Melissa Harrison is good with me. I’m looking forward to long cozy nights with my book and my candle into November, too – it’s reading season, friends.
Happy Monday, y’all! And November. Shut the front door. How was your Halloween? Are you a trick-or-treater, or more of a door-opener, or do you turn off the lights and hide? By inclination, I am more of a door-opener, but we get exactly zero trick-or-treaters (it’s my curse in life) and I have two to walk around, so we were out roaming the streets. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Halloween aside, it was a low-key weekend. Soccer was cancelled because of weather (we had torrential rainstorms on Friday, which caused soggy messy fields and the league cancelled both Friday practices and Saturday games) and swimming was also off the calendar because it was the fifth weekend in a month, so the swim school was closed. With all that extra time on our hands, we barely knew what to do with ourselves. So we spent Saturday bumming around the house – we were all a little tired, I think. I know I was; it was an especially hectic week at work with two depositions, a mediation, and a big urgent project (a classic “your lack of planning has now become my emergency” situation). I was out of sorts all of Saturday, made worse by a political campaign volunteer (we’re in the middle of a hotly contested gubernatorial election – kill me now) ringing my doorbell to pitch his candidate. I wordlessly pointed to my “No Soliciting” sign, and he then tried to argue with me about whether the sign applied to him. As I told Steve later, I would have been annoyed at being bothered no matter whose campaign the volunteer was from, but I was much more annoyed because the kid who disregarded my sign, dragged me away from my book, and then tried to argue with me was… there on behalf of the candidate I am very much not supporting. Anyway, that minor irritation knocked me out of sorts way more than it should have.
On Sunday, we all needed a break from the lazy Saturday; one day of bumming around the house and we were legit climbing the walls. So we hit our favorite county park for a morning hike (no avian excitement this time, but lots of pretty leaves), and then the kids and I banged out a couple of jack-o-lanterns in the afternoon, before the veterinarian and baseball player headed out to gather up their loot. They did very well, and dragged their heavy bags home in the gathering dusk; a successful Halloween indeed.
Reading. Quite a reading week! I don’t get all in on the Halloween reading the way I sometimes do with Christmas, but I had some spooky reading planned for the weekend, anyway. First up: finishing The Daughter of Time, which I absolutely loved – definitely a highlight of the year. Then I spent the rest of the workweek over The Story of the Country House, a new release that I’m not ashamed to admit I bought entirely because of the cover. (I mean. Look at it.) Really enjoyed it, although it was more focused on the architecture of the different periods in country house history; there was less upstairs-downstairs, food, sporting, and suchlike than I expected. Still great though! As the weekend rolled around I turned my attention to Halloween reading: first up, I scared the pants off myself with The Manningtree Witches (literally, I had nightmares). On Halloween evening itself I curled up with my traditional (for the last few years, anyway) cozy read – Pumpkinheads, by Rainbow Rowell, which is utterly charming. And then for good measure I started Paper Girls, a comic by Brian K. Vaughn that begins on the day after Halloween, so it seemed like a good choice. Plus I’ve been meaning to try it out for ages.
Watching. The usual! Lots of Monty Don, Miranda Mills, and the latest Bake-Off episode. We also watched Black Panther with Nugget, and it was just as wonderful as I remembered. He loved it.
Listening. I’m still on a bookish podcast kick; multiple episodes of Shedunnit – my fave – and Tea or Books. I’m on a kick of taking long rambles around the neighborhood with my earbuds; it’s keeping me going.
Making. I finished my lace infinity scarf – haven’t blocked it yet, though – and started in on my Christmas knitting; hoping I can keep this streak going and have some handmade gifts for my favorite ladies. Also made a few fresh, healthy dinners – as usual – and because ’tis the season, a batch of roasted pumpkin seeds.
Moving. Sigh. I was hoping to tell you that I had finished my virtual MCM 10K, but I just… didn’t do it. There’s still a week to go, though, so I’ll get it done this week.
Blogging. October reading round-up coming atcha on Wednesday, and the last Adirondack recap post on Friday. Check in with me then!
Loving. My extended disco birthday continues – this weekend I opened a slightly belated gift from my BFF, Rebecca – a sampler of August Uncommon teas. She says she likes them better than Mariage Freres, which is high praise indeed. I can’t wait to try! And I am so blessed to have these people in my life, who send me tea and love for another trip around the sun.
When we spent a week in Lake Placid with the kiddos three years ago, I had a list of flattish, easy-ish hikes to try with them; we made it on quite a few, but the list was longer than a week’s worth and we didn’t have time for all of them. On this trip, we were kid-free, but that list of family-friendly hikes proved useful for squeezing in quick jaunts around work. Finding ourselves able to knock off a bit early on our anniversary (which was a Friday – yay!) we decided to nip over to Henry’s Woods, a privately maintained preserve just outside of Lake Placid, for a pre-dinner ramble.
Ferns! Fun fact: when I was thirteen, I spent a summer as a counselor-in-training at CampIs-sho-da, and one of my assignments was to draw and label every variety of fern in the camp’s fern garden. I used to know them all. Not so much anymore – lawyering and parenting have chased that knowledge out of my head, sadly.
Anyway – it was a lovely, peaceful trail, winding through a quiet wood; perfect for unwinding after a week of work and adventuring.
We followed the gently inclining path up to a quiet overlook.
Just the exhale we needed! We admired the view and then wandered back downhill, bound for Lake Placid and a delicious dinner at Top-of-the-Park, overlooking Mirror Lake. A totally perfect celebration of sixteen years of marriage. Can’t wait to see what the next sixteen (and more!) bring.
Next week: one final Adirondack adventure, and it’s quite the adrenaline rush.
I was really looking forward to reading The Greek Myths. First of all, I was acquainted with Robert Graves’ writing through his classic I, Claudius, which I had loved – and how can you beat that edition, with an introduction from Rick Riordan? So I was definitely excited.
Athene invented the flute, the trumpet, the earthenware pot, the plough, the rake, the ox-yoke, the horse-bridle, the chariot, and the ship. She first taught the science of numbers, and all women’s arts, such as cooking, weaving, and spinning. Although a goddess of war, she gets no pleasure from battle, as Ares and Eris do, but rather from settling disputes, and upholding the law by pacific means. She bears no arms in time of peace and, if ever she needs any, will usually borrow a set from Zeus. Her mercy is great: when the judges’ votes are equal in a criminal trial at the Areiopagus, she always gives a casting vote to liberate the accused. Yet, once engaged in battle, she never loses the day, even against Ares himself, being better grounded in tactics and strategy than he; and wise captains always approach her for advice.
I have a decent background in Greek mythology from reading relatively widely over the years, and I’m fairly well grounded in the personalities and main myths of the Olympian gods and the principal heroes – Odysseus, Heracles/Hercules, Jason, Achilles, and to a lesser extent Theseus and Perseus (who I tend to mix up). I figured this classic compilation, which covers the entire Greek mythologic landscape, would be riveting.
It… wasn’t.
I hung in fairly well through the beginning sections, which focused more on the gods. Quickly, I gave up on my plan of reading all the footnotes, and just stuck to the main text – which was plenty dense enough without all the extra scholarly bits. Graves really started to lose me by the time he introduced the heroes, and after diligently ploughing through a quarter of the book, I started aggressively skimming. Call me unsophisticated, but I do like to have at least one character to root for, and everyone in The Greek Myths – gods, heroes, and other mortals alike – was capricious, jealous, and downright homicidal. Even my longtime favorite Olympian, Artemis, was murdering people left and right until the words started swimming on the page.
Take, for instance, the story of the marriage between King Peleus and Thetis the sea-goddess (a union which produced Achilles). Zeus had the hots for Thetis (and everyone else, too!) but prophecy held that she would give birth to a son who was greater and more powerful than his father. No one can be greater or more powerful than Zeus, so obviously he had to be hands-off with Thetis, and she was married off, much to her chagrin, to a mortal. Trigger warning:
Now Cheiron foresaw that Thetis, being immortal, would at first resent the marriage; and, acting on his instructions, Peleus concealed himself behind a bush of parti-colored myrtle-berries on the shores of a Thessalian islet, where Thetis often came, riding naked on a harnessed dolphin, to enjoy her midday sleep in the cave which this bush half screened. No sooner had she entered the cave and fallen asleep than Peleus seized hold of her. The struggle was silent and fierce. Thetis turned successively into fire, water, a lion, and a serpent; but Peleus had been warned what to expect, and clung to her resolutely, even when she became an enormous slippery cuttle-fish and squirted ink and him–a change which accounts for the name of Cape Sepias, the near-by promontory, now sacred to the Nereids. Though burned, drenched, mauled, stung, and covered with sticky sepia ink, Peleus would not let her go and, in the end, she yielded and they lay locked in a passionate embrace.
(It’s almost impossible to choose a passage to quote, there’s so much “ravishing” in this book. I missed my nice sanitized-for-children version that I grew up reading.) Anyway, Thetis’ marriage starts off inauspicious and gets worse: all of the Olympians attend the wedding, and Hera, Athene and Aphrodite get embroiled in a dispute over a golden ball, which leads directly to the Trojan War. Hate when that happens, don’t you? At least no one gets murdered at the wedding.
If you couldn’t tell, I was decidedly ambivalent about this book. I can see myself returning to it over and over as a reference – Greek mythology is so ubiquitous in popular culture that it’s nice to have a comprehensive guide, for sure – but I didn’t enjoy the reading experience nearly enough to re-read it from cover to cover. Rick Riordan’s introduction was the best part.
covered in flour 