Author: Jaclyn

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12 Months of Trails: Big Meadows at Shenandoah National Park in October, 2018

This year, I was lucky enough to have my birthday fall on a Saturday – hurray!  Steve asked me what I wanted to do on my day, and I knew that I wanted to hike and that it was a golden opportunity to drag everyone out a little further than our usual orbit.  I mulled over a couple of different options, including Harpers Ferry and Shenandoah River State Park, before deciding on Shenandoah National Park – and specifically Big Meadows, which I’ve been wanting to hike since last Thanksgiving.

We drove out to the park in the morning on my birthday.  My original plan was to get a nice early start, hike Big Meadows, have a picnic lunch and then hike the Story of the Forest Trail before heading home.  Of course the early start didn’t happen, and we rolled into the park around 11:30 with two hungry kiddos in the back seat.  Lunch first, then!

I packed us a picnic with a thermos of homemade soup, a baguette, sun-dried tomato and goat cheese spread, sliced veggies, and some fruit for the kiddos.  There was more to the picnic, including cheese sandwiches for the kids, but that stuff got inadvertently left at home.  Fortunately, the kids were happy to chow down on my homemade vegetable soup and the baguette, and Nugget – who loves vegetables – crushed the cucumber and cherry tomatoes.  So no one left hungry.

After tummies were filled, we headed back across the street and started our hike through Big Meadows.

There’s no actual hiking trail in the meadow – just a cris-crossing network of herd paths with a few entry points.  We found one and plunged in.

The meadow isn’t flat – there are lots of little rises and dips.  I was reminded of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s description of the prairie in Little House on the Prairie: “Laura and Mary looked around them.  They stayed close to Pa.  Low bushes grew on the sides of the hollow—buck-brush with sprays of berries faintly pink, and sumac holing up green cones but showing here and there a bright red leaf.  The goldenrod’s plumes were turning gray, and the ox-eyed daisies’ yellow petals hung down from the crown centers.  All this was hidden in the secret little hollow.  From the house Laura had seen nothing but grasses, and now from this hollow she could not see the house.  The prairie seemed to be level, but it was not level.”

As we got deeper into the meadow, it got wetter and muddier.  We encountered a few standing mud puddles and several mucky areas that we couldn’t squelch through without covering ourselves in mud (pro tip: don’t wear your hiking sandals to bushwhack a meadow on a cold October day after a summer of near-constant rain; learn from my mistakes).

Certain people LOVE puddle-stomping.  Not naming names, but I’m grateful for kids’ wellies.

Onward!

There were also a number of large boulders in the park.  It was necessary that we stop at every.single.one and either take a (long) rest or do some singing and dancing on top of the boulder.  This is why hiking with kids takes forever.

But it’s so worth it!  I love watching them grow and explore and learn to respect nature – hiking has given our family so many gifts.  The thing about hiking with kids is that you have to let go of distance and time expectations and just go with the flow.  If we dragged them through at an adult pace, they’d quickly grow to hate hiking.  So we go at their pace, we stop and admire the plants and flowers they like, we play tracking games, pack snacks, and don’t worry if a hike is shorter than we’d like or if we turn back early.  If it had just been adults in our party, we’d probably have circumvented the meadow.  Instead, we just wandered and poked around – and we all had fun.

We also found a cool painted rock nestled in a little hollow on one of the boulders:

So pretty!  The kids took turns holding it, and then we put it back for the next hikers to find.

Big Meadows was lovely!  Definitely worth the wait of almost a year – and we’ll be back.  I’d love to see the meadow a riot of wildflowers in spring!

What’s a hike you’ve been anticipating?

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The Classics Club Challenge: The Floating Admiral

In his introduction to The Floating Admiral, Simon Brett describes the book as a sort of parlour game – as all the best detective novels are, really.  But even amongst golden age crime novels, The Floating Admiral is unique, having been team-written by a collection of mystery-spinning luminaries the likes of which the literary world never saw before and likely will never see again: the original Detection Club.

A word about the Detection Club, for those who are unfamiliar: it was a sort of booze-soaked writing society, made up of everyone who was anyone in the golden age crime-writing world.  Agatha Christie was a member; so were Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Berkeley, G.K. Chesterton and John Rhode, among others.  They met on a regular but infrequent basis and their main purpose was to eat good food, drink, and talk about writing.  (How do I join?)  Eventually, it became clear that they needed to make some money to continue funding the eating of good food and the drinking of booze, so – bunch of writers that they are – they hit on the idea of writing a book together.  The result was The Floating Admiral.

The concept is simple: each club member (at least, each member who was involved in the project) wrote one chapter, then passed the whole packet of papers on to the next victim… errrr… writer.  Canon Victor L. Whitechurch started them off, laying the basic premises for the crime in a chapter entitled “Corpse Ahoy!” – in which we meet the corpse, one late Admiral Penistone; the sleuth, Inspector Rudge; and a few other cast members.  Tidal soothsayer and local grouch Neddy Ware discovers the body of the Admiral, a relative newcomer to the neighborhood, stabbed to death in the Vicar’s boat (because why not?) and bobbing around in Neddy’s favorite secret fishing spot, and we’re off to the races.  Each member of the club contributes some clues and some red herrings, every chapter ends on a cliffhanger (no one could resist, it seems), at least five suspects flee to London, and it’s all good fun.

None of the writers knows what they’re getting before they receive the sheaf of papers for their turn at the tiller, and once they turn the story over to the next writer it’s out of their hands.  Anthony Berkeley – whose name will be familiar to fellow devotees of the British Library Crime Classics series; I know you’re out there – writes the aptly titled final chapter, “Clearing Up the Mess” and G.K. Chesterton contributes a prologue that ties everything together after the murder is puzzled out in full; Chesterton was the only contributor who had the full solved puzzle to work from before he started writing.  John Rhode – another BL Crime Classics frequent flyer – Sayers, and Christie all contribute chapters, and I like to think that I could have attributed Christie’s chapter, in particular, to the author – I’ve read enough of her work to be fairly familiar with her writing style.

For instance, Christie relies heavily on dialogue to introduce new clues and plot points, and it’s apt that her chapter is entitled “Mainly Conversation.”  Because Aggie’s gotta Ag, she introduces the Inspector to the local busybody, who gives him some useful information in the midst of telling him all the neighborhood gossip and her own theories about the crime:

‘A train to catch,’ mused the Inspector.

‘That would be the 11.25 I expect,’ said Mrs Davis.  ‘The up train for London.  Six in the morning it gets there.  But he didn’t go by it.  What I mean is, he couldn’t have gone by it, because if he had, he wouldn’t have been lying murdered in the Vicar’s boat.’

And she looked at Inspector Rudge triumphantly.

Anthony Berkeley gets the fun job of unraveling all the clues, discarding the red herrings, and revealing the solution to the mystery.  But once Berkeley has revealed the official solution, everyone else gets in on the fun in the appendix, as each writer contributes their own scheme for solving the puzzle and ending the novel.  And if the novel itself was absurd, the appendices are straight-up loony tunes.  Various people are in disguise, there is tomfoolery with an inheritance and a hurried marriage, the Vicar is an accessory before the fact, the Vicar is an accessory after the fact, it’s a team effort, it’s a crime of passion!

Here’s the thing: as a piece of writing goes, The Floating Admiral isn’t awesome.  As is to be expected when thirteen (!!!) people are involved, it’s weirdly disjointed, nothing makes much sense, the plot is all over the place and the whole experience is disorienting.  But as a game or a puzzle, it’s a darned fun experiment and a delightfully silly way to spend a few hours.  I knew there was no way I’d be able to solve the puzzle, since none of the writers even knew how it was going to work out, so I just buckled in and enjoyed the silliness – and what enjoyable silliness it was.

The Floating Admiral, by the Members of the Detection Club, available here (not an affiliate link).

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It’s Steve’s Birthday! What Are You Reading? (November 19, 2018)

First things first: happy, happy, happy birthday, handsome!  Also, for the rest of you less handsome people: happy Monday, and happy Thanksgiving week to my American friends.  We had a pretty relaxing weekend around these parts.  The main idea was to celebrate Steve for surviving another trip around the sun: good job, Steve.  But Saturday filled up, as Saturdays do, with a birthday party (one of Nugget’s friends this time) and then some pre-Thanksgiving food shopping.  I didn’t get everything I needed – Thanksgiving ingredient shopping with a three-year-old is not amazing – but I got most.  On Sunday, we hiked – naturally.  For Steve’s birthday hike, he chose to explore Widewater State Park down in Stafford.  We’d never been there because it’s brand new – as in, Governor Northam just cut the ribbon on it a week ago.  The visitors center smelled like new construction and the blazes were all freshly affixed to the trees.  They’re still in the construction process and I believe there is a lot more planned for the park, but we enjoyed feeling in the know and being among the first to visit.  And now it’s back to the grind, but only for three days – long weekend ahoy!

 

Reading.  Kind of a slow reading week, actually.  Not a bad reading week, just a slow one.  I lost some reading time due to bad commutes earlier in the week, and my parents stayed at my house one evening and I spent the post-kiddo-bedtime hours visiting with them.  But when I have managed to open a book, I’ve been reading good ones.  Four Seasons in Rome earlier in the week, which was lovely and lyrical.  And over the latter half of the week, and all of the weekend, I’ve been slowly reading Angle of Repose, which has been on my TBR for ages.  Unfortunately, it’s overdue to go back to the library so I am going to have to pick up the pace considerably, since I’m only about halfway through at press time.

Watching.  It was almost a “nothing at all” kind of week, but Steve and I did knock out two episodes of The Great British Baking Show on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.  There was pastry and innuendo, of course.

Listening.  Podcasts and this and that.  The highlight was the dropping of the first episode of the long-awaited Slightly Foxed Podcast.  I listened to it – gleefully, I might add – while driving to Wegmans (with a sleeping boy in the back seat, which is why I was able to listen to a podcast and not his commentary on every construction vehicle we passed along the way) and I’m already in search of copies of James Lees-Milne’s diaries.  This podcast is going to become a problem.

Making.  A Thanksgiving menu and grocery lists, mainly.  And on Sunday evening I made homemade lobster mac ‘n cheese as a special birthday dinner for Steve.  It turned out really well, and one of us may have picked every piece of lobster out of the leftovers before they went into the fridge.  I’m not pointing fingers, but this person’s name rhymes with Schpeve.

Moving.  The normal toddler-chasing, for the most part, but I can at least report to you that I’m riding my DeskCycle again.  I’m sure my new colleagues all think I’m really weird.

Blogging.  I have a bookish post coming to you on Wednesday – another entry on my Classics Club challenge list, look at me go! – and still catching up, October’s hike on Friday, you know, in case you local folks need any ideas for working Thanksgiving off over the weekend.

Loving.  So, I try not to fall for clickbait, but sometimes I can’t resist those I F*cking Love Science articles on Facebook, and I clicked one recently that has given me so much joy, I am literally unable to even: AI Trying To Design Inspirational Posters Goes Horribly and Hilariously Wrong.  You should go read it, but if you’re too busy, here’s the tl;dr – a fairly basic AI tasked with designing inspirational posters – you know, moving or wise sayings transposed on a soothing image background – has “gone insane” and is creating images that range from weird and hilarious to sinister to NSFW.  And the best is, you can go visit the bot and make your own images, but don’t, because you will lose hours of your life to this.  Learn from my mistakes.  Or do it anyway, because it’s SO much fun and you get comedic gold like this:

Or this.

Even for AI, millennials are a punching bag.  Damn.  Where’s my comfort avocado?  Then there’s this frighteningly accurate portrayal of anxiety:

This also scares me a lot:

Pretty different, indeed.  Here’s one that pretty much sums up the issues I deal with in my day job:

Get your minds out of the gutter, I’m an employment lawyer.

If only I had known.  Maybe I wouldn’t have had high risk pregnancies.  Also, the shadowy man at the bottom of the picture: why???

I don’t even know what to do with this one.

You can say that again.  InspiroBot, guys.  Go do it.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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Travel Guide: Lake Placid and the Adirondacks With Young Kids

When I am planning a vacation, a weekend getaway, or even a day trip to a new place, one of the first things I do is google “family friendly [insert destination here].”  This strategy has led me to find activities that have turned into cherished family memories – hikes in Joshua Tree and Shenandoah National Parks, for instance.  So naturally, it was the first thing I did once we decided upon the Adirondacks as our summer 2018 vacation destination.  Having grown up just south of the region and played there with my family all year ’round, I knew there was an abundance of activities for kids – and that’s why I was surprised not to find many online resources catering toward families with very young children.  That’s not to say the resources aren’t there.  I found travel guides for young families focusing on winter activities (fun, but not what I needed to plan an August getaway) and plenty of blogs with lots of great options – but I had to sift through them to get to the information I needed, or the kids in question were just a little bit older than mine.  (And parents know: every year older makes a big difference.)  So here’s my attempt to gather together a travel guide for a summer trip to the Adirondacks with preschoolers and toddlers.

WHERE TO STAY

Where We Stayed:  Airbnb all the way!  I know there’s some controversy over Airbnb and its effect on the tourism industry in Lake Placid, but I have to say – in our stage of life, having the freedom of an Airbnb (or a VRBO) is critical.  We were able to find a fabulous unit on the top floor of a walk-up apartment building with huge windows overlooking Mirror Lake.  The kids had their own room, which gave us plenty of options after they went to bed (because there’s nothing worse than hunkering down in a pitch black hotel room and communicating by text so you don’t wake the baby from 7:30 p.m. onwards) – we were able to watch the sunset, read, share a bottle of wine and talk without worrying that we’d wake them.  Having our own kitchen really helped, too – we did breakfast and lunch in the Airbnb every day, and even a couple of dinners.  For a family with little kids, it was a dream arrangement.

Maybe Next Time:  When the kids are a bit older, or we have more disposable income and can afford a suite, I’d love to stay at the Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort.  The newly refurbished rooms look gorgeous, and I was watching with barely concealed envy as the guests enjoyed the hotel beach and played with the fleet of kayaks and paddleboards.

WHAT TO EAT

Where We Ate:  A lot of our meals were cooked right in our Airbnb kitchen, thanks to a stockup run to the Hannaford right outside of town, and I can’t overstate the ease, convenience, and money-saving points – especially with little ones in tow.  But we did get out and about a fair amount.  With Nana and Grandad, we enjoyed The Great Adirondack Steak and Seafood Company (pretty self-explanatory) one evening and Smoke Signals (barbeque, but they had a wide variety on their menu) another.  Both restaurants had good kids’ menus, and the staff at Smoke Signals was especially welcoming to the little ones.  (We’re very conscious of how the kids are received at restaurants, as they can both be unpredictable and Nugget is still in the stage of wanting to do laps around the dining room.)  On our own, we enjoyed our last lunch at The Cottage, which is another must for us in Lake Placid – nice laid-back pub food and atmosphere, and a deck overlooking Mirror Lake – what could be better?  And for afternoon treats, you can’t beat Emma’s Lake Placid Creamery.  We went there three times and I ordered the maple soft serve every time.  I regret nothing.

Date Night:  After descending from the summit of Big Slide, Steve and I celebrated at Big Slide Brewery.  We enjoyed local brews (IPA for him, sour for her) and a hearty, satisfying meal that totally hit the spot after a day of hiking.  There were actually lots of families there, with kids as young as babies, so this would be a good option for a family dinner – you don’t have to do date night here.

Maybe Next Time:  I heard great things, both from my parents and just while eavesdropping on conversations on the beach, about Lake Placid Brewery.  That’s one to put on the list for next time.  For date night, I’d love to check out Purple Saige or Salt of the Earth, both of which had delicious-looking menus and a slightly more sophisticated vibe.

WHERE TO HIKE

Where We Hiked:  Adirondack hiking, even at its easiest, is a different animal from pretty much anything in Virginia.  The trails are often rocky and root-y, there are exposed summits, ledges and precipices that are just fine for older kids but can give a toddler parent a stroke.  But there are trails that are toddler-appropriate and preschooler-approved, and we hiked a bunch of them.  Brewster Peninsula was a good introduction to the area hiking – the kids loved the trail and the parents enjoyed the water views.  (Pro tip: if you have a small Pisces, be prepared for them to ask to go swimming every thirty seconds.)  Our big family hike for the week was Owls Head Mountain in Keene, which my three-year-old hiked with no trouble.  There was one steep rocky section, but he got help from parents and grandparents and he did fine.  (Note that Owls Head is on private property and the landowners have elected to close it to public foot traffic on weekends and holidays, so you’ll have to plan this one on a weekday – we did the hike on a Tuesday and it was totally worth the little bit of planning ahead.)  We also took our little hikers exploring at Heaven Hill Nature Preserve and up the Ausable River from Monument Falls – all nice, relatively flat and easy, trails by which to introduce kids to the beauty of the Adirondacks.

Parents’ Day Out:  If you’re lucky enough to have babysitters for a day (thanks, grandparents!) Mom and Dad can knock off a high peak.  There are plenty of family-friendly hikes in the high peaks region, but the mountains themselves are really more suited to older kids.  Of course, you know your own kids and what they can handle, but for mine, eight miles of climbing up and down a steep mountain of exposed granite just wasn’t in the cards.  Thanks to Nana and Grandad, we made Big Slide Mountain a day date activity, and it was gorgeous.

Maybe Next Time:  If Owls Head hadn’t worked out, our Plan B for a kid-friendly mountain was Mount Jo, and I’d still love to check that out.  We also hoped to hike the trail circumventing Heart Lake, but didn’t get to it, so that’s another one for the next trip.  And I’d love to take the kiddos hiking to a swimming hole like Copperas Pond.  For date activities if we’re lucky enough to entice the grandparents to watch the babies again (they love it) another high peak is always on the table – Nye and Street sound like possibilities for the next outing.  Or we could go a bit farther afield and start knocking off Saranac 6 hikes or Fire Tower Challenge trails.  One thing about hiking in the Adirondacks is – there will always be more to do.

WHAT TO DO

Where We Played:  Hiking is the main focus of an Adirondack trip – at least, for our family – but there are other things to do and we certainly took advantage of the opportunities to play in the region.  The Wild Center in Tupper Lake is a fabulous family destination, with animals, nature trails, and interactive educational exhibits suitable for the youngest visitors.  Closer to home base, we had plenty of water fun at the Mirror Lake Public Beach and paddling Mirror Lake end-to-end in our kayaks.

Maybe Next Time:  I was really hoping that we’d get a chance to see some of the Olympic sights.  I thought the kids would probably be too young to really get into them (although they did love watching the Seoul Olympics last winter) so we didn’t prioritize them.  But I wish that even if we didn’t see the rest of the Olympic Museum, we had at least poked our heads into the Miracle on Ice rink.  We also were sad to miss out on the Summer Jumping Series at the ski jump complex – it wasn’t going on while we were there.  Next time!  I’d also love to rent paddleboards at one of the many outfitters lining Main Street and get back some of my SUP skills on Mirror Lake.  When the kids get a bit older, I’d also like to take them to the Mt. Van Hoevenberg Sports Complex to try out some of the fun adventure sports.

Have you vacationed in Lake Placid in the summer?  What have I missed?

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12 Months of Trails: Great Falls Park in September, 2018

Shall we take a few turns in the way-back machine?  Somehow I’ve gotten terribly behind in sharing monthly trail reports – whoops!  It’s time to catch up, so I’m wrapping up in a sweater, grabbing a cup of hot tea and looking back at a few pictures I snapped on a hot day in early September at Great Falls.

Great Falls is one of our go-to haunts in northern Virginia – I don’t need to tell you that we love it there, because I’ve written about it so many times you surely know all about it.  We also love taking out-of-town visitors and newcomers to the area to see the park, because it’s one of the great beauty spots of northern Virginia.  So when a new friend, who just moved to NoVA from San Francisco, asked for trail recommendations for her family of avid hikers, Great Falls was near the top of my list.  We decided to get our families together for a hike on Labor Day Monday – at first, we considered a drive out to Shenandoah National Park, but our friends had visitors in town and couldn’t get out until late morning.  So we decided to stay closer to home, and Great Falls was the obvious choice.

The waterfall was sparkling in the sunshine!  Our friends’ jaws dropped and they immediately remarked on the beauty of the river, the gorge, and the surrounding scenery.

We decided to walk upriver toward Riverbend Park, rather than downriver along the edge of the gorge, because we had three small hikers on foot (our friends also have a one-year-old, but she was riding along in an Ergo on her mom) and the downriver walk includes some ledges.  So upriver we went, and the decision paid off immediately when we saw a Great Blue Heron soaking up the sun on a rock.

We didn’t actually get very far, but that was okay.  The kids found a bubbling brook and the shoes came off immediately.  They had fun wading, splashing, and moving rocks from one side of the stream to another (kids are so weird).

After the hike, we stopped by the visitors’ center and picked up Junior Ranger booklets for the older three, then filled them out together at one of the picnic tables.  (Nugget’s was a lot of scribbles, but the rangers let him through anyway – ha!)  They turned in their booklets and took the Junior Ranger oath.

Two proud Great Falls Junior Rangers!

What’s your go-to local hike to show off your area to visitors and new residents?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (November 12, 2018)

Hellooooooo new week.  It’s my first full week at my new job – I started this past Thursday and spent the first two days meeting a million different people and watching hours of training videos – and I’m hoping to feel a little more settled by this time next week.  It was a nice, laid-back weekend, so that should set me up for a good first week of work.  On Saturday, we got in a short hike at a local botanical preserve.  I wanted to check out a new state park that Governor Northam just opened, but we got too late of a start – maybe next weekend?  The rest of Saturday, we spent bumming around town and visiting the playgrounds in our puffer coats; the chill has set in and it definitely feels like November in the wind.  On Sunday, Steve took Nugget to the zoo while Peanut and I had a play date at her BFF’s condo.  I have no idea what the girls did, but BFF’s mom and I had a good chat and catch up session.  We discussed Harry and Meghan’s baby and rated all of the younger royals’ fashion sense, so basically we were productive.  Sunday afternoon was spent at the library, naturally, and I’m pleased to report that I took home more books for the kids than for me.  Look at me, I’m growing.


Reading.  It was a verrrrrrry busy reading week for me.  From Monday through Wednesday, I was enjoying three days of “funemployment” – that golden period when you’ve left a job and have another one lined up but it’s not quite time to start yet.  I’d have loved to have a full week, but three days seemed like all I was going to be able to swing, so I decided to take that and be grateful.  Monday and Tuesday were full days of torrential downpours, so consequently they were full days of reading.  From Sunday through Tuesday, I finished three books – I Should Have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan; The Shooting Party (which inspired Julian Fellowes to write “Gosford Park” and “Downton Abbey”); and Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay.  My pace slowed down after that, with chaperoning a field trip on Wednesday, then squeezing in a solo hike, and then adjusting to a new office life starting on Thursday – but I still managed to churn through The House By the Lake: One House, Five Families, and a Hundred Years of German History; My So-Called Bollywood Life; and half of Four Seasons in Rome.  Not a bad showing for a week, wouldn’t you agree?

Watching.  My usual – very, very little.  Election returns on Tuesday night, and one episode each of The Great British Baking Show (caramel week!) and The Good Place.  The election returns were super stressful and I ended up turning them off at 9:00 and going to bed early.  I woke up at 1:00 a.m. (Nugget had a bad dream and wanted cuddles) and checked my phone, only to discover that the election went a lot better than I had thought when I crawled dejectedly under the covers just a few hours before.  Hurray for the blue wave!  It’ll be nice to finally have some checks and balances again.

Listening.  Just hopping around from podcast to podcast.  I was in a bookish mood at the beginning of the week and caught up on some reading podcast episodes, then switched back to Speak Up for Blue over the weekend.  Peanut and I listened to a couple of episodes about saving whales on our way back from her play date – she told me “I like learning new things, Mommy,” and my heart exploded.

Making.  Meh, not much.  A big batch of cooked greens for the week, and the beginnings of a Christmas list for the kiddos – that’s about it.  Have you ever tried to make a Christmas list while one of your kids perches on your lap?  Nugget wants EVERYTHING on Amazon’s Preschool gift list.  Thanks for that, Jeff Bezos.

Blogging.  We are going to be extra outdoorsy this week.  On Wednesday, I’m catching up on Twelve Months of Trails with a recap of September’s hike – only two months late, no biggie.  And on Friday, I’m sharing the travel guide I wish I’d had when planning an Adirondack vacation with shorties.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  Peanut’s class is in the middle of a unit on Colonial history – hence our trip to a Colonial farm on Wednesday – and she is having the best time learning about life in Colonial Virginia.  I’ve always been a big history nerd, so I am super excited that she’s interested in it too.  Maybe a trip to Colonial Williamsburg is in the offing?  She’s at a really fun age right now and I’ve been able to share some of my interests and my favorite books with her.  I’ve been waiting for this for a long time, and I’m so jazzed that we still have so much fun and bonding ahead of us.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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Halloween Happenings 2018

With Halloween in the books, it seems the holiday season is officially underway!  The kids woke up on November 1 and asked if it was Christmas yet.  (Nope.)  I don’t like to rush through life, and especially not through the holidays, so clearly I need to recap Halloween here before we can move on to Thanksgiving, let alone Christmas.

Our Halloween festivities kicked off on the Sunday before the holiday.  In other years I might have tried to do something in the run-up to the day itself, but between job transitions and general life stuff, pumpkin picking and carving was all I had the energy to do before Halloween.  That was plenty for the kids, though.  We talked about driving up to Maryland and checking out the festivities at Butler’s Orchard, but ultimately decided to stick with the more low-key Wegmeyer Farms in Loudoun County, Virginia.  We got our pumpkins there and loved the relaxed atmosphere and rolling fields.

Also, let’s not pretend the kids didn’t come for the wagon ride.

Although it was late in the season, there were plenty of beautiful pumpkins (and other squash) in the fields, and we had a lot of choices.

Some people wanted the biggest pumpkins they could find.  (Maybe next year I need to institute a new rule: you want it, you have to lift it.)

 

Decisions were made eventually.

We loaded the pumpkins up – one for Peanut, one for Nugget, and one for Mommy and Daddy to share – into the wagon and dragged them back up the hill.

Before we could pay for our pumpkins and leave the pumpkin patch, there was one other important item of business to which we had to attend.

APPLE CIDER DONUTS.  ‘Tis the season!

From the pumpkin patch, we made a detour to a nearby nature sanctuary for a picnic and hiking, but when we got home there was only one thing on the agenda:

Carving!  The kids were not content to festoon their pumpkins with stickers this year – I guess my years of phoning in the Halloween decorating are over.  We now have three happy jack-o-lanterns on our front porch, and the squirrels have been eating their faces with gusto.

Anyway!  Halloween morning dawned clear and pretty warm.  (These southern kids have it made, by the way.  I remember many a Halloween of covering up my carefully chosen costume with a parka.  There is never any need for battles about wearing coats over their costumes these days – it’s never that cold on Halloween here.)  Peanut and Nugget were both allowed to wear their costumes to school, but only Peanut dressed up immediately.  Nugget’s costume involved a large tail, so he had to change once he was out of his car seat.  We headed over to the school and prepared for the festivities.  Halloween is a big deal in the lower classes at the kids’ school, and the room moms for each grade are responsible for putting on a party.  As one of the kindergarten class moms, I was busy with set-up for Peanut’s party.  We all collaborated on food and decorations, but the art project was my job.

We had each of the kids bring in a smallish pumpkin earlier in the week, and I set out sticky foam masks and felt capes (which I made while listening to my audiobook the night before) to turn the pumpkins into superheroes.  Each class in the school has a theme, and Peanut’s class is “the K Team,” with a superhero motif for the year.  The superhero pumpkins were a huge hit and the kids loved decorating them.

After I set up the art project, I slipped out of the classroom to enjoy the costume parade.  Preschool was first.  There’s my ferocious dinosaur!

Junior Kindergarten was next, followed by Kindergarten – Peanut brought up the rear, dressed as Violet from The Incredibles.  (No forcefields!)  Can you even handle her wig?!?! 

Apparently one of the preschoolers complained to the principal because there were no floats in the costume parade.  Lame!

After the parade, the kids returned to their classrooms for a special snack and Halloween party.  Food first!

While Peanut nibbled a muffin, Nugget was having an early Thanksgiving dinner over in the preschool classroom.  The guy heaps his plate.

After the food, we rolled out the art project.  Peanut adorned her pumpkin with a pink cape, red mask, and some colorfully decorated star stickers.  She was delighted with the result.

The costumes came off and the party wrapped up with a game of Halloween bingo.  I respectfully but emphatically declined to be the “caller” and instead hung out with Peanut and helped her fill in her bingo card.

With cleanup over, I rushed home to do a little work before picking the kids up early from school to get ready for the main event – trick-or-treating!

Ready to rock!

 

Every year, we go to a particular street in our neighborhood to trick-or-treat.  The street closes to traffic and becomes a massive block party, and it seems like half the town turns out.  The residents of the street get really into it – decorating their houses to the nines and pulling out all the stops on costumes.  There are huge, elaborate cauldrons heaped with candy, smoke machines, flashing lights, and families in coordinated costumes swarming all over.  We always run into school friends in the crowd, and it’s one of my favorite events of the year.

This year, we made plans to meet up with our friends who recently moved to the area from California.  Their baby – who was dressed as Jack-Jack Incredible to coordinate with my Violet – fell asleep in the car and missed the fun, but the three older kids had fun going door-to-door together.

(There’s that tail!)  It was a wild, crazy, and fun night – as always.  By the time we poured ourselves into bed, we had covered several blocks worth of ground, posed for pictures with a big group of friends, and collected bags full of candy – a good night indeed.

Happy (boo-lated) Halloween to all of you!  And now – onward to Thanksgiving!

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Reading Round-Up: October 2018

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, 2018…

  

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid – After I read and loved Exit West earlier this year, I was looking forward to checking out Hamid’s earlier novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist.  The story of a young Pakistani man who graduates from Princeton and lands a prestigious job in finance, only to find his worldview coming unraveled after September 11, is compelling and thought-provoking.

Miss Mapp (Mapp and Lucia #2), by E.F. Benson – Out of order but not exactly, because I read the first of the Mapp and Lucia books last year, I picked up Miss Mapp as a lighthearted palate cleanser after The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and it didn’t disappoint.  Reading about the social machinations and misadventures of Elizabeth Mapp and her neighbors – archrival Diva Plaistow, possible love interest Major Benjy, and more – was just the delightful romp I needed.

Queen Lucia (Mapp and Lucia #1), by E.F. Benson – It occurred to me that in order to count Queen Lucia toward my new Classics Club challenge, I’d need to re-read it, and I was still in the mood to spend time in Riseholme and Tilling, so I meandered one town over to spend time with Lucia, Peppino, Georgie, Olga and the Riseholme crew.  I think Miss Mapp is stronger than this predecessor, but Queen Lucia is still most enjoyable.  (The Brinton Quartet!  I DIE.)

  

Fear: Trump in the White House, by Bob Woodward – A thing about living in D.C. is that when these political exposes, analyses, tell-alls, memoirs, and the like come out – everyone scrambles to read them.  I imagine that this isn’t the case in other cities, but here, the conversation revolves around a new Trump book for at least a month – and longer if the redoubtable Bob Woodward is involved.  This was exactly what I would expect from Woodward – exhaustively researched and persuasively composed – and because of its subject, it was downright chilling.  I hate that these books are being published, but as long as they are and as long as I live where I do, I’m sure I won’t be able to resist reading them.

The Blue Field (Brensham Trilogy #3), by John Moore – This month’s reading is looking like a pattern – intense/heavy, lighthearted, lighthearted, later, rinse, repeat.  Obviously after Fear I needed another couple of palate cleansers, and I had been saving the final volume of the Brensham Trilogy – lightly fictionalized memoirs about life in an English market town and its constellation of surrounding villages before, during and after World War II – for just such an occasion.  It didn’t disappoint.  Moore’s evocative writing about English village life was present in force, old friends dropped by for a visit and some government port, and the character of William Hart burst lifelike onto the page.  I’m going to come back to this trilogy again and again, and I’m so glad to have them lined neatly up on my Slightly Foxed shelf.

Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding (Her Royal Spyness #12), by Rhys Bowen – I can’t resist a new installment of the adventures of Lady Georgianna Rannoch, and this one was just as good as its predecessors.  On the eve of her wedding to the Honorable Darcy O’Mara, Georgie is once again looking for a place to live.  Her house-hunting woes are put to an end when her ex-stepfather offers her residence in his stately manor, Eynsleigh, which Georgie will inherit along with his fortune someday.  Remembering happy childhood days at Eynsleigh, Georgie leaps at the chance, but when she arrives the manor is sadly dilapidated and the staff is almost suspiciously inept.  As Georgie attempts to prepare for her wedding and set the house to rights, it becomes clear that something more sinister than run-of-the-mill Problems With The Servants is going on.  Delightful and fun as always!

  

The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Came After, by Clemantine Wamariya – Continuing with my pattern, the next intense read (on my friend Zan‘s recommendation) was The Girl Who Smiled Beads, a memoir of life as a refugee after the Rwandan genocide.  Clemantine Wamariya was only six years old when she and her older sister, Claire, were displaced by the war in Rwanda.  They stick together – reluctantly sometimes – through refugee camps and tough neighborhoods in seven African countries until they’re eventually granted asylum in the United States.  This book was stunning and powerful and I think it would be hard for anyone to read, but I found it particularly difficult because my daughter is six years old – the same age Clemantine was when she first became a refugee and was separated from her parents.  I kept imagining my daughter in her place and it was almost impossible to keep reading – but I did, because I think this book is incredibly important.  With the ongoing refugee crisis and the poisonous rhetoric around immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers in the current political climate, The Girl Who Smiled Beads should be required reading for everyone.

I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life, by Anne Bogel – Cue up the post-intense-read-palate-cleanser.  I breezed through this slim book of essays about life as a book person in one day, and it was delightful.  My local independent children’s bookstore got shouts (hooray!) and while I already knew the story of the library in Bogel’s backyard – jeeeeeeealous – I never tire of reading about it.  There’s nothing like a book about books, and this one is a worthy addition to the shelf; I can see myself dipping back into it again and again.

The Floating Admiral, by the Members of the Detection Club – Checked one off my longtime TBR and Classics Club challenge list with this fun team-written mystery novel by the original members of the Detection Club, a collection of Golden Age crime luminaries including Agatha Christie, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers and Anthony Berkeley.  The writing was a bit all over the place, since each writer brought their own style to the project – and every chapter ended on a cliffhanger, because apparently no one could help themselves.  But it was a lot of fun and very different; full review to come soon.

 

Educated, by Tara Westover – I listened on audio to this month’s book club selection – a memoir by a young woman who grew up in a survivalist family in rural Idaho, where her homeschool education was spotty at best and nonexistent at worse, and she endured horrific abuse by her elder brother and gaslighting by her parents, who took his part – but she rose above all of these challenges to earn a college degree from Brigham Young University, a Harvard fellowship, and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University.  Educated was on President Obama’s summer reading list for 2018 and it was certainly fascinating.  The audio production was excellent, but man it was hard to listen to.

The Mothers, by Brit Bennett – I’ve had this debut novel on my list since it was released to wide acclaim and it was deserving of the hype.  The Mothers relates the story of three young lives – Nadia Turner, Luke Sheppard, and Aubrey Evans – and how they are shaped and changed by a secret.  The writing is gripping and the story is well-told, but what makes the book really unique is the use of the “church mothers” as a sort of Greek chorus introducing the events of nearly every chapter.  I loved the voices of the “church mothers” and found them to be a really different and well-utilized storytelling device.

Eleven books in October!  At this rate, my plan to read only 52 books this year is long-since abandoned.  What can I say?  I love to read and I can’t seem to slow my pace.  Plus – so many books, so little time, amirite?  October always seems to be a strong reading month for me; I’m not sure why.  Maybe it’s the return of chilly weather, or the fact that we’re well and truly out of the summer vacation and back-to-school seasons and I have the time and capacity to dedicate to long reading evenings again.  This October is no different and I have lots of highlights.  The two Mapp and Lucia books were such fun at the beginning of the month, and of course I always enjoy a visit with Lady Georgianna.  Educated was incredibly powerful, as was The Girl Who Smiled Beads.  But I think The Blue Field is the high point, because I just love the beautifully and poignantly drawn world that John Moore conjures up in Brensham.  Next month – I have a big stack of library books, so I’m excited about lots of good reading ahead.

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (November 5, 2018)

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR.  How is it November already?  I don’t know where this year is going, but this is going to be a good week.  I have three days of “funemployment” – I start my new job on Thursday – and I’m jazzed to vote tomorrow and to chaperone a kindergarten field trip on Wednesday.  This weekend was good, too.  It got started a bit late, as I was wrapping up my old job until about 6:30 on Friday evening – late for me.  When I got home, the kiddos were bouncing off the walls and my dear Zan was waiting on my couch.  I quickly read the kids stories, then let Dad handle the rest of bedtime while Zan and I slipped out for a glass of wine at a restaurant around the corner from my house.  We chatted for an hour about my new job, her upcoming business travel, and more.  Saturday was a good day – relaxed and peaceful.  We took a family walk to the farmers’ market and the library, where I checked out nine books (whoops) and scored bigtime at the library sale – two 1930s editions of Lytton Strachey biographies (Queen Victoria and Elizabeth and Essex) for a dollar each, who dis?  On Sunday, we hiked at Huntley Meadows, which was ablaze in color.  The rest of the weekend was chill – lots of reading on the back patio while the kids dug in the sandbox, zooming trucks around Nugget’s bedroom, listening to Peanut practice on her early readers, chatting with my brother and his wife on their way back from a ski equipment sale in Aspen, and relishing the stories of our next-door neighbors who just returned from a honeymoon in Italy.  (Gelato featured heavily.)  All good, nourishing, life-affirming stuff.


Reading.  I’ve been churning through books this week.  Finished The Floating Admiral early last week (recap coming soon), listened to the last of Educated while putting the finishing touches on the art project for the kindergarten class Halloween party, then blazed through The Mothers, Hallowe’en Party, The Radical Element and I Should Have Honor over the latter half of the week.  Look at me go!  It was such an active reading week that I almost feel like I should have highlights – The Radical Element probably takes the crown if I’m choosing the best of the week, but I have enjoyed it all.  At press time, I’m not sure what book will be next; I have a teetering library stack to deal with.

Watching.  As might be expected with such a busy reading week, I was light on television (even for me).  We watched a couple of episodes of The Good Place to close out the second season, and an episode of The Great British Baking Show on Sunday night.  Highlight: Julia’s bread week showstopper, which prompted the line: “I made a snail.  It looks… very inappropriate.”  Steve and I almost choked on our wine.

Listening.  Lots of listening in addition to the reading.  I didn’t want to carry more to work than strictly necessary, since I was lugging huge shopping bags of office detritus home with me on the metro all week – so I stuck to my earbuds.  I finished up Educated, as noted above, via Audible.  Then switched back to my backlog of podcasts and listened to selected episodes of my favorite book podcasts – The Book Riot Podcast, Tea and Tattle, Tea or Books? and From the Front Porch.  The Tea and Tattle episode on autumnal reads was particularly delightful.

Making.  About thirty felt capes and the same number of foam sticker superhero masks for the kindergarteners’ pumpkins.  They looked homemade, but the kids didn’t care, and it was a labor of love.

Blogging.  I have a cozy week of posts prepared for you.  On Wednesday, I’ll share my reading recap for October, and on Friday, prepare for a Halloween photobomb.  We had such a fun holiday and naturally I documented every second.

Loving.  Sort of a bittersweet loving this week as I finished up my old job on Friday.  I knew the career move was necessary, but it was surprisingly hard to go.  In the end, I hefted three full shopping bags and choked back tears as my friends Sam, J.B. and Renee walked me out for the last time.  I had my reasons for making this change, and I know it’s the right decision, but I am just now realizing how much the firm gave me – not just an excuse to get out of a toxic situation and come home, but a bunch of hilarious war stories and a whole new set of friends.  My last day was filled with promises to email all the time, plans to get together for lunch in my new neighborhood, hiking invitations and a flurry of text messages.  I’ve had a lot of stress and my share of tears, but in the end the emotion I felt most was gratitude for the many, many friendships I’m taking with me.  No regrets.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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ADK Adventure 2018: Monument Falls and Ausable River Hike

On the final Saturday morning of our vacation, we woke up to the bittersweet knowledge that we’d be back in the real world before long.  We were planning to drive back to my parents’ house that afternoon, but we wanted to squeeze one more hike in before the vacation came to an end.  Looking for something short and easy with a big payoff, we hit on Monument Falls – more a section of rapids on the Ausable River than an actual waterfall, but right off the main road, with smashing views of Whiteface Mountain and access to a trail winding its way upriver.

The falls itself was a small waterfall and actually visible from the road, but very scenic nonetheless.

And of course, that view was astounding!  We drank it in for several minutes, pointing Whiteface out to the kids and telling them all about the mountain, and then turned upriver to explore along the bank for awhile.

Just a few feet upriver from the falls, the river was so still and peaceful you’d be forgiven for forgetting there was a section of whitewater only feet away.

We walked along the bank, watching for birds (we saw a blue jay and a few chickadees, but all were too fast for my camera shutter – alas) and listening to the kids rattle on about their imaginary trail friends.

A certain tired guy hitched a ride in Dad’s arms.  Couldn’t blame him – it had been a long week, and those little legs did an awful lot of hiking.  I was proud of both kids for being such troopers on such an active vacation!

After a good long ramble upstream, we turned and made our way back to the Falls, for one last wistful look at Whiteface before we piled back into the car and – after a short stop for lunch in town – trundled down out of the mountains and back to our busy, hectic life.

It was a lovely and peaceful way to wind down a beautiful week spent breathing in crisp mountain air and relishing the feeling of trail beneath our hiking boots.  Now, when can I go back?

Stay tuned for one more Adirondack post, coming in a few weeks.  Vacation, I miss you already!