Happy Friday, friends! And to my American readers – Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday and enjoyed some delicious food, some time with family (whether in person with your bubble or over Zoom or FaceTime) and have a relaxing weekend ahead. We stayed home in Virginia; while we would have loved to visit my parents, my dad is recovering from rotator cuff surgery and it didn’t seem wise to subject him to two kids who occasionally forget themselves and jump on people. There was some talk of Steve’s mom coming up from Florida to spend the holiday with us, but that didn’t work out either. So it was just us, bubbling together, but we made it a nice day and, weather permitting, we’ll get out for some of our customary Thanksgiving weekend hiking over the next few days.

Often around Thanksgiving, I look back at the year that is almost ended and consider my blessings. Some years, that’s easier than other years. I have had some Thanksgivings where I was just where I wanted to be – no complaints at all! – and others where I was struggling to find the good. 2020 being what it is, this is going to be a hard year to cultivate gratitude – I think that’s true for most of us. But I am trying to flex that gratitude muscle and remind myself of my many blessings, even in 2020. Such as:

• My health, and my family’s health. Our little bubble has made it this far without getting COVID-19 (that we know of), and so have my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, and Steve’s mom. We have been careful, but we are also very lucky.
• Our home. As much as I complain about the band-aid colored walls, dated lighting fixtures, and nearly-exploding appliances, we have a roof over our head in a top-notch public school system. Speaking of which…
• The kids’ school. We have had a roller coaster ride over the past few years and it feels like such a relief to be in a good public school district. So far, kindergarten and second grade seem to be going well, but even if things take a turn, at least we’re not paying through the nose for it.
• Related: virtual school. While it breaks my heart every day to see Nugget pop off of the dining room chair and stand next to the table to recite the Pledge of Allegiance over his headphones, we are blessed to be able to keep the kids home and safe this year. (But please, Goddess, they need to go back next year.)
• Remote work. While I have my up days and down days when it comes to productivity (not to mention just how I am feeling about working from home every day) I am lucky to have a job that allows me the flexibility of working at my dining room table. In talking with several lawyer friends during this time, I have said over and over that the pandemic has shown people as they truly are, and it turns out that my colleagues are kind, supportive people who have my back. I had to make a few job moves to get to this place, so I’m not taking that for granted.
• Food on the table. From Thanksgiving dinner to my weekly elaborate Sunday night family meals to simple thrown-together breakfasts. I always say this, but I feel it especially keenly this year when I encountered empty store shelves for the first time in my life. Having pasta and sauce in the pantry, flour in the freezer, and veg in the crisper – not to mention toilet paper and hand soap in the bathrooms; I know those aren’t food – has never felt more precarious than it does this year, and I am glad for a pantry stocked against future lockdowns.
• Anticipation for the future. It feels like I should knock wood, but Steve and I have made plans to take a dream trip together in 2022. (Hopefully Americans will be welcome in other countries by then…) We found a trip that allows risk-free booking (i.e. will permit us to cancel and rebook for a future trip if COVID-19 messes with our plans through 2022) and we put a substantial deposit down – seeing as we didn’t spend any money on a vacation in 2020. This won’t be our next trip; it’s more than a year away. But it’s something to anticipate, even if that feels a bit dangerous right now, and that’s huge. When we booked the trip, Steve and I looked at each other and at the same time (slight wording variations) both blurted out how happy we were to have something to look forward to again.
• Little things like candles, tea in handmade mugs, Dogfish Head SeaQuench ale, issues of Adirondack Life, Balega and Smartwool socks – all those tiny comforts that make life just a little more enjoyable on a daily basis.
• My running shoes, and all the routes I’ve pounded out in my new neighborhood and on the local rail trail. Sometimes it feels indulgent to tie on my Brooks, shut the door against whatever chaos is going on in the house, and just run. But it’s one of the things that I have committed to doing for myself this year, and it makes me so happy.
• Tea. Always. Also LaCroix.
• My kickass new camera – the best birthday present ever, THANK YOU STEVE! – which has allowed me to capture bird and wildlife photos I wouldn’t have dreamed possible. I love photography, and my new camera is bringing me so much joy.
• Books! Of course! My subscription to Slightly Foxed, and those beautifully crafted little clothbound hardcover Slightly Foxed Editions. Gorgeous Folio Society hardbacks. Fun paperbacks from British Library Crime Classics and Persephone Books. A whole bookshelf full of these delights to wade through of an evening – by candlelight, see above.
• Daily visits from my avian friends – multiple species of woodpecker; Carolina wrens and chickadees; tufted titmice; white-breasted nuthatches; goldfinches and house finches; cardinals and blue jays that pop by my feeders multiple times a day (I can barely keep them in birdseed!). I like to hide behind my car with my camera and paparazzi them.

I know it’s 2020, but what are you grateful for?

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, 2020…

Gilead (Gilead #1), by Marilynne Robinson – One of the most beloved modern American classics, and a re-read for me – Gilead was just as lovely as ever. Written as a letter from an elderly, dying minister to his young son, Robinson’s best-known and most acclaimed work is ruminative, sad, lovely, and powerful. I decided to re-read the entire Gilead series in anticipation of the fourth novel’s release this month, and it was an incredibly worthwhile project.

Home (Gilead #2), by Marilynne Robinson – A new-to-me stop on my read-through of the Gilead series; Home focuses on the Boughton household. Rev. Boughton is a life-long friend of Rev. Ames, the narrator and main character of Gilead. Home finds Rev. Boughton nearing the end of his life and attended by two of his eight children – Glory, the youngest of the family, and prodigal son Jack. Both have returned home to escape troubles in their lives outside of the family, and they circle warily around one another before forming an unshakeable bond. My patience for Jack ebbs and flows, but I loved Glory.

The Lost Words, by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris – Needing a quick breather from Marilynne Robinson (who is a wonderful writer, to be sure, but who needs a lot of focused mental power) I dipped into this beautifully illustrated volume of poems focusing on a collection of “lost words” from nature that are slipping from the consciousness of today’s children. The poems were powerful and the accompanying art was breathtaking.

Lila (Gilead #3), by Marilynne Robinson – Back to the world of Gilead and my favorite character from the series – Lila, the much-younger wife of Rev. Ames. This third installment focuses on Lila’s life before and after she met Rev. Ames, and it’s spellbinding as ever. And goes to show the benefits to re-reading; when I first read Lila I thought it was a wonderful story, but I was missing the love story aspect of it – it seemed to me that she married the Reverend more for shelter than love (which, understandable, since Lila never had a reliable roof over her head). I still think that the need for safety – physical and emotional – was what principally motivated Lila to marry Rev. Ames, but the underlying love was more apparent to me on my second read-through.

Betsy-Tacy (Betsy-Tacy #1), by Maud Hart Lovelace – Another re-read (this is the month for re-reads, apparently), and actually – this time – a read-aloud. It was past time for Peanut to meet Betsy, Tacy, and Tib, so I pulled out The Betsy-Tacy Treasury and started reading the first book earlier this month. As expected, Peanut loved it and is now obsessed – she even made “Betsy” and “Tacy” paper dolls and an egg carton “piano box” for them. Success!

Jack (Gilead #4), by Marilynne Robinson – Four volumes of Gilead books, in one month – whew! Jack is the new release, much anticipated by all Robinson fans (including me). I liked it, but it won’t displace Lila as my favorite of the series. Jack focuses on the titular character’s interracial romance with Black schoolteacher Della Miles in 1950s St. Louis. It was beautifully written, of course, as expected. But I have to say – I felt like I was missing Della’s perspective. It was clear why Jack was drawn to Della – she was beautiful, smart, kind, shared his love of poetry, etc. But I don’t quite get what Della saw in Jack (an alcoholic who can’t hold a job and continually embarrassed her by showing up drunk on her doorstep) that would induce her to sacrifice so much – her job, her reputation, and her family – to be with him. But this is something that has always confused me about Jack – why his family (and wife, apparently) are willing to constantly forgive him for his repeated transgressions. I feel like this would have been a more compelling story if Jack was less of a ne’er-do-well (Teddy Boughton making an interracial marriage – which was illegal at the time, to America’s shame – would have been a more interesting story arc) and/or if Della had gotten more airtime so that the reader wasn’t left asking, Jack, really? Why, Della?

Pumpkinheads, by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks – Another re-read! 2019’s most adorable graphic novel, Pumpkinheads, is going to be a Halloween tradition for me. I love watching Deja and Josie dart through the pumpkin patch where they work, in search of seasonal snacks and true love. And even though this year I knew how things worked out for them, I still enjoyed the (hay)ride!

The Crucible, by Arthur Miller – Somehow I missed this one in high school (my AP English class read Death of a Salesman instead), but I’ve corrected it now! The Crucible is Arthur Miller’s acclaimed play about the Salem witch trials – written at the height of McCarthyism. I really enjoyed this read – I’m fascinated by Salem, but I also found a great deal that spoke to our current political moment.

Lolly Willowes, by Sylvia Townsend Warner – Laura “Lolly” Willowes is one of the many “surplus women” of the early 20th century. At age 28, bereaved of her father, she is shunted off, along with some furniture, to her brother’s London home to become something of an unpaid companion to her sister-in-law and nieces. After twenty years of this dissatisfying life, Laura finally rebels, moves to the country, and becomes a witch – like ya do. I’ve been wanting to read this classic novel of a woman claiming space for herself, and Halloween was just the time for it!

The Lost Spells, by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris – I read MacFarlane and Morris’s first collaboration, The Lost Words, earlier in the month. The Lost Spells was just as gorgeous and mesmerizing (except the moth poem, which I obviously DID NOT APPROVE). The burnished colors of the artwork and the nature themes of the poetry felt like the perfect combination for fall.

Poems Bewitched & Haunted, ed. John Hollander – A re-read (this was the third time I’ve spun through this collection, always around Halloween) and still a favorite! I love this collection of poetry on topics witchy and weird.

Hallowe’en Party, by Agatha Christie – Another re-read for Halloween – this is one of my favorite entries in the Hercule Poirot oeuvre. A young girl boasts that she saw a murder committed; hours later she is dead, drowned in a bobbing-for-apples game at an “eleven-plus” Halloween party. Ariadne Oliver, mystery writer, calls in her old friend Poirot to solve a crime that ends up connected to several other murders, buried in the past. I really enjoy this one – and knowing the murderer in advance doesn’t take anything away from the fun of re-reading!

Whew! What a month of reading. I wrote earlier this month that I still felt like I was in a reading slump – thanks, pandemic, election, and… just… all of it. But it doesn’t look like a slump, at least not going by this list. As for highlights, I definitely had the most fun later in the month, once I picked up the stack of books I’d set aside for Halloween reading. I loved Pumpkinheads last year, and this year it was just as much fun. Getting to some of the classics I’ve been meaning to try – The Crucible and Lolly Willowes, in particular – was also wonderful. I’m feeling energized and excited to read right now (hope that holds up through this election week and beyond…) and looking forward to more autumnal reading in November.

How was your October in books?

Good morning, friends. Happy Indigenous People’s Day! And if you’re getting a day off work, I hope you’re enjoying it. I have a few things to do on that front, but am hoping to take the afternoon off, at least.

My weekend was a good one – indulgent. My birthday is tomorrow and since Tuesday birthdays are terrible, Steve declared this my “birthday weekend.” I felt very celebrated! On Saturday we spent the entire day outside, which is just what I always want to do. Two hikes – one at Riverbend Regional Park and one at Fletcher’s Cove – plus a picnic and kayaking, also at Fletcher’s Cove. We paddled farther upriver than we have before and checked out a section of rapids right before the river calms down. Sunday was gloomy on the weather front, so it was more of a relaxing day. I spent it puttering around the house. Nugget and I went to Michael’s for Halloween decorations (it was totally picked over – bummer) and both of the kids helped me bake an apple crisp, which we enjoyed for dessert after a feast of Greek food. And now I have a stressful week ahead, but at least I’m fortified by a lovely weekend.

Reading. Slow reading week – again. Partly because Marilynne Robinson needs to be read slowly (I knew this) and partly because of yet another week of crazy news cycles. I spent too much time scrolling through my Washington Post app and not enough time relaxing with my book. I read Home over the course of the week and finally finished it on Sunday morning. Needing a break from Marilynne Robinson, I spent a peaceful hour or so over The Lost Words, which was beautiful. And then, fortified by the break, I returned to Gilead and Lila. I loved Lila the first time I read it, so I’m sure I’m going to love it again this round.

Watching. This and that. The VP debate on Wednesday (“Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking.” And that fly!) Some Rock the Park. The first episode of The Right Stuff, the new Disney+ original series about the Mercury astronauts (which was great, but as it happens, not very kid-friendly – so that will be an adults-only show). And we’ve been attempting to watch Miracle as a family, but the dang kids keep falling asleep. Hoping to finish it up tonight – our third attempt.

Listening. Earlier in the week I was listening to my audiobook, another Great Courses series. Eventually I switched back to podcasts, specifically Sorta Awesome, and am working on catching up. I’m midway through a back episode on the subject of invisible labor, and man is it good.

Making. I was treated to takeout all weekend long, so there was no elaborate cooking this week. Unless you count the sandwich I made for the family picnic on Saturday – goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and tofurkey and vegetarian pepperoni on olive ciabatta bread. The kids hated it. So uncivilized. Oh, and on Sunday afternoon my sous chefs and I mixed up an apple crisp (recipe from King Arthur Baking) using some of the apples we picked last weekend. Some may consider it kinda sad to make your own birthday dessert, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Moving. I was a bit lazy this week – lazy and extra stressed about work (which is exactly when I should make a point of exercising – I know, I know). I made it out for two runs and one strength training session in Mommy’s Jungle Gym – better than nothing, but not as much as I wanted. And there was the epic Saturday of activity – two hikes and a long paddle. That felt good.

Blogging. Getting philosophical on you this week, so my apologies in advance. On Wednesday I have a quote about contentment from Elizabeth von Arnim to share with you, and on Friday I am dragging out my soapbox and shouting about the “no geotag movement.”

Loving. This might be the lamest ever, but this is what is improving my life right now: friends, I am the proud owner of a garage fridge. Yes, I am officially old! A few weeks ago, frustrated by my poorly designed kitchen fridge (there is no place for produce, none) I mused aloud to Steve, “Maybe we should get a garage fridge.” He was immediately on board (actually, I think the direct quote was: “That’s actually really sensible.” I tried not to get offended that he sounded surprised at me being sensible) and before I even knew it, my half baked idea had turned into a new fridge in my garage. I now have a place to hide my La Croix from greedy little hands, and overflow vegetable storage space. I am living large, friends.

Asking. What are you reading this week?

Goooooooood morning, friends. How were your weekends? Mine was definitely good, although I felt vaguely unsettled all weekend. The usual, right? Between a couple of projects hanging over my head, a professional change for a valued colleague (excited for her, but I’m going to miss her), and the crazy news cycle of the last week, I just had this creeping sense of lingering dread all weekend. Which was too bad, because it was a beautiful one.

We had a super social weekend planned, which was exciting. (Ah, pandemic life and all the changes it brings… pre-COVID, I’d have been stoked about a weekend curled up in my own house, without social obligations. These days, I want to see all of the people.) We started the weekend out at the apple orchard; we were supposed to go with friends, but had a hard time finding an orchard that we all wanted to hit. It ended up being just us, at an orchard we’d been to a few years ago and thought was only okay. It was still just okay, but reservations were not required, so: a win. After apple picking (big plans for applesauce and homemade maple apple dumplings; watch this space) we headed back toward our neck of the woods to meet friends at a farm market and pumpkin patch. No pumpkins for us yet – it’s a little early – but we had a nice walk and left with some decorative gourds; another win. Sunday was more socializing: we were invited to lunch at our former neighbors’ house. Zoya had a surprise for the kiddos: two-day-old kittens, in a box in her spare room! She has added “cat midwife” to her long list of talents (along with kickass photographer, ancient chicken egg excavator, and gardener extraordinaire). We ate lentils drizzled with honey (AMAZING, who’d have thunk), traded book recommendations, and got caught up on all the news from our old neighborhood. It was good to be back, if just for an afternoon.

Reading. Bit of a slow reading week, which is fitting. Marilynne Robinson will not be rushed. I read through the rest of Gilead over the course of the week, and then turned to Home and have been reading it bit by bit. Still committed to my plan of reading through the entire series – my copy of Lila, which I loved, is waiting on my bookshelf, and brand-new Jack is on my coffee table. But I’m getting just the tiniest bit anxious to be on to my Halloween themed reads.

Watching. The usual. Still working our way through one episode of Rock the Park per night, with the kids as they wind down for bedtime. Not sure what we’re going to watch as a family after we’re done – which will be soon. Oh, and like everyone else in the Horrified States of America, I watched the first Presidential debate. (Almost forgot to mention that; every day has felt like a week and I had to think a minute before I realized that was just a few days ago. Yikes.) I wasn’t actually planning to watch. I already know who I am voting for and nothing is going to change my mind. So I was all set to spend the evening with Gilead and a glass of wine, but Steve said he felt like he needed to watch. He said that it turned his stomach to think of watching Trump talk for that long, but he felt like he needed to bear witness. I couldn’t make him go through that alone, so I kept him company. Gracious Hecate, was that not awful? I don’t usually drink on weeknights, but I had to get up and pour a whisky halfway through.

Listening. This and that! A couple of hours of my current audiobook (a Great Courses series on “The Art of Reading” – really interesting) and snippets of podcasts. I’m currently halfway through the Sorta Awesome fall coziness list and loving. it. As always.

Making. Lots of this and that! Some good dinners this week – a vegan chili packed with butternut squash and kale; maple-mustard tempeh; and an escarole and white bean dish served over baked potatoes that Steve requested I add to “the regular rotation.” Outside of the kitchen: a finished roll of film, progress on setting up the sunroom, and most excitingly: progress on unpacking the bedroom! The boxes and piles of stuff have lingered in the bedroom while I worked on getting the rest of the house unpacked and the kids settled in. But it was getting stressful to try to sleep in a chaotic space, and honestly – I deserve a peaceful bedroom just as much as the little animals I live with, who throw their laundry and toys everywhere. It doesn’t actually look like much has been done, yet, but I assure you progress has been made. Specifically, I cleaned out the closet! We have a huge closet that spans the entire length of the room, and I completely emptied and reorganized it. Just knowing that part – kind of the most daunting part – is done, is making the rest of the job so much easier to face. One more day of effort ought to do it! It’s also bumming me out a bit, because now that my clothes are all organized and hung up, I’m realizing that I have absolutely nowhere to wear most of them. I have one floral blouse that is making appearances on Zoom calls, and a herringbone blazer for online court appearances, and everything else is just sitting there. Blah.

Moving. Lots of movement this week! On Monday, I ran a trail 10K (for the virtual Fountainhead Classic), and yesterday, banged out a fast (for me) 5K around my neighborhood. The 10K was crazy difficult – lots of up and down steep hills, negotiating my way over rocks, roots and streams. I was exhausted afterwards, but I’m pleased to report: no injuries, other than a rolled ankle that’s already fine. In between, there was another neighborhood run and two strength-training sessions in “Mommy’s Jungle Gym.” Feeling strong!

Blogging. I’m doing a lot of dreaming this week: on Wednesday, talking about moving pipe dreams (don’t worry, I’m not moving) and on Friday, big adventurous plans for facing and overcoming a fear after the pandemic is over – and a book that is inspiring me.

Loving. I was going to tell you all about my new fridge, but you’ll have to wait, because how could newborn kittens not be the most exciting thing I have to report? These babies were literally two days old. Zoya was there when they were born (and gave us a very detailed description of the process of midwifing a cat – she “winged it” and it sounds like it was interesting, especially for the cat). Their eyes aren’t even open yet. You guys. I soooooooo wish I could take one home, but Steve and I are both allergic (although I wore my face mask in the room with the kitties and felt surprisingly fine). I even picked out the one I want: the little one with the black, tan and white splotches. I’d name him (her?) Cappuccino – Capp for short. Well, it’s not to be. But I got to pet two-day-old kittens, so basically, I’ve peaked.

Asking. What are you reading this week?

Y’all, we have moved into a lawless neighborhood: there are masked bandits at large, wreaking havoc.  The other day, Steve noticed a small patch of bare earth in our front yard, where there used to be grass.  He assumed that it was Nugget, digging in the dirt, and made a mental note to have a word with him about restricting his digging activities to the sandbox.  But the next day, the patch was bigger – really big.

That same day, Peanut and Nugget reported that there was a raccoon in the neighbors’ yard, and that they’d seen it out Nugget’s window in the middle of the night.  They do tend to be midnight wanderers, but their information was based on some trash cans that were upright when they went to bed and knocked over when they got up the next morning.  A raccoon is certainly a plausible explanation, but so is a late night automotive encounter, if you catch my drift.

But then we discovered this:

Why yes, those are muddy footprints on our trash can.  We showed them to the kids and they both immediately insisted that they didn’t do it!  Well, kids, of course you didn’t.  Do you have paws?  Do you walk around on trash can lids in the middle of the night?

Nugget has become determined to catch these masked bandits in the act of terrorizing the neighborhood.  We went for a walk between rainstorms the other day, and he made a list of the clues that he spotted.  In addition to our torn-up lawn and muddied trash cans, we noted the following:

• A plastic water bottle on the side of the road.  The raccoon must have put it there!
• Critter poop.  Raccoons for sure!  Probably a daddy raccoon!
• Scratch marks in the gravel by the side of the road, one street over.
• A small divot in someone’s driveway.  Raccoon footprint!  Powerful enough to make an impression on dried pavement!
• A small box midway up the neighbors’ chimney.  Raccoon door!  (Side note: I don’t actually know what it is.)
• Overturned trash cans by another neighbor’s side door.  (I pointed out that they are oriented the same and neatly arranged, so it was probably an intentional act by the neighbors to keep them from filling up with rain during one of our recent storms.  But: no, Mommy!  Raccoons!)
• Torn cellophane around an old bookcase that a neighbor set out for garbage pickup.  Trash panda attack!
• Missing branches on a cherry tree across the street.  The raccoon must have bitten them off!

I’ll tell you guys, this raccoon is a pest but he sure is delivering endless entertainment.  I know that raccoons can be an urban problem, too, but we didn’t encounter any in Alexandria.  (We did see some roaches that were almost as big as raccoons, though.)  But out here, we are surrounded by wildlife – deer, foxes, wild turkeys, and it looks like, raccoons.

Do you get nocturnal visitors to your yard?

After getting the disappointing news on Saturday morning that our summer vacation would have to be cancelled, Steve and I were very much in need of some fun and a nature release.  Fortunately, we had reservations to rent kayaks in D.C. on Sunday morning.  So after breakfast, we threw on our watershoes, grabbed our paddles and our favorite kayaking hats, and headed for Key Bridge Boathouse, on the waterfront in Georgetown.

We’ve never paddled from Key Bridge before – it’s on a slightly busier, choppier section of the Potomac and we have always been looking for something quieter and gentler for the little duffers.  With Peanut and Nugget on their extended disco grandparent vacation, it seemed like a good time to check a less kid-friendly boathouse off our list (and also, Fletcher’s Cove, our favorite, had no boats available, so there was that too).  We arrived early for our 9:30 time slot and checked in, then waited patiently for our turn to head down to the dock and shove off.

Finally in the water!

About those kayaking hats?  Clearly I wore my Channel Islands Adventure Co. trucker hat, which I bought after our epic sea cave kayaking adventure.

Steve, meanwhile, was gleefully sporting what I call his “expedition hat.”  He bought it for our trip to the San Juans last year and insisted on wearing it every day.  Whatever makes you happy, big guy.

Anyway!  Hats firmly secured, we headed upriver toward Fletcher’s.  It was a bluebird day and the views from the water were gorgeous.  (Adding the Potomac Boat Club to my list of places to paddle from someday.  Check out that beautiful waterfront!)  We cruised upriver, waving to other kayakers and SUP’ers, and looking up at Georgetown University on its hill above the water.  It was a beautiful view, but… GW FOR LYFE, GO COLONIALS.

I didn’t take many pictures as we worked our way upriver, because we were fighting the tide, the current and the wind – it was a workout.  We finally made it to the border with Fletcher’s portion of the river and stopped to float around a little, check out the birds (we saw great blue herons and cormorants) and take in the views before heading back downriver to return our kayaks.

Love those downriver views!  Seeing the Washington Monument from the water never gets old.

Such a fun morning on the water.  It definitely reinforced for Steve and me that our next big outdoor gear purchase is going to be new kayaks.  Renting them is great, but not always convenient – we’ve often contended with closed boathouses in past seasons, and now due to COVID-19 we have to reserve in advance and the time slots are selling out the second they become available.  Plus, we got used to paddling sleek touring kayaks in the PNW last year, and the heavy sit-on-top recreational kayaks are just not cutting it for us these days.  Our fifteenth anniversary is coming up this summer (!!!) and we’ve been discussing buying new kayaks as our gift to each other in celebration of that milestone.  I think we’re both stoked to have a little more freedom on the water.  Now I need to find a dealer that actually has some in stock – harder than it sounds, these days.  I’m delighted that everyone and their dog has suddenly discovered paddlesports, but could y’all maybe leave me a Current Designs Solstice?  Would be great, thanks.

Well, rentals on the Potomac will work until then.  And in the meantime, we’re heading to New York pretty soon to pick up the duffers, so maybe I’ll have some Adirondack paddling pictures to share with you before too long.

Have you been getting out on the water this summer?

Hey, friends! I have a confession to make – for the last week I have been off on a crazy adventure, kayaking the Salish Sea. We saw orcas, porpoises, and so much other incredible wildlife, paddled 60 nautical miles in five days, and left with a bunch of new friends. Today is a travel day, and I’m headed back to DC and reality – sigh. I’ll have a regular Monday post for you next week and good stuff coming on Wednesday and Friday, so do check in with me then.

Catch ya on the flip side!

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 March, 2019…

Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood that Helped Turn the Tide of War, by Lynne Olson – Somehow, despite loving popular history, I hadn’t read any Lynne Olson before last month.  I’m glad to have corrected that error now and can’t wait to read more.  Last Hope Island was fascinating and engaging.  Beginning with heart-in-throat depictions of the rescues of the ruling families and government dignitaries of occupied Europe – King Haakon of Norway, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and more – and continuing on to describe the role of the BBC, Britain’s warring intelligence agencies, and the daring of the nascent resistance movements left in the occupied countries, it was the most well-researched page-turner I’ve ever read.  (Well, maybe tied with Erik Larson’s Dead Wake).  The discussions of the intelligence failures, betrayals, and lack of support for and collaboration with the governments in exile made me heartsick; I said to Steve “This book is proof that there is a God, because without divine intervention I really don’t see how the Allies win that war.”

Old New York: Four Novellas, by Edith Wharton – I’ve been on a bit of a Wharton kick lately, and I loved these four novellas – especially the last one, New Year’s Day (the 1870s installment).  Each of the four novellas covers one decade – the 1840s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s (although the 1860s story mostly takes place in the 1890s, confusingly).  I especially loved The Old Maid, in which two women conspire to hide a secret, and the aforementioned New Year’s Day, which was a heartbreaking story of a woman caught in what seems to be an affair.  I won’t say more, because you should read it!  It’s a slim volume but every page was a delight.  Fully reviewed here.

The Joy of the Snow, by Elizabeth Goudge – After loving The Little White Horse, I’ve been meaning to read more Goudge, and I thought her memoir would be a good place to begin.  It was.  Goudge describes her childhood and girlhood in lyrical prose – as with The Little White Horse, she is at her best when describing houses.  The Ely house, with its passage to the Cathedral green!  The garden at Devon!  The sweet country cottage in Oxford!  I enjoyed the rest of the book – despite Goudge’s well-documented tendency to get a little preachy from time to time; I mostly skimmed those sections – but the houses were the highlight.

Slightly Foxed No. 61: The Paris Effect, ed. Gail Pirkis and Hazel Wood – Although I am trying to make my way through an epic library stack right now, I am powerless to resist a new Slightly Foxed when it arrives at just the right moment, and this one did.  The best issues of Foxed – for me at least – combine books I’ve read, books I’ve been meaning to read, and books I haven’t heard of before but now have to track down; this issue was a perfect example of that alchemy.  I’m now itching to get my hands on Dorothy Wordsworth’s journals and In Pursuit of Spring, and to read the Nancy Mitford novels I already have on my shelves.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie – As I mentioned here, I’ve spent years wondering whether I had already read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd or not.  It’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer, but now at least I know I’ve read it once – last month.  One of Christie’s earliest novels and also one of her best known, it features a surprise ending that totally changed the mystery writing landscape at the time it was published.  (Well, it wasn’t entirely a surprise for me, because I actually figured out whodunit – although I didn’t know what the motive was until Poirot revealed all.)  Anyway, I absolutely loved it – the clues sprinkled liberally around, the little Poirot-isms, the narrator’s busybody sister… it was a delight from the first page to the last.

Three Men on the Bummel (Three Men #2), by Jerome K. Jerome – I’ll have a full review (for the Classics Club) coming to you next week, but just as a teaser in the meantime – J., Harris, and George are back and scheming up another epic Victorian vacation, this time a bicycling trip through the Black Forest.  Times have changed a bit since the friends went up the Thames – George is still a bachelor, but J. and Harris are both married and encumbered with several children, so their plans are complicated by the need to convince their wives to free them for a few weeks.  But they find a way and the reader is treated to a number of delightful and hilarious scenes.  Three Men on the Bummel doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor, Three Men in a Boat, but it was good fun all the same.

Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days that Changed Her Life, by Lucy Worsley – It’s terrible of me to borrow this Worsley from the library when I have Jane Austen at Home sitting on my borrowed-from-a-friend shelf, waiting to be read so I can return it to my dear Susan.  But I read this first anyway.  (Sorry, Susan!)  And while I’m sorry for being such a terrible bookish friend, I’m not sorry for reading Queen Victoria, because it was fascinating and totally enjoyable – not to mention a really neat and different way to approach biography.  Worsley follows the Queen through the prism of a day here, a day there, and we get to be present at all the important moments of her life, from her parents’ marriage before she is even on the scene, to her deathbed.  I have always been fascinated by Victoria and the age named after her, and I loved this.

Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret, by Craig Brown – I guess I was on an “experimental royal biography” kick, or else hampered by library deadlines (maybe a little of both) because I turned next to another royal biography, written in a different sort of style.  This one didn’t work as well for me.  It might be that Princess Margaret has never been my love language, or that this biography was a bit too experimental.  I liked the “glimpses” that consisted of actual quotes from the press or Palace announcements, or that read as more traditional biographical essays (and I did a tiny cheer every time James Lees-Milne turned up to thumb his nose at royalty) but the fictional stories about Margaret married to Pablo Picasso or one of her other admirers read as a little off, and I really hated the dream sequences where the author described his own nightmares about Margaret invading his study and looking at all his notes for his biography of Her Royal Highness.  Not information I needed.

The Glass Ocean, by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White – I was intrigued by this both from the team-writing perspective (I am currently working on a team-writing project, although it’s going very slowly – my fault entirely, and my writing partner is being very patient) and because the story sounded cool.  Williams, Willig and White portray three women who are connected through history.  One is a present-day popular history writer who finds something potentially alarming in a trunk belonging to an ancestor who died on Lusitania.  The others are two Lusitania passengers – one the wife of a wealthy industrialist and one a conwoman and forger.  So this was fine, and it read quickly, but it didn’t entirely work for me and I felt a bit blah at the end.  But I’m interested in anything to do with Lusitania, so I did enjoy the descriptions of life aboard the ship.

Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years, by David Litt – I’ve been meaning to read this since it came out, and especially since it spent the last couple of months sitting on my library stack, but other things kept pushing it down the list.  Finally I ran out of renewals, so it was time.  I loved it.  Litt had me laughing and reading passages aloud to Steve throughout the book, and he was such a breath of fresh air and just what I needed to read as my town collapses into a pit of angst over the Mueller report.  I especially loved Litt’s anecdote about falling out of a closet half-dressed on Air Force One, and his musings about how much less stressful his life would be if only he was Bo, the Obamas’ dog, instead of a speechwriter.

Whew!  Busy month there.  March is such a long month that I actually thought I had finished Thanks, Obama on April 1st and was shocked to look at my calendar and realize it was STILL March.  Anyway – it was a good month of reading!  I was busy with a lot of life stuff, including throwing Nugget a fourth birthday party, hosting family in town for said birthday party, and traveling on business – plus the usual whirl of play dates, library runs, and other kids’ birthday parties – but I managed to squeeze in some excellent reading around all of that.  I’m not even sure I can pick highlights, because I enjoyed so much of what I read this month.  Edith Wharton and Agatha Christie are always wonderful, and I loved the biography of Queen Victoria that I read, and a month where I get to read a new “Slightly Foxed” is a great month.  And now to April.  I’ve managed to chip away at my library stack, but I still have a lot to get through, and I am craving some time with the classics on my own shelves.  So many books, so little time!