I kicked off this weekend with an apple-picking and cider doughnut-acquiring trip with Sarah and Rudi. Rudi and I were going to quickly eat supper and then head back out to catch the first day of Art All Night, but I’d stayed up late getting some job applications ready to submit this morning, and between that and the day in the sun, I was done and utterly crashed on the sofa.

But the weekend stretches before us, and here’s what I’m hoping to fill it with:

• Baking with some of the apples we picked. There’s definitely a crisp in my future and maybe a quick bread or an apple cake.
• Playing volleyball. The last grass court volleyball season of the year kicks off tomorrow.
• Working in the garden. There should be more tomatoes to pick and I might try planting the potato that’s on the counter that started to sprout. It’s late in the season, but what do I have to lose?
• Picking up holds from the library.
• Taking advantage of the second day of Art All Night. I’ll be more awake, and at least some of the activities will be in our neighborhood, so even if I’m not…
• Going to my friend’s on Sunday.
• Shopping at the farmers market. We’ve got to be getting close to the end of peaches and corn.
• Getting the group baby shower gift for a friend sorted out.
• Knitting.
• Tidying up the kitchen. We found a small bag of potatoes had gone bad the other night, because it had gotten hidden behind some other things on a shelf. It’s time to get that space sorted out.
• Getting some sleep. And with that, I’m off!

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The sky reminds me of a poster Grey Kitten used to have on his wall growing up, all pinks and oranges.

2. Rudi comes home after ten days away.

3. We got gelato as a chaser to our second COVID boosters.

How about you? What’s beautiful in your world lately?

It’s that time of the year: the Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl asking what we hope we’ll be reading in the upcoming season:

1. Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn (a non-Veronica Speedwell title!)
2. A Restless Truth by Freya Marske
3. GennaRose Nethercott’s Thistlefoot
4. Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet
5. The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling
6. Jenna Evans Welch’s Spells for Lost Things
7. This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
8. Sisterhood of Sleuths by Jennifer Chambliss Bertram
9. These Precious Days by Ann Pratchett
10. Aurora’s End by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to reading this fall?

It’s been a while since I’ve contemplated what I’m hoping to do with my week. But Rudi comes home and a new season begins, and it seems like an obvious time to consider what the next seven days might hold:

• Attending the seasonal volunteer training (my volunteer gig kicks back off next Monday)
• Playing volleyball
• Picking Rudi up at the airport first thing in the morning (and convincing him the next logical stop is the doughnut shop)
• Making a cherry tomato dish
• Knitting
• Cleaning
• Applying for a job
• Doing laundry
• Going apple picking with Sarah
• Planting some seedlings in and weeding the garden
• Catching some of Art All Night on Saturday
• Practicing getting up early a couple days so dogsitting doesn’t come as a horrible shock next week!

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Playing good (not just winning) volleyball.

2. Sergio has been taking pictures of our volleyball team this summer. Today he shared dozens of photos with us.

3. Cereal for when I don’t feel like cooking and ingredients for when I do.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl is Books with Geographical Terms in the Title. Here are ten I’ve enjoyed:

1. Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery (Gog and Magog!)
2. When the Sea Turned to Silver by Grace Lin
3.  Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright
4. River Secrets by Shannon Hale
5. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros
6. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson
7. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa
8. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
9. Where the Moon Meets the Mountain by Grace Lin
10. Rainbow Valley by L.M. Montgomery

I also want to acknowledge that Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books also popped into mind for this list, but I haven’t read them in a long time. While they definitely did contribute to this New England-raised girl’s childhood understanding of the middle of the country, I recognize they featured a number of very negative images of interactions with the Native Americans who lived on and were displaced from the land the characters were “settling.” Before I’d include them on a list that implies an endorsement or hand them to a young reader, I’d want to re-read them to see whether that’s still the case.