The library hasn’t been open since I posted my list of spring tbr’s, but that’s not going to stop me from giving you an entirely different list of top ten books on my summer to-read list:

1. Clean Getaway by Nic Stone
2. Love, Creekwood by Becky Albertalli
3. Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why by Alexandra Petri
4. By the Book by Amanda Sellet
5. Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez
6. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
7. The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal
8. Gloom Town by Ronald Smith
9. Jo & Laurie by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz
10. So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo

How about you? What are you planning to read during the warm months?

I did pretty well on this week’s list.

I rode my bike over to Georgetown on Saturday to get quarters and then also stopped to treat myself to takeaway lunch and to buy groceries.

We got three loads of laundry done when we were indoors.

We did a lot of thinning of bunching onions, violet leaves, and mint/lemon verbena at the garden. And I hacked back some of the vines from the outside of the fence.

We bought pizza for supper Saturday night.

This morning, I came home from the farmers market with lots of goodies, including the first cherries, green beans, and zucchini of the season.

I read in the park and saw the sun set each evening. I hope to continue the trend.

It was a beautiful night at the park.

We’ve made it to the weekend again, and honestly it didn’t get here fast enough. I’m feeling burnt out and exhausted, which seems ridiculous for a life that involves rarely leaving my couch. Which is probably the problem, come to think of it.

So this weekend, I’m hoping for less couch time and hoping for more time:

• Riding my bike — maybe I’ll be super ambitious and bike over to the Arlington library to return a book.
• Walking — if I get up early enough, I should head over to the bank in Georgetown for quarters.
• Tending the garden — I have some old potatoes that should go in the ground, and I’d like to plant some beans. Plus the herb section of the garden is being overrun by lemon verbena and mint that should be cut back.
• Baking — I should take advantage of the cooler weather and Rudi’s planned absences to fire up the oven.
• Reading and knitting in the park — The weather is supposed to be just gorgeous. We were outside until nearly 10 this evening and weren’t the last ones to leave.
• Getting takeout — I’m thinking pizza for supper and a drink from one of my local shops.
• Sending some mail — I was really good at reaching out to friends earlier in the pandemic, but I’ve fallen back on bad, non-card-sending habits that I’d like to break.

What are you hoping your weekend includes?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. An email from the four-year-old daughter of our friends.

2. Spending time in the park.

3. Meeting up with Sarah at the protest last Saturday.

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

I’m about a third of the way into Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, about a grieving Chicago boy spending his summer on his grandparents’ farm who discovers the Black and African folktales his grandmother has raised him on actually exist in a parallel universe and that he, as the latest in a line of powerful storytellers, may be needed to save both worlds. So far I’m really enjoying it and recommend it to anyone, like me, who is woefully versed in this folk tradition or whose tenuous knowledge comes largely from a certain Disney film.

I continue to be an unmotivated knitter. I finished the leg of my second Smock Madness, which means I have about eight hours of knitting left before this becomes a wearable pair of socks. And yet…

Normally, I’d be considering a couple new projects right about now, in advance of the Summer Olympics and the Tour de France, but it feels like I should trudge through some of these older projects and get them crossed off. Sadly, that’s also the story of my work life, which may be contributing to my reluctance to pick up my knitting. Finishing anything at this point would probably go a long way toward making me feel more productive on all fronts, so hopefully I will power through.

Head to As Kat Knits to see projects and books from people who do not have this frustrating lack of ambition in their work.