I didn’t really notice tonight’s sunset, but last night’s was particularly stunning:

Another weekend, another list of things I’d like to accomplish…

Tomorrow the Capital Weather Gang has given D.C.’s forecast a 10/10. I’d very much like to spend as much of it outside as possible. The rest of the weekend also looks lovely.

I’m thinking a trip to one of D.C.’s nurseries is in order. As I said to Rudi earlier, the mid-Atlantic still has at least three months of growing time left this year. Everything was shut down when I planted in the spring, so I was using seeds I had on hand (I had many packets of peas…) and what I could get at the farmers market. Now, though, I need some more chard seeds. However, I will wait another month before I put kale back in my plot, since the harlequin beetles have wreaked havoc in our region this year and maybe they’ll fly south if we don’t replant too soon. I’d also like some fall flowers, since my echinacea are wrapping up for the season.

Rudi and I need to send some mail this week. I probably won’t get it all sent over the weekend, but I can maybe get it prepped. Also, has anyone seen what I did with my Forever postcard stamps?

I haven’t gone out on the bike in weeks, so maybe I will get up in the morning and ride someplace to pick up lunch. Maybe Sarah is around and would be interested in the Pretzel Bakery… Or I could get a vegetarian Cuban sandwich. Or a mango and papaya Indonesian salad… Regardless of where I go, I should remember to inflate my tires before I haul the bike up the stairs.

We did not get ourselves moving early enough to get pizza tonight, so that’s definitely on this weekend’s agenda. As is the usual trip to the farmers market.

Reading and knitting in the park are both on tap. It was packed up there tonight.

We need to watch the last episode of Endeavour before it goes behind PBS’ paywall. I wonder if our laptop batteries will let us watch up at the park…

I need to do some baking and make a new batch of ice cream. Both those things should be accomplished later in the weekend, when I’m tired of being outside, or at night.

I’d like to find my copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in French, since I’ve been studying again. The advantage to already knowing the story is that it should help me with the vocabulary not otherwise covered in my app tutorials. (For some reason they don’t think “goblin” or “magic wand” are likely to be needed on my next trip to Paris or Montreal.)

I really need to bring some semblance of order to the Burrow. I don’t want to waste my long weekend working on that, but maybe I can get my first bag of stuff to donate to Goodwill out the door and put away all those work shoes…

What’s on your long weekend to-do list?

We’re closing in on six months of pandemic shutdowns, travel restrictions, and general malaise. In an effort to keep these last months of the year from spiraling into a hot mess, I thought I’d come up with a list, similar to the ones I often make for weekends, of things I’d like to accomplish each month. I will not get mad at myself if I don’t cross items off, but if I get stuck this gives me a physical place to turn to to see what I could work on.

This month, I’d like to:

• Put away all my office shoes. My shoe storage features in the background of most of my Zoom calls, and if I’m not going back to business clothing until 2021, I can fill that space with my more colorful Chuck Taylors instead.
• Finish my Tour de France KAL shawl. I have knit on it a little each day so far (and KayT, you were right, it is easily memorized).
• If the dedication ceremony for D.C.’s revamped MLK Library is open to the public, attend it.
• Sit in on some of the virtual sessions of the National Book Festival.
• Ride my bike at least once a week now that the weather is cooling off again.
• Go apple picking/cider doughnut acquiring with Sarah.
• Take a long weekend off from work (in addition to Labor Day).
• Call some friends. We’ve all been bad about staying in touch.
• Come up with an actual way to mark Rudi’s and my 25th anniversary of being together.
• Declutter a carload’s worth of stuff to Goodwill.

How about you? What’s on tap for your September?

I have several things I’m hoping to do this weekend:

• Start a new knitting project while watching bike racing — It’s time for the Tour de France Knitalong, and I’m trying to decide on a new shawl pattern to knit. Waiting for daylight to make a yarn decision.
• Pickle cucumbers — I have several just hanging out in the fridge waiting for me to deal with them and probably one more that’s ready to pick down at the garden.
• Make peach ice cream — I bought more plain milk tonight, so we’re ready as soon as the ice cream bowl freezes.
• Work in the garden — I weeded last week, which means there was plenty of space for other weeds to expand into. Sunday looks like it will be a beautiful day for this.
• Read in the park — The biting flies have been particularly nasty this year (because 2020), so we needed more bug spray. We can’t find our preferred brand locally right now, and yesterday’s bottle proved useless. Rudi picked up a new bottle with a formulation he thinks will be closer to what we want today. If it fails, I’m buying DEET.
• Bake fig newtons — I found a recipe for making them with whole figs, rather than jam.

A relatively short list this week, but with lots of making and relaxing. I probably need to wash the kitchen floor again (How does it get so dirty in a house where we wear indoor shoes?), fix the elastic on one of my masks, and do laundry but, honestly, I’m fine if none of that happens this weekend. I’m feeling a little run-down mentally and think spending time doing things I like might help.

What are you hoping to do this last weekend of August?

Nothing makes you remember how lucky you are than having three friends dealing with health-related crises.

Life isn’t all Skittles and beer here, but we’re doing okay and that’s enough. Today, that’s more than enough.

I’m not sure if particulates from the Western fires have made their way across the country or what, but the sunset tonight was just incredible.