I’m up finally halfway through the leg of my Smock Madness sock. I definitely feel like I could be through the heel this weekend, unless I’m actually so productive that I come away with a clean apartment instead of half a sock. Seems unlikely…

I’m about halfway through The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman and am finally mostly enjoying it. I’m about a quarter of the way through listening to Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed’s Yes, No, Maybe So, which seems especially enjoyable right now since portions of our living space has been turned into a satellite campaign office for the candidate Rudi is working for. And tonight Rudi and I started listening to the Stephen Fry rendition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on Audible. It’s free to listen to for the next while, and Fry’s Hermione is far less annoying than Jim Dale’s. Rudi listened to several hours, but I napped through it intermittently, so I’ve been relistening since he went to bed. I think I can get caught up tomorrow night.

Want to see what other people are reading and crafting? Head to As Kat Knits for the roundup.

As always, I’ve been lazy about sharing what I’ve finished reading this year. Let’s take the next step toward getting caught up. I read five books in February, but am just going to share the first two with you today, since they unintentionally share a theme:

Words in Deep Blue, by Cath Crowley

In this Australian y.a. novel, Rachel has just moved back to the city where she spent most of her growing-up years. She, her brother, and her mom had moved out to the coast a couple years earlier, but tragedy has struck and Rachel has returned to live with her aunt after high school. Adding to the stress of big life changes and their accompanying seismic waves is that, just before she’d moved, she’d declared her undying love for her best friend in a letter. And he’d never responded. Now, her aunt has agreed that she’ll help her ex-BFF’s family catalogue their bookshop’s inventory, including the room of books with letters tucked inside for various recipients, including the one she’d written Henry. She’s not going to mention it, though; nor is she going to share what drove her to move back.

Henry’s longtime girlfriend just dumped him, shortly before a trip they were going to take around the world. He’s devastated, particularly since it’s clear that at least part of the problem is that his life goals — to work in his family’s shop — and thus he are not ambitious enough for her. When Rachel walks back into his life, he’s delighted, particularly since he doesn’t know why she’d severed ties with him after she moved. But she seems to have changed, and there seem to be a number of things unsaid between them where there didn’t used to be barriers.

I really loved the idea of a bookstore with space devoted to books that meant something to two people, that published words can be so intimate as to constitute a shared experience. This was a heartbreaking read, but also a heartmending one, and I recommend it.

Pages: 288. Personal copy.

Do Fish Sleep?, by Jens Raschke, with illustrations by Jens Rassmus. Translated from German by Belinda Cooper.

Ten-year-old Jette’s brother, Emil, has been sick since he was a baby. He’s been in and out of the hospital with cancer. And, then, a year ago, he died, leaving everyone bereft, but without the capacity to talk about it. Their mother is particularly hard hit, leaving Jette to wonder if she’d loved her brother more. But Jette and Emil have talked about some of the big questions, such as whether fish sleep or not and how to come to terms with questions you might not be able to prove the answer to.

It doesn’t feel like we have a lot of fiction for younger kids coping with loss of a sibling. There’s a lot of genuine emotion in this book, but it deftly deals with the subject matter and lightens the emotional load a bit with accompanying pen and ink illustrations, so that it doesn’t end up feeling like an Afterschool Special. Recommended for young families.

Pages: 64. Library copy.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday at This Artsy Reader Girl, Things I’d Have at My Bookish Party, would have exhausted me in a pre-pandemic world. But right now? Can’t even begin to contemplate. So, I’m going with a variation on a theme (this was also my approach in college, when I couldn’t answer an essay question on an exam: answer a related question instead of the one actually assigned): Ten Books I’ve Read with Parties That Sound Fun:

1. Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia: The costumed, funeral party on Boston Commons
2. Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory: Christmas tea for the royal family’s staff
3. Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston: The royal wedding at the beginning, at least until the wedding cake crashes to the floor
4. P.S., I Still Love You by Jenny Han: The dance Lara Jean throws at the retirement home
5. Caraval by Stephanie Garber: I think it would be fun to observe Caraval (half Amazing Race, half Carnival, but I don’t know that I’d want to take part
6. Geekerella by Ashley Poston: I’ve never been to a Comic Con-like event, so this one is tempting
7. Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone by J.K. Rowling: Harry’s first Christmas at Hogwarts (I thought about making it Harry’s birthday/Bill and Fleur’s wedding in Deathly Hallows, but that does end with Death Eaters, so in the end, I’d probably rather not… And the Yule Ball in Goblet of Fire was also a consideration…)
8. Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli: Their prom involved way more walkways through trees and fairy lights than mine did
9. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein: The library’s opening night
10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: The Netherfield ball

Come tomorrow I’ll remember a half dozen village fêtes, masquerades, and beach parties that I should have included, but this works for a start.

Have you ever wanted to attend a party you read about in a book?

How is it already Sunday night? I swear, I am the most unproductive person!

Friday night, I chatted with my folks while I took my evening constitutional, then finished my audiobook. Rudi made us a delicious pizza for supper. It was the last of the dough from the pizzeria, which might mean we have to order out later this week. I’m just going to tack on dough from them every time now, because for $5, it gets us two otherwise homemade meals.

Saturday, I slept in, at least until 13 airplanes buzzed my apartment. I think Corey, who was curled up next to me, thought we were under attack. Or maybe that I’d added a new, horrible alarm to my phone. I made waffles for brunch (breakfast for me, lunch for Rudi) and then finished reading my print novel. There may have been a nap on the sofa after that while Rudi finished his all-day conference call.

We took a walk after that — nearly five miles! — and stopped at the grocery store. We won’t be going back to that one for a while, so we stocked up on whatever we could carry.

This morning, I headed over to the farmers market, where my haul included another bucket of strawberries, asparagus, lettuce, fiddleheads, potatoes, carrots, and the gigantic five-pound box of what the mushroom people considered “seconds.” I mean, do you see anything in that box you wouldn’t actually want?!

I also bought a bunch of seedlings — six tomato plants, two peppers, and a cucumber — from the nursery that comes to the market, so Rudi and I took them down to the garden this evening and put them in the ground. It may have been the fastest we’ve ever turned around seedlings, but more rain was expected tonight, so we wanted them to have a nice dousing. (Plus, Corey enjoys munching seedlings he discovers in the entryway.)

I browsed some yarn — this weekend would have been the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and I’m contemplating buying a skein or two as a treat, not that I need it. But I decided to give it a day or two, to see if the urge wears off once nostalgia isn’t as heavily at play.

We watched the season finale of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, which (pun intended) hit all the right notes in what is one of the tightest shows on tv this season. We did, however, need some lighthearted watching to finish the night off, so I introduced Rudi to Agatha Raisin. Rudi made a delicious cottage pie, which we enjoyed as thunder rumbled overhead and Corey dozed on my chest.

And, now, the workweek looms. But while it does, I’m hoping you can share your favorite meat-free mushroom dishes. Because we have a fair few more fungi to finish.

I discovered this mural on Hughes Mews, a little dead-end alleyway in Foggy Bottom, while Rudi and I were out for a late afternoon/evening constitutional.

Mum made the mask, which matches an apron she made me for my birthday several years back. She also sent one made from the same material as the curtains in my brother’s and my childhood bedroom, plus one more in a navy material that I didn’t recognize (but that I would guess came from a suit she made herself).

When you live in the middle of the city, there is no going out of the house without a mask on. Or, at least, this is true if you are us. Cases in D.C. are on the rise and critical care beds in Montgomery County, Maryland, directly to the north of us, are full. Other people may feel cavalier about this information, but I’m not. Our sidewalks aren’t wide enough to give people the suggested six-foot berth they suggest is minimally acceptable, which pushes someone out into the street, and that’s if both of us are wearing masks. If you’re not wearing a mask, I assume you are disregarding other health recommendations and try to get even more space.

So, I’m grateful to Mum for the masks, because that stretches a little further how long we can go between loads of laundry. We are nearly out of quarters, so Rudi is going to see if he can find a bank that’s open where we can get a couple rolls on Monday morning. We had more than three rolls at the start of quarantine, because I suspected we’d need them; now I wish I’d gotten two more, since the closest bank to us has suspended its operations for the time being. And since everyone wants you to use a credit card right now, it’s not like I can just use the change I’ve gotten during the week. Although if we can’t find a bank, maybe Rudi could start paying for our weekly day-old bagels with a $10 and asking for a couple bucks in quarters with our change. They and the egg people at the market are the only people I know who still prefer cash.

Okay, I’ve rambled on enough. Time to wash the day’s dishes and go to bed!

I fell asleep while photos were uploading last night, so we’re getting my post this morning instead…

The garden doesn’t know the world is falling apart. It just knows that rain has been falling and the temperatures have been pleasant for stretching a little taller each day. So each time we show up at the plot, it looks like this:

The violets are done for the season, so Rudi and I yank out the leaves. Because they grow by rhizome, they will be fine and will bloom again next spring (or, even, in the right conditions, in the fall). But without this step, there will be no strawberries, because the violets have dwarfed them for the most part.

The dahlia and gerbera daisy that I planted a couple weeks ago are bright spots in the garden, and it’s obvious from looking that the slugs think they look nice, too:

The tallest of my peas have reached the top of the supports I could give them once it was obvious I might have to work with what I had, rather than being able to acquire more garden stakes. I threw the tomato cages in to pinch hit last month and the peas thought they made a great addition to my more traditional trellising:

And they showed their pleasure with this:

There will be peas within the month!