Friday Favorites~a weekly series where we share our favorite books, decor, fashion finds, recipes, podcasts, articles and more.
FRIDAY FAVORITES NO. 595
Good morning friends, happy Friday Favorites! It’s been a hot and rainy week here. Everyday about 3:30 or 4:00 the skies open up and for 20 minutes to a couple of hours we get a good soaking. Strange weather for this time of year, hopefully not a sign of what’s to come in hurricane season.
It’s an exciting day, after almost 4 months the tree project is nearing completion. The bricklayers will be walling up the front of the house. We are excited, and a little nervous because obviously the bricks are new and our house is 30 years old. Hopefully it won’t be glaring obvious that they are different. I don’t want to have to age the bricks. Although to be honest I have been reading up on that and it seems doable. If you have experience with that let me know.
Enough about me, I have a lot to share so let’s get to all of our Friday Favorites! If you have missed a Friday Favorites post you can find them all here.
Food
Zucchini Enchiladas, a delicious, low carb dinner that will use up some of your leftover zucchini. You might also enjoy Summer Pasta With Zucchini, Ricotta and Basil.
Pepperoni Pizza with Hot Honey, Ricotta, Olives, and Basil might just be my new favorite pizza!
Grilled zucchini and tomato stack salad with feta and pesto dressing. A delicious salad for lunch or dinner.
While you are cheering for Team USA and watching the opening ceremonies why not munch on a big bowl of patriotic ice cream? It is no-churn so if you make it this morning it will be ready by this evening.
It’s cocktail time, mixed berry mojitos sound delicious on a hot summer day.
LINKS TO READ+WATCH+LISTEN
What to Expect in Versailles During the Olympics
Paris 2024 explained: all you need to know about the Olympics but were afraid to ask
Your Kitchen Sponge Is Much, Much Dirtier Than You Think — Here’s What to Do About It
Are Fashion Brands Finally Catering to Women Over 50?
Five Ways to Spot a Credit Card Skimmer
Where to File a Federal Complaint If Your Airline Refuses to Give You a Refund
10 Places That No Longer Exist.
BOOKS
A few books to add to your stack, enjoy now or pre-order.
In 2020, Olivia Laing began to restore an eighteenth-century walled garden in Suffolk, an overgrown Eden of unusual plants. The work brought to light a crucial question for our age: Who gets to live in paradise, and how can we share it while there’s still time? Moving between real and imagined gardens, from Milton’s Paradise Lost to John Clare’s enclosure elegies, from a wartime sanctuary in Italy to a grotesque aristocratic pleasure ground funded by slavery, Laing interrogates the sometimes shocking cost of making paradise on earth.
But the story of the garden doesn’t always enact larger patterns of privilege and exclusion. It’s also a place of rebel outposts and communal dreams. From the improbable queer utopia conjured by Derek Jarman on the beach at Dungeness to the fertile vision of a common Eden propagated by William Morris, new modes of living can and have been attempted amidst the flower beds, experiments that could prove vital in the coming era of climate change. The result is a humming, glowing tapestry, a beautiful and exacting account of the abundant pleasures and possibilities of gardens: not as a place to hide from the world but as a site of encounter and discovery, bee-loud and pollen-laden.
The Florence Letter
Claire arrives at her new job as researcher at a grand English country house, nursing a broken heart. But tucked into the back of a long-forgotten drawer she finds a letter written in an elegant hand. It tells of a wartime secret about the beautiful Lady Violet – whose passionate affair with an Italian prisoner of war scandalised the village and ended in tragedy.
Captivated, Claire promises to find Violet’s daughter, Tabitha, and reunite her with a priceless piece of her mother’s jewellery. With only the name of an Italian bakery, Pasticceria Mancini, to guide her, and the help of her handsome neighbour Jim, Claire travels to Tabitha’s last known location – Florence.
Winding through the colourful streets, the sun warm on her bare shoulders, a tantalising scent of freshly baked bread floats on the air and Claire’s heart leaps at the sight of an ageing bakery sign: Mancini. Although she learns that Tabitha hasn’t been there for many years, Claire refuses to give up. And as she and Jim talk late into the night over glasses of local chianti, Claire looks into his piercing blue eyes and finds herself growing closer to him…
But when they finally track Tabitha down, it isn’t the happy reunion she expected and Claire is left reeling in the wake of discovering a devastating family secret.
The Butterfly Garden
1963: When Clara Samuels buys Butterfly Cottage, she knows the scandal she’ll cause. A single woman buying property is not the ‘done thing’, especially not in a village like Carybrook. But Clara has been in love with Butterfly Cottage, and its garden, since she used to play there before the War. And when she reconnects with her childhood friend James, her decision feels serendipitous. But the true scandal is yet to come, because within six months, Clara will leave England under mysterious circumstances, and Butterfly Cottage will stand empty for more than 50 years.
2018: No one is more surprised than Meredith when she’s bequeathed a cottage by a great aunt she’d never heard of. She hopes, briefly, that the inheritance could be the answer to her financial problems. But when she arrives in Suffolk, she is shocked to discover a man is already living there. A young gardener, who claims he was also bequeathed half of Butterfly Cottage.
As the pair try to unravel their complicated situation, they unearth a decades old mystery involving Clara, the garden, and a stack of letters left unread for over 50 years…
MORE BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
If you have already read these books or missed something I have featured before on the blog check out My Bookshop on Amazon.
SHOPPING
OUTFIT OF THE DAY
It is no secret that I love the effortless style of a dress, not just in the summer but in all seasons. One of the styles that I think works on most women is a shirtdress. They can be dresses up or down, worn to work on the town, to date night or just to run errands. Pair it with a pair of sandals, slides, flats or flip flops and your favorite bag and you are ready for whatever the day holds.
UNTIL TOMORROW
What are your weekend plans?
Tell me something that made you smile this week!
I hope you enjoyed the recipes, links and books I discovered this week on Friday Favorites. Thank you for spending part of your day with me, your time is valuable and I am grateful that you spend a little of each day with me. Have a wonderful weekend.
Follow along with us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, and Pinterest.
Don’t forget that Kim, Juliet and I will be back tomorrow on Weekend Meanderings!
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On My Radar
Happy Friday, Elizabeth! Congrats on nearing the completion of your tree-through-the-roof project. I’m sure the bricks will be fine or a season in the sun and rain will take care of any subtle difference. I’m so excited to watch the opening ceremonies tonight and that mixed berry mojito might be just the right refreshment. Happy weekend. xo
Hi Elizabeth,
Oh wow you and your honey must be ready to have a big celebration that your home is nearing completion from the tree disaster falling on your home. I bet everything will work out. I hope all the remodeling you did turned out beautiful. I know from reading your blog you have upscale good taste. It’s a gift you have.
What made me smile today. Getting my existing crown removed and my super handsome wonderful dentist removing the decay. Hoping in weeks to come another root canal will not be needed on this tooth.
Coming home to bake, I made your Zucchini Bread. I will let you know tomorrow how yummy it is. Then two loafs of my Banana Supreme bread. I have been using this recipe for 30+. I share with neighbors.
The big smile is watching the Paris Olympics.
The opening ceremonies the best ever. The big highlight was seeing Celine Dion. I have been following her she started her career. Then her chronic current vocal disease. Her voice was sensational today. She looked gorgeous. I hope she will be okay after that performance. A “vocal athlete” is right.
What are a few things that brought you joy.
I like the looks of some of your recipes.