A cold, gray, perfect weekend, the Kentucky Derby, dachshunds who will not go out in the rain, and a story about the great green room
Saturday morning the weather app said 47 degrees. It was gray and drizzling. By some miracle it stayed that way all day, and I loved every minute.
I am not sure if this is a dachshund thing or a dog thing, but our three will not go outside in any amount of rain. Not a drizzle, not a sprinkle. Patches will put one paw over the threshold, reconsider, and then look at you and walk back in. And then, because this is how they work, they expect a treat for the attempt. Bill and I have learned that sometimes you just go out with them so that everyone is suffering together, and sometimes they need an umbrella and sometimes they simply win.
While they protested the rain I baked a few things in the kitchen, which is the perfect thing to do on a cold gray Saturday. Then we made picky bits for the Kentucky Derby, little things, nothing that requires a fork, the kind of spread that lets you graze and wander and come back for more. Bill had a mint julep. I had a Blush Lily, which is served at the Kentucky Oaks and is my all-time favorite summer drink, vodka, cranberry, lime juice, mine heavy on the lime.
Sunday was even colder, but the sun was out. We took a long afternoon walk and then came home and read for the rest of the day. I have a busy week ahead, appointments for the house, the pups, and a project I am working on. But first, the weekend’s reads and watches.
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What I’m Reading
This weekend I finished Good Night June by Sarah Jio and like most of the books I share here, I loved it.
Goodnight Moon is one of the most beloved picture books ever written — most of us had it read to us before we could understand the words. But its real origins have always been a little mysterious. Sarah Jio takes that mystery and builds a novel around it: what if there were letters between a woman named Ruby, who ran a children’s bookshop in the 1940s, and the late Margaret Wise Brown herself? What if the great green room had a story behind it that history quietly forgot?
June Andersen is the one who finds those letters, called unexpectedly to settle her great-aunt Ruby’s estate and decide the fate of Bluebird Books. She steps into the shop and into the pages of American literature at the same time. Heartfelt and quietly suspenseful, and the kind of book that makes you want to pull Goodnight Moon off the shelf and read it again with new eyes.
Looking for more books? Everything I have recommended can be found on My Bookshop. Most are also available from Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and on Libby from your local library.
What I Watched
I have a new YouTube obsession. The Lady of the Château is a channel I found this weekend and spent Saturday evening watching every episode.
A family — two daughters, their parents, and one daughter’s partner — had a dream to live in France. During Covid, sheltering together in San Diego, they decided to make it real. In 2021 they signed the papers on a Renaissance-era château. Then over the next year left America and moved to France to build what they describe as a cinematic, female-led creative world inside its walls. The channel follows what happens after a dream becomes real. If you love France, old houses with lots of quirks, retreats, and family adventures then you will love this Chanel.
Outfit of the Day
This week I paired a pink and white strip linen shirt with a pair of white jeans, my favorite trainers which by the way I wore in hight school, and a straw hat to keep the sun off your face. This is an easy and comfortable classic summer outfit.
If you missed it, I joined Kim and Juliet for Weekend Meanderings on Saturday — come say hello and stay a while. We all had lots to share. And yesterday I shared Self Care After 50.
Tell me: did you watch the Derby this weekend? And has anyone else made picky bits and called it dinner? Leave a note in the comments.
Have a beautiful week, friends.
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