Treating summer like a kid again, a nephew graduating, family coming to town and a memoir about a woman who rebuilt everything from nothing
First, thank you. The response to yesterday’s post, Is There a Manual, genuinely moved me. It is good to know I am not alone in my confusion about midlife and the terrain of menopause and post menopause. Good to know none of us are. More on that soon.
But for today: it is summer. What are you going to do with it?
I have said many times that summer is not my season. The heat, the humidity, the way the air sits on you in July and simply refuses to move. But this year I have decided to treat it the way I used to as a kid, as time that belongs to me, as something to be enjoyed rather than endured. I joined an adult summer reading challenge. And I am going to attempt the 100-mile swim challenge at my club, except I am adapting it to a 100-mile swim-and-walk, because I want to see what is actually going on around me rather than staring at the bottom of a pool for the duration of summer.
This week my nephew is graduating, and family is coming to town, including my mom, and I cannot wait. The calendar is full of the good kind of busy. I will still be here every day posting as normal, do not worry about that.
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What I Read
This week I finished Finding Freedom by Erin French, and if you have ever watched The Lost Kitchen on television or tried to get a reservation, this is the book behind that story. And it is a very different story than you might expect.
Before the restaurant became what it is, before the reservation book filled on the first day of spring every year, Erin French was a girl on a 25-acre farm in Maine, a teenager in love with food working the line at her father’s diner, and then a young woman in the middle of a life she could barely hold together. Multiple rock bottoms. Darkness and anxiety. Pills that promised release and delivered addiction. A man who seemed to offer salvation and instead took everything. And through all of it, a son who was her guiding light while she slowly rebuilt.
What saves her is food and Maine and the kind of stubbornness that comes from having nothing left to lose. It is honest and warm and occasionally very funny, and by the end you feel you know her completely. I could not put it down. If you have ever had to rebuild yourself from the ground up, and who among us hasn’t, you will find something of yourself in these pages.
What I Watched
I rewatched A Little Chaos this week, which tells you something about where my mind has been. Maybe it is the summer, maybe it is all the time I am spending thinking about the circle and what I want it to become. Maybe it is the weekend full of beautiful gardens on Saturday’s Weekend Meanderings. Probably all three.
Kate Winslet plays a female landscape gardener awarded the assignment of constructing the grand gardens at Versailles, which puts her at the centre of the court of Louis XIV, where everything glittering and golden has something buried underneath it. It is a beautiful film and I have a feeling I will be watching it again before the summer is out.
Outfit of the Day
A pair of white jeans will carry you through the summer. You can pair them with a lightweight shirt or a white t-shirt. Bring a sweater to keep you warm in the air-conditioning or if you are traveling. I added a Mautuck tote and a pair of slingback to this classic look but you could also wear trainers or ballet flats as well.
Click below for outfit details
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.
Tell me: are you doing anything special with your summer this year? Any challenges, any plans, any intentions to treat it a little differently? Leave a note in the comments.
Have a beautiful week, friends.
If you enjoyed this post, I would love it if you shared it. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and X — I would love to have you along.
You might also enjoy:
Monday Musings No. 221 | Just Like That, It’s June
Savoring Summer, Even When It’s Not Your Favorite Season
On My Radar~White Dresses
