Archives - Weekly Update

If you told me last week that I would be looking for a sweater Wednesday night and Thursday morning, I never would have believed it. But alas, temps plunged into the 60s Wednesday night, which is a drop of something like 40 degrees since last week. I confess I was relishing having the pool temperature around 88! This is a lot nicer for outdoor reading time in the evenings, though. Last week, there were points where it was too hot to think!

During these last weeks, I have become a compulsive weeder and dead-header of plants. I guess this is what happens when I am traveling less and actually have time to spend in the garden. Tom is much better at watering, and he was traveling this week, thus I am trying to remember if/when it rained.

Ever ponder how much time we spend talking about the weather? If we were reading instead of doing that, there would be a lot of pages turned. Thus I am not going to comment about the heat and humidity in New York this week, except to share this little factoid. For the last two years, I was in San Diego this same week for San Diego Comic-Con. Each time, the weather in New York was just as sultry as it is now. I remember calling home to tell my husband that I was chilly and putting on a sweater when he was sharing that it was 107 degrees in New York; he was nice enough to keep talking to me. So you may want to make a note of this on your calendars for next year!

Our garden this year is looking spectacular. I am deadheading, chasing away Japanese beetles and continually arranging pots to keep plants happy. With the latter, I feel like I am doing seating at a fine restaurant! Plants that are re-budding are moved out of eye zone and back into prominent slots when they are ready to show off. Tom is watering between rainstorms. Above is a photo of a moonflower, which comes out at night, whereas the morning glories come out by day; they are potted in the same pot. I have had a wicked time growing these from seeds in past years, thus opted for plants this year, and bam, there is a flower! And there was a second last night. Sometimes, it’s the little things.

The true joy of a long weekend is the chance to line up a stack of books and know you have time to enjoy them. Between picnic dinners, there’s been lots of time for floating and reading, and hammock swinging and reading. Hope you are doing the same.

I devoured --- and loved --- THE SILENT WIFE, a debut novel by A. S. A. Harrison. She had been scheduled to be on one of the panels I attended at the American Library Association (ALA) Conference last weekend, but I was sad to learn that she passed away in April from cancer. Joe Hartlaub had this to say about THE SILENT WIFE last week in his review: “THE SILENT WIFE is so well-paced and reads so quickly that it’s easy to glide over important points that come back to explode behind you when you’ve all but forgotten about them.” I heartily agree; this slim novel about a relationship headed for dissolution and the wife's plan for revenge --- which is told in alternating chapters of "Him" and "Her" --- is so well-crafted. It should be a book talked about all summer!