Monday Musings – Second Time Around
Happy Monday ladies. I am smack dab in the middle of my second two weeks of quarantine:) I finished the first with my daughter last month and I’m now doing it with my husband. The air quality was so bad back at home, I spent weeks trying to convince him to join me here in Vancouver. He finally decided to come up just in time for the smoke to blow in from Oregon and Washington state causing the worst air quality Vancouver has ever seen! Can I hear it for Murphies Law? We’ve rented a little condo in downtown Vancouver with lovely views out over Englishmans Bay, that we can finally see because the smoke has cleared.
So besides freedom, here are a few things on my mind this week:
Slippers
Yup, I have had slippers on my mind before but I forgot to pack mine. Seriously, what was I thinking because now that I’m in quarantine again, I’m wearing them ALL the time. No quick trip to the backyard to pick tomatoes. No quick trip anywhere so I am living in them. I popped into Winners after the last quarantine and picked up these which are really cozy. I know the holidays are coming and I’ll need a fresh pair by then so I’m pursuing ones online.
Cashmere
I was in some strange brain fog when I packed for this trip because I only brought clothes for warm summer days. The weather is changing to fall here so I had my husband bring an extra bag with some cozier things for me. The first thing I put on was a cashmere sweater. He brought my four Everlane sweaters which I was thrilled to get. Until I put this one on and found a tiny moth hole in the sleeve! That means the little suckers are inside my armoire at home where I keep ALL my cashmere and feasting themselves into bloated cashmere coma’s! Argh!!
I always clean my sweaters before I store them for the summer so this is a very unhappy surprise. Because I hate the smell of mothballs, I use cedar boards and lavender inside my antique armoire, but apparently, it’s not enough. I fully intend to mend this tiny hole, but moths are nasty little stinkers and I know they’ll get to it again one day so I ordered a replacement.
Flannel
I never thought of myself as the plaid flannel type of dresser until I bought this one several years ago. It gets softer with each washing and is so comfy. I wore it the last weekend we were over on Vancouver Island and it was a perfect weight. I love the color and its relaxed vibe is perfect for weekends so I have my eye out for other pretty colors.
Rules Of Civility
I’m bored with everything I’m trying to read these days. I keep picking things up and three pages later, I put them down. They may be great books, but I’m not feeling the love. Until my husband showed up with my dog eared copy of Rules of Civility. I love this book so much I’ve already read it twice! Since he finished it on the plane, I started it again. I wonder how many times you can reread the same novel and enjoy it. I’m going to find out.
What books have you read multiple times?
Have a great week ladies and remember to wear what makes you feel confident and fabulous!
Thanks for the book tips ladies! I love to read and appreciate tips. I too loved Maeve Binchy, Anne Rivers Siddons, classics, Preston & Child, certainly Patricia Cornwell and many others. However, our libraries in our town remain closed. You can order books for curbside pickup, but I like going in libraries to browse. Will save this posting.
I wish our library would open back up!
I re-read Maeve Binchy and Anne Rivers Siddons every year, I have also gone back to the WideAcre trilogy by Phillipa Gregory several times. Also much loved and revisited is anything by Daphne DuMaurier and Norah Lofts.
Good books are like old friends.
Enjoy your time inin beautiful British Columbia. Like your husband, we were in the smoke zone. Our county was on level one alert for days and some parts were on mandatory evacuation. For many days we could not see even the lights on homes across the golf course from us.
We were never so happy to see rain!
Best wishes,
Penny
Have you read A Gentleman in Moscow? I liked Rules of Civility but loved this book. I have given it to numerous people as gifts.
On my top 10 list of favorite books!
You sold me! I down loaded the book onto my iPad and plan to read it while doing some upcoming travels.
Jennifer, fall weather will be a wonderful reward once your quarantine is complete.
One book i turned around a reread right after reading was A Vintage Year. It is an easy read and quite nice that it deals with California and France, aspirational when we can’t move around.
That sounds wonderful, thanks!
I love that book too – and am about to reread it! Thanks for sharing your life with all of us!
You must read the Lousie Penney books featuring Inspecto Armand Gamache. Quebec is featured along with an imaginary town filled with interesting people. Lots of mystery also. An easy read to start but with lots to think about after.
I just finished East of Eden and loved it! Thank you for the Rules of Civility reminder, I really enjoyed it the first time I read it. So much so that I just downloaded the audible version so I can listen while I walk. And, I am waiting on my size of the sweater to be in stock. It should be early November, which is plenty of time for me. In south Louisiana we rarely need sweaters before November.
Enjoy your time in Vancouver. My son lived in Seattle until August. We had plans to visit him in July but had to cancel due to the virus. Since we knew he was moving to San Francisco and this might be our last visit to Seattle, we were planning on traveling into Canada to visit Victoria and Vancouver. Oh well, we’ll make it one day.
One of my all time favorite books is, The Expats by Chris Pavone. It’s about a woman who leaves the CIA to relocate for her husband’s job to Luxembourg with 2 young sons in tow. Is someone following her or is her training leading her to see things that are not really there? Why would someone be following her, anyway? Plus, how does one adjust to being mom and wife in a foreign country after such an all consuming career? I listened to it and enjoyed it so much with all the twists and turns, that I bought it and have reread it twice.
Love your view and am envious you can even go to Canada. The smoke has cleared here on the north Oregon coast. It was really bad and we didn’t leave the house for most of a week and a half. “Normal” seems bazaar now.
That sounds like a fun book! Thanks Susan.
Pride and Prejudice, I Know This Much is True, A Gentleman in Moscow, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I know, quite an assortment but all beloved.
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
I loved it the first time I read it and even more the second time. My book club loved it, too!
That is my book club pick for October. I’m not a big hockey fan but loved the well rounded characters.
I’m with Stormy Smith when it comes to old books being friends. I read Jane Eyre quite often and always find something new to think about.. On the subject of slippers, I love my UGGS.
I just reread David Sedaris’ Theft by Finding and never stopped laughing. Great medicine for the ailment that is 2020.
Lands End has women’s flannel shirts in 15 colors on sale for under $36, and that’s just one of the flannel styles they offer.
After a number of intense reads with my book club we decided on a light read this month. The Grace Kelly Dress by Brenda Janowitz is a story I think you will like. It came highly recommended by some of my east coast library colleagues . Months ago I found I could not put down Hollywood Park by Michel Jollet.
They sound great! I have The Grace Kelly Dress on kindle but haven’t read it yet. I prefer to actually hold a book and bought the kindle version by accident. I should make myself give it a try.
The smoke cleared out here in Calgary on Sunday as well thankfully! Vancouver looks so good in the sun, as it does where we used to live – White Rock!
Haven’t read as much as I thought I would during these times have a stack gathering dust. I have been reading a chapter a night to my 5 1/2 yr old grandson over FaceTime since March, we’ve gone through Tom’s Midnight Garden, Baby Island, The Secret Garden, Harry Potter #1 and just finishing up Harry Potter #2. It has been a trip down memory lane rereading those classics and the Potter Series which my kids read.
Those slippers look so cozy I must check them out! Hope you and your husband have an enjoyable time!
What a wonderful idea to read over Facetime!! Thanks, Carrie
Sorry to hear you’re in quarantine again, but glad you and your husband are together.
I think I recommended this before, but I hope you take up Louise Penny’s series with Inspector Gamache. Her characters are so well developed, and you should start with the first one and work your way through. Most of the stories revolve around a small village near Montreal that sounds charming, but also the plots are about crimes/murders, so a lot of intrigue, but also personal relationships with family and friends. Her latest book is on the top of the book lists, and having just read it, it is one of her best. I rarely re-read books, but I have just started the third go-around of her series!
Happy reading!
Love Louise Penny. I have read every single one, including the latest. Another favorite mystery writer of mine is Camilla Lackberg from Sweden. Methotrexate not the dark Nordic Noir.
For some reason I am always happy when someone finds her right color palette… and I’m tickled that you have found your cool brights. They just light you up. The blue plaid color is perfect for you, & even tho you are petite you carry the plaid scale well. (It would swallow me. ) I’m learning that bone structure/scale is very important in dressing. Another fascinating aspect to consider.
I’m looking forward to following your shopping choices now that you are “color secure”. !
How on earth do moths, the little monsters, manage to find the cashmere?
I’ve taken to wrapping my sweaters in layers of tissue with cedar blocks and sealing in zipped plastic bags.
Rereading books… old classics always. Jane Eyre is beautifully written and a favorite. I have an 1849 copy that I love not just for its timeless love story, but the antique cover just delights me. .
I still love rereading all LM Montgomery books. Most of mine are worn and falling apart. So well loved.
I reread many non fiction too. “ Quiet”. And “The Highly Sensitive Person” help keep me sane. I especially like retreading my non fictions in which I have written in margins and dated. Interesting to see how my perspective has changed.
Enjoy being with your family.
Word Vancouver is on now – you can sign up online to hear author’s interviews. Can check out Vancouver Writer’s Festival and Whistler’s Writers Festival for book recommendations also author interviews.
I’m enjoying Indians on Vacation by Thomas King. Couple are in Europe retracing an uncle’s steps by the postcards he sent nearly a 100 years ago. I enjoy the subtle humour.
I really enjoyed White Chrysantheum, Mary Lynn Bracht. It is a haunting story based on Korean women who were abducted and forced to be comfort woman for the Japanese Army in the 1940s.
You look so good in blue…love the plaid! I also am glad that your husband joined you…and I hope the quarantine is just a memory very soon!
So glad you’re with your hubby…..I’m sure he is too. I just received a pair of slippers from Therafit. I had read about them and they sounded great…good support, etc. They are Heather indoor/outdoor clog and just arrived today so I am anxious to start wearing them. I won’t wear them outdoors….happy to have a good shoe for indoors. Stay safe, enjoy your condo with hubby.