It’s spring. The snow is mostly all melted. Windows have been opened and will continue to be throughout all of this week. Abram beats me at chess at least once a day. He’s been watching YouTube videos and playing against friends and bots. He uses words like “file” and “fork” – words I know only from watching/reading The Queen’s Gambit. On Friday, I played him to a draw (I had him in perpetual check but didn’t know how to actually beat him) and it felt like such a victory.
I took a part time job at a local bookstore. I met my coworkers last week. We talked War and Peace and Jane Austen – about teachers and writers and writers who are teachers. I came home with a stack of books that I had ordered the week before and another stack of pre-published works. Jesse and I laughed when I curled up on the couch and said, “I have to get to work”. In the end of March, I decided my 30 day project would be to read at least 30 minutes every day so the timing of everything is quite fortuitous. Abram’s more likely to read if he can do it alongside someone and my goal is to make a reader out of him yet.
I breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday last week, but not too big of one. We still plenty of things to be worried about, but I’m trying to focus on my corner of the garden.
Let’s talk some things.
Watching: I finished The Last of Us (so many feels) and watched the first couple episodes of Ted Lasso. I’m behind on that and Succession because I’ve been watching Vanderpump Rules reunions (I’m on season 8) My arm has been twisted into watching all of season 10. (It didn’t take much of a twist to honest.)
Reading: Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller (so good), The Winners by Fredrik Backman (I’ve loved this series, but this was probably my least favorite of them), The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel, Bride of the Tornado by James Kennedy, Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (this took me a long time to get into and I almost quit, but am so glad I didn’t. Definitely one of my favorites), and I just finished The Fall of the House of Tatterly a middle grade book that I think I’ll buy for Abe when it comes out in August.
Knitting: I’m working on square 105 on my blanket. I have a half finished scarf that I really need to get done before I switch from knitting to gardening mode.
Making: A recreation of a favorite blanket. My grandmother had this blanket I loved as a kid – I used it whenever I stayed over at her house (which was a lot) – and when I was telling my mom about it, she told me it was a home ec project she made from a set sheets. A search of vintage sheets (these are the same style), an Ikea duvet, and I’m ready to make my own version. I just need to get the boxes from my office unpacked and dig out my sewing machine. Garden plans. We renewed our plot in the community garden and it’ll be 80 this week before it drops back to more seasonable temps. I know where we live and know better than to get too far ahead of myself, but I am thinking about what will go where once we are planting out.
So that’s me. I hope you are well. I’d love to hear what you are -ing when you have the chance!
Your new job sounds so fun! I love the stack of books you posted. Sea of Tranquility is definitely on my to-be-read list. Same with Cloud Cuckoo Land!
Thanks! I’m very excited about it. I’m curious to see how it changes (if it changes?) my reading patterns/material. Hoping to get to Sea of Tranquility this month yet!
Hello, Kate! I was so happy to see a post from you in my inbox today, a day that I’m desperate for distraction. Love all your photos, as usual. Those collage puzzles are so much fun to do. We have a couple of them, and they’re everybody’s favourites. I used to play chess quite a lot with my youngest son—and I only managed to win one time. He often watches chess videos, and I think he’s now playing the game online.
I’d love to hear more about the blanket your grandma had that you’re going to recreate.
Congratulations on landing a job in a bookstore, Kate!
I have Cloud Cuckoo Land on the top of my TBR pile, and I’m going to start it once I finish Dickens’ Hard Times. One of my recent reads was All Ships Follow Me—A Family Memoir of War Across Three Continents by Mieke Eerkens. It was really well done, if at times hard to read, given the parallels to what my own parents experienced during WWII as well as the fallout to subsequent generations. On the knitting front, I’ve been knitting socks for my youngest son and a cardigan for myself. I started spring cleaning (the kitchen is done, wahoo) and I told myself I need to go through everyone’s sock drawers to see what needs darning. I’ve also fixed a couple of the tops I sewed for myself a few years ago, which were getting threadbare under the arms, so I’m thinking of sewing another one or two using the same pattern. As for TV, I’ve been watching season 1 of Upright, which is quite good.
That Substack article with its gardening metaphor really resonated with me, as did this sentence in the first comment that someone left on the article: “I will say, that for those who can’t find options of volunteerism in their corners of the earth, digging in the small plot of garden they find is still better than doing nothing.”
I’d love to be able to find something outside my small sphere of family and home and garden—something that gives me purpose and makes me feel like I’m contributing to society or helping in some way—but I admit I am struggling in this department.
Have a good week, Kate. 🙂
Sending you love, Marian.
Thank you, Rita. Sending the same to you.
I’m glad that the post provided a distraction, and, like Rita, am sending love.
Your -ings are leaving me a bit breathless (though not surprised at all you manage to get done). I, too, am spring cleaning and my windows are in desperate need of attention. Usually I try and make windows their own project but this year I’m adding the windows into whatever room I’m focusing on. I don’t know if I like this method better.
Once I get started on actually constructing the blanket (it’s mostly just going to be a tie quilt of sorts) I’ll be sure to share more about it. I am not a very talented sewer but I’m hoping I’ll be able to piece it together. Something a bit like what Alicia references here: https://www.posiegetscozy.com/2022/01/very-impulsive-lately.html
I thought of you while reading Cloud Cuckoo Land so I really hope you’ll let me know what you think when you do read it.
Finally, I, too, relate to the comment that digging in the small plot of garden is better than doing nothing. I also understand the pull of wanting to do something outside of family/home/garden and have tried in multiple ways over the years. I haven’t found anything that sticks either, but I believe there is something to be said about the unsung value of taking care of that corner, especially if you take taking care of it seriously. I have no doubt in my mind that you have contributed/helped in many ways – even if you don’t always find it easy to see or give yourself credit for it!
XOXO. Hope you have a good week, too!!
“I believe there is something to be said about the unsung value of taking care of that corner, especially if you take taking care of it seriously.” Thank you for this, Kate, and also for the love. Sending it back to you as well.
Congrats on the new job. It sounds perfect for you. I like the idea of committing to reading 30 minutes every day. I do that reading news, but not reading for pleasure. I want to read French Braid, I keep seeing it mentioned around but somehow never think to buy it. I am addle-brained. Love the photo of the tulips.
Thanks, Ally!! I’m really excited about it. I tend to limit my reading of the news to only 30 minutes a day, because I’m a terrible doom scroller. The Washington Post and New York Times are very comfortable feeding that so reading at least 30 minutes for fun is definitely a bright spot in my life!
Tulips are my favorite. This time of year a local shop does Tulip Tuesdays with discounted carryout bundles and I’m a sucker for them.
I am hoping to live out my working-in-a-bookstore fantasies vicariously through you. Please tell us all what it is like. So far, it sounds pretty wonderful, although I bet I’d spend all my wages on books.
Speaking of books, I had the same response to The Winners. (I didn’t finish it, and I’m not sorry.) You are spurring me to give Cloud Cuckoo Land another try; I have heard so many good things about it, but I’ve never gotten very far with it. I think I need to flex my reading muscles and give it another go. I’m currently reading The Marriage Portrait (Maggie O’Farrell) and it is so good; I think you’d like it. Also recommend The Vanishing Half (Brit Bennett). Two very different books, though both are historical (1600s and mid-1900s).
I really enjoyed the link to the piece on gardening. I have thoughts, but too many to parse out here. I don’t have the capacity to tend as many plots as I’d like, and I’m not sure how to decide where to hoe. I can say that I have been so grateful for volunteers who have supported me through a challenging time the past two months.
As always, love these posts from you. Looking forward to checking out the books you’ve read. Would love to know your thoughts on the end of The Last of Us. (I was disappointed with it.) And hope you will share your blanket when done. Those sheets took me back to my childhood.
My co-workers and I were discussing that many (if not all) of the dollars we make will be going right back into the store BUT we do get a discount, so our dollars are going much further. I’ll probably need to buy at least one more book case.
Brit Bennett is great and I loved The Vanishing Half (The Mothers was also REALLY good.) I had the opportunity to do a Zoom book club where she came and talked about the book during the summer of the pandemic! It was such a cool experience! Adding The Marriage Portrait to my ever growing TBR. (“Having” to read for work is going to be the best part of this job.)
My sister and I were just talking about how it can be overwhelmingly hard to find a place to volunteer. But honestly, I feel that we can make a huge difference just by focusing on our corner – like you did with your years in education. My biggest take away from Matt Howard’s was the permission to “stay in my lane” (or row as it were). I sometimes feel overwhelmed with all the different (and legitimate) needs in the world, but as the proverb goes “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”
Violet and I had a long discussion about Joel’s choice, what we would want if we were Ellie and our feelings about all of it overall. I liked it as a jumping off point for that conversation/mental exercise. (I’m trying to avoid spoilers.) I want to hear more about what disappointed you.
And yes, I was probably almost half way through Cloud Cuckoo Land before I really WANTED to keep reading. Before that I felt that it was probably written for people smarter than me (which I’ve recently realized is a thing I do when I don’t enjoy reading a book that people who I consider smart enjoy – Umberto Eco, Madeline L’Engle).
Hope you have a wonderful week, Rita! As always, wonderful hearing from you!
I so agree about focusing on your own corner, and when I was working full-time as an educator I did not feel the need to do anything other than that. (I gave plenty of time for free to every job I had.) I’m still doing some work in that field, and it’s easy in the sense that I do have deep knowledge to put to use there. But I also feel a very strong itch to do something different. I am not sure how willing I am to be a beginner again, though. (Hmmm….there’s a thought that deserves more thought.) I’ve also given myself permission to focus (for now) on repairing the damage all those years in education did to me, so that I will be in a better place to give in the future.
As for Joel’s choices…the tone of the last episode just felt off to me. It felt different from the earlier episodes. There was no nuance of any kind in the actions he took to save Ellie. It felt like a video game, and it never had to me before that. The violence in earlier episodes felt necessary and non-gratuitous. It usually felt real (as real as TV violence can). Not so with the last episode, and I completely disagreed with his decision about what he told Ellie. (Hope I haven’t said too much.) I so liked the previous episodes; they set a high bar.
I agree it was very different in tone – it seemed summer up, even rushed. Everything that led up to that moment felt…more thoughtful? So I agree with you that the video game origins showed through in a way they hadn’t before.
I didn’t like but understood Joel’s choices (to do what he did and tell Ellie what he did) in the face of the previous episode (look at us both trying to have this convo without spoilers) but you’re right in that it lacked the nuance of earlier episodes. I felt that loss came about because of the change in how Joel feels towards Ellie. It’s one thing to be a mercenary, another to be a protector, still another to take on the role of a parent.
I did like having a show that I could “book club”. I wish there I knew of more TV like that.
I’m incredibly happy at the idea of you working in a local bookstore. Please share your experiences with us here. I also think it will connect you with a variety of book recommendations from patrons and co-workers. ❤️
My friend Kristen also recommended that I watch The Last of Us. So, I think that’s what we’ll watch next. We’re currently watching The Act on Hulu, followed by the documentary about Brooke Shields (thanks to Rita). I love having shows to look forward to.
xoxo
I do hope you’ll let me know about Last of Us. I added that Brooke Shields doc to my TBW too!!
And I’m sure you’ll hear about my adventures in a bookshop!! My TBR is already so long, I’m excited/nervous about it getting longer!