Inspired by:
My container garden. “Inspired” isn’t the right word. I just can’t dnddm admiring and appreciating its beauty. I find it so wondrous and happy-making. G did a great job. The ferns were new this year, and I love them, and they will come back next year.
Newly planted
Mid-summer bloom
Ferns!
I am also inspired but more amused by a genre of Instagram content creators who do videos about cleaning since that’s what I have been doing for over a month. A guy irons his sheets on the bed, then spritzes his pillows. He is magnificent.
https://www.instagram.com/macken21e/
There is another woman who films herself cleaning in time-lapse and, in the voice-over, tells you that it’s super easy to keep your house clean if you clean 24-7 and don’t have a husband, kids, or pets.
Completely deadpan. Completely delicious.
Reading
I’m still reading David Copperfield, and I suspect I will finish it at the beach. It’s long but oh so good.
The Yoga Lounge Book Group
picked Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See.
I downloaded the audiobook and finished it the other day. I gave it three stars. I don’t think I’m a fan of historical fiction. It did help my cleaning go faster, though. It was a good story—the Chinese medicine parts I found fascinating. The foot-binding parts were hard. Ew.
In my Goodreads queue, I now have Gretchen Rubin’s Life in Five Senses and Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These.
Anne Helen Petersen’s Culture Study Substack is going to get me off social media and good riddance.
I find her newsletter and her reader comments so rich and thought-provoking that, in comparison, FB, Insta, and god-forbid Twitter or X or whatever nonsense Musk is up to now feels like putting my head in the garbage disposal.
I am becoming a Substack fan.
And I recently added another Substack to my reading list:
Oldster Magazine. https://oldster.substack.com/
Here’s directly from the About page:
Remember when you were about to turn 20, and it was a big, scary deal? Or 30? Or 40? Remember when you were in your 20s or 30s and you thought people in their 40s were absolutely ancient? Remember the first time you realized that moving into a new phase of life—graduating, getting married, becoming a parent, getting a major promotion, retiring—meant that you would be leaving behind another phase of life? That’s what Oldster Magazine explores.
A more serious part of the Oldster Magazine mission is de-stigmatizing and normalizing aging by demonstrating that’s it’s happening to everyone, of all ages, all the time.
Listening to:
I’ve just started listening to the Mel Robbins podcast on Spotify.
https://www.melrobbins.com/podcastcast
I like her Instagram, so I thought I’d check it out. On my way home from Wegmans this afternoon, I listened to her talk about making friends. She has a theory about coffee shops as sorting hats like in Harry Potter. The coffee shop you visit most is the one with the people you are most likely to find friend prospects.
It’s this one.
https://www.melrobbins.com/podcasts/episode-82
Watching:
G and I are watching Suits. It’s old, but we’ve never seen it and are hooked. It started in 2011 and ended after nine seasons in 2019. We’re watching it on Netflix.
It’s a smart lawyer drama. It’s what Megan Markle was doing before she met Harry. In brief: Mike Ross, a whip-smart guy who lacks proper Harvard credentials, gets to play high-stakes legal games in a big law firm as he tries not to get found out. Fun.
Also watching: The Bear (Hulu), I wanted to wait for G before I started this one, but I couldn’t resist. Now I’m totally hooked, and she’s going to have to catch up. Premise: After his brother dies, a guy with Michelin chef training comes back to Chicago to try to save his family’s beef sandwich business. The acting is phenomenal. The cinematography is gritty and real and magnetic. The characters, spellbinding. Love it.
Eating and Drinking
I have very little interest in cooking this summer. All I want to eat for dinner is cheese and salami, and all I want to drink is Bread and Butter Cab Sauvignon:
https://breadandbutterwines.com/california-sauvignon-blanc/
When I was in Portland, Emily talked me into what all the cool kids think is the BEST water bottle. And I have to agree. The thing I love most about it is that I can sip from it without tilting my head back.
This is mine:
It’s the 24 oz Palm Springs. And yes, it fits in my car’s cup holder. Anything to help me get my water down is a win.
https://owalalife.com/products/freesip?variant=41814180397215
In a few days, we’ll be in Rehoboth Beach with my daughter and grandkids.
Next week’s blog will have all the obligatory beach photos.
Have a great week! And thank you so much for reading and subscribing!
Inspiration Location 