July 2024 – Practical Makes

It’s summer! I meant to write this at the start of summer, which didn’t happen, but it is at least still summer now so I think it still counts. The above books are my summer books (plus some extras I’ve added since I took the picture…).

The bottom ones are planning fun knitting; ideas for the kids and for small summer projects and planning for Christmas gifts. I’ve also got the Edible Landscaping book for helping to decide how I want to change the gardens near the house.

I think I’ve got a good start now! We’ve gotten most of the overgrown old plants (especially the ones wrecked in the April snowstorm) out and now it’s open with more of my coneflowers and space for herbs and vegetables and native flowers near the house. The next big one will be when they come to take out the trees by the house that are dying (climate change is a thing). This process started in January but there have been so many storms we’ve been bumped down the schedule for awhile, but tomorrow should be the day!

Then we’ll have open space near the house and more options for kitchen gardens up close. And I’ll be able to see the back garden from the house, which will make it easier to keep an eye on it…

I’m also hoping to read more sci-fi and fantasy books and poems. I’ve made progress adding fiction back into my reading. Weirdly, fiction is harder than non-fiction when overwhelming parenting stuff. It’s somehow easier to read it in bits and pieces. But life has improved enough that I’ve gotten through several new sci-fi books lately (John Scalzi, Gail Carriger, Rebecca Thorne, Travis Baldree). They’ve all been really fun and I hope to keep it up.

Plus poems and old favorite fantasy books and a climate change book…

And then I found some more, embroidery and quilling which is something I want to learn, more poems and a classic conservation book. And a nice re-read of a favorite history book.

And if I finish all of those, the local used book store had some more. 🙂