July 2025

“July, with its days of blue skies and time that seemingly stands still, holds a special place in my heart.” — Daisaku Ikeda

Here’s a review of what I read, watched, listened to, and enjoyed in July.

READ:

• Minimalista: Your Step-by-Step Guide to a Better Home, Wardrobe, and Life by Shira Gill — “Elevate your personal style, trim your belongings, and transform your life, one room at a time. Built around five key steps: Clarify, Edit, Organize, Elevate, and Maintain…Minimalista makes it clear that if the process is fun and easy to follow, anyone can learn the principles of editing and organization” (Goodreads).

• The Grace Kelly Dress by Brenda Janowitz — “In Paris, 1958, Grace Kelly’s royal wedding dress is still all the rage in fashion circles. Rose, a seamstress at a famous atelier, has just been entrusted with sewing another gown in its image. An orphan, she needs her job to survive. But when Rose finds herself in love with the bride’s handsome brother, she must decide what matters most: love or security. Sixty years later, Rocky is thrilled to be marrying the love of her life. He truly is her perfect fit. But there’s just one problem: her family’s heirloom wedding dress isn’t. Rocky knows this admission will break her mother’s heart. What she doesn’t know is why her mother is so set on the dress—or about the shocking secret that changed her mother’s life decades before, as she prepared to wear the dress herself. As the wedding day approaches, the mother-daughter pair will finally confront long-buried heartaches, and it might just be the dress that brings them closer than ever. Life-affirming, heartwarming and timeless, Brenda Janowitz’s The Grace Kelly Dress is about the importance of tradition, new and old, and the power of a dress to fulfill even the most impossible of dreams” (Goodreads).

• The Champagne Letters by Kate Macintosh — “Reims, France, 1805: Barbe-Nicole Clicquot has just lost her beloved husband but is determined to pursue their dream of creating the premier champagne house in France, now named for her new identity as a Veuve Clicquot. With the Russians poised to invade, competitors fighting for her customers, and the Napoleonic court politics complicating matters she must set herself apart quickly and permanently if she, and her business, are to survive. In present day Chicago, broken from her divorce, Natalie Taylor runs away to Paris. In a book stall by the Seine, Natalie finds a collection of the Widow Clicquot’s published letters and uses them as inspiration to step out of her comfort zone and create a new, empowered life for herself. But when her Parisian escape takes a shocking and unexpected turn, she’s forced to make a choice. Should she accept her losses and return home, or fight for the future she’s only dreamed about?” (Goodreads).

WATCHED:

• New-to-me YouTube Channels:

  • French Countryside Diary — The channel’s description says, “Bonjour! My name is Audrey, I am French and I live a rather slow life in the Charente Maritime region of France. Welcome to my diary. Walk in the French countryside with me and let's share a moment together. I look forward to sharing simple moments, recipes, lifestyle ideas, and my interests with you all. À bientôt!” Audrey’s channel is a treat of all senses. She inspires me to slow down, to find inspiration in nature, and to fill my home with special things that bring joy to our everyday life. C’est la joie de vivre.

  • Kahvihuone8487 — “Everyday life in Finland: Self care, baking and cooking, slow living in a cozy Nordic home.” I especially enjoy the Nordic recipes and spotting Scandinavian brands in their decor like Iittala and Marimekko — some of the same treasures that we have in our home.

• Billy Joel: And So It Goes (HBO Max) — “An extensive look at Billy Joel's life and music career, featuring exclusive interviews, performances, home movies, and personal photographs” (IMDb). I’m so impressed by Billy Joel’s talent for song writing and performing. We were supposed to see him in concert with Sting back in April, but the show was postponed and eventually cancelled. I hope we get another opportunity in the future.

• Son of a Critch (Netflix) — “An awkward boy on the cusp of adolescence endures the complications of family life, Catholic school, and youthful romance in 1980s Newfoundland” (Netflix). This show is light, funny, and heartwarming. It’s like a Canadian Wonder Years with a touch of Derry Girls. I especially enjoyed the episode when the class goes to France (aka Saint-Pierre et Miquelon just 12 miles off the coast of Newfoundland).

LISTENED TO:

• Our favorite curated summer playlists:

  • Sailing and Jimmy Buffett for days on the water and evenings on the deck

  • ABBA for Sunday morning Scandi breakfasts

  • Chansons françaises for making macarons or dreaming of Paris

  • Our wedding playlist offered as favors (CDs) to our wedding guests twenty years ago

• July Mini-Playlist:

  • C’est si bon (Émilie Claire Barlow)

  • Sailing (Christopher Cross)

  • Chicken Fried (Zac Brown Band)

  • Café Crème (Le Petit Croissant)

  • Wildflowers (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)

  • All Summer Long (The Beach Boys)

  • Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes (Jimmy Buffett)

  • Vacation (The Go-Go’s)

  • July (Art Music)

ENJOYED:

• Slowing down — The two YouTube channels that I mentioned above really did inspire me to slow down this summer. It seems that during the school year the days feel frenetic and I tend to bring that energy home with me. Rather than enjoying everyday tasks like cleaning, organizing, decorating, cooking, and even spending time with friends and family, I feel rushed and stressed. This summer, I am taking my time. I’m enjoying slowly resetting our spaces, decorating with seasonal items and hydrangeas from my garden, savoring meals, trying new things, reading, and lingering in the afternoons while Piper naps on my lap.

• Baking macarons — I took a course at Sur la Table and now I’m determined to master the art of creating beautiful and delicious macarons. As with all things, I’ve learned that you definitely need the right tools for the task. Now that my kitchen is equipped, I am practicing and experimenting with flavors.

• Our 20th anniversary — Eric surprised me with Champagne and white roses and I surprised him with homemade vanilla bean macarons filled with Champagne buttercream. We enjoyed our treats after having dinner at The Commodore where we had our wedding reception twenty years ago (Sevens Seas back then). We sat on the terrace and watch the Tuesday night sailing races. The company, the food, and the view were lovely.

June 2025

“It was June, and the world smelled of roses.” — Maud Hart Lovelace

Here’s a review of what I read, watched, listened to, and enjoyed in June.

READ:

• The Paris Gown by Christine Wells — “the delightful tale of three young women in 1950s Paris who share a single dazzling Christian Dior gown” (Goodreads). This is sort of a grown up, plus chic version of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

• America's Victory — “The Heroic Story of a Team of Ordinary Americans and How they Won the Greatest Yacht Race Ever” by David W. Shaw — “In 1850, a brilliant young boat designer and an unlikely team of humble, hard working men faced the might and arrogance of the British empire in a yacht race for The Great Exhibition in England. Revolutionary in design and strikingly beautiful, the schooner America set sail against the world's greatest maritime nation” (Goodreads).

• The Winemaker’s Wife by Kristin Harmel — “Champagne, 1940: Inès has just married Michel, the owner of storied champagne house Maison Chauveau, when the Germans invade. As the danger mounts, Michel turns his back on his marriage to begin hiding munitions for the Résistance. Inès fears they’ll be exposed, but for Céline, half-Jewish wife of Chauveau’s chef de cave, the risk is even greater—rumors abound of Jews being shipped east to an unspeakable fate. When Céline recklessly follows her heart in one desperate bid for happiness, and Inès makes a dangerous mistake with a Nazi collaborator, they risk the lives of those they love—and the champagne house that ties them together. New York, 2019: Liv Kent has just lost everything when her eccentric French grandmother shows up unannounced, insisting on a trip to France. But the older woman has an ulterior motive—and a tragic, decades-old story to share. When past and present finally collide, Liv finds herself on a road to salvation that leads right to the caves of the Maison Chauveau” (Goodreads).

WATCHED:

• Stick (Apple TV) — “Owen Wilson stars as Pryce Cahill, an over-the-hill, ex-pro golfer whose career was derailed prematurely 20 years ago. After the collapse of his marriage and getting fired from his job at an Indiana sporting goods store, Pryce hedges his bets, and future, entirely on a troubled 17-year-old golf phenom named Santi. Stick is a heartfelt, feel-good comedy about a found family and their relationships set within the world of golf as it has never been shown before.”

• Your Friends and Neighbors (Apple TV) — “He lost his job, his family, and his money. What else is there to lose?. A hedge fund manager resorts to burglary, targeting wealthy neighbors to maintain his family's lifestyle.”

LISTENED TO: June Mini-Playlist

• Pearly Shells (Connie Francis)

• White Flowers (Bertram Hollands)

• My Favorite Things (Julie Andrews, The Sound of Music)

• All Summer Long (The Beach Boys)

• Summer Lovin’ (John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, Grease)

• Little Things (ABBA)

• La Vie en Rose (Emily Watts)

• Good Day Sunshine (The Beatles)

• June Afternoon (Roxette)

ENJOYED: Quiet June days with Piper — We putter in the yard and read on the deck. She follows me everywhere and naps on my lap. She is such a sweet girl.

May 2025

"Let all thy joys be as the month of May” — Thomas Tusser

Here’s a review of what I read, watched, listened to, and enjoyed in May.

READ:

• The Sweetness of Forgetting by Kristin Harmel — “At thirty-six, Hope McKenna-Smith is no stranger to bad news. She lost her mother to cancer, her husband left her, and her bank account is nearly depleted. Her own dreams of becoming a lawyer long gone, she’s running a failing family bakery on Cape Cod and raising a troubled preteen. Now, Hope’s beloved French-born grandmother Mamie is drifting away in a haze of Alzheimer’s. But in a rare moment of clarity, Mamie realizes that unless she tells Hope about the past, the secrets she has held on to for so many years will soon be lost forever. Tantalizingly, she reveals mysterious snippets of a tragic history in WWII Paris. Armed with a scrawled list of names, Hope heads to France to uncover a seventy-year-old mystery” (Goodreads).

• The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel — “Paris, 1939: Young mothers Elise and Juliette become fast friends the day they meet in the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. Though there is a shadow of war creeping across Europe, neither woman suspects that their lives are about to irrevocably change. When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she entrusts Juliette with the most precious thing in her life—her young daughter, playmate to Juliette’s own little girl. But nowhere is safe in war, not even a quiet little bookshop like Juliette’s Librairie des Rêves, and, when a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette’s world is destroyed along with it.

  More than a year later, with the war finally ending, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend’s bookstore reduced to rubble—and Juliette nowhere to be found. What happened to her daughter in those last, terrible moments? Juliette has seemingly vanished without a trace, taking all the answers with her. Elise’s desperate search leads her to New York—and to Juliette—one final, fateful time” (Goodreads).

• Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid — “Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things”. This is the worst book that I have read in a long time. Good thing this book was free, because that’s about how much it was worth to me.

WATCHED:

• Bunheads (Hulu) — “Bunheads is the tale of a Las Vegas showgirl who impulsively marries a man, moves to his sleepy coastal town, and takes an uneasy role at her new mother-in-law’s dance school.” Having binged Étoile last month, I was craving more ballet and more of Amy Sherman-Palladino’s quick dialogue and pop culture references. Since we subscribe to Hulu for a month, I had just enough time to watch the first and only season of Bunheads. I wanted to love it as much as I love Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. There were certainly plenty of family faces, but this short-lived series feel flat for me. Perhaps it was too soon — only 5 years after Gilmore Girls, but the characters seemed too familiar. So many GG alumni play roles including the actors who played Zach, Tom, TJ, Gypsy, Jason/Digger, Fran Weston, and Mitchum Huntzberger, Bash is Kirk. Millicent is Paris. Fanny is Emily. Michelle is Lorelai. Although the first few episodes were intriguing and I do love the dance and balletcore fashion, the series quickly turned into a teen drama à la 90210 and Saved by the Bell. While Gilmore Girls featured Rory’s high school and university years, it also followed Lorelai’s coming of as a grown woman she who had missed much of her own adolescence, and therefore, appealed to viewers of all ages. Bunheads lacked the depth that made Gilmore Girls so appealing.

LISTENED TO; May Instapuzzle Mini-Playlist:

• Lavender and Coffee (Mingus Midnight)

• Don’t You Forget About Me (Simple Minds)

• Let It Be (The Beatles)

• Spring Is Here (Ella Fitzgerald)

• Wildflowers (Tom Petty)

• Lovely Moments (The Cuteys)

• Days Like This (Van Morrison)

• C’est bon la vie (Nana Mouskouri)

• The Lusty Month of May (Julie Andrews)

ENJOYED: Spring blossoms in Door County and in my garden.

Spring 2025 in My Garden

"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow." — Audrey Hepburn

A Northern Cardinal in an Eastern Redbud

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Above: White bleeding hearts; Below: Royal Star Magnolia, May Apples, Virginia Bluebells, Striped Squill, White Violets

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Above: “Bertine” (our Tina crab tree (above); Below: Windflowers (Anemone sylvestris)

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Above: Great white trillium; Below: Easter red bud, prairie trillium, heirloom peonies, Tina crab tree

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Above: Sweet Woodruff ground cover

Spring 2025 in Door County

“If all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wildflowers.” - Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

I love spring hikes in Peninsula State Park and Ellison Bay Bluff County Park. This year, we spotted forget-me-nots, lilies-of-the-valley, trillium, merrybells, and even a few morels. Despite lots of distinctive foliage, we only found one lovely lady slipper blossom braving the mid-May chill.

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The gray skies couldn’t dull the beauty of the iconic cherry blossoms.

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Although my focus was on Door County flora, we were also thrilled by the fauna — goslings and a wise old owl.

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I can never decide whether I prefer Door County in the spring or fall. I am so luck that I never have to choose.

April 2025

“april is a reminder that life is a beautiful, ever-renewing cycle.” — e.e. cummings

APRIL 2025 — Spring has sprung and everything is golden. Here’s a review of what I read, watched, listened to, and enjoyed in April.

READ:

• Life on Svalbard: Finding Home on a Remote Island Near the North Pole by Cecilia Blomdahl - “Located in the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole, Svalbard is a unique archipelago that boasts stunning wintry landscapes, endangered Arctic animals, and awe-inspiring natural phenomena. Since 2015, Cecilia has called this beautiful and remote location home. Along with her partner, Christoffer, and her dog, Grim, she has adjusted to life at the top of the world—where polar bears roam free and northern lights shine bright. With evocative text and spectacular photography, Cecilia shares the joys and challenges of adapting to an inhospitable climate. Her story begins in the darkness of polar night, and the allure of her remote location is revealed gradually as sunlight returns months later. Through personal stories and firsthand advice, Cecilia offers insight for anyone seeking to thrive in unusual living conditions” (Goodreads). I discovered Cecilia’s Youtube channel when creators of another favorite travel channel, Kara and Nate, visited Svalbard. I am fascinated by all things Scandinavian, so I instantly loved Cecilia — her easy, welcoming personality; the breathtaking landscape of this remote, polar island; Kristoffer’s sweet, oddly French phrasing paired with his Norwegian accent; and of course, their adorable Finnish Lapphud, Grimm. The photography in this book is captivating and, since I’ve been watching for almost a year now, I can visualized the stories behind the pictures.

• The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin — “In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job to provide for herself and her beloved daughter, Olivia. But with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her. When the threat of war becomes a reality, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. In her daughter’s absence, Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbors and coworkers, as well as the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties. Books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing, and her work forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident. As the Blitz intensifies in Nottingham and Emma fights to reunite with her daughter, she must learn to depend on her community and the power of literature more than ever to find hope in the darkest of times” (Goodreads).

WATCHED:

• Étoile (Prime) — “In an ambitious gambit to save their storied institutions, two world-renowned ballet companies in New York City and Paris swap their most talented stars. From the Executive Producers of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel comes a bold new series celebrating the beauty, humor, and unpredictability of a life devoted to the arts, both on stage and off.” There is so much to love about this new series — Paris and New York, the ballet, the fashion, and, above all, the quick, smart dialogue riddled with literary, cinematic, and pop cultural references that is the signature of Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino’s work. I love and often rewatch Gilmore Girls. Who wouldn’t love coming of age in Stars Hollow? Mrs. Maisel continued the quick-witted dialogue, but added mid-century fashion and iconic settings like NYC’s upper west side vs. Greenwich Village, Paris in the 1920s, and an early 1960s summer resort in the Catskills rivaled only by Dirty Dancing. Étoile highlights ballet as an art form and a business. The multifaceted characters, portrayed by several GG/MMM alumni as well as notable French actors such as Charlotte Gainsbourg (daughter of the French singer Serge Gainsbourg and the English actress Jane Birkin) and Lou de Laâge, challenge you with their humanity in the face of fame and fortune. We binged the eight-episode series over the weekend and are eager for season two.

• Chef’s Table (Netflix) — “In this Emmy-nominated series, meet culinary stars around the world who are redefining gourmet food with innovative dishes and tantalizing desserts.” Maybe it’s because I just finished writing culinary curriculum, but this series is very intriguing…or maybe it’s just because food and travel.

• A Complete Unknown (Hulu) — “In 1961, an unknown 19-year-old Bob Dylan arrives in New York City with his guitar and forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world” (IMDb). I have always had conflicted feelings for Bob Dylan. He is a brilliant songwriter/poet with a voice that has always irritated me. Dylan covers by The Byrds, Simon and Garfunkel, U2, et al. have been in heavy rotation in the soundtrack of my life, but I have never purposely listened to Dylan himself. After this film, I have a new respect for Bob Dylan and for Timothée Chalamet.

LISTENED TO:

• The soundtrack for a trip to Colorado has to be John Denver’s Greatest Hits. It played on repeat when I was little and still makes me smile — especially when I remember multiple guitars and the harmonious voices of family around August campfires in North Bay.

• April Instapuzzle Mini-Playlist:

  • Easter Theme (Vince Guaraldi)

  • Tulip Time (The Andrews Sisters)

  • They Say It’s Spring (Blossom Dearie)

  • Just the Way You Are (Bruno Mars)

  • Lemon & Sunshine (Bokaboka @Music)

  • Happy Little Things (Holly Kluge)

  • Yellow (Cold Play)

  • April in Paris (Ella Fitzgerald)

  • April (Tchaikovsky)

ENJOYED:

• The opportunity to learn a lot with inspiring educators and writers — Along with nineteen other “prospective associates” from around the country, I spent four days in Denver training with Marzano Resources. The experience was enlightening and exhausting and could lead to future opportunities.

• The first signs of spring in our yard — While I was in Denver, Eric, Rob, and a couple of friends took down eight crooked and/or dying trees in the back yard. After the debris was removed, things look much neater. We are hopeful that we will have greener healthier trees and grass this summer. I cleaned up the perennial beds and planted white flowers in rustic pots. We set up our deck for reading great books, listening to summer playlists, sipping coffee and wine, watching Piper chase chipmunks…all the fun that warmer weather brings. I love every season, but the first few weeks of each new one are always my favorite.