October 2024 in Pictures

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” - Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Currently • October 2024

"In October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible." — Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

READING:

• Books:

  • The Women by Kristin Hannah — “The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era” (Goodreads). I took a break from women in war literature, having read so many WWII French Resistance stories, including Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale. The Women came highly recommended by several colleagues and since it’s set during the Vietnam War, I thought it might be “novel” enough to revisit women in war. Nazis and spies were replaced with gruesome injuries and debilitating PTSD. Kristin Hannah is a good writer, but this genre isn’t for me.

  • Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella — “Meet Emma Corrigan, a young woman with a huge heart, an irrepressible spirit, and a few little secrets — secrets she wouldn’t share with anyone…until she spills them all to a handsome stranger on a plane. At least, she thought he was a stranger.…Until Emma comes face-to-face with Jack Harper, the company's elusive CEO, a man who knows every single humiliating detail about her…” (Goodreads). I have read Sophie Kinsella before. It’s proper “chick lit” à la Bridget Jones’ Diary, but I think it might have been the perfect anecdote to the gravitas of The Women.

  • Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl — 14 Practices for enhancing learning — a good read, but not exactly recreational.

  • Fresh Water for Flowers by Valérie Perrin — “Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Random visitors, regulars, and, most notably, her colleagues—three gravediggers, three groundskeepers, and a priest—visit her as often as possible to warm themselves in her lodge, where laughter, companionship, and occasional tears mix with the coffee that she offers them. Her daily life is lived to the rhythms of their hilarious and touching confidences” (Goodreads).

• Links:

  • Wisconsin’s Wine Country (Milwaukee Magazine)

  • 30 Years of “It Bags” (InStyle) — It may have debuted ten years ago, by I still carry my Saint Laurent Sac du Jour to work everyday. Mine is black with cream over stitching — a classic.

  • The Most Sought-After Travel Guide Is a Google Doc (Thrillist) — I have created bespoke Google Docs and Maps for Paris, Door County, New York, Napa/Sonoma, etc.

WATCHING:

• Gilmore Girls (Netflix) — Autumn requires an annual trip to Stars Hollow.

• My perennial Halloween favorites:

  • Hocus Pocus — Would it be Halloween without The Sanderson Sisters?'

  • Practical Magic — I love the vibe of the town, the house, and the 90’s fashion.

  • Beetlejuice — Favorite Scene: The Banana Boat Song

  • Beetlejuice Beetlejuice at the Outdoor in Fish Creek

  • It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown — twice

• The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 (Netflix)

LISTENING TO:

• Cool jazz: It just reminds me of fall.

• My personally curated Fall and Halloween playlists — perfect for road trips and evenings on the deck.

• My October Instapuzzle Mini-Playlist:

  • The Great Pumpkin Waltz (Vince Guaraldi)

  • I Want Candy (Bow Wow Wow)

  • Take Five (The Dave Brubeck Quartet)

  • Autumn Leaves (Vince Guaraldi)

  • Hello October (Sugar Lime Blue)

  • Practical Magic (Alan Silvestri)

  • Spooky Season (Bradley Thomas Turner)

  • The Pumpkin’s Song (Oskar Schuster)

  • Spooky (Classics IV)

ENJOYING: October —- I love the colors and the smell of the changing leaves; “sweater weather” and cozy fashions; bonfires and football; comfort foods and red wines; super moons and starry skies; Gilmore Girls and Halloween movies, and a trip to the pumpkin patch, carving jack-o-lanterns and roasting pumpkin seeds…October feels a big hug.

Saturday at the Pumpkin Patch

“You cannot share your life with a dog or a cat, and not know perfectly well that animals have personalities and feelings.” – Jane Goodall

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“Those sure are great pumpkins, Mom!” — Piper

September 2024 in Pictures

“Ah, September! You are the doorway to the season that awakens my soul... but I must confess that I love you only because you are a prelude to my beloved October.” ― Peggy Toney Horton

Currently • September 2024

“By all these lovely tokens, September days are here with summer's best of weather and autumn's best of cheer.” ― Helen Hunt Jackson

READING:

• Book: Finding Paris: A Novel by Joanne Kimes — “Going to Paris had always been a dream for Julia and Kathy, two women who meet at a beginning French class and become fast friends. Julia is an empty nester whose husband is leaving her and daughter won’t return her texts. Kathy is a type-A workaholic who gave up on love after a painful secret. After both their lives implode, leaving them with nothing to wake up to in the morning, they say, ‘What the heck, let’s go to Paris!’ and finally live out the dream they’ve been too busy to live out before. Once there, tensions mount and drama unfolds as they struggle with their new friendship and the cultural differences of the city, forcing them to take responsibility for their own isolation and unhappiness. But, with the help of romance, unsalted butter, the French countryside, vintage shops, and bread…lots of bread, Paris teachers both women lessons they desperately need to learn, while have an adventure of a lifetime” (Goodreads).

  This was an easy read and, at times, a nice virtual trip to Paris; however, I was often distracted by the errors and inaccuracies that neither the author nor editors bothered to correct. Here are just a few examples:

  • You don’t say Je suis bien when asked how you’re doing, but rather Je vais bien.

  • There are twenty arrondissements in Paris, not eighteen. This should be obvious since, later in the book, there is a reference to Père Lachaise Cemetery in the 20th.

  • The referenced café in Montmartre is the La Maison rose, not La maison rouge.

  • Gevalia is a Swedish coffee brand, not French.

  • And this is rude: “Four old pals from Wisconsin who just screamed tourists in their fanny packs and Mona Lisa t-shirts”. Be careful about insulting your readers, Joanne Kimes.

• Links:

  • Paris: 20 must-sees films celebrating the capital (Vogue) — I’ve only seen 11 so far.

  • My Bookshelf, Myself (NYT) - I am a confirmed minimalist, yet I continue to hold on to so many of the dogeared, heavily-annotated books that I studied in college and grad school. Most of the works of American, French, and British literature are now in the public domain and/or readily available digitally. Still I have been lugging boxes of books from home to home for almost 40 years. Most of these books are yellowed paperbacks that aren’t “pretty” enough to display on shelves so they remain in boxes in the basement or tucked away in the drawers of an old armoire in a guest bedroom. For a while, I thought that I might teach some of these novels in future courses; that I would appreciate the notes and thoughts of my 18-24-year-old self, but I rarely have. And, aside from perennial favorites by Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Jane Austin, Colette, etc., I haven’t even opened most of them for decades. Still, as I read this article, my heart tightened its grip on the books I was considering letting go. I might still read old and new books on my iPad or listen to an audio book, but, for now at least, I will cherish my little library in the armoire upstairs.

  • Why do so many people wear all black? (NYT) — Chic, easy, sustainable, draws your eye to your natural features (face, hair, eyes, smile, hands….so many reasons.

  • 36 Hours in Door County, WI (NYT) — How nice to be recognized. This isn’t the most logical way to visit the peninsula, but maybe meandering is part of the charm of a visit to Door County.

  • The Bells are Back at Notre Dame Cathedral (AP) — The cathedral officially reopens on December 8th.

  • Move Over, Nancy Meyers—10 Ways I’m Channeling Meg Ryan This Fall (The Every Girl) — “Think chunky knits, curling up with a good book, and bundling up for long walks on brisk fall days. Essentially, it’s all about taking everyday moments and elevating them in a cozy, romantic way.” And is there a better movie than You’ve Got Mail to watch on the first rainy Sunday in autumn?

WATCHING:

• You’ve Got Mail — “Book superstore magnate Joe Fox and independent book shop owner Kathleen Kelly fall in love in the anonymity of the Internet, both blissfully unaware that he's trying to put her out of business” (IMDb). It’s the perfect way to settle into fall.

• Gilmore Girls (Netflix) for ?th time — The charming town of Stars Hollow, the quirky characters, the fast talking, the books, the movie references, the music…It’s a seasonal guilty pleasure established when we moved into our home on Hawks Hollow in the fall.

• Emily in Paris Season 4 - Part 2 (Netflix) — This season continues to serve up a lot of eye candy — beautiful people in beautiful cities wearing beautiful clothes, including outfits directly inspired by Audrey Hepburn’s costumes in Charade (the ski outfit with fur hood and large sunglasses) and Roman Holiday (a full, high-wasted skirt with white blouse and striped scarf). I am devoted to the show; however, the deception and manipulation are getting ridiculous (Bonjour, Genevieve). [Spoiler Alert] When Part 2 begins on Christmas Eve, why do people still believe that Camille is pregnant? Part 1 of the season started with a scene at the French Open which takes place in May and now, 7 months later, she still isn’t showing at all.

• La Maison (Apple TV) — “An iconic fashion house is thrown into scandal leaving the family's legendary fashion couture house hanging by a thread. Perle Foster and Paloma Castel team up to reinvent LEDU and claim their place in the Ledu clan and the fashion world” (IMDb). Paris, fashion, the French language — all things I love, yet as I write this, I have seen the first three episodes and my interest is fading.

• ABBA: 50 Years Since Eurovision (Prime) — “…the 50-year saga of the legendary Swedish pop quartet —from their iconic Eurovision triumph with ‘Waterloo’ to the pre-ABBA chapters of individual lives, the series explores the genesis of their unique sound. It delves into the commercial triumphs, dissecting staggering record sales and the economic empire they built through merchandising and concerts. The documentary offers an intimate look into their post-ABBA era, navigating solo careers and the resurgence brought by the ABBA Gold era in the 1990s. Special focus is given to the recent hologram concert experience, ‘Voyage,’ providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the innovative technology that brought virtual ABBA back to the stage” (IMDb). I’m not even going to say that ABBA is a guilty pleasure. Why should I feel guilty about loving this band since I was a little girl?

LISTENING TO:

• New seasons of my favorite podcasts, The Earful Tower and The Pop Culture Preservation Society. I look forward to new episodes every Monday. What else should I be listening to?

• My own Fall Playlist — a work-in-progress with nods to Nora Ephron rom-coms and Gilmore Girls reruns, inspired by the aforementioned Meg Ryan Fall article

• My September Instapuzzle Mini-Playlist

  • Turn! Turn! Turn! (The Byrds)

  • Fly Away (John Denver with Olivia Newton-John)

  • Theme from Practical Magic (Alan Silvestri)

  • C’est Si Bon (Aoi Teshima)

  • September (Earth, Wind, and Fire)

  • La Vie en rose (Zaz)

  • Harvest Moon (Neil Young)

  • There She Goes (The La’s)

  • Autumn Leaves (Vince Guaraldi)

FEELING: Eager for a change — a change of season (I love fall), a change of venue (we need to take the time to do some fun things on weekends rather than just doing chores at home), a change of pace…? I do like routine and stability, but right, now I feel the urge to shake things up a bit. Maybe F. Scott Fitzgerald was right that “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”

ENJOYING:

• A last-minute date night — On September 25th, we were supposed to have dinner with out-of-town friends at DanDan, the Chinese restaurant in the Third Ward owned by Top Chef Wisconsin alum, Dan Jacobs. Unfortunately, Nan tested positive for Covid the night before, so they weren’t able to make the trip. They offered us their tickets Candlelight: The Best of Hans Zimmer on Thursday night, so Eric and I had a proper date night in the city. We went to DanDan and then enjoyed a “live, multi-sensory musical experience — the music of Hans Zimmer at The Abbey at St. James 1868 under the gentle glow of candlelight”. Here’s the set list:

  • “Time” from Inception

  • “This Land” from The Lion King

  • “Zooster’s Breakout” from Madagascar

  • “Supermarine” from Dunkirk

  • “Honor” from The Pacific

  • “A Dark Knight” from The Dark Knight

  • “Wonder Woman Suite”

  • “Gladiator Suite”

  • “Cornfield Chase” from Interstellar

  • “Dune Suite”

  • “Discombobulate” from Sherlock Holmes

  • “Pirates of the Caribbean Suite”

• A spontaneous weekend in Door County — Since we went out on a school night anyway, we decided to take Friday off and head to Door County for the weekend. Spontaneity is fun sometimes, but without planning, we did face some lodging challenges. In the end, it was great to catch up with family and friends, to hike in the woods and sit by the water, to linger over lunch and a glass of wine, and to watch the leaves starting to turn. Perhaps the highlight of our weekend was watching Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice at the Skyway Drive-In on Saturday night. It was the perfect movie to usher in Spooky Season. Most of all, I love the nostalgia of going to the outdoor — the music before the movie (Elvis, the Beach Boys, the American Graffiti soundtrack), the 50s-era ads for Pic bug repellent and the treats at the concession stand, and the sky full of stars…lovely.

August 2024 in Pictures

“Every dog has [her] day.” — William Shakespeare, Hamlet

I always struggle with a color scheme for August. My initial choice is always yellow, but I often do yellow in April too. For the past few years, I’ve allowed myself to play a bit more with a different idea in August. In 2020, I did the alphabet (a picture of something that starts with each letter and multiples of 1-5). In 2021, I did photos of my favorite things. In 2022, I made a rainbow out of the weeks, and last year, since I did pastels in April, I was able to feature sunny yellows in August.

It’s a few days early, but it seems appropriate to share my August 2024 collage today. Since many of you have commented that you enjoy searching for Miss Piper’s picture among the photos each month, this month I give you “the dog days of summer”. Today might officially be National Dog Day, but at our house, EVERYDAY is a dog day. #PiperMarie #nationaldogday #beaglemania 🖤🤍🤎