April 2020 — Page 3

What We Are Reading

We read Return to Gone-Away by Elizabeth Enright as soon as we finished Gone-Away Lake. I think I loved it more than the first one, but hard to say. I loved the old house and discovering things – old furniture, trunks of clothes and jewels, etc. I can really get into them painting and decorating and making the old house a home. I loved when they took a walk and looked back at their home and started thinking about how it would look in the fall with the beautiful colored trees all around the house and in the winter with the lights all warm and shining in the windows. It sounded so warm and cozy and that is definitely my kind of book.

I asked the kids which book they liked best and it was pretty much half and half and I understand why. Gone-Away Lake – so exciting and interesting and all the old run down houses and the marsh and wildlife and the brother and sister they met. It was a summer to remember. Then the “Return” book so homey but still lots of interesting things happening. As many times as I have read these two books they never get old to me.

Bella, eating out on the deck – one of the hundreds of cookouts we have had since having to stay home – and it’s not over till June 10.

Getting The Garden Ready

We started cleaning out the old flower garden yesterday. It was a real mess – covered in weeds and sticks and who knows what. We want to get our flower seeds planted in the next week or two. I started working on it and as soon as the kids saw me they wanted to help. They almost always want to help if I’m working. They just don’t like to do it alone. We just about got it done and now all we have to do is till it and add fertilizer and, of course, plant the seeds. I told Tess that the first picture I ever saw of her was her in a garden with a hoe. I asked if she remembered being in that garden in China and she said no. But, it seemed to thrill her that she was working in a garden in the very first picture I ever saw of her. It seemed to make her even more interested in gardening.