Summer hours, reinstated
View from my bedroom. Sunset over Lake Annecy, France.
Travel ~
Yesterday I woke up in London, loaded the car with six boxes of books and drove to our lake house in France. It took 13 hours - during which time I drank way too much coffee and listened to every single podcast ever recorded until all the words and ideas turned into noise and I had to switch it all off.
But I made it here safely, and the dog didn’t puke, so life is good.
The house is quiet. I like to arrive a week before everyone else - to stock up on essentials and see what needs fixing. June has been super hot, and the garden needs some love. The path down to the lake needs clearing. And where did the deck chairs go? They’ve disappeared. Later this week I’ll dig through the plastic storage bins and look for the life vests and bicycle helmets and flip flops and beach blankets. The pool needs to be serviced and the propane tanks need to be filled. And then, finally, a big trip to the supermarket for essentials: bags of ice and cases of rosé and sparkling water, plus more toilet paper than seems necessary - but it will never be enough.
But today was a day of rest. :) I banned myself from listening to podcasts and instead listened to this playlist. I also went to the market and came home with a beautiful bounty:
One cavaillon melon
Three heavy peaches
Two handfuls of sweet cherries
A single perfect tomato (the kind you can’t find in a supermarket)
A handful of fresh green beans
Some new potatoes
A handful of fresh spinach
Salted butter from Normandy
Local goat’s cheese
Some local yogurt for breakfast
A fresh baguette, still warm
All of it went into this super cute basket that I bought in Provence ten years ago which was handmade exactly for this purpose. It was such a main character morning! I even wore a sundress. But I didn’t take a photo because I never think to take photos and now the moment’s gone so you’ll just have to believe me. The scene was cinematic, the soundtrack was awesome and my hair looked f.
Books ~
A writer friend told me once that the hardest part of writing dual-timeline books is that readers are invariably drawn to one storyline over the other. I thought of that recently when I read Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It was a fine book - but I found myself speeding through the love-story timeline so I could get back to the outer space one. I love TJR! Maybe I was just in the mood for something different, something more adventurous? So then I read a Dean Koontz novel, which was exactly what I thought a Dean Koontz novel would be like. And then Heartwood by Amity Gaige, which is a mystery set on the Appalachian Trail, which was fun, if forgettable.
Creative projects ~
Sophia and I are working on a collaborative poetry/photography book! I can’t say more because that will suck the joy out of it. But it’s so fun to be working with her!
Other important goals for the week: floating, swimming, reading and daydreaming.
xo, L