Five books this month, including two thrillers, an absolutely incredible sci-fi-slash-thriller novel, some contemporary fiction and a teen favorite.
Temperatures are dropping, the leaves are starting to turn here in Flagstaff, and I am in full fall mode!
Despite it being fire season, I did have some time to do a few non-work things this summer.
I mentioned it in my last post, but a recent trip to Michigan gave me a chance to drag Ryan up to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and show him all the fun things Traverse City has to offer.
We didn’t leave Ypsilanti until later Saturday afternoon because we were both exhausted from non-stop family visits after our 6 a.m. flight out of Phoenix. (6 a.m. flights mean we have to wake up at 1 to make it down to Phoenix from Flagstaff.)
But, I never thought I’d get a chance to bring Ryan up to Sleeping Bear during the summer, because fire season.
So, we crammed as much as possible into our brief overnight trip up north.
TWO Michigan visits in one summer?
We’re now past Labor Day weekend, which means it’s fall now. Right? Right?
That means KNITTING.
Earlier this week, my friend Lexie invited me over to see her new house (congrats again, Lexie and Nate) and to sit on her porch and knit.
I’m pretty sure heaven exists, and I’m pretty sure knitting on Lexie’s porch is heaven.
Lexie’s invite gave me an excuse to pick up my long-abandoned knitting project that I started in January of this year.
Well. The July edition of this post was pretty damn heavy with wildfire-related gadgets and gizmos, and I hate to say it, but — thanks to a later-than-usual monsoon season that extended Arizona’s wildfire season into mid-August — so is this post is as well.
Here’s some of the stuff I’ve recently bought, or rediscovered, or have found to be worthy enough of my time, money and energy to share.
Well, the first half of August was insanely busy thanks to a few surprising late-season fires.
I didn’t have much time for reading throughout the first half of the month, but luckily, monsoons are here! Which means I’ve spent a lot of rainy weekend afternoons reading over the last couple of weeks.
Despite ignoring my Kindle for the first few weeks of August, I was able to finish four books this month — all fiction novels this time around.
This summer has totally gotten away from me. Late monsoons mean a longer fire season which means more time away from my apartment and less time to tend to my garden.
Last year, I wrote about the beginning, middle and end of our summer gardening experience.
But, this summer has been so busy with work that I’ve barely had time to tend to my garden, let alone write about it.
So, let’s start from the beginning!
What a weird fire season. It’s mid-August and I’m still finding my work life consumed with wildfire response!
I just wrapped up two back-to-back fires, the Scott Fire located here on my forest, and the Brady Fire, located south of my forest on the Tonto.
You might have noticed (probably not, who am I kidding) there was no “What I read” post last month.
Sad to say… that’s because I only read one single book in June. Whoops.
But, luckily, I did sneak in some time for some reading this month. Quite a bit of reading, actually, thanks in part to a trip back home to Michigan, which allowed for a lot of time with my Kindle. I finished eight books in July, which brings me past the halfway point of my annual goal of 50 books.
