And luckily, the weather has been quite lovely! It’s been mostly sunny with very little humidity and only reached 80ºF once last week. I would be very happy if this was our entire summer, minus the mosquitoes. But we can’t expect perfection, right?
I can’t believe that yesterday was the summer solstice. We are as close to the sun as we’ll ever be and the days will slowly start becoming shorter. I am always so shocked by how early in the summer this feels despite summer seemingly going on forever. What a world!
Today’s post is quick: just an update about things at home, a few finished books, and an update on my Substack.
Home
As you can see in the opening picture, the baby finches have flown the nest. It happened so fast! It was shocking to walk outside and just find them gone. I wish them luck!
Tuesday was the last day of school, so my days are a little turned around. I am behind on almost everything now! I was hoping to publish two Substack essays last week but didn’t quite make it. I will have to figure out how to reclaim my afternoon writing hour this week — otherwise I won’t have anything at all done this summer.
We’ve been spending a lot of time outside thanks to the beautiful weather. I have no idea how we’ll fill the next few weeks before summer school, which is always such a challenge. The time will pass no matter what. I’d like to make it a little memorable, if possible?
Reading
The Keeper by Tana French
(Amazon | Bookshop)
“he’s found the intricate webs, constructed over centuries, that bind people to one another, to their land, and to their past”
I am loving French’s latest series about Cal Hopper, a retired American cop who moved to a small Irish village. This third installment was just as fabulous as the first two! When a popular girl from the village is found drowned in the river, rumors run amok. Some say the girl did it herself, some blame the boyfriend, and others say it’s the boyfriend’s rich father. The answer is always more complicated.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Ireland this month thanks to Said the Dead, Land, and The Keeper. These three books complemented each other so well. It almost felt like Ireland was my unofficial theme this month!
Whistler by Ann Patchett
(Amazon | Bookshop)
“How was it that a weekday trip to a museum with my husband had plunged me back into childhood at the age of fifty-three? I knew what Leda would say. She would say it is because childhood never leaves us. We seal the room up and cover it in sheetrock. We dry and sand and paint, but the pocket of history remains, and sooner or later someone always winds up tapping on the wall, commenting on the way it sounds strangely hollow in there, and then the whole thing comes tumbling down.”
Whistler was a lovely story about a middle-aged woman who reunites with her mother’s second husband (out of three) forty-four years after their divorce. Daphne had nearly forgotten that the short period of her childhood with Eddie was her absolute happiest. After their reunion, we slowly learn about the terrible car accident that changed everything for their little family and Daphne learns the secrets her mother and Eddie were keeping from the girls.
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
(Amazon | Bookshop)
“This is what free people never understand. A slave isn’t a person who’s being treated as a thing. A slave is a thing, as much in her own estimation as in anybody else’s.”
This is the first in a series about the women of Troy. Our main narrator is Briseis, who was a queen near Troy when Achilles and his army killed her husband and brothers, then captured her as a slave. Briseis was Achilles’s concubine and got to know him and Patroclus well. This story made it clear how women kept these war camps going for the men but are only on the edges of the original stories. I am still VERY confused about who is fighting for which side and the point of it all despite all the reading I’ve been doing and that’s okay. But I’m waiting for the second audiobook in this series and will keep trying!
A Dark Sustenance of Ink
On Substack last week I shared a new strategy for The Oxford Project. I am still in the planning stages and didn’t get nearly as much time to work on it as I’d hoped, but I am hoping that I have some exciting things to share with you in the next couple of weeks.
Okay – Colton is waking up and he doesn’t sound happy. My quiet time has ended. I won’t have a chance to do any proofreading this morning, so please forgive all of the mistakes!
I hope you find some time for yourself this week. Take good care!
The Cozy Burrow 
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