My Summer Vacation

It's been too long! Ya gotta love summer, though. This is the time, for me anyway, where creativity renews. I spend long hours reading, playing games, traveling, cleaning out old boxes of stuff, and soaking up the warmth. It rarely gets too hot for me here in the Finger Lakes and on the few days it does, well, that's why we invented air conditioning.

Mostly though, I prefer to be outside on the front porch (which has had a MAJOR overhaul this summer. After 100+ years, the railings had rotted too far to be saved and needed replacing, as did the front foot of the decking. Last summer I kept a plant stand over the section that, if you stepped on it, you'd go through. This summer it's beautiful and new and shiny!). Out there, in our outdoor living room, I can read a book, play puzzle games on my tablet or phone, visit with neighbors, and listen to the cicadas singing in the trees. I can just...be.

I did get some traveling in...went on a cruise with my daughter, who works for Celebrity Cruises. She's a production manager and her last cruise of her current contract was the Independence Day cruise. Spent Canada Day docked in Halifax and the Fourth of July in Boston Harbor. The best part of the trip, though? Watching my daughter work in a professional capacity. I'm so proud of her! She's cool, efficient, and people went out of their way to tell me how much they loved having her as a boss. Made my mamma's heart swell with pride, it did!

You would think, with all this time just existing, that I'd have read a great many books on that porch. Well, you'd be wrong. Being in the moment means exactly that - being in the present moment, not in someone else's world. Not even in a world I create. So my reading has dropped off. Most years, this is the time I start forgetting to record what I read so I never end up with a full year's worth of reading. This year, I did better.

So here are the books I read for June and July (since I haven't posted any of them!). You'll see I finished off the Pink Carnation series, then went nuts with the genres.

JUNE
By Lauren Willig:
     The Temptation of the Night Jasmine
     The Betrayal of the Blood Lily
     The Orchid Affair
     The Garden Intrigue
     The Passion of the Purple Plumeria
     The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla
     The Lure of the Moonflower

(Sidenote: I read all those at the cabin before I left on my cruise. Can you tell I enjoy those books? Read the entire series straight through over a six-week period!)

JULY
A Christmas Promise by Thomas Kincade (yes, the painter) and Katherine Spencer
Murder at The Breakers by Alyssa Maxwell (I picked up her book AT The Breakers, which we visited on an excursion)
Captain Quirk by Dennis William Hauck (a not-very-flattering biography of William Shatner)
Born of Legend by Sherrylin Kenyon (probably not the best book to read as my 1st Kenyon book. I was lost most of the time)

I also read two romances during this month, but those I did forget to write down and I can't even remember the authors. I know I tried a Fern Michaels on the ship, but honestly? The editing was so bad, I just couldn't get past the first chapter. Sorry, Ms. Michaels, but I passed it on.

So what are you all doing for your summers?

Play safe,
Diana