stuff i loved in july

July was a month of abundance. An abundance of everything, all at once. Beautiful sunny evenings that lead to foggy nights in the midnight sun, with a sufficient amount of rain and wondrous thunderstorms thrown in. Everything grew. Everything shone. Everything was perfectly good, including us.

I did a whole lot of homemaking; moving furniture, reorganizing, cooking, laundry, crafting. I also knit a lot, and while I was knitting, I did a whole bunch of listening. Podcasts, mainly, and music. At the end of this post I'll share some favorites.

Oh and the garden! It has been plentiful, which has resulted in activities like jam-, syrup- and pesto-making, freezing, canning, and lots of veggie dishes. My favorite thing though, is walking around my garden in the mornings to see what has grown up since I last was there, and doing miscellaneous gardening stuff when I'm at it. I also nip in there in the evenings to say good night to my plants and flowers. I'm pretty sure they're saying good night back to me. I've been sleeping sound and long.

One of the highs of our summer was our roadtrip up north, to Finnish Lapland, where we drove around in a rented camper van dodging reindeer. I think there's something inherently camp in camper vans, and while we I struggled with lack of space and we all struggled sleeping with the midnight sun and uncomfortable beds, we enjoyed the trip to such an extent we've decided to start looking for our own van now. Coz wouldn't it be lovely to jump in the van on a Friday evening and drive to the coast for the weekend, or head east to explore new to us national parks? I think it totally would. 

Ok, ok, now on to the stuff I loved.

First of all burgers, because duh. Who doesn't love burgers? I love both the homemade kind, and the halloumi kind I had at a burger joint in the city the other day when we went shopping for some school gear for my kid but came home with mostly other nonsense like jewelry and books and a stress-toy for a phone!?! Finally someone has realized that all that smartphone scrolling is stressful, and come up with a toy that you can attach to your phones to stress less when you're on it.

Second, I discovered Jacques Derrida had a cat called Logos, and I just loved loved loved that too. It made me laugh out loud.

Books I read: 

A collection of short stories by Anna Gavalda, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors at the moment. I didn't used to like her writing but now I suddenly do. Go figure.

The Golden House by Salman Rushdie, which I surprisingly did not like though I usually like his writing. It was all funny and witty and well-written, but left me cold. Do I feel a shift in myself somehow, as a reader and a human? I think I maybe do. (Incidentally, if you read, you're a reader. If you homing blog, are you a homer?)

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead was worth all the hype, I devoured it in like 24 hours. 5 thumbs up.

Great stuff I listened to:

Taylor Swift's new album folklore is just perfectly to my taste, and I've been playing it on repeat ever since I first listened to it. It's kind of Taylor Swift meets First Aid Kit meets The Chicks, and if you haven't listened to it yet you should, especially the song called 'the last great American dynasty'.

My favorite podcast episode of the month was definitely this The Good Dirt podcast episode where Julia Watkins of the Simply Living Well fame is interviewed. I loved it so much I listened to it twice!

Movies that made me cry:

- Marriage Story a little

- Hachi: A Dog's Tale A LOT, even though I knew what was coming. Strange but true.

Also did you know crying is healthy for you just like rain is healthy for the growing things? I hope to do a lot of crying in August. Wishing you a good one!