I saw this guy on the milkweed yesterday. He’s actually much more petite than this photo suggests. I walk to the milkweed every day, hoping to see a caterpillar. I’ve seen Monarch butterflies lay their eggs underneath the leaves in the past couple of weeks, but this is the first time I’ve seen one of these guys. By the time I managed to bring Don over to this leaf, the caterpillar had moved to the underside where he was happily munching away. I wonder where he’ll eventually move to make his chrysalis?

We mowed the entire front lawn yesterday – both sides – and we were exhausted at the end of it all. Both of us fell asleep in our chairs mid-afternoon. But it looks good out there and the temperature was rather mild, perfect for mowing. The mornings have been cooler lately, making me think of fall. I’m not nearly ready for it yet, but I have appreciated the cooler temperatures. This morning was foggy and misty and quite beautiful.

I plopped the red chair in the studio, but I’m not sure about it yet. I took this at a point in the day when the late afternoon sun was shining directly in the dollhouse. Without that, the chair gets lost in the shadows. Now, I’m not at all sure I’m going to use the modern IKEA-like low shelf unit – it takes up a lot of floor space and I’d rather find something more period looking. So, after I deal with that, the chair might work in a place more toward the front of the room. Or, I might find something else that looks a little more worn, an old chair that would survive paint drips, etc. Something the owner could plop in when she’s taking a break from painting.

In other words, I have more to do in this space. The red chair may end up back in the living room or it might end up in a future project, i.e., the Beacon Hill.

Decisions, decisions…

Don is up in the studio as I write this, recording a song. He’s been intrigued by Nordic Noir since we watch so many series produced in Scandinavia. So I nudged him toward reading some Nordic Noir. He just finished a mystery by Ragnar Jonasson that we picked up at Oblong Books, and now he’s going to start the very first in the Wallander series by Henning Mankel. It’s good to see him reading some fiction again.

I’m still reading Elly Griffiths – number 6 in the series, The Outcast Dead – and I have another one on tap. Then I might veer off and read the new John Connolly and, of course, the new Louise Penny appears toward the end of this month. But I tend to hold off on reading a new Penny because I want to prolong the pleasure; I don’t want to read it right away and then have to wait an entire year for a new Gamache mystery. We do have a Louise Penny/Hillary Clinton collaboration coming out in November (or is it October?) and I’m looking forward to that, as well.

Books purchased last week at Oblong:

1. Slow Horses  by Mick Herron. Eric Idle, who reads a ton of books, has a blog and each month, he lists what he read, with a little blurb about each book. He is a big fan of Mick Herron, a British writer who writes spy novels. So I picked this one up.
2. Orfeo  by Richard Powers. I read his novel, The Overstory, last year. One of the best books I’ve ever read. It won the Pulitzer Prize. He wrote Orfeo  in 2014 – it’s about art, microbiology and Homeland Security.
3. Rachel to the Rescue  by Elinor Lipman. I’m a big fan of Lipman, who writes witty novels that often involve romantic social satire – rather like Jane Austen. This one involves the Trump White House and an employee who is fired by the WH for criticizing Trump. Described as ‘mischievous political satire.’
4. The Forger’s Daughter  by Brad Morrow. A sequel to the Forger (which I haven’t read yet) about books and literary forgery. It takes place in the Hudson Valley, a place I’m rather fond of.

Okay. Have to go.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.