Reading Round-Up: September 2023

Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby. I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book. Here are my reads for September, 2023.

Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West, by Shannon McKenna Schmidt & Joni Rendon – Normally I love a book about travel to bookish destinations, but this seemed to drag for me. Maybe too much focus on authors that I don’t care for? In any event, it was fun enough but didn’t add much to my already-full travel wishlist.

The Hotel, by Elizabeth Bowen – I keep trying to read Elizabeth Bowen and having the hardest time with her. This novel – her first – was slim and I thought it would be a quick read, but it took me almost two weeks to get through. None of the characters really grabbed my attention.

Letters to Michael: A Father Writes to His Son, 1945-47, by Charles Phillipson – I’d been saving this for September and it was a perfect read for back-to-school season. This collection of letters, written on work breaks to encourage a young by to read and accompanied by the most charming sketches I think I’ve ever seen, was absolutely perfect and delightful and just what the doctor ordered.

In Love with George Eliot, by Kathy O’Shaughnessy – I thought this was a memoir (along the lines of My Life in Middlemarch) and was surprised to find it a novel. (That one’s on me: it says “A Novel” right there on the cover.) This story of George Eliot’s various love affairs (requited and not) was engaging enough, although it dragged on too long and there was an oddball storyline inserted about some academics preparing for a George Eliot confe3rence and their love affairs.

My Turn to Make the Tea, by Monica Dickens – Monica Dickens is a descendant of the famous Charles and she certainly inherited her great-grandfather’s gift for humorous righting. I loved this memoir of her time on a local newspaper.

Slightly Foxed No. 78, ed. Gail Pirkis & Hazel Wood – A new issue of Slightly Foxed is always a win – although this one wasn’t new; it was the summer issue that I finished off one day before the fall issue landed on my doorstep/ Even when I’m not interested in reading the books that are profiled, the quality of the writing and the obvious delight the contributors take in their bookish subjects always makes for a cozy, fabulous reading experience.

The Wheel Spins, by Ethel Lina White – Iris Carr, a young woman traveling home to England, alone, after a summer’s holiday, meets a friendly and chatty English governess, Miss Froy, in her train car. Iris falls asleep and when she wakes up, Miss Froy is gone and the rest of the travelers on the train insist that there is no Miss Froy, never has been a Miss Froy, and Iris must have imagined her. Iris waffles between her conviction that there is a terrible conspiracy afoot and her self-doubt, sown by the gaslighting for the other travelers. This was tense and atmospheric – I couldn’t stop turning the pages.

Brat Farrar, by Josephine Tey – Another one I’ve been meaning to read for awhile, Brat Farrar is Tey’s famous take on the case of the Tichborne Claimant. It was an interesting structure – the reader knows from the beginning that Brat is not who he says he is and the tension is around the question of whether he will carry off his deception. A good read; I’m glad I finally picked it up.

The Fortnight in September, by R.C. Sherriff – This was a re-read for me, and remains a total joy: the story of a very ordinary, working-class family and their annual seaside holiday to Bognor, in which nothing much happens and that’s the point. Sherriff follows the Stevens family from the night before they leave through their train journey and each day of the week: their hopes and dreams for the trip, small frustrations and outsized joys. I read it a few years ago (also in September) and this year listened to the audiobook version, which if possible I loved even more. Jilly Bond’s narration captured the story perfectly. Such a delight.

The Theft of the Iron Dogs, by E.C.R. Lorac – I love E.C.R. Lorac’s books – a relatively recent discovery for me and I’m so enjoying working my way through the catalog published by the British Library. This latest reprint takes place over a rainy September. The mystery was engaging, but it was really Lorac’s writing about the Lancashire countryside and the farmers who live there, that made the book. Loved it.

Well, that’ll do for September! Considering that I started the month in a major reading slump, I feel like I finished it in a good place. Some definitely highlights here – especially the mysteries, all of which I enjoyed. But the highest of the highlights has to have been Letters to Michael, which I absolutely adored and will be shortlisted for my top ten books at the end of the year. And now – onward to October. I’m still on a mystery jag so that’s not slowing down anytime soon, and I am thinking of some spooky reads for later in the month. Time will tell what I find on my shelves…

How was your September in books?

The Week in Pages: October 2, 2023

To quote the great Anne Shirley, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” Sorry – I’m sure that quote was all over your social media, as it always floods mine every October 1. But it’s so good.

Anyway, it was a slow but good week in reading. On audio, I finished up The Fortnight in September – a re-read, and while I loved it the first time around (in print) I think, if it’s possible, I loved it even more on audio. The narrator was just perfect for this book and a total delight to listen to from the first minute to the last. I really wanted to finish both The Fortnight in September and my print book, The Theft of the Iron Dogs, in September – since that’s the month in which they both take place. And I did finish both. I enjoyed The Theft of the Iron Dogs very much; the writing was as immersive and engaging as I expect from E.C.R. Lorac, and I didn’t guess whodunit (I fell victim to a very cleverly laid red herring). I’m still on a bit of a mystery jag, so I picked up The Thursday Murder Club, which I had checked out from the library, on Sunday. Not far into it yet, so I don’t have fully formed thoughts for you, but so far, so good. (I did read somewhere that the ending doesn’t entirely “play fair,” so I’m on the alert. But even knowing that, I’m intrigued to see what the hype is about Osman’s series.)

No specific plans for the next book – not right now, anyway. I have a couple of books I’d like to get to sometime in October – The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton, a re-read of Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party, and possibly Frankenstein. But the month is young, and I also have a stack of Georgette Heyer novels out from the library. So we’ll see. It’s nice to have so many options.

Sunday morning dawned gloriously warm and without a cloud in the sky, so naturally we welcomed in October with a morning paddle on the Potomac. Steve and I had a good laugh about the shoulder season – I’m usually driving around a trunk full of sports gear, but for the last two weeks the gear in question has been a pile of kayak paddles and life jackets and… skis, poles, and ski boots. (We exchanged Nugget’s seasonal gear rental at Sun & Ski Sports, just under the wire.) It’s definitely fall in Virginia!

What are you reading this week?

Antarctica and Patagonia 2023: Cierva Cove

Another spectacular morning in Antarctica! There was a bit of cloud cover as we cruised into Cierva Cove, but the sun was breaking through and the ice was sparkling.

I was excited about the morning’s paddle. First, the ocean conditions looked perfect – it was an absolutely gorgeous day. But second, and perhaps more importantly, our expedition leader had hinted that we might get to see chinstrap penguins here. Sign me up!

But first: seriously. It doesn’t get more stunning than this.

There was another Antarctic research base here. While I loved the pristine landscapes of some of our other stops, the red buildings against the blue and white ice were undeniably picturesque.

We launched our kayaks – this was a paddling-only (or zodiac only, for those non-kayakers on the trip) morning; no shore landing.

One of the best things about kayaking in Antarctica: every spot was different; you’d think that all that ice and water would just start to run together, but it doesn’t. Each paddle was memorable in its own unique way. This time, it was the bright and sparkling icebergs and brash ice that stood out.

If you’re wondering what brash ice is, it’s this^. Like paddling through a giant frozen margarita. Steve commented that I seemed to be paddling effortlessly through the chunky floating icy bits – my paddle just knew where to go to find clear water. That’s what more than 25 years of kayaking experience will do.

Couldn’t get enough of the gorgeous blue and white icebergs and bergy bits, either.

So, did we see the hinted-at chinstrap penguins?

We did.

These adventurous little guys were waddling all over the slick black wave-washed rocks. Definitely the mountaineers of the penguin family!

Team Mammal, not to be outdone, delivered a gigantic Antarctic fur seal down by the shoreline.

What a glorious blue and white morning in Antarctica. The highlight, of course, was finally getting a glimpse (even if a bit far away, from the water) of chinstrap penguins…

But the entire cove – the water, the ice, the sky – seemed to sparkle the entire time.

Very nicely done, Antarctica. Very nicely done indeed.

Next week: we come face-to-face with the darker side of Antarctica’s history.

The Week in Pages: September 25, 2023

Happy fall! It’s officially my other favorite season – tied with summer, of course – so I am leaning into it and doing all the fall things, starting with apple picking this morning, which is why this post is late. That and my general flakiness of late, which is down to unpacking burnout and being busy, busy, busy, as ever.

Anyway, this past week was jam-packed with work and life obligations, as usual. Less baseball, because we were rained out of games all weekend. But I filled the time with extra errand running and chores around the house (got the foyer cleared of boxes, finally, and organized the hall and linen closets) – not as fun as baseball, but had to happen. What didn’t happen was much reading, although I held my own especially during the weeknight evenings and commutes. And the result was two books finished over the last week – The Wheel Spins and Brat Ferrar, two classic suspense novels from the late golden age of crime (both shortly after WWII), both really well done page-turners. As scattered as my brain has been lately, those really gripping plots are just what the doctor ordered.

As for current reads, I have another page turner – The Theft of the Iron Dogs, the latest reprint from British Library Crime Classics, by E.C.R. Lorac, whom I love. (I did have to look up what an iron dog was. I was picturing a dog made out of iron. Wrong. My grandmother would be so disappointed.) I just started it last night, right before bed, so I’m only about 35 pages in but it’s great fun and I can already tell I’m going to really enjoy it. And on audio, the opposite of a page-turner: The Fortnight in September, R.C. Sherriff’s quiet, contemplative story of a middle-class family’s annual September holiday at the seashore. Nothing happens, and in that nothing, everything happens. It’s a gorgeous book, and I think I like it even better on audio than in print; Jilly Bond’s narration is absolutely pitch-perfect. I’ve been savoring it over my commutes and errands; I’ll finish it this week and I’m already sad to say goodbye to the characters.

Before the wind and rain came, we snuck in an outdoor movie night! (This is an annual fundraiser at the kids’ school.) Neither Steve nor Peanut wanted to attend, so Nugget and I had a date night to “The Super Mario Brothers Movie.” We ate pizza and popcorn, Nugget ran around and threw a football with his friends, and the screen collapsed not once but TWICE and everyone screamed. It was an epic night.

What are you reading this week?

The Week in Pages: September 19, 2023

Well – it’s Monday again. Whatever. Is my exhaustion and lack of motivation coming through the computer screen at you?

I was just chatting with a work teammate and we both agreed that for the first time in our respective lives, we’re burnt out but it’s not because of work. Work is definitely busy, but it’s general life stuff that has us grinding away right now. For my part, I really need some fun. I’ve been going hard on house projects and unpacking for months now without a break and I’m just… spent. Hence the mini reading slump I’ve been fighting off for most of the first half of September (not that you can tell from the gallery above).

So I spent the weekend doing basically nothing – not getting fresh air, as I’d hoped, but also not unpacking, as I should have done. Just sitting on the couch staring into space most of the time, and reading some. And yet somehow, miraculously, I finished five books last week – five. One, In Love with George Eliot, was an audiobook – and to be perfectly honest, I didn’t love it. The other four, I banged out over the second half of the week and the weekend. First, I finally finished The Hotel on Tuesday – for a book that was under 200 pages, it took me a long time to read. (Elizabeth Bowen, I will figure you out. Someday.) Then, needing something a little easier going, I picked up Letters to Michael: A Father Writes to His Son, 1945-1947, which I’d been saving for September as it seemed like such a good read for back-to-school season. It was, and I adored it and finished it the same day. Gentle, sweet, charming – just what the doctor ordered. Moving right along – I’ve been meaning to read My Turn to Make the Tea, Monica Dickens’ memoir of her time working as a junior reporter on a local newspaper just after World War II, and while it had its moments that reminded me it was published in 1951, I really enjoyed it – Dickens’ writing is sharp and funny; she definitely inherited the gift for humor from her great-grandfather Charles. I wrapped it up on Sunday morning, then read Slightly Foxed, issue 78 – the summer issue, and not a moment too soon as I’m expecting the fall issue any day now – the same day. Whew.

Still with me? If you can believe it – considering I was slumping hard over the past few weeks – that long list was just the books I finished last week. I’ve also got two on the go: The Fortnight in September, a re-read, which I’m listening to for the first time on audio. (The narrator is wonderful – I can already tell that I’m going to want to revisit this one via my earbuds every September.) And The Wheel Spins, which was last month’s BL Crime Classics publication and takes place in early September. I’ve just started it – only read the first chapter before bed last night – so no impressions to share as it’s too early pages to tell. But I’ve heard good things, so I’m excited to dig in. Assuming I have the energy after that blitz of reading – not to mention the work and life stuff that never seems to stop piling on.

Since all I did over the weekend was bum around the house, I don’t have a fun adventure picture to show you. Maybe next weekend? In the meantime, at least it’s hot fall beverage season. While I don’t like pumpkin spice, I never turn down a hot cider – and this is a cider chai latte from the cute local coffee shop on the ground floor of my office. Yes, PLEASE.

What are you reading this week?

Reading Round-Up: August 2023

Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby. I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book. Here are my reads for August, 2023.

Excavations, by Kate Myers – This debut novel came highly recommended by Kerry McHugh, and I definitely co-sign that recommendation. The story of four women working an archaeological dig in Greece, and the momentous discovery they make, is a smart, fun, feminist romp of a book. It was a perfect vacation read, and I can’t wait to see what the author does next.

Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah – I must be the last person on earth who hasn’t read Trevor Noah’s memoir, but I’ve corrected that now and it absolutely lived up to all the hype. Noah intersperses stories of his own coming of age with South African history and context that puts his own experiences into frame. It was definitely funny, but it was also smart and thoughtful. And I read that last chapter with my heart in my throat.

The Growing Summer, by Noel Streatfeild – Just a quick, easy, light read – one of Noel Streatfeild’s books for children. Four siblings are shuffled off to spend the summer with an eccentric relative in Ireland while their mother is off tending to their sick father, who has fallen ill abroad. It’s formulaic but comforting and I enjoyed it.

Picnic at Hanging Rock, by Joan Lindsay – The story of three young girls and a teacher who disappear from a school picnic on Valentine’s Day – and all of the fallout from the disappearance – is a classic of Australian literature and I’m glad I finally got to it. I was waffling between reading it around Valentine’s Day, when the fateful picnic takes place, or reading it in the summer (because of course, February is the height of the season in the southern hemisphere). In the end I decided to read it in summer and that was the perfect time, because the heat is such an important element of the story. It was tense and an exhilarating read.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter #4), by J.K. Rowling – Nugget and I have been working our way through the Harry Potter books at bedtime. I admit I was skeptical about this project, because starting with this fourth installment the series does get significantly darker and more intense – as we all know by now. But Nugget is loving this bedtime reading and it’s such fun to share Harry’s world with him.

At Bertram’s Hotel (Miss Marple #11), by Agatha Christie – Miss Marple’s nephew Raymond and niece Joan want to give her a treat, and she asks for a week at Bertram’s Hotel, London. Bertram’s is a relic of the golden age of British travel, where no detail is too small for the guests’ comfort (it’s based on Brown’s Hotel in London, where I now must stay). Of course, where Miss Marple goes, murder tends to follow. I listened to the audiobook version and, although not Christie’s best, it was good fun while painting my kitchen cabinets.

Bricks and Mortar, by Helen Ashton – I’d been saving this one for the settling-into-my-new-house phase and it was a good choice. The story of an architect’s life, and his tense family relationships, it’s well-written and quite engaging. I didn’t love the characters, for the most part – except for Stacy – and I would have liked more house details. But overall a good read.

Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, by Lucy Mangan – Definitely one of the highlights of my month! I listened to the audiobook version, read by the author, and it was a total joy. I wish LKucy Mangan and I could be best friends, or at least members of the same book club This memoir, which weaves through an entire childhood of reading, was such a fun listen, even during the rare parts in which Mangan’s reading and mine did not overlap. (And I’m very glad that she changed her opinion of Anne Shirley.)

The Greengage Summer, by Rumer Godden – I meant to read this last summer and didn’t get around to it, and I’ve been saving it ever since. This story of a hot summer and tense affair at a French countryside hotel was gripping. I read the last twenty pages while absentmindedly stirring tomato sauce on the stovetop, because I couldn’t put it down.

The Maid (Molly the Maid #1), by Nita Prose – Nita Prose’s inaugural Molly the Maid mystery definitely takes a minute to get into, due to the language idiosyncrasies that reflect Molly’s own quirky personality. But once I did, I fell hard for Molly and her friends at the Regency Grand hotel (which I pictured as the Waldorf Astoria). My only complaint: I didn’t think the author played fair with the ending. But it didn’t ruin the book for me and I’ll definitely continue on with the series.

Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne – Another Nugget bedtime read – Mommy needed a breather after the intense finale of the fourth Harry Potter book (and I hadn’t yet found the fifth one while unpacking). Nugget was skeptical – I think he thought Pooh was a bit babyish – but he cackled through the third chapter and he’s definitely a convert now. It’s all part of my plan…

The Book of Delights, by Ross Gay – The last book of the month was another audiobook – my count makes that three for the month, which is crazy to me. This one was a mixed bag for me. Recognizing that delight is an inherently personal concept, I came to it with an open mind and a willingness to be delighted by unexpected things. And some of the short essay-ettes were lovely; others were thought-provoking and insightful. But there was too much profanity for my taste, and much of the text went over my head (as one Goodreads reviewer put it – aptly – it was like being cornered at a party by a philosophy major).

Whew! I’m kind of shocked at twelve books for the month. The last week or so, I’ve felt like I was in a bit of a reading slump – but that was September, of course, and this is ancient history. Ancient history in which I apparently read a LOT. Three audiobooks, as noted above – wow. One of which, Bookworm, may be a contender for my top ten books of the year when I write that post in December. Excavations was the other standout of the month. Looking back on it, I wouldn’t say August was a superb month with a cascade of reading highlights – but it was solid, and looking at it from my mini-slump of the last couple of weeks, solid is very good indeed.

How was your August in books?

The Week in Pages: September 11, 2023

Well, I sure flaked on you last week, huh? Sorry about that. We had a big meeting at work with a lot of visitors to the office and I was completely distracted all week long. It was wonderful to see all of the people who visited, and also exhausting. So blogging fell off the radar, as did – I’m sorry to say – reading much of anything.

In fact, I haven’t finished a book since last Sunday. I’ve been plodding my way through The Hotel (borrowed from the library) ever since, and it’s taking way longer than a 199 page novel would usually take for me to finish it. Part of that, I chalk up to the extra busy workweek last week, but I also seem to have some kind of block about Elizabeth Bowen. I’ve tried before and I just can’t seem to connect with her books. But I’m more than halfway through now, so I will finish this one. And then I’m going to curl up with something comforting and engaging.

On audio, I’ve been working my way through In Love with George Eliot for the last two weeks. Somehow I missed that little “A NOVEL” on the cover and thought it was another literary memoir like My Life in Middlemarch, which I adored. It’s not, it’s a biographical novel book-within-a-book situation and it is good, if not what I thought I was signing on for. (Yes, that lack of attention to cover detail is squarely on me.) But again, I’ve been slower than I otherwise would with it, mostly because of the big work meeting. Usually, when I’m working my way through an audiobook, I’ll listen on every commute and while washing dishes and folding laundry. This time, I’ve only been listening about half of my normal times; I drove several commutes home in much-needed silence after especially long and socially engaged workdays, and I’ve also been sprinkling in Spotify – mainly Fireside Collective and Kitchen Dwellers, two modern bluegrass bands I’m going to see in concert in October. So the audiobook is taking a bit to get through, but I expect I’ll finish it this week and I’ve already decided to download The Fortnight in September for my next book.

This weekend was mostly devoted to the current usual – Little League and house projects – but we did get down to our former stomping grounds to have lunch with friends on Saturday, followed by a walk down to the Potomac waterfront to see the latest art installation, which had something to do with historic shipping. I am always in the market for tea.

What are you reading this week?

Anticipating Autumn 2023

Yesterday morning as I was driving to work, I listened to the latest episode of a favorite motherhood podcast – the hosts were catching each other up on their summer adventures and, at the end of the episode, they shared a few goals for fall. I famously love summer and openly hate on back-to-school (for many reasons which I will not share), but I also love fall. So where’s the line? Anticipating fall feels like wishing time away, but ignoring it and refusing to get excited about my other favorite season feels like wasting time. I’ve reframed the whole conundrum as “we’re midway through my favorite half of the year and I’ve got so much more to look forward to!” and it’s a nice place to be.

So in that spirit, while I’m by no means ready to say goodbye to summer, I am ready to at least start thinking about fall – anticipating my favorite parts of the season and setting some small goals that I’d like to work on.

Anticipating…

• Seeing the leaves change at my favorite local park. While I love being surrounded by green all summer long, there’s nothing like those reds and oranges.
• Related: taking a fall hike in Shenandoah National Park. I don’t have any current plans to get out there, but it’s only a little more than an hour’s drive and totally doable for a day. Shenandoah is one of my happy places.
• Sipping hot apple cider! To be perfectly honest, I am not a pumpkin spice anything person. But apple cider – yes, please.
• Travel baseball! We’ve never done fall baseball, but it’s going to be a busy season at the ballpark between Nugget’s 9U travel team and regular Little League (which is required for all travel team members). Talk to me in November and I might be over it, but I’m excited right now. It’s so much fun to watch the joy and pride on the little guy’s face.
• Pumpkin and apple picking. I love a pumpkin patch – and an apple orchard – and while I know the days of my family willingly cooperating are numbered… I’ll never stop trying.
• Crisp mornings on the deck. I like to wrap up in a cozy blanket and take my tea and book outside in the mornings, but the current weather – still in the 90s – doesn’t allow for the blanket part. A nice cool morning in the 60s would be perfect. Not colder, let’s not get carried away.

Planning…

• My biggest goal for the fall is to make progress on unpacking. This summer, what with travel and work and running to camp and baseball and all of that, I fell behind a bit. I’ve set a goal to have the living floors of the house unpacked and organized by October 1, and then I’m going to turn my attention to the basement with the ultimate goal of finishing by Christmas. So unpacking and organizing is going to be my new hobby for most of the rest of 2023.
• I always run the Marine Corps 10K at the end of October and I’m planning to do that again this year. No time goal, but I’d like to work more runs into my weekly schedule (I’ve been distracted by the Peloton for a long time, and I can’t deny that it is fun, but I need to mix it up).
• For awhile now, I’ve been meaning to learn more about vitamins and skincare and come up with a better, more personalized routine. No time like the present – maybe I can harness some of that September energy and finally do this.

So that’s it! Lots to look forward to in the coming season, and just a few things I’d really like to accomplish. But first things first – it’s still 90+ degrees outside and I’ve got more summer to enjoy.

What are you looking forward to doing this fall?

The Week in Pages: August 28, 2023

Family, I cannot believe August is almost over. Where did the summer go? This is the time of year when I start to feel very conflicted, because I love summer and fall in equal measure. So I’m… sad that summer is ending, but at the same time… happy about the approach of fall. Hang on, let me overthink this. In the past few years I’ve tried to look at the changing seasons from a different angle – less “I can’t believe summer is ending” or “I can’t wait for fall” and more “I’m midway through my favorite half of the year, there’s so much more to come.” Some days it works better than others.

Anyway! That digression aside, it was a good week in reading. I’ve spent time with two audiobooks: Bookworm, which I finished early last week and absolutely adored, and The Book of Delights, which I’ll wrap up today. At bedtime, Nugget and I finished up Winnie-the-Pooh and are now casting about for our next read: I still have not unpacked my books – this week! – and Nugget has been wanting chapter books at bedtime, so we’re stuck with my kindle. We gave Just William a try last night, which I loved and found hilarious when I read it last year, but Nugget didn’t find as funny. Tonight he wants to see how the first chapter of Swallows and Amazons reads. So we’ll see.

Moving on to my own print books, I also finished The Greengage Summer early last week – so, so good. You can tell it’s good when you’re so reluctant to put it down that you read the final few chapters while absentmindedly stirring dinner on the stovetop and end up slopping tomato sauce everywhere. Unusually for this season of life, I have a library stack right now – so that was my next stop. I’d reserved The Maid because I wanted to make sure to get to it before the second book in the series comes out this fall. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t think the author entirely played fair with the ending, which disappointed me. Still a good read, but not destined to become a favorite – for that reason. Finally, another library book – an impulse grab off an endcap while browsing the stacks after picking up The Maid – I embarked on a literary tour with Novel Destinations. Usually a bookish travel book flies by for me, but I’ve been plodding through this one a bit and am only a third of the way through despite starting it at the end of last week. It’s fun though, so I’m chalking the slow reading pace up to being busy with unpacking and house projects over the weekend, and not able to sit and read as much as I ordinarily would. I’ll finish it up this week, and then no idea what comes next: I’ve got two more library books checked out, so maybe one of those, but I also want to get to Brat Ferrar soon.

One of the things keeping me busy this past weekend: a Sunday morning 10k. It was hot and muggy and it took me three miles to get into a groove, so not the best race. But I got it done.

What are you reading this week?

Antarctica and Patagonia 2023: Whale-mina Bay

We had a lot of downtime on our Antarctica trip: between four days crossing the Drake (two in each direction) plus all the time in transit between adventures, there was lots of opportunity to chat with fellow passengers. And a frequent topic of conversation was: what brings you to Antarctica? It’s not exactly a hop, skip and jump from anywhere: everyone on the ship had gone literally to the end of the world to be here. You don’t generally do that for no reason.

Quite a few of our fellow passengers were joining the coveted Seven Continents Club. (Hope that’s me someday, but I’ve still got three to go.) Others were there to cross the Southern Circle or to step foot on mainland Antarctica. When asked “why Antarctica?” by fellow travelers, I’d usually demur: “because it’s there.” (Quoting George Mallory on climbing Everest.) But that actually wasn’t the truth. Yes, I wanted to come to Antarctica because its very existence was drawing me there. But there was something in particular I was looking for.

On the Antarctic Peninsula, along the route frequented by tour operators, is a bay called Wilhelmina Bay. On the surface, it looks much like any other bay along the craggy Antarctic coastline. Towering black mountains, blue ice glaciers, a heavy marine layer and occasional bursts of blowing snow from the katabatic winds. But under the surface, there’s a confluence of krill in such numbers as to draw, at any time, dozens and dozens of whales – so much so, that the bay has earned the nickname “Whale-mina Bay.” When I started researching a possible Antarctic voyage, all the way back in 2018, Wilhelmina Bay jumped off the (web)page at me. It became the fulcrum around which all of my Antarctic dreams swung: the idea of kayaking in this remote wilderness and seeing a whale.

I wasn’t picky – I’d take any type of whale and any behavior. And while I’d love a close-up visitation, just to be there and to share space with one of these giants – that’s all I asked.

For days before, knowing we were headed for Wilhelmina Bay (our kayak guide, Jess, celebrated a birthday on our trip and used her birthday wish on my dream), I was a mess. What if we didn’t make it there? What if we couldn’t kayak? Worst – what if we didn’t see a whale? Steve told me to get a grip and try to just look forward to it without turning it into a fountain of anxiety. But I couldn’t. It was a dream that had been living in the very center of my heart for years, and on the eve of it finally coming true, I was afraid I’d come all this way, and get so close, only to miss it.

We did see a big mammal right off the bat, but it wasn’t a whale – it was a massive leopard seal, hauled out on the sea ice.

This was Steve’s absolute favorite moment of the trip. (Being taller, he had a better view than I did of the leopard seal, and a better sense of its scale. But I could see it fine – and it was gigantic. Pictures do it no justice; its head was the size of a male lion.)

We bobbed around watching the seal for awhile, but then YT’s radio fizzed to life. There was a whale in the vicinity.

Dreams. Do. Come. True.

I’d thought that if I did see a whale from my kayak, I’d be in floods of tears. But I was just at peace – just being there with this majestic animal.

I still can’t believe this afternoon was real and that it really happened to me.

Reluctantly, we tore ourselves away from the whale (actually, it left us after a few of our fellow kayakers decided to try to get closer than the whale wanted) and headed slowly back to the ship. We changed into cozy clothes and climbed up to the observation dock, not wanting to miss a moment as we cruised out of Wilhelmina Bay. And as we slowly motored out to sea, whales began surfacing all around our ship – so many that we couldn’t tell which direction to look; there were whales to port, whales to starboard, whales surfacing off the stern, whales diving off the bow: we counted more than forty. We had to scrape our jaws off the deck before heading inside.

What a gift this place was. Thank you, Antarctica.

Next week: we paddle the sparkling waters of Cierva Cove.