Hey friends – it’s the tail end of the long Labor Day weekend in the U.S., maybe some of you are reading this at the beach? Or stuck in traffic trying to get home (if you’re driving, put the phone down!)
There was a time in my life when the expectation was that you absolutely had to get out of town in summer – to the beach or the mountains. If you were stuck in D.C. in August, especially Labor Day Weekend, well. You weren’t trying hard enough and needed to examine your life choices. We spent years joining friends and relatives at vacation homes on the Eastern Shore or the Outer Banks or Nantucket or Maine or the Adirondacks. And it was fun! But … I do not miss packing up four kids and a dog, and dealing with the travel and the traffic and the rest of that nonsense.
My side table looks something like this.
This year I am, once again, staying put. In more recent years in D.C., we stayed put as well, although as my kids got older they were often invited along on vacations by the generous parents of their friends. Honestly, though? D.C. in August was kind of nice in that it was more like when I was a kid. Everyone was gone, it was quiet(er) and traffic was much less intense.
Zozobra was Friday night, our giant Old Man Gloom who goes up in flames (fun!), here’s a link if anyone’s interested. I went last year with my daughter (and 60,000 other people) for the 100th anniversary, but this year I was content to hear the crowds cheering and Zozobra moaning from my home which is nearby. The crowds are huge and kind of wild now; I’m glad I got to take the girls when they were little and it was a lot more laid back. We are at Peak Tourist, the farmers market was jam-packed along with most of downtown. I’m not complaining – this place runs largely on tourist dollars – but I won’t be sorry to have less people everywhere as we head into fall. We will see; Santa Fe was declared the #1 U.S. city to visit by Travel + Leisure this year, so maybe there will be more folks than usual.
I’m reading a ton of books, fussing over my garden, trying some easy summer recipes like this one-pan dinner (including the dry pasta! It was delicious) to use up our bumper crop of cherry tomatoes, and otherwise taking it easy. I’ll be back with an actual perfume review next time.
What did you do this weekend? Any plans for the upcoming months? Oh, and here’s a final link, to Mr. Hulot’s holiday if you need a taste of the beach (the seaside in 1950s France, more specifically). I watch this sweet film at least once a year.
cover photo of Zozobra via the Santa Fe New Mexican; books via Pexels
This sounds like a lovely way to spend your long weekend March.
Chill.
Portia xx
I went to Britt IA ( the northern part of IA near the MN border) to see my draft horse sweethearts Do Their Thing. Lovely!
But a bit of a haul.
Mid-August our temperatures took a very surprising nose dive into the 60s and 70s and low 80s, which is unheard of for the DC area, with nice low humidity. Everyone is walking around like, “Can you believe this weather?!?” It’s false fall, but for a looong time. We’re loving it. Kids are playing outside, people are doing yard work. I went out to lunch with a big gang of ladies from my aqua fitness class yesterday.
I have a daughter in Takoma Park and she has been raving over the weather, after a typical ghastly summer earlier. She (and her tiny, heat-sensitive mutt) are loving it! That lunch sounds like a hoot, I live for that sort of thing.
We’re staycationing at home this week. A normal week for me & DH can “potter” to his hearts desire!
Mr Jarvis Cockapoo & I are sleeping better now the heat & humidity have broken. We actually had a thunder clap (just one) followed by a torrential downpour over the weekend. It was blissful. I went out after expecting petrichor, but no! It smelled gloriously of earth, hay, bark & the smell of the Mediterranean at nightfall. All that was missing was the chirping of cicadas
Oh the description of the smells, how glorious! It’s so interesting how those background smells can differ so much in various countries. To me, Italy outside of Rome and the big cities smelled like nowhere else. I’m glad you are sleeping better.
Our tourist season was quite busy this year, busier than in the past. So, I guess more people are holidaying in the UK vs elsewhere. It was very annoying for the last three weeks. Now, it’s weirdly quiet and very pleasant as everyone is back to work and school.
Is that festival sort of like Burning Man?
The local word is that we’re seeing fewer visitors from outside the US, which I find entirely plausible. I don’t think I’d come for a visit either, to be honest, given our current … climate. And yes, Zozobra (which is much older) is said to be somewhat of a Burning Man inspiration, but the whole vibe is different — pre-internet it was mostly a local thing, very family-oriented (bring your kids and your cooler to the local park where it’s staged.) They really need to find a larger place to hold it.
Nice lazy weekend here. I’m going to check out Mr. Hulot’s Holiday some more. I think I might like this film.
I stumbled across it years ago and I dunno, it hits all the right buttons for me. I like to watch it in the middle of winter too, when everything’s cold and gray. I’m glad you had a nice lazy weekend!
It was over 90° here and a little humid. So I pretty much did nothing. A friend was in town and we went to Norms on La Cienega (he had a hankering for diner food and I’m always in the mood for pancakes) but other than running errands I sat in the air conditioning and watched crummy old movies. And I mean crummy: “Scream Pretty Peggy,” a TV movie with Ted Bessel as a discount Norman Bates and Bette Davis as a living Mrs. Bates. I think Bette took it because it was filmed a few blocks from her Colonial House apartment. And I read the Barbara Payton autobiography “I Am Not Ashamed” (which should be subtitled “But you will be for buying this”) chronicling he fall from B-movie vixen to arrests for public drunkenness and prostitution. Because when it gets hot in LA I get Klassée.
That sounds perfect and absolutely NOTHING to be ashamed of. I would 100% read that book! I generally have some kind of detective novels stacked here for my lowbrow enjoyment (they’re airport-level). Staying in the AC and watching “classic” movies sounds just the ticket for a hot and humid weekend.