The Weekend

In a word drenched. 

But Friday was beautiful. Sometimes the day before a storm has some of the best weather. Actually let's back up to Thursday since that's the weekend on my blog. 

The whole week was busy but it's a month for ticking things off the to-do list I suppose. On Monday (because I guess I'm backing all the way up to Monday now) I had labs done in preparation for my yearly physical. Since I was in the city I made a stop at Costco and picked up a few essentials. It was crowded and I made a mental note to avoid shopping there whenever possible until after the holidays. 

Hubs sent me this picture he snapped on the way to a friend's house Monday evening. October has the best skies. 

Tuesday I did the regular grocery shopping and played mah jong that evening. Then on Wednesday hubs and I both had appointments with the eye doctor. I'd like to go somewhere else, but options are limited. I don't mind the care, but they book far too many appointments at the same time and I spent more time there than I should have.  

Thursday I spent a fair chunk of the day taking care of some paperwork and then booking lodging for the third leg of our trip west next year. It's not happening until later in 2027, but we have all our accommodations booked and getting that done has me feeling a little bit excited for the trip. Hubs and I are doing a week on our own, then meeting up with two more couples for the second half of the holiday. 

Thursday night I went with a few women from my bookclub to hear an author talk about her new book. The author's name is Katherine Reay and she's written quite a few books, half on the lighter side, and then several more recent books that would fall under the genre of historical fiction/spy novels. 

Her debut novel was called  Dear Mr. Knightley, and came out about ten years ago or so, but I haven't read anything else by her since. Her newest book is The Undercover Bookshop and is set in a Cotswold village in 1950. 

She had me at Cotswold Village. 

I enjoy hearing an author discuss their writing and she was a wonderful speaker. We all felt like we'd had a little history lesson as she talked about what was going on in the world and particularly the UK at the end of the war.  I'm looking forward to reading this one soon. 

Another pretty sky on the ride home-

There might not be many faces on my blog these days, but there are still plenty of sky shots. 

Friday was a nice day. My next door neighbor has a granddaughter the same age as our Little Miss, although Little Miss lives here and my neighbor's grand lives about two hours away. She was in town visiting this week so my daughter1 invited everyone to lunch and a playdate. 

They were positively adorable playing together and the moms and grandmoms all had a nice time chatting. 

I'd made a meatloaf that morning so we had that for dinner. Hubs and I pulled all the porch cushions inside since nasty rain and windy weather were predicted, and we watched a movie before calling it a night. 

Saturday we woke up to gray skies and all day rain. We had plans to go into the city to a Fall Festival, where they close off the streets and there are lots of bands and food trucks, and it's just a fun day out. The event ended up getting cancelled due to weather so we had a Saturday to fill. 

We decided to go to breakfast somewhere because we wanted to get out of the house for a bit. Afterwards we stopped in a newish little market near the house and they have so many yummy things to buy. Snacks, sandwiches, coffee, ice cream, meat from a local farm, homemade bread and more. And it's close! When you live out of town having something like this nearby is such a treat. 

Once home hubs spent the rest of the morning on a project he has going on in the lower level and I worked out then washed my hair which takes a couple of hours,  so it was a good day for it. Our treadmill is in the lower level garage and even though it was pouring down rain I opened up the door and enjoyed the breeze and the view, even on this dismal day. 

I did some prep for my book club meeting happening this week (we read The Calamity Club) and then made a big pot of Ina Garten's Minestrone to have for dinner and leftovers this week. Her recipe is excellent. 

Even though I declared it a no laundry day hubs had a pile of towels from his project so I ended up doing a load of wash. It's just the two of us here but I feel like I am always doing laundry. 

After that it was football time in Tennessee so we watched the game. A win~yay! 

Sunday morning we had coffee on the screened porch and watched the sunrise for a quick spectacular minute. 

We went to church then pretty much lounged the rest of the afternoon. We have a lot going on in this second half of October and a day of r and r is probably necessary. 

So how was your weekend? If you blogged about it hop over to our host blogs - Holly (Pink Lady) and Sarah (Sunshine and Books)-and add your link to their Hello Monday hop.