Lake life

  • Sunday Snippet: The Canal Boat Edition

    Husband and I are on a new kick–canal boats and narrow boating. No, we’re not doing it (although I’ve added it to my bucket list!), but we’re totally hooked on watching shows about canals and narrow boats on Prime. We started with Great Canal Journeys, which we found while wandering around on Prime one night. Two episodes and we were enthralled. Timothy West and Prunella Scales were darling together. To watch two people in their late seventies and eighties, married 60 years, travel the canals of Great Britain together is just delightful. (If you’re an All Creatures Great and Small on PBS fan, you’ll recognize Samuel West when he shows up…

  • Sunday Snippet: The It’s a Real Snippet Edition

    It’s been a healing week, mes amis. Trying to fight back the unholy tiredness that Covid has left me with and it’s slow going. Still not much appetite yet either, although that’s improving. I’ve found some things that sound good–cottage cheese, bread, fresh tomatoes, almonds, and water, always water. Had a glass of wine with lake pals, Mo and Cindy, last night and that was nice, too. On Thursday, Husband and I went by the winery here in our lake town to listen to music and discovered we were the only ones who were willing to brave the heat. We were so glad we did because we met an amazing…

  • Sunday Snippet: The One More Embarrassing Moment Edition…Sigh

    Holy cats, kids, it’s Sunday again! No idea how that happened. It’s been an eventful week here at casa Reinhardt, although as I look back on the last few weeks, what sticks out is work. I’ve been working a lot this month of June and now as July appears on the horizon, I find myself wondering what happened to the first third of summer. But this week has been all about fun and lake life because I had my dear friend Minnie with me for a few days up at the cottage. It was delightful to share the lake with her and I think she had a good time. I…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Lake Life Reality Edition

    We are in our 14th year here at the lake. It’s hard to believe we’ve had our cottage for so long, particularly given that we waited for so long to buy one. It seemed like whenever we were ready to buy, cottages were just out of our reach and when they were in our reach, we weren’t in a position to consider buying one. Fourteen years ago, when this marriage-long dream came true, we were overjoyed. We still are, although the realities of lake life are a little different from the fantasies. This is a rehash of the harsh realities of lake life, but I’m doing it again anyway because…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Remembering to Be Truly Grateful Edition

    I know that I post a paragraph of weekly gratitude each Sunday, but sometimes it’s hard to find reasons to be grateful. I write every morning in my gratitude journal–five things from the day before that I’m thankful for, but I find myself repeating–home, Husband, family, friends–all things I am truly grateful for. But these days are harder than most and only appear to be getting harder. Gratitude is a struggle when the news of the nation and the world is bad. So today, I’m going to focus on all the good in my life  and how very blessed I am. (I promise not to be sappy–I’m probably lying about…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Opening Weekend Edition with Chicks and Ducklings and Turkeys…Oh My!

    There’s a particular scent that always pervades the first weekend of being at the lake–it’s a mixture of citronella and watermelon candles, mothballs (to keep the critters away) and pink antifreeze, bleach, and a slight mustiness that means you’re at the lake. This year, it hit us as soon as we opened the front door. We both inhaled deeply and grinned at each other and said, in unison, “We’re at the lake!” Pic is Husband in his happy place–the lake! We’ve been working most of the past two days getting the cottage ready for another summer. Husband turned on the water (which involves more than turning a knob–he has to…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Procrastinor’s Oh, Hell, What Day Is It Edition

    I’ve been procrastinating…okay, no big news, right? I am a world-class procrastinator. I passed amateur status years ago and have gone into full-time professional procrastination. Nobody wastes time as well as I do. And honestly, it doesn’t even have to be time spent scrolling around the Web. I can put off doing anything that needs to be done with something as basic as folding laundry—oh, excuse me for a minute, I do have to get some stuff out of the dryer… brb… Fifteen minutes later…I’m back, clothes folded and put away, next load is in the washing machine, and while I was in there, I sorted the recycling, which I…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Summer of the Sundress Edition

    I confess, I got nothin’ for this week–I mean seriously, between editing gigs and revisions and book promotion and book signings (That’s Lizzie and me at Whyte Horse Winery last Sunday!), and getting into discover for book 1 in my new Dykemans of Rivers Edge series, my brain is exhausted and empty. So… I guess I’m going to tell you about something fun that I discovered this summer… ya ready? This summer, I’ve rediscovered dresses. Okay, so not fancy, like-we-use-to-wear-to-church dresses. You remember those? They required ironing and pantyhose? No, not those dresses. I’ve found sundresses. Cute, knit ones that have an empire waist and come in fun colors. This…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Anniversary Edition

    It’s our wedding anniversary. Husband and I have been married 51 years today. Last year for our 50th, we took a trip to Oregon and celebrated our day with wine and supper on a beautiful deck overlooking a gorgeous vineyard. It was heaven. Today, we’ll have another kind of heaven, celebrating with homemade flatbread pizzas and a good chianti. Maybe a walk down to the lake in the moonlight. 51 years. Wow…that sounds like a long time. Probably because it is a long damn time. Marriages in this country don’t usually last for over 50 years. We are a nation of disposable everything, including marriages. Folks seem to me to…

  • Sunday Snippet: A Real Snippet!

    Good Sunday to you all. Thanks for stopping by. I don’t say it enough, but I really appreciate all my lovely readers who come by every Sunday to see what’s happening in Nan’s world. I’ve never considered myself to be all that fascinating, but I sure am glad you want to be here with me. Right off, I’m nervous as heck about the cardiac PET scan tomorrow–seriously nervous and scared about what they might find. But, we take whatever comes along and deal with it, right? So… that’s that. I won’t have any conclusive results before I go back to Dr. B to discuss what the test showed. I’ll get…