I’m sorry to say that it’s getting rather late for an August missive. The chill started creeping into our nights here just as the month ticked over, and ever since, there has been a delectable autumnal quality in the air, even though summer won’t truly end until the first frost in October – or at least I hope so, for my garden’s sake! For now, it is the time of the sunflowers.
Image Description: Me in a big straw hat with a sunflower in my hands
I do have a good reason for being a bit tardy with this letter. Or rather, two reasons.
Image Description: Two orange and white tabby kittens chilling in a cat carrier.
We already have a darling cat named Monty. His brother Hadron, a true king among cats, passed away last fall, breaking our hearts to bits. We were not planning to bring more cats into our lives anytime soon. But then kittens appeared, frolicking around our neighbor’s barn, and these two were so sweet and friendly and honestly, how could we let them live the cold and difficult lives of barn cats when they could be part of our little family?
It's all very new. I’m sure there will be more updates, including names and a report of how they’re getting on with their Uncle Monty, in the September Book & Bramble. For now, I will leave you with one more picture of the kitten who surprised us all by turning out to be a rare female orange tabby, caught in the act of flirting me into adopting her.
Image Description: An orange tabby kitten lying in hay and looking up at you appealingly.
Writing
For my fall YA roundup, I worked my way through a long list of books that will come out over the next few months, and picked my five favorites to highlight. Read about them here.
Reading
I worked my way through a lot of Young Adult books this month as I finished up my fall roundup. In my spare reading time, I returned to the regency fantasy world that Olivia Atwater established in Half a Soul (which I recommended last month). The second book in her series, Ten Thousand Stitches, is a reimagining of Cinderella wherein the main character is an actual housemaid rather than a downcast aristocrat and in her quest to win the heart of her wealthy employer, she accidentally falls for the fairy who’s trying to help her. Having read a whole lot of Cinderella retellings, I doubted that I could be surprised or delighted by one, but I am very happy to be wrong! Turns out it just needed to be angrier about labor laws and class inequities.
Image Description: A book surrounded by pink flowers.
I was still commuting all this month, so I continued on my audiobook romance novel adventure by listening to the Winston Brothers books by Penny Reid. Each book follows the romantic escapades of one of six bearded brothers living in rural Tennessee. They came highly recommended by a friend who’s taste I trust implicitly, but I admit, I was put off by the very hokey titles. I’m glad I prevailed anyway, because I really enjoyed them, especially as the series went on. My favorites were the third and fourth volumes (Beard Science and Beard in Mind – I did warn you about the titles), the third because the featured brother, Cleatus Winston, really won my heart with his weirdness. And the fourth because the female lead, Shelly, has OCD, and somehow this romance novel has the most accurate representation of OCD that I’ve ever encountered in media. I didn’t figure out I had OCD until I was in my thirties because there are so few depictions of it that speak to my experience, so when I encounter something that feels authentic to me, I want to shout about it from the rooftops.
These books are sometimes a bit heteronormative white picket fence-y for my taste and I don’t always love the writing on a sentence level, but Reid is a true master of character, and I fell in love with the Winston family in a way I haven’t fallen for a fictional family since the Murrays in the works of Madeleine L’Engle. The voice actors are amazing for the entire series, so I definitely recommend going the audiobook route. And like most of the romance novels I’ve recommended, these get pretty spicy!
Crafting
The star of this month’s official Wreath of the Month is rudbeckia. I made a slightly more elaborate circlet with multiple layers and then also wove flowers into my braids for the full effect.
Image Description: Me, head and braids covered in orange flowers. The crown in progress. Me again.
And having some visitors to the farm meant that I was able to bedeck some heads other than my own with my flower garden’s bounty! These ones are simple circlets, made from a rainbow of zinnias. I’m very grateful to have the kind of friends who let me dress them up like we’re having a bacchanal.
Image Description: Very good friends, bedecked in a rainbow of zinnia crowns.
Growing
It’s so amazing to observe the difference in the garden at the beginning of August and then at the end. See for yourself:
Image Description: The garden, modest at the beginning of August. The garden, wild and full at the end.
August is when come the tomatoes, the peppers, the cucumbers, and the beans. And the zucchini. So much zucchini. August is when the flowers run riot, making the whole garden buzz gently with the sound of bees. My trellis filled with vines and my new beds sprouted blooms that come up to my hips.
Image Description: The garden, bursting forth.
In August, we are truly rich.
Image Description: Flowers, fruits, and other garden bounty.
Exploring
We had a little adventure to the PEI Bottle Houses that proved more charming than I predicted! Three little building constructed of bottles are surrounded by very lovingly tended gardens, and the effect is rather like a place you might stumble on in a fairytale. It would be inhabited by talking cats and they would give you a quest.
Image Description: The vined arbor entrance. The path to the chapel. The chapel tower. The tower from a different angle. The main bottle house. The pond.
Musing
I feel like August had enough in it for four months, and September is already on track to be the same. I’m going to try my hardest to slow my mind and soak in the new kittens, the late summer adventures, and the last glory days of the garden. I hope you can do the same.
Image Description: A row of sunflowers in front of a dramaticly clouded sunset.
Until next month, wishing you the best books and the most berry-full brambles,
Caitlyn
I write this from the traditional unceded territory known as Mi’kma’ki. Two books by Indigenous authors that I really enjoyed recently are The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson and Mi’kmaq Campfire Stories of Prince Edward Island by Julie Pellissier-Lush.
(All opinions expressed in this newsletter are my own and do not represent my employer.)
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