Reading in summertime

Everywhere you turn these days, you see articles, lists, and book reviews recommending great books to read for summer. The premise of all these recommendations is that you have all this time to kill now that summer is here, so here are some great books you can read to wile away those long unfilled hours. Say what?

I don’t know about other people in other places, but summer is my MOST busy time of year. I have less time for reading now than at any other time during the year. The sun is out (finally!), it is warm outside, and the days are long. It’s time for picnics, swimming, hiking, camping, outdoor concerts, and long evening walks. I will take many pictures and by summer’s end I will be weeks – if not months – behind in processing and sorting them all because I will be too busy playing outside to make time for it.

And I’m not the type to go on vacation and sit by the pool or on the beach for hours and hours and hours reading a book. I could maybe do that for one afternoon, but I’d quickly get bored. And what a waste of good weather! You can read anywhere at any time. The sun won’t be here long. Better go out and take advantage of it while you can!

Don’t get me wrong, I love reading. Boy, do I love it! But I fail to see the point of wasting our precious few months of good weather on an activity better suited to the long, dark, dreary, awful winters we endure in the Pacific Northwest . That’s when I’d appreciate some good book recommendations (although, truth be told, I already have so many books on my “Books I Want to Read” list that I will never ever read them all). Unless you’re into the skiing thing (ugh), there is nothing to do here in the winter except read books and watch movies. So I won’t be getting much reading done for the next few months, thank you. If you’re looking for me, I’ll be in the mountains enjoying the sunshine.

Roses everywhere

I took a 6.6 mile walk through SE Portland neighborhoods today. It was Walk #8 in my wonderful Portland City Walks book. It’s an overcast day here in Portland, but still pleasant enough. This is perfect walking-through-the city weather because if it was sunny and warm then walking along all that hot pavement might get uncomfortable after awhile.

SE Portland is full of cool old houses with big porches and tall trees in the yards. Many streets are lined with such big trees that the branches meet in the middle, creating a sort of “tree tunnel” down which you can drive. How I would love to live in that neighborhood! Yards are looking beautiful with so many flowers blooming. And of course this is the City of Roses and it’s that time of year so the roses are blooming all over the place. This was taken in one of the public rose gardens in the Ladd’s Addition neighborhood.