Beach and Books

I was so thrilled to get back to the beach, my first trip in two years. I do nothing at the beach but sleep, eat, walk, read and enjoy the sights and sounds of surf and sand.
Destin is a beautiful beach on the Gulf of Mexico with sugary sand beaches and this year a lot of surf to go with our 80 degree temperatures.


I usually woke up at 5:30 which is my normal 6:30 EDT. Amazingly, Jim was an early riser, too! We took walks early and then settled in for reading and enjoying the beach.

Gelato- twice, sorbet once thanks to Richey's suggestion

I like to get a lot of reading done. I don't give myself permission enough to slow down and read when I am home. Being a business owner, there is always work to do!

I read Gone by Lisa Gardner.  I love mysteries and thrillers- I can't help myself. When we used to go to FL in August, Janet Evanovich's latest was always with me. But, now her's don't come out until June or July so still waiting for Smokin' Seventeen to come out next month. It was good and my first of Lisa's so I'll be looking for more.

My next choice was The Help, another good read. I'm so excited this will be a movie. I hope they do it proud. Strong female characters and a reminder of my childhood and the memories of segregation in my small town.

Next was Henry's Sisters, a dark novel about a dysfunctional family (hits close to home but we aren't nearly so dramatic) but has a wonderful, probably too wonderful theme of grace. As a matter of fact- grace was the theme of the week. I must have needed that.

Lastly, I squeezed in this peach of a book that I had read a good bit of previously but not finished. I think at the time I read it before, the fact that it consists entirely of letters was distracting to me.  I absolutely loved it and all of its characters. I wonder what they are doing now as I still have them in my mind.





All of the books featured strong characters and as I mentioned a theme of grace and hope. I feel in a transitional period moving into something new- a personal paradigm shift of a sort. I'm curious what the future is bringing to me.
Because of this sense, I am participating in Mondo Beyondo, we'll see where my dreaming goes. I'm not much of a dreamer. More of a realist and fairly concrete so who knows? But, I feel a pull in the cosmos and I don't know where it is leading or what is in store, but I'm trying to be open and listen-not something I do well being a take charge kinda gal.

Next week? Finally, the farmers market again. Wonderful travels but missed our market two weeks in a row!!