I would have posted this Monday, but I had already promised the  post on lemon bars.  So.  Now that it’s Thursday, let me tell you about our weekend.  For the first time in months, Lovey and I had a weekend with nothing but a few errands to do.  We had no events on the calendar that required us to be at a certain place by a certain time.  Free from the tethers of time commitments, we decided to spend Sunday afternoon just being.  A picnic seemed just the thing.  We picnicked last weekend too–you can read about it at my friend Nicole’s blog here.

We packed a lunch and agreed on a pretty spot to visit.  We trekked a windy  (long “i”) path with our afternoon’s entertainment in tow.  Here’s the Hubby hiking downhill:

It might not look like he’s holding much, but that load of homework on his back weighed half a ton.  (Probably.)  So I only burdened him with a waterproof tablecloth and a quilt.  Besides, the rest of the cargo looked too girly for a man to have to hold anyway:

Oh, I should have warned you to put on some sunglasses before I blinded you with my ivory limbs.  Sorry.  And no, they won’t be any darker even by the end of August.  That’s just the way it is.  I’ve (mostly) come to terms with it.

We settled in at the edge of a large tree’s shadow, where sun could blaze on us if the clouds completely blew clear, which they did a couple times.  Aside from that, the setting was ideal: birds singing their little heads off, children happily running by from time to time, everybody with a dog out walking it, and all of nature rejoicing as we reclined and watched.

Even what winter left behind somehow looked cheerful to me.

Of course, not much around us was drab.  Purple and white were popping out everywhere, along with plenty of green, of course.

From our perch in the middle of the afternoon, we enjoyed a lunch of everything I could lay my hands on when we spontaneously decided to picnic.  I think it amounted to a passable assemblage.  We had olive oil & black pepper crackers (yum!) with a few kinds of cheese from the previously-mentioned picnic with friends last week; sandwich (for him); wrap (for me–we had only one tortilla!); kiwi that came with their own knife/spoon–strange but true; and cookies we baked Saturday night.  We didn’t eat the granola bars.  We were stuffed after everything else.

While lunch settled and a bumblebee and a wasp came to see whether they missed a good party, we lolled around reading.  Well, it was only true lolling for me.  This was my book du jour:

Hello, pure awesome!  If you haven’t read anything by Beth Revis yet, treat yourself to her writing immediately.  Last year I read the first book in this trilogy, Across the Universe.  (It has no connection to the 2007 movie of the same name.)  This second book, A Million Suns, is just as good as its predecessor.  You know how sometimes authors build up a plot point to be some huge thing they promise is going to blow your mind…and then the end disappoints you?  Revis has not disappointed me.  She advances the plot on every page, yet manages to control the pacing so it’s rewarding without being overwhelming.  And, unlike some authors who write for teens, she understands the power of understatement.

On the other end of the blanket, Lovey wasn’t having quite as much fun as I was.  He sat studiously hunched over his book of circuit diagrams and whatnot for most of the time we were out.  Necessary evil, but I can’t think of a better setting for it if it has to be done.  And he managed to look hunky in the process.

He did allow himself a few moments of play in the midst of his hard work.  He took a short break to fiddle around with my camera, documenting the clouds reflected on his sunglasses lens.  And he shooed away a spider for me–great guy, this one.

After a few hours out in the sweet pre-spring, we were a happy pair.

So now that I finally caught you up on last weekend, it’s pretty much time to wish you a happy new weekend.  Any plans?  I’m not sure what ours are yet, but I hope we can include some more bonding with grass and trees.  Or maybe our third straight picnic!  We shall see.

P.S. This is my first no-make-up photo on the internet.  Aside from the fact that I have almost no color, I think I’m okay with it.