Happy Monday, friends! Hope your September is off to a better start than mine has been! As you may have seen it looks like another hurricane is coming close to where we live… again. 🥺🤦🏻♀️
In the blip that was August, we were often preoccupied with work…Mr. Bingley especially so! But we also went on a weekend trip where we tried out “camper” camping for the first time. 🙌🏼
It seems like trying to use a tent (even if it is our awesome rooftop tent) is challenging during the summer months when you live in the south. 🥵
We decided to try a camper out to see if that makes things any better. 🚐
It totally does! Sleeping in comfort (aka AC) makes such a difference! And waking up to rain, makes you appreciate not being in a tent so very much! 🏕
On our trip we went to the Asheville area and enjoyed lots of hikes, waterfalls, brewery visits, and time together. 🌄
We also had one of Mr. Bingley’s employees come stay with us for 10 days (for training) and while he was here we had fun showing off our beautiful town and beaches! 🌊
We love having visitors, so if any of you are ever in the area, let us know and we’d be happy to show you around – just maybe check there aren’t any hurricanes on the way before you come! 😉
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Want to know what Austenesque fun I’m getting into this month?
…here is what’s on this month’s
Austenesque Agenda:
~ TO REVIEW ~
~ TO READ AND REVIEW ~
~ TO REREAD AND REVIEW ~
Preparing for the mini-series by rereading this book and writing a review since I read it pre-blog.
~ FEATURED AUTHORS VISITING THIS MONTH ~
Kay Bea – September 4th
Joana Starnes – September 9th
K.C. Kahler – September 13th
Brigid Huey – September 16th
Rose Servitova– September 20th
Victoria Kincaid – September 23rd
Jennifer Redlarczyk – September 27th
Meredith, Love your pictures as always! I look forward to all of these author visits and am thrilled that you could fit me in later this month. Have a great September! Jen Red
Thank you, Jennifer! I take so many! Lol!
I’m looking forward to such an exciting blog month! So happy you are paying us a visit!
As much as you and Mr. Bingley love camping, the RV is a great choice! I love seeing all the pictures you post of the places you visit and where you live, too. Looks like you have a full schedule for September but at least I have read several of the books you are reviewing this month. Looking forward, too, to all the interviews, especially the one with my friend Jennifer Redlarczyk. 🙂 And before I forget, I love the new layout for your blog!
It was! I think we like it a lot more – sleeping comfortably is important! Especially when you go on long trips and drive a lot of hours to get there. Not a fun vacation if your sleep is poor!
I’m so excited for this special month!! So much to celebrate!
Thank you! It is almost fully done! I’ve been enjoying the updating process!
Love the pictures, Meredith! I have never been camping but I’ve stayed in a campervan and it was really comfortable. A lot easier to set up than a tent, that’s for sure!
You have a great line up this month! I also recently read the Sanditon fragment, so I’ll be interested see what you thought of it.
Absolutely! And yes, so much more comfortable than I was expecting!
I’m excited for the miniseries! I loved the book when I read it (over 10 years ago!) It is maybe closer to Heyer in some parts, but still a lovely continuation!
I love travelling with you and your husband Meredith, you go to some gorgeous places!
You have a busy month so I hope the hurricane doesn’t disrupt your plans. I’ve read Mist of Her Memory & Nefarious. I look forward to reading Chance Encounter in Pemberley Woods soon and I also plan to read Taste of Peanut Butter.
Some fab guests as usual (I’ve also read an ARC of Joana’s book, what a lovely treat that was – fabulous, fabulous!)
I’m loving your new blog and hopefully there will be fewer problems with it.
Take care and stay safe
Aw, thank you, Glynis! After reading, traveling is definitely one of my favorite things to do! Me too! We are hoping to travel to a wedding!
That’s great! I hope you enjoy those reads this month and I’m so happy to hear you read Suzan’s Nicole’s, and Joana’s books.
Yes! The new look is one thing, but I also changed servers – enough was enough! 😉
I miss camping!! My husband is NOT a camper while I grew up camping every summer, often trailering our horses up to the local mountains to a splendid and quiet horse camp (only 16 spaces), with horse stalls right in our campsite! We tent-camped, but the tent was mostly used for storing our clothes and changing; we slept outside most nights since the only rainstorms we got were in the afternoons (and if we camped in July, we’d miss even those. August, however…).
We kids would take turns going out on early morning or late afternoon rides with one of our parents, and the ones left behind would usually hike up a local mountain or explore the local goldmine. Hot afternoons were spent napping, reading, or playing card games or Yahtzee!, and we always played games after dinner, too.
Right after dinner, we’d jump into the back of the old ranger’s truck, and he’d drive us on backroads, looking for deer and bobcats coming out to feed at dusk. Once we counted over twenty-five deer in half an hour! The ranger, Vern, looked like he was a century old, but he’s come into our campsite some nights and tell us stories about his cowboy days in the 1920s-’30s. Some may have been tall tales, but it was hard to tell when he was joshin’ us.
My brother and I usually rented a rowboat and went out on Lake Cuyamaca for a day; he fished while I read from a stack of books (usually featuring Nancy Drew or Trixie Belden). We’d also take a day to drive into Julian, a former mining town and now tourist area, and we’d buy candy and snacks at the Cider Mill, browse through some shops, and stop for strawberry sodas at the drug store soda fountain. Then we’d replenish our ice for the ice chests and drive the winding roads back, hoping no one would get sick after all the sweets we had enjoyed. We’d spend up to two weeks camping every summer, and we loved it!!
I will still drive up to Julian on occasion, stopping to pause by the gates of our old campground which was devastated by the 2003 Cedar Fire.
(Whoa!!! I think this will have to become a post on my blog! Sorry it’s so long!)
Here’s to camping!!
Warmly,
Susanne 🙂
It is so great to hear about your experiences and love of camping, Susanne! Camping with horses, must be so wonderful! And I can so understand – I feel like each one of our trips have been so memorable. There is just something about being away from so much of your normal life and routine that it imprints itself in your heart and mind.
That is sad to hear about the fire and that your husband isn’t a camper. Most couples we meet that say someone isn’t a camper have found a way to compromise and sway the non-camper into participating! Maybe camping in a trailer might be something he would like?
Thanks for sharing, my friend! It was great to hear your stories!
Such lovely pictures! I’m not sure where you live, Meredith, but my family and I have to evacuate the Outer Banks tomorrow. We just got here yesterday! Tears all around. But I am thankful that we will get safely out of the storm’s path. I hope you will be too!
I am, of course, looking forward to my visit later this month! Also pumpkin spice everything 🙂
We are in Wilmington, NC – southeastern tip of the state. Oh no!!! How awful, I am so sorry – and such an early evacuation too. I hope you were able to still have a fun week!
So happy to have you visit, Brigid! Can’t wait!
And lol, can’t believe it is here already!
Yes, camper camping is a blast even with its own limitations, but being dry and comfortable are worth it. Neat that you got to host a guest and show off your pretty town and area.
Nice line up of books and authors for your month. Have a great September- and a safe one.
Yes! The limitations are workable!
We enjoyed it, we like having guests even if they come for work-related reasons. 🙂
Thank you, my friend! I hope you enjoy a lovely September too!
Wow, what a lineup this month. So many awesome guests. I’m looking forward to each one.
Great pictures as always, of course! And I love your new ‘baby.’ That is something I always thought would be so much fun. Here’s to many, many years of enjoying her. 🙂
Yes! There will be more guests than reviews this month, but I’ll still keep reading and maybe get ahead a little with my reviews!
Thank you, we rented this camper…but I think we are planning on getting one ourselves someday!
Thinking of you and hoping Dorian turns out to sea! Also, I love Asheville! (Spent five years of my life there.) Glad you enjoyed your visit and staying cool in the camper! And your reading agenda is inspiring, as usual!
Thank you, Christina! We are hoping for it to be better than last year!
Oh lovely, this was our second trip there and I love the area so much! I think it would be a great place to live!
Thanks, it should be a fun month!! Hope you are doing well!
Stay safe Meredith…will be thinking of you. Your pictures are amazing and looks like you had an amazing time! I am so thrilled with your line-up of books and visitors!
Thank you, my friend!
I hope you have a wonderful month!!
I will NEVER camp again (once as a Girl Scout eons ago in North Carolina and 40 some years ago (mid-70s) as a USAF officer at JCS exercises — all of it in tents)! At least in S, Korea we did not have to go camping! Campers are for weenies 😉 — you HAVE to know how truly awful it really is. Give me a beautiful B&B any day. My recent favourite is the Inn at Antietam.
Ow wow! Those are some different camping experiences for sure!
LOL! I don’t know if I want to go camping, which is essentially still a vacation and have an awful time. 😉
B&Bs are a lot of fun, I will have mark the one you mentioned incase we are ever in the area! Thanks!
Love your photos as always. Your camper sounds terrific and with all your trips also seems like a good investment. I have read all the book you have listed so I hope you enjoy them also.
I hope Dorian didn’t affect you. Praying for all in its path.