Coastal Horizons... books, beaches, and backroad adventures: A Month in Summary

September 3, 2026

A Month in Summary - August 2026

August 2026

Blue Heron French Cheese Company

Tillamook, Oregon

I don't know about everyone else, but I am not ready for summer to end. Of course, it's really not over until September 22nd, so I won't break out my sweaters or plaid flannel shirts until then. We've been so lucky to have such a remarkably warm summer here on the coast. Warm to us, that is. I don't think we've hit 70 more than once or twice, but it's been very dry and we've had a lot of sunshine, so it's felt like we've actually had a summer for a change. Not sure what that means for the remainder of the year... we really need rain, but there's some in the forecast, so maybe we'll get a good soaking this week. {Edit: We got rain and there's more to come!}

Other than a 6-day camping trip, it's been a fairly quiet month. We had family visiting this past weekend, and tried out a new restaurant in town, but the rest of the month has been the usual errands and appointments. I'm wrapping up my summer reading challenge and will post about that in the next week or so. My reading has been going quite well. I finished my year-long read (The Winds of War), reread a favorite for book club, enjoyed a couple of novels by my favorite authors, and tried two new authors. My ratings were a mixed bag (there were a couple of disappointments), but none that were awful. I'm looking forward to putting together my fall reading list, still focusing on the books on my shelves. I might spend the next month reading nothing but mysteries since those have been stacking up.

Books Read (click on the title for my review):

The Gulf of Lions by Caitlin Shetterly (3/5)

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (5/5)

The Winds of War by Herman Wouk (3/5)

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (4/5)

More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen (4.5/5)

The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson (4/5)

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion (Vol. 1) by Beth Brower (3/5)

Movies & TV Series:

Exile - Good mystery series. Loved seeing Olivia Coleman in this one!

A Private Life - Enjoyable, although we had to rely on the subtitles since it's mostly in French.

The Sheep Detectives - Cute. Fans of Babe will enjoy this one.

Lucky - Loved this one. Fairly violent, but Anya Taylor-Joy and Annette Bening are outstanding. Timothy Olyphant is also good, but I didn't care for his character.

Downton Abbey - Wah. I finally finished all 6 seasons of this series. I loved it, and am sad that there won't be more. However, I do plan to watch the two movies.

Fun Meme -

Trips:

We took our new camper van out for a short trip to test out everything. Had a wonderful time and LOVE our new RV! I'll put together a separate post with interior shots at a later date.