The Month That Was

One of my daily habits is jotting down details about the weather - and how I spend my day.

I do it on a large sheet of paper - a calendar of sorts.

Last month, August 2026, the temperature ranged from 28 degrees C to 10 degrees C (82.4 degrees F to 50 degrees F). Temperature wise, for me it was perfect! 

But we did have one wind storm that caused us to lose power for 2 1/2 days.

Highlights of last month were several monarch butterfly sightings ... and lots of beautiful flowers in bloom. But we are losing daylight minutes day by day, and went from 14 hours and 45 minutes of daylight on August 1 to 13 hours and 20 minutes on the last day of the month. That's a noticeable shortening of the day.

Photographing Flowers

I've heard that photographers prefer overcast days when taking pictures - because there are no shadows.

But when it comes to photographing flowers, I prefer sunny days.  

Sunlight brightens the colours, so that the flowers seem to glow.

I Forgot!!

During my first year of retirement, I began to slow down... 

(But after all, wasn't that WHY I retired...?? I wanted to "stop and smell the roses," have time to notice sunrises and sunsets... and do things I enjoyed.)

More than a decade later, I try not to be too busy. I have my daily routine: morning coffee, check my blog to make sure there are no typos, take a walk... 

But occasionally - for a day or two - life gets busier. Last Monday was one of those days... And I forgot to post my blog!

Oops! Hope nobody noticed!

Grandma's "Cooking Class"!

Today it's back to school for kids in Ontario...

But a few days ago, my grandkids and I had a different kind of learning experience: grandma cooking HER GRANDMA's recipe!

My mother and grandmother often made "potato pancakes" for supper. It's a simple dish that I would never need a recipe for - I had watched them make it so often.

Shredded raw potato, rinsed and patted dry... Add several raw eggs and several heaping  tablespoons of flour to hold the shredded potatoes together as pancakes when frying.

As I recall, my mother used a generous amount of oil - or was it bacon drippings? - to fry it in.

My grandkids helped with grating - and Ivy watched over the frying pan.

I haven't made them in a long time - and wondered if I should add a small grated onion for extra flavour. 

Unfortunately I didn't, and they were quite bland. Next time I'll add onion and salt - if not using salty bacon drippings to fry them in!

As we were making them, I also wondered if they would taste just as good with other vegetables added - like shredded carrot and some chopped green vegetable, like broccoli. That's not what my grandmother did - but recipes do change over time! Why not start a new tradition?!

Delicious Meal Out

Terry and I recently joined our son and grandson for a lovely meal...

It was totally last minute!

We started out heading to a food truck that had a hamburger special - only to discover that they had run out of hamburger!

(Did we want anything else?!)

Another option was a nearby brew pub we had been to once before - years ago - in Ashton...

The food was delicious! 

The view from the screened porch looked down the hill (cliff?) to the river.

(But the beams looked SOLID!)

Glad we were impulsive!

Oasis

One of my friends has a patio oasis I love to sit in.

There's a pond nearby...

Lots of potted flowers - plus the sound of running water makes it a peaceful place to relax or chat..

Where's "Waldo"?!

My kids used to enjoy "Where's Waldo?" type books. 

I remember a Richard Scarry book where an ant or a "lowly worm" appeared on every page - and we used to hunt for them.

Also - trying to get them comfortable in French - I bought a book called "Ou Est Pere Noel?" ("Where is Father Christmas?") with lots of Santas on every page... and we hunted for them, too.

Hunting for bees (or wasps?) on this photo of Japanese anemones reminds me of this game. I pointed the camera in the direction of bees buzzing around flowers. I MUST HAVE captured a few... But where are they?!