Flowers in Bloom

My garden is mostly pink and yellow these days...

The phlox in several shades of pink - are one of my late summer bloomers.

These yellow lilies are stunning...

And the brown-eyed Susans, in their abundance, add a cheery note...

What else is left to bloom?

Once these are  gone, will my summer gardening season be over?!

It always flies by so quickly - and I miss it when it's gone!

At Greek Fest 2017

A few days ago, Terry and I had supper at Ottawa's week-long Greek Fest - as we traditionally do.

As usual, it was hard to choose what to eat...

We decided on souvlaki  and salad ...

... and custard pie for dessert.

(We may have to come back later in the week to try the lamb.)

As we were getting up to leave, I recognized a familiar face - from the news...

Kathleen Wynne has just arrived! I told Terry.

Who?! he asked.

Occasionally we run into neighbors - but we've never seen the premier of Ontario at this local event.

Yarn Sale!

I try to avoid shopping for yarn as I already have a large stash. But I wanted to check out the Noro yarn from Japan... It's so colorful! Was it silky as well?

I discovered (thanks to Google) that a large yarn store not far from me carries Noro... so I drove over... only to discover that they were having a "tent sale" - discounted yarn sold in bulk.

I couldn't resist wandering into the sale section, just to see what was there...

(Unfortunately, no Noro yarn on sale.)

But I spotted a few colors I liked: Patons chunky yarn that sells for $8 a ball regularly was $13 per 6 skein bag. Hmmm. That would make a nice sweater. Another pretty yarn, regularly $5 per skein was now $20 per 10 skein bag.

I couldn't resist! So I bought several bags... went home... thought about how much I'd need for potential sweater projects - then went back to buy a bit more!

Here it is! Nine bags in all!

Not sure where I'll store it. Hopefully I'll transform it into sweaters before too long!

Colorful Knitting

I'm not really considering a new knitting project, but recently, on Pinterest, I came across a sweater knit in colorful Japanese Noro yarn.

I don't really want to buy more knitting books - or even yarn, for that matter!

(My stash needs to be used up!)

So I was happy to discover that our public library has several books of Noro patterns...

This interesting vest has caught my eye...

Not sure how practical a vest or shawl with large holes is...

But one of these days, I might just try it!

Painful Decluttering...

For me, getting rid of things takes as much time and effort as buying them in the first place!

Raised by parents who grew up in the 1920's and 1930's - in families where there wasn't even enough food to go around, my parents modeled throwing out very little: Waste not, want not, you know!

Then, in my working days, a time when technology changed so frequently that computers a few years old were considered obsolete, I've had to learn to throw out computers and printers that still work, floppy disks, hard floppy disks, cassette tapes...

It's not easy!

(Was it planned obsolescence? Or did we really need to replace things that quickly?!)

Knowing that garbage dumps keep growing doesn't makes it any easier...

So it's hard, but this summer finds me going through things, trying to get rid of stuff I no longer need.

(Fortunately, some of it can be recycled!)

My own kids - who grew up in our throw-away age - of course don't understand why decluttering is such a struggle for me...

Solved By...

St. Augustine is not one of my favorite Christian "saints." I have a hard time identifying with a lot of what he writes. But a while back, I came across an interesting quote attributed to this learned man who lived 1,600 years ago in Italy and North Africa:

"It is solved by walking." (Or, in his words, "Solvitur ambulando.")

It made me ponder all the ways I solve problems - and I realized that walking isn't one of them.

I often write down my problems (journaling) to force myself to define what is bothering me. Sometimes I talk to an insightful friend... Other times I simply wait and see what happens...

When my kids were younger, I did find that when we went for walks together, they tended to share what was happening in their lives and what was bothering them.

Maybe I should start taking reflective walks - to see what creative ideas - and solutions to problems - pop into my head...

Grandparenting Fun

A summer wedding brought our youngest son and his family to Ottawa. Terry and I enjoyed hanging out with our one-year old granddaughter.

Early mornings allowed for breakfast conversations with Ivy.

"Grandma, why are you taking pictures?! Can't you see grandpa and I are having a conversation?!"

"Oh! Sorry to interrupt!"