Re-construction Begins

On July 1, a few days of heavy rain caused our basement to flood.

Here is the TV / computer room with about 8 inches of water all over the floor.

We ran three pumps day and night for several days to take the water away.

Then the drenched carpets were removed and thrown out...

Furniture was thrown out...

Then the bottom 2' of drywall was removed from every wall - to allow the walls to dry inside and out - to avoid mould forming. Industrial-sized dehumidifiers ran day and night for several days.

Now the basement looks like this. 

BUT HOPEFULLY!! HOPEFULLY!!... that will soon change! This week and next carpenters and plumbers are set to arrive to restore everything to the shape it was in before the flood.

I really can't wait!

Pink!

The air feels cooler in the morning these days.

So I'm pleased to still be surrounded by flowers, especially bright pink ones..

August was my "pink flower month" - they seemed to last the whole month through!

And - added to that - I appreciated the occasional pink sky!

What will the colour of September be? Will the pink linger on for a while - before fall colours arrive?!

Kite Weather!!

Kites can be so much fun!!

On some windy days, everything is perfect!

It helps if you can run!! (I know I couldn't...!)

Hope they have a few more perfect kiting days...

Great exercise for all!

Plum Dumplings

I bought a frozen package of Hungarian plum dumplings.

The instructions seemed straightforward: Drop frozen dumplings into boiling salted water. When they rise to the top, let them boil for a few minutes before removing them with a slotted spoon.

I checked out a few recipes online to see how to serve them... 

Apparently one rolls the boiled dumplings in bread crumbs fried in butter and sprinkles them with icing sugar (castor sugar)... Another recipe suggests sugar snd cinnamon. 

That probably would have been interesting - but (trying to save time) I just sprinkled them with sugar.

Maple syrup might have been a nice addition, as well!

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!