My life, my world
Friday 26 July 2024
Wednesday 24 July 2024
Saturday 20 July 2024
Weather, an anniversary, and time to relax
The storms that blew through and around us on Sunday and cooled the temperatures down in the early part of the week. We were able to open windows at night, allowing the house to cool off. In fact, on Tuesday morning my daughter was considering whether to turn on the furnace. NO!!!
Swim lessons continued for the week, at 8:15 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Eli also had day camp on Tuesday, though Thursday's session was cancelled. I went with them on Tuesday, and D and I visited Value Village, Walmart and a used book store before returning to the school. We sat outside in the car, windows open as no a/c was required, and read. At V.V. I picked up a small bookcase and found it fits perfectly behind my bedroom door. I've been gathering books at garage sales and picked up a couple more at the used bookstore. There is room enough on the shelves for a couple dozen books, though I'll like swap them out before it is full.
The heat returned on Wednesday and has stayed with us. I ought to have been outdoors in the morning working in the yard, but the mosquitos are wicked bad. Normally, they don't bother me much, preferring other, younger subjects but there are so many of them, they're not fussy. Instead, I stayed in the house, read blogs, played Mahjonng on-line, did some knitting, and binge-watched NCIS. Oh, I read too, finising James Patterson's NYPD Red2, one of the two books I picked up at the used book store on Tuesday.
Thursday was the 10th anniversary of the death my aunt, my mother's youngest sister. I shared this photo on FB, taken when my mom was about 14-15 years old.
From left to right, my Aunt Ann, Aunt Enid, Mom (Betty) and Uncle Bob. He passed away at the young age of 45 of lung cancer. Mom also passed away of cancer, just over 20 years ago, just 9 days prior to her 75th birthday. Aunt Ann died about 3 months later - I'm not certain what caused her death; she had just turned 73. Aunt Enid had several strokes and was living in the nursing home when she passed away at the age of 80.Friday 19 July 2024
Wednesday 17 July 2024
Saturday 13 July 2024
Heating up!
Summer has arrived! We've had temps ranging from 25C(77F) to 31C(88F) over the week. That may not seem overly warm/hot for most of you, but as we've been experiencing much cooler temps, the difference is truly noticeable.
I've spent time outdoors, early mornings with my tea, and later, tackling the weeds. We've had a lot of dew in the morning so it is often too wet, at least for me, to get down in the dirt. The garden is starting to look quite tidy or at least half of it. The asparagus is quite overgrown and the strawberries make a thick carpet, hiding some of the weeds. The photo on Wednesday was half of the pickings from earlier in the week. It's a small patch and I expect there will never be enough to do any canning/freezing, but they sure are delicious fresh out of the garden.
The large flower bed, on the other hand, is a jungle of weeds and plants. A number of the weeds are tangled among the rock surrounding the bed and impossible to remove. I've decided to cut back the alyssum (already started), and will dig it and the lilies (we have plenty) this fall. I'll harvest the poppy seeds and allow the lamium and the oxalis to do it's thing. We'll have to move as many rocks as possible - I'm thinking we'll roll them away temporarily - to get at the weeds.