Random thoughts for the week

We have tomatoes! I know I whined in my last weekly post that the fruit was not setting. No whining anymore, as the plants are developing quickly and I am pretty sure we'll have a bumper crop of...I don't remember what I planted, though I don't think it was all cherry tomatoes. We'll find out soon enough. We also have four peppers starting too. The parsley is ready to be harvested and the sage and basil aren't far behind. 

We need rain! It's been awhile since we had we've had a decent rain, and our rain barrels are emptied out. That means using town water. Water in this community is expensive because several years ago, they built a new water treatment plant. We're still in the process of paying that off, and it will be several more years. But, since we now have tomatoes, I will not quit watering. We don't, however, water our lawn and it is browning off quite quickly.

This was the final week of swimming lessons. Eli passed his level 2 swimmer the first week and wasn't as enthusiastic in the second week. He needs to work on his flutter kick so I suspect he'll be working on his level 3 through next summer. Funny kid, he's so literal. His instructor was talking about the front and back crawl. He told he didn't want to do either, because babies crawl. D suggested she use the terms front and back stroke instead. :p

Wednesday's photo was taken at our local Co-op store. Our Independent grocer has them priced at $8.49 a package. Before Covid, those sausages usually sold for $4.99 a package and were often on sale for $3.99. Although we enjoy several varieties of this brand of sausage, we won't be purchasing these in the near future. While I realize input cost prices have increased for producers, processers, and the grocery chains, I think this is beyond ridiculous. 

More weeding happened this week, and I started cutting back a creeping juniper in the back yard. I don't know about anyone else, but it smells like cat urine to my daughter and me. Plus the creeping bellflower has found it's way into the plant so it all needs to go. 

I've contacted a local tree trimming company as well. We need to get rid of the cedar as it is too close to the house, and in the side yard we want to get rid of the evergreen. It is too close to the fence (that we plan to have replaced next year), and it doesn't look terribly healthy. We'll also get the tree in the backyard trimmed to keep the branches off the power line running from the pole to the house. 

I made a couple of purchases for the house/yard this week too. We picked up a programmable thermostat which provided a rebate at the till for $75. We went with a Google Nest model, as we both have Google apps on our phones and we should be able to connect to the new device. I suspect D will use it more often than I would...this stuff feels a bit like magic to me! She assures me I'll be able to adjust the temperature with at the thermostat. I sure hope so. 

Another purchase was three plastic Adirondack chairs for the fire pit area. We have been using folding canvas chairs but wanted something sturdier. These chairs can be stacked and left outdoors over winter. The wooden chair that my brother made for me has to be stored in the shed, along with the mower, the snow blower, camping gear, gardening tools, etc., etc. We quickly run out of room.

Speaking of the shed, I did get it cleaned up last Sunday. We moved a shelving unit which opened up space on the back wall. I was able to put all of the larger garden tools on that wall between the studs and used a bungee cord to hold them in place. Shelves were reorganized with like items together. Hopefully that will make it easier to find things as we need them. I seem to recall doing something similar last year and the organization didn't last.

The heat returned on Friday, with a high of 28C/82F. It is forecast to stay around 26C/79F for the next week. Maybe a wee bit if rain on Sunday. Bring it on. I'll go out in the early morning to do a bit of weeding with baseball and football to entertain me later in the day. I've been reading a James Patterson book, "Private" - it's very good and I should find time to finish it this weekend. 

I'll end this post with a few photos from the yard.

Have a great week ahead everyone!

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.

We woke to the haze of forest fires on Friday morning. The sun was red and there was a hint of smoke in the air. It didn't help keep the heat at bay but did cool it slightly by a degree. I did get outdoors for 20 minutes or so to bag weeds I'd picked up earlier, and pulling more of the darned things. By the time I game indoors I was soaking wet. Normally we have dry heat, that day the humidity was nearly 50%. Again, I realize this is lower than what many of you experience, but we're not accustomed to it. 

It was Eli's final day of swimming lessons, so I went along for the evening lesson. To celebrate we went to the local ice cream shop for a treat too. Then there was football to watch. Good news all around as the coach of the Edmonton Elks was fired (not my team but I disliked the guy from the time he was here), and our Saskatchewan Roughriders won. It was an ugly game with more defence than offence and some questionable calls by the refs - one of which likely won the game for us. It ended with an ugly take down by one of the opposing team on our running back. Needless as there was no time on the clock at that point. The television coverage ended and I haven't heard if there will be consequences.

We ran out of water in the rain barrel on Thursday, but the garden needed watering, so early this morning I put out the hose to give it a good soaking. D mowed most of the back yard about 8 a.m. We're back in the house now, the a/c has been cutting in regularly and I suspect we may head to the pool this afternoon. Otherwise it will be a quiet day, with baseball and football to watch, and I'll keep working on the mittens.

Have a great week ahead everyone!