Happy August!

Summer is almost over and it's still so hot you can't do anything

outside.   We've been in a heatwave for the last

week or so.  It's regularly 30 Celcius but with 

the humidex it's over 40.  

We are supposed to dig up the garlic but it's just too

hot!  Plus there's no rain.  

Tomorrow we are getting up at 6am to dig up the garlic

hopefully it will be cool enough.  

Even with Covid things are still busy around here.

Nova Scotia is doing well.  We've gone over 2 weeks with no 

cases in the province.  But then some people came in from 

another province and we had a few cases.

We were almost at 2 weeks again when 

someone came in from another province and now we have two cases.

It seems like we are just going to have to learn to 

live with it.  

Being not very densely populated area we are fortunate.

We never had a case in this area yet.

But that's all I'm going to say about Covid.

I'm just finishing a week of vacation.

We went to the Oak Island Inn and Marina but our tickets for our 
Oak Island tour had been cancelled.

We went on the mini vacay anyway.

Just to get away from it all for a bit.

The garden started slow, but things are ramping up.

I had to plant my yellow beans twice but they are finally

producing.  We ate some yesterday.  

The carrots are doing awesome.

I'm having a cold cellar built to store everything in there.

The potato plants are beautiful so hopefully there's 

potatoes under the soil so I can put in my cold cellar.

The spaghetti squash is coming along nicely.

We've eaten a few feedings of peas.  

But my radish and lettuce have gone to seed.

That's okay.  I'll save the seeds for next year.

My herb garden is gone wacko!!

The greenhouse is doing well also.  As you can see, my watermelon

is growing! 

So this year I've been drying even more herbs

than I did last year.

And a friend of mine dries wild rose petals for tea.

So I did that also.

My spinach was going to bolt so I dehydrated, crushed it and 

I'll use it in smoothies this winter.  I have a full 

bottle of spinach.  This was only at the beginning of

my experiment.

One interesting thing we did this year is with our garlic scapes is

dehydrate them and crush them to create garlic scape powder.

We also had a camera crew  (ok, one guy because of Covid)

come and interview us regarding our bees and gardens.

It was pretty cool.

The only thing was that it was the hottest day this year and poor

Dave had to get in his bee suit and show the bees.

He  had to go change clothes after because he

was soaking wet with sweat!

Last night my mom and dad came over to play radio

bingo. It was finally cooling off.

And Grenouille likes the heat.  She was panting like crazy and instead of 

getting out of the sun, she'd just pant some more.

So I put her on the stool beside me so she could cool off.

We went a few weeks ago to some public gardens and it was gorgeous.

Our friends took our picture.

Well that's the summer update so far.

I hope things keep going well.

Have a Blessed Day

Summertime! Summertime!!

Summertime is almost over. 

Yup. 

It's gone before it even begun.

It's been a pretty good one so far.

We haven't climbed Mount Everest or anything spectacular like that

but we've done lots of things as a family and just as a couple.

Jamie is 16 now. Yup. 

How did that happen.

So he's got a part time job and his motorcycle licence.

And yes I constantly worry. I'm a mother, that's my job.

But because he has his motorcycle licence he's free to roam where he wants as long

as he's off the road before dark.

So that leaves Dave and I with more couple time.

That's the perks and downfalls of having kids.

You hope that they'll grow up healthy,happy and independent and 

when they do, you're like "What the heck!? Where'd you go?"

But I'm happy for him.

As long as he stays safe.

He's already learned that other drivers are crazy.

I wont go into that.

The gardens are growing well. I feared for the tomatoes since only tiny little green things were growing. But after Saturday night's rain, they seem to have gotten bigger. Which is strange since I know that tomatoes are picky when it comes to watering, so I water them regularly.

They must prefer the rainwater.

It's been a strange spring and summer. It was a cold spring and a hot summer for a few weeks and now it's a cold summer. Some mornings it's only 8 degrees Celcius. Brrrrr

I've had to plant my yellow beans THREE TIMES!!!! Finally they're growing okay.

Rain has not been plentiful, but it's better than last year.

The garlic is doing well. As you can see. I picked some more tonight. It's a smaller, different kind.

Sadly both of Dave's parents passed away this spring. So we had some family business to attend to in Ontario. We also turned it into a family vacation. We stayed with his cousin and did a few touristy things. But mostly it was to relax after the stress of everything that had gone on.

The day before we left to come home we spent it in Toronto. I've always wanted to go to Kensington Market. It's a real hip, funky place. And they had a car on the side of the street planted with trees, grass and flowers. How cool is that!

We also went to the Warsaw Caves in Peterborough. We didn't go to the caves, but took a nice walk in a cedar forest that had kettles and strange rock formations. That's Jamie at the bottom of the kettle.

We also got stuck in a thunder, lightning and downpour on our walk. Memories!

I've also been doing lots of jams and jellies. Here's part of my strawberry freezer jam stash!

The Acadian Festival was on last week. This is my table at the bazaar.

I also visited a quilt expo. Mind boggling! Just mind boggling.

We were actually thinking of selling the camper because by the end of July we hadn't gone once!

But one night there, and we changed our mind. We're staying. 

We camp what's called seasonal. We just park the camper at one campground and leave it there for the entire summer. We prefer it that way. I guess it's like having a cottage.

The girls are happy about the decision since they love camping.

Then a few weeks ago I had heard about low tide kite flying. 

So I decided to go and get pictures and information to talk about it on 

CTV Morning Live.

Here's the short (very short segment) I had on CTV Morning Live

Well by the time I left there, I was hooked!

Not only do I love it, I bought a kite!

Think about it....kite flying while you're standing on the ocean floor. It's just wow.

That's Nova Scotia living! 

That's me, Dave took my picture while I was flying the kite yesterday.

I turned 50 this summer also.

And I have so many things to be grateful for, one of them being my health. I've noticed that, except for my heal spurs, I'm in excellent health. I'm on no medication, no health issues whatsoever.

So I want to keep it that way.

So I'm going to go in le grand fondo

I'm not totally crazy, I'm just doing the little one. 35km.

That's enough.

Tonight I started training. I almost did 10km in 40 minutes and didn't need resuscitating. 

So I think I'll be ready by the end of September!

Well I think that's enough news for today. 

Have a Blessed Evening

Lisa