mid-August

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During these long hot and dry summer days I often feel as if time moves very slowly, or I move slowly as if through molasses. Yet, suddenly it is mid-August. We’ve had very busy days all summer with much family coming and going and moving out too. At last we had some decent rain to water the garden, giving me a break from dragging hoses and heavy watering cans. There were the first signs of condensation yesterday morning as you can see in the photos above, taken about 6 a.m.

Over breakfast this morning with some of our family including our granddaughters, the conversation included noting how adept and creative these young ones are with their iPads. For example, the almost 8-year-old one has composed many musical pieces using Garage Band (a music and sound editing program for Macs). Us adults show our ages when we say computers and iPads weren’t even around in our youth!

This made me recall my single attempt with Garage Band years ago (with help from youngest daughter!) when working on a collaboration for qarrtsiluni’s ekphrasis issue. Later I enjoyed revisiting it here and hence thought I’d share the links for some of my newer readers. Those were the days when blogging was still so new and exciting.

deer & rain

rain and deer, not reindeer
dear rain, dear deer

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doe, a doe, a female deer

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fawn, a fawn, a junior deer

A vision of grace and beauty in our backyard a couple of days ago. A stroll through the yard and out again. No nibbling of flowers, berries, or vegetables. Remembering their visit last year.

What’s with the silly word play with rain and reindeer? Well, we are having our first rainy day here in over a month and it makes me happy. July broke the records for the sunniest and driest July ever, and one that was too hot for me. We are hoping for enough moisture in the ground to help our gardens and lower the forest fire risks around this province.

dawn & dusk

It is too hot to think or do anything physical. We’re on day 26 of no rain, afternoon temperatures in the high 20’s C (low 80’s F) with mid to high humidity – on the way to possible records for July. So, just a few photos from this month’s photo album before I go find a cool place somewhere. Too bad I’ve run out of library books to read.

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4:19 am July 7th, 2013

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4:20 am July 7th, 2013

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8:47 pm July 22nd, 2013

Hope you are all enjoying a pleasant summer and keeping cool. Send us a little rain for I’m getting tired of watering the garden.

variegations

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More intriguing investigations that I discover while out gardening…

pink

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It’s the season for the flowering plants and various cuttings which have wintered over indoors to move outdoors for the summer. As I care for them I note again that a majority are pink. Is pink really the the dominant colour of flowers in the plant world, I wonder. I scanned a few – at left are some oleanders, in the center are single flowers from geranium clusters , and at right is a dipladenia blossom. Some closeups below.

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My favourite colour is red, and pink is a light red, vaalenpunainen in Finnish.
So many many shades of pink… Nature is quite the artist.

Victoria Day flowers

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A peek at the back rhododendron garden on this Victoria Day long weekend. The bees are buzzing about drunkenly, not letting me get too close. Busy days continue. Tomorrow a cousin from Finland comes to visit!

a German cookbook

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I have been peeking into some of my late mother-in-law’s boxes which my husband brought home from her house, now sold. Her obviously very old handwritten cookbook intrigued me, reminding me a little of my mother’s Finnish cookbook.

While my mother’s book was a published one, “Omi’s” is all handwritten by many different hands in an originally blank and indexed book. I imagine that her mother, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and friends may have written many of these, perhaps for her when she was a new bride, or when she was emigrating to Canada. The handwriting is exquisite and often seeming too tiny to read.

I don’t recognize her handwriting in the book itself unless it changed later, though some of the loose slips may be by her hand. Like in my mother’s cookbook there are numerous slips of loose recipes and clippings inserted throughout, and some glued in, like the one above with Gothic text. My German is poor, and the handwriting hard to read (even husband has trouble) but I do recognize a lot of kuchen (cake) recipes! Omi loved to bake cakes so I’m not surprised.

silken twine

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a crocheted silk lace piano scarf
made by my late mother-in-law many decades ago
bringing forth memories of it gracing her piano

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

– William Blake – Auguries of Innocence

too many goodbyes

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Sunday was spent traveling to the Victoria area on Vancouver Island for my late aunt’s ‘remembering’… a sweet event, lovingly and artistically arranged by her daughter, my cousin, at her charming lakeside cottage home. Heartwarming stories and memories shared with hugs, laughter and tears. Another wrenching goodbye was to this house which my cousin has to leave soon.

Our own family stayed at my late mother-in-law’s house where one sister-in-law has lived for many years after her passing. With her daughter and husband joining us, we had a celebration of their coming first child over a traditional family breakfast on Monday morning. Seated around Omi’s teak table with her German china we remembered the many years she used to serve us a similar breakfast. A walk around her lovely garden had me misty-eyed remembering her as she worked in it, as we had to say another goodbye to another home, for this has now been sold, so many years since she left it. (Please see daughter Erika’s lovely post about it.)

The ferry ride home is always so very beautiful – the blue skies, white puffy clouds, sparkling waters, lovely islands sprinkled with cottages….

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It’s taken me a long time to write this and I apologize for the wistful nostalgia. I must be getting old.

magnolia

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looking up, looking under and looking down
while awaiting arrival of old friends
on this beautiful Earth Day