Last Day of August! Cooler Temperatures, Hanging Around Home, My Beautful Mom

The Ridge

It sure felt chilly when we woke up on Saturday, Aug. 31^st. Last day of this summer month and it shouldn’t be so cold yet! I think it got down to 10C/50F. I snuggled closer to Bill around 6:30 and waited until 7ish to drag ourselves out of that warm bed. The sky was clear though and that is always a good thing to see upon wake up. Bill made his coffee and I bundled a bit for my walk. I took a couple of grocery bags as I wasn’t coming home empty handed!

My camera takes great early morning pictures

On the way back, I found the 3 bushes of choke cherries and picked them clean. It was at least 2 hours before I finished! Also, on the way home, I stopped just before the house on the corner (many of us know that name of THAT house) and picked a grocery bag full of apples. The tree is not on their property so I had no problem gathering what I could reach. Bill was going to get water so I gave him the bag of apples while I continued my cherry picking on North Line.

And I never walk alone if I can help it

I hope next year the bushes are as plentiful. I like to think I’m helping them reproduce! When I got back home, I truly enjoyed my cup of creamy tea. I sat outside in the sun picking out the little branches and leaves that ended up in the bag. Then came the finicky removal of the little stems that about 1/3 of them still had. No worries, I know the end product and I was quite content working away at that.

So, these are elderberries and they are all over the place
Maybe one day I'll pick some for jam
Not this year

I picked apples though and have a small grocery bag full
This is a double size bag because it was stronger

And if you see berries in 'grape' groupings like this, they will be choke cherries

At 10:30, I took a break and showered before making Bill’s breakfast and having a nibble of yogourt and Clementine’s myself. Then I drove in to see Mom. She was resting with her eyes close (but not totally asleep) in a lounge room and when I gently rubbed her leg, she jumped in surprise. She knew immediately who I was (not by name though) and was tickled pink to see me. Yay! I knew it would a great visit after that.

She was very chipper and sharp today

When she asked me if I wanted to go back to her room, I was even more encouraged. The conversation got better when we got talking about housecleaning (somehow?) and she said she never did like it ‘with all you 6 kids’ running around. Wow! She remembered that period of her life too. It wasn’t long ago that she told me she hadn’t had children so you can imagine my glee today. So, taking it for what it is, even though her conversation mostly made no sense, we had a great visit.

I left her at the lunch table with a smile on her face and she waved to me all the way out both doors. My beautiful Mom, she made my day today. When I left there, I decided to go to the library once more and publish yesterday’s blog post. Today is the last day of August which also means a new month begins tomorrow and that means a new 19 gb of data. I’ll keep practicing turning my data usage off and on but still can’t help but be curious (and nervous) about what happened this month.

New JP books that we haven't read - cheap!

 On my way home an hour and a half later, I stopped at a Yard Sale off Hwy #4. I’m keeping my eyes peeled for a card table for the Bunky but not definite what I want to settle on in there. I need something a little bigger than 20” deep for some puzzles. I didn’t find a table but I found 2 bird feeders, an outdoor stepping stone, some James Patterson books and a nice little retro looking radio for my She-shed. All for $10. I was tickled about that.

Bird feeders at .50¢ each

And a nice new stepping stone

And my retro-look radio

Back home, I changed into my bathing suit top and shorts and sat at the patio table for 2 ½ hours stemming cherries. Bill and I had a snack of cheese and yogourt and I had a tea. 

My process - the colander are not stemmed, into the wash bucket
then into the bowl ready to come inside

I ended up with about 6 1/2 cups

I could hear him down with his plane, trying to get it started and then finally, I could hear the roar of the engine. Yay! I recorded some of it on my camera. By 5, the cherries were all stemmed and washed so I moved inside to husk corn for supper.

Bill has to stand in front of the tail fin when revving the engine
or the plane would be gone

Bill came up soon after, done puttering for the day. As I look across the table now, his head is drooping and I’m not surprised in the least that he didn’t make 15 minutes in his chair. He doesn’t know when to stop so it usually turns into a ‘go ‘til you drop’ scenario for him. 

Basa filets and corn

At 5:30 I started frying up some fish filets and cooked the corn. We had some black forest cake for dessert and enjoyed the evening together.

A couple of videos for you  to hear the Telemaster

So many great days in a row and I’m being selfish and hoping they don’t end any time soon. 

Good night!

Thank you for stopping by today.