And that’s a wrap

How on earth did we blow through August?

Summer is short around here, and this year, it feels like we had a couple of weeks of blistering heat wave and that was about it.

After a cold wet start, we finally saw some growth out of the garden, reaping a bit of what we sowed in the form of chard and some beets, and watching patiently as the rhubarb blumed and the onions and garlic worked hard to fill out underground. So did the brussels sprouts, that had us a bit worried early on, but then finally found their roots and started to show us that they knew what they were doing. And the carrots in all their tiny glory were a mass of tops that should have been thinned, but I like the babies. Probably the only time I’ll eat babies.

We had some more crazy weather that first week of August with a wicked perfect storm of storms converging overhead. A good dose of thunder, lightening, heavy rain, and hail preceded some gutsy wind that only served to push the next storm our way. We stood on the porch for a good long while watching, at least until the thunder and lightening sounded like it was leaving us and wind picked up enough to make us go inside. Max, still not a fan, was nowhere to be found.

I managed to take an almost week off work to take the girls to the cabin for a second time this summer. We packed all our gear and left Jeff in charge of the dogs, chickens and Grandma. Grandma is easy, the dogs are needy, and the chickens like to spice things up by escaping. A good time was had (by the chickens) holding the fort while we were having our own good time on the coast.

The drive, as always, is pretty uneventful. I tend to point the nose of the truck in the right direction, put on some music I like, and just go. It’s surprising how fast the hours and kms tick by. We stopped a few times for drinks and snacks, and eventually something that looked like dinner in Hope. We were anxious to get to our destination. Papa’s is a lovely place to re-group before we pack up again to go to the cabin. There’s always a welcome smile, a hug, and a glass of something waiting. This time, we were arriving to an event being hosted by cousin Jacob with all of his friends partaking in the Beer Olympics. There were games. You had to pick a country. But that’s probably where the similarity ended. After observing a few minutes of frivolity, I escaped to take care of cabin provisioning, while the girls visited and spent some time relaxing from their long, hard car trip (ahem). I did get Margaret to drive for a bit, but the weather wasn’t the greatest so I didn’t push that too hard. I’m also a control freak, so there would be no rest if someone with an L is driving. I got back to Papa’s just in time for the first act to start. Jacob had a couple of friends performing as part of the evening and Papa, Mary and I sat and watched the show from the deck above. Loads of fun and a properly decent performance. Honestly the first concert I’ve been to in ?? years…. (that’s double-digits)

Lucky for us we had a morning and a bit of an afternoon ahead of us the next day to sneak in some errands. On our list was a long overdue visit to a dear lady that we miss so very much. We had a nice chat, a few minutes to reflect and left her a bouquet to cheer us and her.

After much anticipation we packed (like we were moving in) and climbed on Papa’s boat. Lizzie and Mary took their usual places on the bow, Margaret I think might have decided she was too old? (nah), but decided to stay on the back in the fresh air there instead. We were timing our trip to meet up with Kristi, Keith, Shelby and Scotty for the week, our good fortune that a missed opportunity to have them in Fernie worked out and we were able to switch things up for another trip to the coast. Well worth the effort, as always, and the week of almost sunny, almost warm/hot weather was just fine. We soaked up as much time as we could visiting and laying about, the girls taking advantage of some tubing and wake surfing (Thanks Keith and Mike!), and evenings of man hunt. The East Langley Thorpes made a guest appearance early in our week, staying over for just a night so we could squeeze in a proper visit all together. We were missing Isabel just then, but she came up at the end of the week, giving us a couple of days with just us girls.

Home to Papa’s at the end of the week and a whirlwind of trying to take care of some more house-related errands, which gave us a bit of time to hang out with Auntie Julie! We had a nice afternoon chatting while she helped me try to pick out fixtures (I failed), but it was fun and we wound up our afternoon with an early dinner, all of us packed into a booth. We so often just blow in and out of town, and I miss the opportunity to see all the people. I miss the evenings sitting on her couch talking about everything and nothing. We have plans to get her to Fernie next year and I do hope we manage it…I’ve got a sofa.

So quickly the week ended and we were back in the throws of house building and getting ourselves ready to move and the girls back to school. So much to report there, but I’ll leave off this post with a celebration.

Margaret turned 17 at the end of August! She spent the day hanging out with her friends, taking them for lunch to celebrate, and then coming home to her birthday dinner of choice…burgers and fries (what else?!) In the end her birthday lasted about 3 days for all the scheduling hiccups so cake actually occurred before the birthday dinner on the calendar. We took a trip to Lethbridge to do some birthday/back to school shopping over the Labour Day weekend which is always a good time, and the girls spent some fun-time picking out supplies to round out what we had left from last year. I love back to school…it’s all I could do not to buy MYSELF school supplies.