Molybdosis Monday

molybdosis ~ lead poisoning

I’m going to warn you up front that this is going to be a short post. Normally I write this, or at least start to write this, on the weekend, but I was away this weekend at the Kingston Writersfest. If you want to hear more about it, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow and then check out the post on my writing blog.

I will tell you one story about it though, the saga of my mouse. Mouse, as computer mouse.

After settling in at the hotel I unpacked my lap top, plugged it in, and could not find the mouse. Apparently it was sitting on the hassock at home, where I left it.

Fortunately, Google promised that there was a Staples near the hotel, and there was just enough time to get there before it closed. I chose a cheap, pretty blue mouse (and a mouse pad, and a mechanical pencil, and some screen cleaner – I can’t be trusted in an office supply store) and went back to the hotel.

I unpacked my pretty blue mouse and plugged it into the computer and . . . nothing. It didn’t work. And Staples was closed. And I had Writersfest stuff all day the next day. To say I was not a happy camper was an understatement.

The following day, after the Writersfest stuff, I Googled the directions again and . . . that whole section of Kingston was red. It had been blocked off for some Princess Promenade stuff and there were barricades all over the route I needed to take.

Desperate for a mouse, I walked. It was drizzling out and I was in such a rush I forgot the defective mouse in the hotel room. Once again I got to Staples just before closing. I may have been a tad cranky with the sales people when I insisted they try out the new mouse before I paid for it to make sure it worked. I was frustrated, wet, and my feet hurt – I’m sure they thought I was nuts. But I did manage to get a working mouse.

Now all I have to do is return the old one to our local Staples.

Toddler Gobblers

Everyone knows kids love to put things in their mouths, especially things they find outside. With all the damp weather we've had the last several years there's been a proliferation of fungus growth to be found in lawns and gardens. The son-in-law came up with a unique idea to keep the grandbaby away from them - he called them "toddler gobblers" and told her they'd eat her up if she got too close. LOL

Despite the weather being a little on the cool side off and on, it's still been rather damp and we had a crop of mushroom spring up on the front lawn. Despite the fact they were growing in a semi circle, they did not invoke the sense of a fairy ring in me. These particular mushrooms look more like a ring to repel magic rather than draw it in. Still, I couldn't resist taking a picture of some of them.

Metabasis Monday

metabasis ~ transition; transfer

Holy rigatoni Batman, why is it so hot out???

There I was, enjoying the super cool (but not quite cold) nights that made sleeping a pleasure, and suddenly we’re sweating up a storm again. I do not like this. At. All!

And I would like to point out, this is the first day of Fall, so cut it out mother nature!

I had the pleasure of the grandbaby’s company for a while yesterday morning (so her parents could enjoy one of the local festivals) and I gotta admit, it was nice seeing her. I think she gets so much play time in during the school week that she just wants to relax on the weekend. Her parents took her to day one of the festival and she was NOT a happy camper.

She declined baking brownies with me (which, given how hot it was, I don’t blame her) so instead we went outside and checked out the gardens and she had fun fishing leaves out of the pool. Then after lunch we did something I’ve been promising for a couple of weeks but for one reason or another we never managed to do – make s’mores.

I might also mention at this point that it was incredibly humid out (which raises the heat by a good ten degrees). This fact is important because it contributed to the quality of fire we were able to build.

I would also like to mention that during the pool building/fencing days, the hubby built a 7 ft long, 3 ft wide, and 3 ft high box to hold all the wood he had kicking around the back yard. This box is filled with wood to burn and there was a pile of dead limbs and another pile of twigs on top of it.

It was either move all the crap off the top of the box or use it for the fire. Guess which I did?

I started with balled up paper, covered it with the twigs in a somewhat lopsided pyramid shape, then put the cut up limbs on top of that (also in a pyramid shape). The boy scouts would be proud. The limbs were a little bigger than I would have liked, but that’s all I had.

So I light the fire and the paper catches and the twigs catch and the logs just smoulder. The grass is pretty wet, which meant there was a heavy dew the night before, which meant the wood was pretty damp. There were not enough twigs to keep burning long enough to dry the wood sufficiently to properly catch fire. I tried adding more paper, even some cardboard, but all I got for my effort was watery eyes and lungs full of smoke.

I cooked one marshmallow anyway, and it was beautifully golden brown, and the grandbaby decided she wanted her s’mores raw. As in, slap some chocolate and a marshmallow between two graham crackers and eat it like that.

*sigh*

Should have stuck to brownies.

Almost Over

With summer being officially over on Monday, I figured it was time for one last picture of the pond garden and back patio.

Hopefully the plants will survive the winter and it'll look even better next summer

Manubrium Monday

manubrium ~ any handle-like structure

I was talking to one of my sisters on the phone yesterday and I said our weather lately has been crazy all over the place, like Mother Nature has been using a roulette wheel to pick what the day is going to bring. One day it’s hot enough for a tank top, the next it’s cold enough for a jacket, with wind and rain and overcast skies in between. You just never know what the day’s going to bring.

Take today, for instance. It’s a little windy, a little overcast, a little chilly, but it’s supposed to warm up and be sunny later. And by the end of the week we’re supposed to be back up to 24 Celsius (75 Fahrenheit). Maybe I was a little premature in putting away my summer clothes.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned we had a family outing to the CNE, but I forgot to mention that one of the traditions is that I pick up something . . . frivolous. This is why you’ll see a variety of weird things around my house, like a voodoo stick, wooden chest, dragon holding a plasma ball, etc. This year it was a mask to add to the collection in my office, which is where my story starts.

It’s not that I didn’t have room for another mask, it’s just that we had to rearrange the masks on the wall to make room for it. And then the hubby suggested I might want some of my other keepsakes that sort of went with the masks in my office – things like the didgeridoo, voodoo stick, and rain stick.

Which seemed like a good idea except the only place I had room for them was behind my reading chair. But I also have a pole lamp behind my chair that kind of took up more than its fair share of space because it was too short for the height of the chair so I had it up on a wooden stand.

I managed to wedge the rain stick in behind it, decided it looked stupid and pulled it out again and in the process knocked the glass chimney that covered the light bulb and held up the lamp shade which shattered all over my head – the glass chimney, not the lamp shade.

But I digress.

Once I had the masks rearranged, I realized I had space for one more mask. So on the weekend the hubby and I went to Primitive Designs (a seasonal import store that’s just crammed with really cool stuff), and I bought yet another mask. It’s not the mask I had in mind, but the more I stared at the one I was going to get, the more it creeped me out. There was no way I wanted that thing staring over my shoulder when I was working in my office.

So . . . now my wall is filled and the glass chimney has been replaced and all is right with the world.

And is that the end of my mask collecting?

Probably not.

The Fog Is Very Thick Today . . .

Every photographer has their own unique approach for taking pictures, and apparently mine is to take as many possible and hope one (or more) turn out okay. LOL

I was down at the west beach a couple of times this week, once to take pictures of the monarchs that are attracted to the goldenrod, and once to take pictures in the fog.

The first time I went down in the fog, the fog was heavier than I expected and obscured a lot of what I wanted to photograph. Then the battery ran out in my camera and when I went back about an hour later the fog had lifted enough to take the romance out of the landscape. *sigh* Maybe next time

Of all the pictures I took (about 90 all in all), this one is my favorite. I may not always get along with spiders, but there's something magical about their webs, don't you think?

Melopepon Monday

melopepon ~ any of various kinds of squash

Last week I had my yearly eye exam, and I’m pretty sure I had a reaction to the drops the doctor used. I’ve had both kinds before – the ones for the diabetic check and the ones for glaucoma – but never both at the same time. Anyway, I woke up in the middle of the night having a reaction to something and spent the rest of the week getting over it.

Obviously I didn’t get a whole lot accomplished last week. It was my last week of babysitting but it was also a short week so it kind of eased me out of it. Which was just as well considering the way I was feeling.

We offered to take the grandbaby out to lunch, but she didn’t want to sit in a restaurant. Instead we went to good old MacDonald’s so she could play in the play area, and then we went to one of the local parks to visit the ducks and took a short walk to watch the fishermen on the bridge.

There really wasn't much else to see because summer really is over. We haven’t had to use the air conditioner in weeks, and the nights are getting seriously cold. We had a frost warning last night! The temperature dipped to 10 C (that’s 50 F for you Yankees) overnight. Sorry hubby, I don't think there's going to be any more swimming this year.

Today I’m going to spend some time changing over to my fall/winter wardrobe. Normally I’d wait until later in the month – this is Canada after all and the weather is nothing if not unpredictable – but I don’t think there’ll be any coming back from this.

I learned an interesting gardening fact yesterday. If you plant pumpkins too close to squash, the squash become hybrids. My neighbour gave me a piece of what appeared to be an acorn squash and I cooked it up to have with supper last night. It had a definite pumpkin flavour to it.

It was a really short growing season this year - the gardens are starting to look a little rough. I picked a pumpkin, the hubby picked another whole bagful of beans, and I discovered a teeny tiny little pepper hiding behind the broccoli that did nothing but take up a lot of space in the garden. I'm pretty sure the carrots are ready to be picked and I have another tiny orange pumpkin and a bigger green one.

Concerned about the frost, I raided my linen closet for an old sheet to cover the tomato plants. Picture this: me in my jean jacket and the hubby in his pajamas, late at night, cursing only a little as we tried to cover as much of the tomatoes as we can with a sheet.

Oh, the things we do for our gardens!

Summer's End

Last Friday I went down to the west beach with a friend to take pictures. We did the same thing last summer, but much earlier in the season - while it was still colourful, the colour was definitely fading.

After scrolling through my 100+ pictures, and taking way too long to pick one, I finally decided on one of my favorite flower - the sweet pea.

Mournival Monday

mournival ~ set of four things

I’m not sure whether I should be saying happy Labour Day, or holy crap it’s Labour Day already!

I don’t know about you, but September never fails to take me by surprise. One day we’re experiencing August’s dog days of summer, and the next day it’s fall.

If you live in Ontario, Canada, as I do, the traditional way to end summer is a visit to the Canadian National Exhibition. It opens the second last week of August and closes at the end of Labour Day.

When the daughter was little we used to go to the CNE as a mommy/daughter thing. However, we did not go for the midway or the games, we went for the shopping. Then she started growing up and discovered boys and we came to an important realization – boys are great for carrying our stuff! LOL

This year we went on a week day, which was far less crowded than the weekend, and it was a rainy weekday at that which further reduced the crowds. It was awesome!

Considering we arrived late in the morning and left again around supper time, we sure packed a lot into our day, starting with the grandbaby meeting Chase from the Paw Patrol:

This took place in the Kid Zone, an area of the fairgrounds set aside for kids activities. So naturally she got to play a few games and go on a few of the kid-sized rides:

While she and her parents were doing that, the hubby and I checked out the arts and crafts building and we all met up again at the food pavilion for lunch. It was pouring rain by the time we were done, but that was okay because it was time for shopping in the international market and that was in another big building.

We also wandered through the Legends of the Silk Road exhibit, which featured fairy tale scenarios like this one:

The hubby and I needed a break from all that walking, so we sat with the grandbaby to watch a group of African singing acrobats perform. By the time this was over it had stopped raining long enough for us to go out onto the midway to try our luck at some of the games. Please note you aren’t seeing a picture of one of the large stuffed animals any of us won. LOL

We hurried back inside to catch Abracadabark – the show put on by the President’s Choice SuperDogs. The grandbaby even got to meet a couple of her favourites.

After that it was time to head for home – tired and broke, but happy. As it should be.