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August/September 2008

Zoom, zoom, zoom -- that was August, not the car commercial. After our rainy July, it was nice to get some hot weather but the first half of the month seemed to run to extremes. So did work -- I had all sorts of projects on the go, most of them delayed due to client holidays so everything was a rush in the end. I think I’ll just book summers off from now on as I’m sure I’ll still wind up with 5 or 6 weeks work. We call ourselves the Festival City and it’s easy to see why. August was another great month in Edmonton: Heritage Days, Edmonton Folk Festival, Carribbean Arts Festival, The Fringe , Labatt Blues Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Symphony under the Sky and more. Many activities are based on the downtown square and we live six blocks away so it’s easy to get to everything. It seemed as though I was out at something almost daily but I actually missed most of the August events this year. I was downtown everyday during the The Works Art Festival and lunched my way through most of A Taste of Edmonton. I’ve put together 3 photos so you can see the square: Each day had a different style of entertainment so there was everything from hip hop and classic rock to the Emeralds and I enjoyed them all. Chilliwack, a group from my teens was one of the evening features; still good 40 years later but just as loud... I finally got home to Rycroft August 20 for a week-long visit; the yard and garden were gorgeous, as always. This is M & D's greenhouse shot from the driveway. It rained about half the time that I was there so we had a few lazy days, the rest were warm and sunny, great days to be outside.

Here’s Dad with Mom’s diplodenia. It’s a cheery looking plant and obviously very happy in their north window as it blooms year-round. Mom and I transplanted it while I was there and it started settling into its new shape almost immediately.

There’s always some sort of cactus in bloom at home as well. I’m not sure what this is, hen and chicks, I think. I loved the colours.

I took this shot of Mom and Dad, on August 27 before we left for the Grande Prairie airport -- I figured out how to set the self-timer on the camera on the flight back so should have all of us together the next time around.

Here’s one of the many sunflower trees in M&D’s garden. We’ve seen a lot of those everywhere this year -- I meant to ask if it was a new variety they’d planted or maybe a portent of a rough winter to come?

Jerry picked me up at the International Airport later that day and we had a chuckle over this truck as it loomed up behind us on the highway.

Our community garden was lovely this summer. We had a couple of sunflower trees too, all volunteers, so we don’t know where they came from. We’re responsible for the garden from the alley to the main street so I’ve spent a lot of time on site maintenance throughout the summer. I’m still feeling the effects of my slip and fall over two years ago but the exercise has really increased my strength and stamina and I can do a lot more before my back tells me to pack it in and rest. My cousin, April, gave us some lovely flowers for the garden and they’ve all done very well. I still have a few tomatoes on the vine but should pick them soon. We always get some theft at the end of the season and it’s just as well to get it all in before the frosts. I was one of the organizers for the downtown community league’s annual membership drive & Autumn corn fest. I’d decided to give up volunteer activites for a while but they talked me back into things and I’m enjoying doing their promotional materials and web site: www.decl.org We gave out over 600 ears of great fresh hot corn (donated by Sobeys) and gained over 60 new members in one afternoon. We’ve also arranged a free month’s membership and free Sunday swims at the downtown YMCA along with discounts at the Grant MacEwan sports centre. Other businesses and organisations have been very generous with items for draws and contests which has been a nice incentive to join the league. The leaves changed colour very quickly this year, from green to gold red and orange in less than a week. Most have stayed quite nicely as we haven’t had our usual winds. It’s been a very dry year and the city’s had several warnings to water our trees so I’m hoping for some good weather to give those at the garden another good soak before our water’s turned off for the season.

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