Fall Spruce Up

 The weather is changing, there's a chill in the air and Fall is just around the corner. Its time to clean out the gardens, replace the hanging baskets with Mums and spruce up a couple of outdoor pieces of furniture. My picnic table and porch swing were showing some wear and so I decided it was time to re-paint them. The picnic table was a turquoise blue and the swing was a lime green. I decided I want to go more into the blue tones, so off to the hardware for some paint. I decided on a very subtle blue and I am very happy the way they both turned out. 

Tomatoes

 Little did I know that planting 6 tomato plants would give me an abundance of tomatoes. Well those 6 plants have produced more tomatoes than I ever expected. I have frozen some, canned some, given some away, made chili sauce, and even pickled some cherry tomatoes. I still have a huge bowl of cherry tomatoes, which I need to do something with before they spoil. I found a recipe for canning cherry tomatoes by picketing them, and since I have everything I need I'll give it a try. I think I have learned an important lesson. Theres an old saying less is more. Next year I'll be buying fewer plants.

Teaching Art

 I started teaching art when my granddaughter Julia was little. As each grandchild came along and as soon as they could hold a crayon they joined our Friday art class. Each week I would plan a project, collect all the supplies and head out to my daughters for art. I think I looked forward to it as much as they did. With moves and busy lives and longer school days somehow we got away from it. Last year  2020, Bosco the youngest who was in Kindergarten and love art needed some supplements to help fill in his school week. He was doing a unit on Fairy Tales and just wasn't enjoying only reading the stories. I decided to help by planning an art project to go with each fairy tale. It was a big hit and he loved looking forward to seeing what project went with the story. Fast forward to this year 2021. Bosco a 1st grader has been asking "when are we doing art?" Well we hadn't planned anything but Nana to the rescue. Two days of planning, Supplies ordered, exsamples made, instructions written out and voila a box of projects ready to be delivered to a little boy who is waiting very patiently for Art to begin.

Hot Diggity Dog Sale

 Twice a year our Church has a Hot Dog Sale where the proceeds go to benefit the Church. The local grocery store donates all the products. We serve Polish Sausage, Hot Dogs and Root Beer Floats. We do not charge it's donations only. John and I have volunteered to work the sale for the past 3 years.The last two years our two grandsons have helped. They really enjoy helping, and are very good at it. This year we decided that each person would have a specific job. This was we felt it would be less chaotic.  My job was grilling,John's was root beer floats, Blaise and Benedict were prepers and servers, and Marion took orders. It was a very efficient and ran so much smoother than years past. The boys had fun and already are asking if they get to come back next year.

The Loon

 One of the highlights living on the lake is our pair of Loons. For four years we have watched them with hopes of seeing some babies. Each year passed with no babies, that was until this year. A pair of Loons surprised us with a little one. Everyone on the lake was so excited, lots of instant messaging, photos and very slow boat rides to see the new resident. Mama Loon was very protective keeping the baby behind her and safe. Papa Loon was fishing but keeping a close eye. I love lake living and all the exciting new experiences I am able to be a part of.

Family

 On Sunday July 11 Jennifer and 4 of her 5 kids came for a vacation. Julia my oldest grand-daughter had to work so she stayed home. One can never predict what the weather will be and as it turned out it was cool, cloudy and rainy. Did the kids let that stop them no way. They swam, went tubing, fished, kayaked  and when they sprayed for weeds plan B was put int play, putt putt golf and go carts. At night we played games or went for a boat ride. Everyone had a great time and can't wait to come back.

Summer Time

It's July first and I keep wondering where is Summer. You know the kind of summers we knew as children Hot, humid and lots of sunshine. We didn't have air conditioning we had fans. If it got too hot we went to our basement to play or mom filled up the little pool in the backyard and we cooled off. The summer of 2021 is so odd. We had hot weather in April, frost warnings in June and rainy cool temps in July.  I wonder what August will bring. Even though its been weird it amazes me how vacationers don't seem to mind, Today its poring rain and there are water skiers and kayakers on the lake.  I guess when you take time off work to go on vacation you don't let a little rain ruin a good time.