White pants

A reasonable facsimile of the blog writer

My sister, Sharon, was out for a visit this past weekend (more on that in a later post) and she happened to see my white pants hanging in my closet and asked, so, how often would you need to wash those pants.  To which I replied, it depends on how often I wear them.

Well, it seems I may have jinxed myself, or at least severely underestimated my ability to attract disaster.

This morning, I put on said white pants, hopped on my bike and headed off to work.  When I arrived at the office, I suddenly noticed that there were grey streaks on the upper right pant leg (looked like dirt but I couldn't wipe it off).  I figured, oh well, I could live with it.  Still not sure where the marks came from but wouldn't be surprised if my bike had something to do with it.

Then all of a sudden I noticed pink marks on the left pant leg.  What the heck?  Pink? 

I stared at it and poked at it and tried to figure out where on earth that had come from.  Then realized, wait a minute, I think that's strawberry!  This morning, when I was going to pack up my bike bag, I realized I had forgotten a container in it last Thursday and it had a mushy strawberry in it.  I had dumped out the strawberry but didn't realize it had leaked into my bag.  I had put my purse into the bag directly on top of the offending strawberry juice.  When I took out my purse at work, I put it on my lap and transferred the juice onto my pant leg.  Hence the pink stain.

Brother!  I knew that one of my co-workers had a Tide stain remover pen, so I went and borrowed it and was able to get out the worst of the stain.  I then went back to my desk and picked up the bike bag in order to wipe out the juice, not realizing it had leaked onto the outside of the bag as well. 

Suddenly, there was another huge pink stripe on my pant leg.  Good grief!  At that point, I said, enough! 

I went to my supervisor's office, showed him the mess (he gasped and then laughed) and told him I was going home to change my pants. 

I'm now wearing black pants.




This week in the garden

I'm continuing to enjoy an abundance of strawberries from my garden, although lately the birds seem to have found them as well. I just love being able to go and pick enough berries for a salad or dessert from my very own garden.

 

I'm also excited to see the first ripe cherry tomatoes. I'll be chowing down on those for the next several weeks.

 

And in the flower department, the lilies are are in bloom in a variety of colours. These are all Asiatic lilies which bloom earlier than the Oriental lilies, like the Stargazer lily which will likely bloom in August. I just love lilies!

 

Also love these Patty's Plum poppies. Such a delicate colour.

Pink astilbe

Pink spirea

 

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K-Days Parade

It's Parade Day here in Edmon-chuk, kicking off the start of K-Days.  And the streets are a colourful riot of people, kids and balloons.  Since things are very slow in the office, I suggested to Tony, my co-worker and recent arrival from Ontario, that we check out the parade from the 102 Avenue pedway.  The pedway links the Manulife Building to the City Centre Mall and since the parade comes down 102 Avenue it passes directly underneath the pedway.

Well, imagine our surprise to find a sign in the middle of the pedway declaring: "Please Do Not Stop in the Pedway to Watch the Parade."  What!?  There was actually a security guard with the unhappy job of shooing anyone away who attempted to violate the notice. 

What the heck!?  Are they afraid the pedway will collapse under the weight of too many people?  Or is there just a Grinch somewhere who's trying to rain on someone else's parade?  Not sure if the mall is responsible or Manulife or who??  Not a great customer relations exercise, in my opinion.

Another look at the garden

It's been a week of rather wacky weather around here with a number of thunderstorms, including high winds and hail. One evening I was sitting looking out my kitchen window as it started to rain and thought, I sure do like a bit of rain. But no sooner had that thought occurred when I heard the dreaded ping of hail begin hammering on the roof and windows, and my thoughts changed to, oh no, my hostas! Yes, they took a bit of a beating, for the second time this season, poor things.

Even some of my rhubarb stalks are sporting hail injuries, but luckily there's tons of rhubarb to go around. This weekend, the temperatures have been on the cooler side so I took advantage of the opportunity to do some baking and made some Rhubarb Muffins and Loaves. I don't like turning on the oven when it's hot out. Earlier in the week, I cooked up some strawberry rhubarb sauce although I didn't add the red food colouring that the recipe suggests (I have enough issues of my own without adding red food colouring to the mix!). I can't wait to use the sauce on waffles.

Speaking of strawberries, my tiny little strawberry patch is having a banner year, producing an abundance of berries like never before. I don't know if it's a combination of all the rain we've been having combined with some hot temperatures, or if the plants are just now reaching maturity after three years or so, but whatever the reason, I'm enjoying the results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Wittenberg doors

Introducing some of the lovely doors of Wittenberg, Germany, starting with the door of the Castle Church where Martin Luther posted his 95 theses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farmer's Market

There's nothing quite like a day at the farmer's market, especially when in the company of someone who enjoys it as much as you. My niece, Michelle, and I spent a few hours catching up over lattes this morning and swapping travel stories (she & Nils just came home from an extensive trip of south Asia). Then spent the rest of our time people and dog watching and checking out the market goodies.

 

Michelle checks out the gluten free pita bread

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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