Summertime

This past week has been a hot one, and I have moved down to the basement for sleeping. Even though it's cooler down there, I still feel kinda groggy in this heat. I was chatting with the gal at the coffee shop near my office and she said everyone she had talked to that morning was saying the same thing.

I was reading a book while riding the LRT into work one morning and was so engrossed in what I was reading that I missed my stop! I heard the announcement "Churchill Station" and then the next thing I knew they were calling out "Grandin Station, Government Centre". Somehow I missed the three stops in between, including my stop, Corona. Luckily it was only a few blocks for me to walk back from Grandin Station to my office building.

It's quite possible that it was the fact I was reading Road Ends by Mary Lawson that caused me to miss my stop. If there's ever been a story that captured my imagination, this is certainly it. I read Lawson's first book, Crow Lake, several years ago and loved it. So when I saw she had a new one out, I jumped at the chance to read it. In fact, Road Ends is actually her third book. I had missed her second one,The Other Side of the Bridge, and it's now the next book on my reading list. I highly recommend any one of them and if you're anything like me, you'll become so engrossed in the chatacters' lives, you'll be sorry when the story ends.

In the garden, the hostas are thriving and the lilies and daylilies have started blooming. The nice thing about both lilies and daylilies is that different varieties bloom at different times, so when one finishes blooming, there's soon another one to take it's place.

 

The strawberries have been soaking up the heat and have been absolutely abundant. I picked some spinach and made spinach and strawberry salad the other day and have also been eating strawberries with angel food cake and ice cream almost every day this week. Angel food cake freezes really well, so I baked one a while back and put it in the freezer, and I just cut a piece as I need it.

 

On one particularly hot day I had waffles for supper with vanilla sauce from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook website, strawberry rhubarb sauce that I had made last year and put in the freezer, and topped with fresh strawberries. Dee-licious!

 

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The garden in June/early July

Anemones, one of the earliest spring perennials

Forget-me-not, another early bloomer

Allium amongst the cherry tree leaves

Perennial geranium

The bees love them. Slurp, slurp slurp!

Louis prefers to drink from the watering can

Then he curls up under the deck for a nap

Haskup (honeyberries)

The Haskup berry harvest

Pale pink dianthus

Darker pink dianthus

Peach-coloured irises along with clustered bellflower and purple petunias

Mesclun lettuce mix, ready for harvest

The first ripe strawberry of the season, with a bunch more getting ready to ripen. 

My favourite berries --yum!

My very vigorous rhubarb plant

Morden Centennial roses interspersed with perennial geraniums

My shade bed with (top to bottom) ferns, hosta and ladies mantle

The giant Sum and Substance hosta. Love it!

Mountain bluet, a.k.a. mountain cornflower 

(or Centaurea montana if you want to get really fancy!)

Stay tuned for the next instalment as the blooms in the garden evolve.

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Trip to Cold Lake

Bert and Barb invited me to join them for a quick 3-day trip to Cold Lake, Alberta earlier this month.  It was a cool and rainy couple of days, but it was great to get out of the city for a bit.  We stayed at the Waterfront Harbour Bed & Breakfast, owned and operated by Isabel and her niece Shannon, who were wonderful and very accommodating hosts.  

Waterfront Harbour B&B

The B&B is in a beautiful spot, located directly across from the lake.  The picture below shows the view from Bert & Barb's bedroom window. 

Bert's cedar strip canoe waits for clearer weather

Cinnamon buns fresh from the oven were waiting for us when we arrived.
Eating in the dining room overlooking the lake.

 

View of the lake from the sidewalk along Lakeshore Drive

The Cold Lake pier next to the marina, which has berths for 250 boats.  There are plans for expanding the number of berths due to a lengthy waiting list

After a huge breakfast on our second day, we took a drive out to Cold Lake Provincial Park just outside of town.  The rain had let up a bit so we decided to take the canoe out on the lake.  It was a good thing we were warmly dressed as it was pretty chilly out on the water.  But what a beautiful paddle, so quiet and calm, with just a few ducks and loons to keep us company.

We headed back to shore after about an hour and half of paddling and by this time we were more than ready for a late afternoon lunch.  Bert's pie iron came in very handy for cooking farmer sausage over the open fire. Delicious!

After lunch, Bert took the canoe out to try his luck with a bit of fishing.  The fish weren't biting but the photos were amazing.

Our last day dawned bright and sunny, so we once again headed for the Provincial Park and took a leisurely walk along a beautiful walking trail through the woods right alongside the lake.  A bird lookout provided excellent views of a flock of cedar waxwings.

View of the lake from the Provincial Park with the town of Cold Lake in the far background

A day in the woods

A few weeks ago, Bert and Barb (my brother and sister-in-law), invited me to join them for an afternoon in the woods.  The Ministik Bird Sanctuary is about a half hour's drive from Edmonton and has become a favourite spot for them to enjoy the great outdoors. 

Bert took me Saskatoon picking here a few year's ago.  Although berry picking is still quite a few weeks away, we were just happy to be able to enjoy a sunny afternoon in the outdoors after a long cold winter.  It's been a late spring and the leaves were not yet out on the trees, but the frogs were in full voice and provided a noisy serenade, while numerous waterfowl kept us entertained.  Bert and Barb have seen moose and deer here in the past and we saw evidence of their passing but no actual sightings.  

Bert is an avid outdoorsman and came well supplied with everything we could want for a comfortable afternoon, including a blanket to spread on the ground as well as a comfy hammock.  Ahhh, what luxury!

 

Bert had also brought along his hunting bow and spent some time target shooting, and then both Barb and I tried a few rounds, with Bert offering instruction.  It's not as easy as it looks!

What a wonderful way to enjoy one of the first mild, sunny days of the season.