Wednesday Witterings . . .

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 Seeing this photograph this morning reminded me of a time when my four older children were small, and before my youngest son was even thought of.  We were on our way back from PEI to our home in Nova Scotia and we stopped to get gas and a few treats at a shop before heading onto the Rawdon Hills bypass.  My youngest daughter got so excited because there were "hotdogs" growing on sticks.  She had never seen such a thing. She would only have been 7 or 8 years old at the time. 

We had some of these growing in our fish pond in the back garden in the U.K. Most invasive plants ever.  Long after we got rid of the pond we were still mowing them down.

 

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We have had some very warm and humid conditions here weatherwise this week, with a heat warning in place.  You don't see many people out and about, unless they are in their air conditioned cars.  That is the part of summer that I do not enjoy.  I don't think many people do. Susan Branch posted a photo of her windows and the steam from the humidity was just dropping down them. You couldn't see out them for it.  Thankfully it is not that bad here.  I dread to think what that must feel like!!  I can well imagine not very pleasant!

I am grateful for my heat pump. It helps to keep things quite tolerable in here, no matter the season.   There is air con in all the shops here. They need it, although I have noticed in really warm and steamy weather, you can still feel the oppressive weather, no matter the air con.  They have not been to cut our grass this week and I totally understand why not. Between the rain and the humidity it would be a thoroughly miserable chore to tackle.  Everyone is wilting under the oppression . . . 

 

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We had a nice visit up to the cemetery yesterday afternoon. Dad seemed pleased to be there as well. Although he and mom had been divorced for at least 31 years, they had always remained good friends and I think she never stopped loving him. He will be the first one to tell you she was the best friend he ever had and I think a part of him loves here still.  He is a complicated man.

The flowers which Cindy and Dan had planted were doing well, but a chipmunk has built a nest in the grave. We both agreed that mom would not be too happy about that, but what can you do.  Its a part of nature.  We left a bouquet of flowers, but we had no vase to put them in, so they won't last long.  We picked a lovely looking sunny bouquet of golds, reds and whites.  Very cheerful looking. It was just good to be there remembering her in our hearts. It is a very peaceful cemetery. Not a lot of traffic goes past there.  It looks down on the valley as it is in the foothills of the South Mountain.  There are at least seven generations of my family buried there, and an eighth will join them.

Afterwards we were going to go to tea in the town that mom grew up in, but the shop was closed.  The one day of the week it was not open.  We got dad out of the car and right up to the shop for nothing.  We were a bit disappointed, but not much you can do about that!

Cindy dropped me off after that and took Dad to Tim Hortons and then went back to pick him up after a bit.  My daughter Eileen was there. It always pleases her to see her Grandfather. One good thing about my sister dropping him off is she sees him right to his seat and gets him his tea and then afterwards she walks him safely back to the car. 

 

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Being Wednesday we will accompany our father to the Big Scoop for our supper tonight, with his friend Hazel. Someone had posed the question if the food was so bad there, why did we keep going. The answer was simple.  Because our father likes going there and we love our father. When you love someone you do whatever you have to do to please them and eating out in a restaurant that is hit and miss food-wise is one of the things you do, because what makes him happy is paramount.  The food is not always appalling, and sometimes the service is good.  Seeing him happy makes us happy. That is key.

They do do very good fish most of the time. And we all like that.

 

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I let myself have a bit of a lie-in this morning. I didn't get out of bed until a quarter of seven.  That is quite late for me.  The cats, of course, were gasping for their breakfasts.  I did wake up about 3 am and had a hard time falling back to sleep, so I really needed it. I kept dreaming about being at work at the Manor last night.  I hate dreams like that because you feel like you are working all night through.  And they are always stress filled dreams.  In this one the kitchen was full to overflowing with food and stuff and I was having a difficult time fitting it all in and various people kept wandering through the kitchen, children and stuff, distracting me and taking me away from what I needed to be doing. It was a bit of an exhausting dream for sure.  The Mrs. was in it and she passed away several years ago now.  Dreams are funny things for sure.

My fit bit says I only got 22 minutes of deep sleep last night.  I will be dragging my butt today, but maybe I can get a nap in this afternoon.

 

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I see that Hurricane Beryl is going to hit much of Ontario and Southern Quebec today and then head on into the Maritimes. I don't expect we will see much if any of it here.  I do hope that my family and friends who live where it will hit will not be too adversely affected.  I know that heavy rains and winds are expected. Stay safe people!

We are used to getting the tail ends of Hurricanes here in Nova Scotia. Mostly it is the South Shore, Halifax and Cape Breton areas that get hammered the worst from them, although we can get some pretty heavy duty rain and wind here in the valley as well. We used to get horrific thunder and lightening storms when I was growing up here.  The brother of a friend of mine got hit by lightening one summer and was killed. I think he was my sister's age.  It was quite tragic.  We don't seem to get those bad thunderstorms these days. At least I have not seen one since I have been back.

Mom hated the thunder and lightening storms. I can still see her crouching with her arms and hands wrapped around her head. They terrified her.

I know they get some pretty wicked ones on Prince Edward Island.  Or at least they used to.  I can remember seeing lightning rods on many of the houses out in the country side.

My ex FIL used to sit in his rocking chair by the living room window in their home in Saint Eleanor's on the Island and he got hit by lightning during a thunderstorm one time. It came right through the window, or so they said.  Scary stuff!

 

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My friend Tina facetimed me yesterday. It was lovely to see and hear from her. Can you believe that she has still not received the settlement from that bad car accident she was in over 5 years ago now?  I know!  Outrageous.  She is hoping to next week.  I hope for her sake and after such a long wait she gets something substantial. Her health has been severely compromised from the accident. Her back will never be the same again and she has never been pain free since. It seems that it has taken an inordinately long time for a settlement to be made. The lady who was driving the car she was in received a settlement almost immediately, but she was not injured very badly.  Tina spent weeks in hospital.  I have always been very grateful that I was not in the car that day. There but for the Grace of God  . . . 

And with that I best leave you with a thought for the day . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★

 *.˛.°Always be on the lookout

for the presence of wonder.

~E.B. White  ° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Grilled Honey Mustard Chicken. This was delicious. Quantities are given for one serving, but it can easily be multiplied to serve more.

I hope you have a safe and a beautiful day.  Whatever you get up to, don't forget!

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And I do too!