RHEUM RHABARBARUM aka RHUBARB

 POST # 612

Mary has a wonderful rhubarb patch in her garden, and on most days, I pick one or two of the stalks and have them as my early morning treat.  Munching on rhubarb, always reminds me of my dad.  And why is that?  Well, a very long time ago, when I was a child, we also had a rhubarb patch in our yard.  My sisters and I would eat the rhubarb after we had dipped the end of it into some sugar.  Because of its sour taste, we thought that adding sugar to it before putting it in our mouths, would help to lessen the sourness of it.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  And here is where dad comes into the story.  He would sprinkle a tiny bit of salt on the rhubarb, and eat it that way.

Somewhere along the way, I decided to try the salt option, and what do you know, it tasted much better.  At least that's what I think, and it's what my dad thought as well.  So each time I enjoy a stalk of rhubarb, with the addition of salt, it reminds me of dear old dad.

But the rhubarb season is coming to an end, as the days progress, so I will try and eat up as much of it as possible before I head back to Canada.

Here is this morning's serving, and if you look very closely, you can see the sprinkle of salt on the stalk.  Even Dora-dog looks somewhat interested.

And now for a complete change of subjects. Here is a photo that I took this morning.  The sign is located at the entrance to Shelter Bay, and on most occasions the words written usually elicit a laugh or two.  I thought this was a particularly witty one.

The sign changes every now and again, and most of the time, I get a laugh from the words that are written there.  Someone in the community has a pretty good sense of humour.

August is coming to a close, and this is my final post for the month.  By the time my next post is due on September 7th, I expect to be settled back in Vancouver for my next house sit assignment.  

In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy the company of Mary and Dora-dog while I'm still here, and in addition to that, I will enjoy more Rheum rhabarbarum (with salt) as well.

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

THE SEASON CONTINUES TO PROGRESS

 POST # 611

Just prior to retiring for the night, I took a photo of the (almost) full moon.  That was on Sunday, August 18th.  It wouldn't be full for about another twelve hours, but with clouds rolling in, this was the best opportunity to capture it. 

The season continues to progress, and as a result, we have been blessed with some cooler weather as a result.  I for one, am happy about that, as it has been rather hot for this old Canuck, and I appreciate the relief.

Another sign of the season progressing, is the maturing of the greenery here.  Mary put together a rather nice collection the other day, to display on the back deck.

In addition to those, there are plenty of maturing sunflowers around her property.  They are the result of all the bird feeders at the neighbour's house.  Lots of seeds manage to get transported across the street by the bird population, and as a result, we have the benefit of plenty of sunflower seed plants growing in the yard.

One of Dora-dog's favourite four-legged friends returned for a visit this week from Montana.  Mary's daughter paid us a short visit, and Fetti aka Confetti had joined her on the journey.  Dora-dog and Fetti get along well together, so it was fun to have them come by and spend some time with us.

That about sums things up for this past week. What will next week hold in store?

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

THE WEEK THAT WAS

 POST # 610

While we were away in Spokane, some of the local deer population has decided to hang out under Mary's cedar tree, in order to stay out of the heat.  There have been up to three of them there at the same time, and we have a good viewpoint from the kitchen window.  Dora-dog would just love to get out there and chase as many deer as possible, but with the road right behind the tree, it would not be a wise decision to let her loose.  

Having been away for a while, there were plenty of projects to do around the house.  My week started with the pruning of a tree out front.  It now looks much tidier since I began chopping the branches from it.  Dora-dog is keeping a watchful eye on my work, just to make sure that it's up to her standards.

From tree pruning to awning washing, the work projects continued.  There are a total of four awnings such as this one, and they certainly needed a scrub down.  They look so much better now that the job is complete.

Taking a break in the work schedule, we headed out to visit Mary's son Ben on his property, which is about an hour's drive from here in Shelter Bay.  He had recently arrived back from Hawaii with his girlfriend Simone, and it was nice to spend some time out there for a visit.  

Back home there was another project to do, which was to replace a rotting board on the deck.  The job took way longer than I had anticipated, due to the fact that all of the screws attaching the board to the deck, were completely rusted.  Eventually, I had to resort to using a saw to cut the board away from the deck, and replace it with a new board.  Thankfully, Dora-dog was there to help me out, and keep an eye on things to make sure that the job was done correctly.

And that pretty well sums up the week that was.  As I type these words, the deer is back again under the cedar tree out front.  It seems to have decided to make this spot its new home.

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

A JOURNEY TO SPOKANE

 POST # 609

I hopped in the car this past week, and along with Mary and Dora-dog, we headed off on an adventure to the city of Spokane, which is about a six hour drive east from here.  The weather here has been rather warm, but it was nothing compared to the heat in Spokane.

We settled in to our Air B&B, and it wasn't long before Dora-dog was spying out the window at her favourite critter, a squirrel parked on the corner of the fence, straight ahead of her.  She was content to watch its every move.

Now getting back to the heat.  Every day was in the '90's, and we even had one day of 103 F.  Mary was at a weekend seminar, and Dora-dog and I took various strolls around the local neighbourhood, in spite of the heat.  

Sunday evening, we all ventured out to Manito park, which was just a short drive from our location, and spent an hour or so wandering around the gardens.  It was a very pleasant location to spend some time, and I took a variety of photos while we were there.

On one of my morning walks with Dora-dog, we came across some very strange looking chickens.  I've never seen anything like them before.  They were as curious about us, as we were of them.

We departed Spokane yesterday, and headed back to Shelter Bay, arriving early in the evening.  It was nice to be back at the coast, and finally out of the oppressive heat in Spokane.

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer