July 2024 Weekend Thread

Is it possible no one already started one for this month? Has everyone decamped to the South of France with pgmcc?

Our area is under an excessive heat watch this weekend. My husband hasn't decided if he will go to the local fireworks display this evening because the "feels like" temp (the heat index) puts us at 106 today.

Meanwhile I'm reading and writing. Doing a crockpot meal because that way no one has to cook or be out in the humidity. I have coverage of the Tour de France on in the background. Useful info here: https://www.theproscloset.com/blogs/news/tour-de-france-beginners-guide

Happy belated Fourth for those of you here in the U.S. Happy Saturday for those of you elsewhere around the globe!!!

Also, can one of the group administrators edit the thread title to specify the year of 2024. It would make life a tad easier for those who follow after (all those historians who will be studying LT in future decades...)

Hunkering down here. Yesterday I took a photo of the thermometer outside. It was maxed out at 120. The scale on it doesn't go any higher than 120. I guess whoever made it thought after that, who cares?

>3 MrsLee: My goodness... I hope you're doing ok!

Oh hey, I forgot it was my Thingaversary this week. I'd better get reading!!

>4 Alexandra_book_life: We are ok, not sure how people without A/C cope. I know the natives used to go up in the mountains for the summer.

>5 reconditereader: Happy Thingaversary!

>6 MrsLee: I am happy to hear that!

>5 reconditereader: Happy Thingaversary! :)

I can't work on the website today so I decided to do my Front Yards In Bloom deliveries. Every nominated yard gets a sign and a brochure and I deliver on my bicycle. It was hot (for us LOL) and I finished the first two neighbourhoods around noon so rewarded myself with fancy ice cream.

Then I headed on to the third neighbourhood (twice as many deliveries than the other two put together and was doing okay until I ran out of signs :( Now I have to get more on Monday and finish later in the week. I also ran out of water, but fortunately passed a bunch of kids with a lemonade stand and bought two glasses to pour into my travel mug. It was just what I needed!

Nothing special on for Sunday - just the usual reading and gardening and enjoying the warm weather.

>3 MrsLee: That’s way too hot! So glad you have A/C!

The Husband and I haven’t done anything special this weekend. He went for a bike ride this morning. I went for a run. Tried to beat the heat, but it was 87 by the time I got done (at 10:00 AM).

And then I got a migraine. So I’ve been in a dark room for the last 5 hours. Finally emerged. I’m functional but not 100% yet.

Tomorrow will be spent inside as it’s supposed to be hotter. I’m looking forward to watching the Tour De France’s stage because there will be gravel. :)

A fire has broken out in Redmond, the city just north of us. It has shut down the area’s airport and people are being evacuated. :(

>10 catzteach: I hope everything works out!

We took a very long beautiful walk yesterday and visited a garden café. It was a relaxing day. For the past week, it's been around 15-20C (59-68F), with a lot of sunshine and a lot of rain all mixed together. It makes for a nice break after Spain...
I have no special plans for today, we'll see what happens.

My morning glories bloomed for the first time yesterday :)



In the evening I felt like baking, so I made cinnamon buns. (For once, I managed to take a photo before they vanished.)

Nothing planned for this weekend. Husband working all weekend, getting in some OT to help pay off the teeth. Spent a lot of time watching Wimbledon and crocheting. It's so hot but I have AC, thank the goddess. I keep thinking about the homeless or those without AC. Going to make a big salad for dinner.

>11 Alexandra_book_life: Thanks! That fire is still going. There was another one that broke out closer to my town, Bend, but the firefighters were able to put it out before it got too big. Thank goodness! And those cinnamon buns look delicious!

A trip to Tours on Saturday morning in readiness to meet a friend of mine arriving by train at 1:30pm. To pass the time we went to the gardens of the fine art museum and drank hot chocolate. The gardens are beautifully laid out and full of colour.

We then visited Tours cathedral which is next-door to the museum.

It was then time to have lunch. Our friend joined us for dessert and then we returned to the museum gardens for more hot chocolate and a good chin-wag.

By the way, for those in the know, there was an elephant in the gardens. There is always and elephant.



In the evening we were guests for dinner at a lovely restaurant and dined on delicious dishes.

Sunday we went to a vide grenier (car-boot sale) in the local village. This is an annual event organised by the village fete committee. There are always elephants there, as one would expect.

My purchase:

There is always an elephant.

>15 pgmcc: A great day with elephants! :)

>16 Alexandra_book_life:
It was almost a mammoth weekend!
:-)

Aww, elephants are awesome.

>17 pgmcc: 😂

I'm looking forward to a couple of weekends of frantic activity. This coming weekend will be last minute prep for Laura's arrival from England on Monday 15th. Then we do a couple of days around Brisbane and on Thursday set off for Canberra. Overnight in Wauchope to visit Mrs H's daughter and our grand-daughter, then to Canberra so Laura can catch up with her brothers and her new nephew. Mrs H and I start back to Brisbane next day (Saturday) and Laura flies from Canberra to Brisbane on Monday 22nd. On the Tuesday (23rd) we have a family get-together 100 km north of Brisbane and on Wednesday 24th she flies out back to the UK. Just as well she's young and fit.

>20 haydninvienna: That's quite hectic! Have a great time.

My daughter and grand-daughter are visiting for the week. Luckily they are here and not traveling today or tomorrow when the remains of Beryl come through the area.

It's another weekend? We are going to a lake tomorrow to have a party for our 3 year old grandson. His birthday was the beginning of the month and we were hoping for cooler weather than the 117°F it was earlier. It will be cooler tomorrow, only 107° :/

I'm hoping for a shady spot to splash my feet in the lake, but even so, we probably won't stay too long.

Sunday is another party for our 5 year old neighbor. At least I can walk home from that one when I get too hot.

I'll spend part of Saturday finishing my Front Yards in Bloom sign deliveries and then sending in the photos of the best yards.

Sunday has a Community Garden work party - general weeding and mulching of the common areas.

I've also run out of library books, so I can spend some time on the TBR pile in between sessions of weeding my own garden and doing other chores around the house. I have podcasts and audiobooks to help make the chores go faster.

Nothing planned this weekend. I’m still fighting the dumb migraine I had last week. It’s not migraine level, but a headache still hampers activity. :/

If I feel up to it, I’ll crochet, read, and work on a puzzle.

The exciting week I described in >20 haydninvienna: has officially begun. After some minor drama (not being able to check in on line, which happens occasionally but is always worrying), Laura is at Heathrow, has her boarding cards and is on her way.

>25 haydninvienna:
Brilliant. Have a great time.

Thanks Peter. The flight is somewhere over Austria just now.

>25 haydninvienna: Have an enjoyable week -- Laura and Mrs H too!

>25 haydninvienna: Woo-hoo!!! Enjoy the time with your daughter!

The kid is here. Let the madness begin!

>30 haydninvienna: Sounds great! Woo-hoo :)

We had a summer house weekend! I finished work early on Friday, and then my mom, my son, and me took a boat to an island where good friends of ours usually rent a summer house. They've been renting on the same island for more than 30 years, so there are lots of people who have the place in their DNA by now.

Six adults, five children (including mine), and a very enthusiastic young Labrador had a great time together. We swam in lakes, went on hikes, picked berries and ate them, picked mushrooms and ate them. The older kids picked such an enormous amount of cherries that we panicked and made jam. It was absolutely delicious.

My eight year old loved everything and everyone so much! I was very impressed by how brave he was during our hikes. We tend to be too protective of him sometimes, so he hasn't been on any "difficult" forest hikes with us. He was climbing cliffs, and said "no" very stubbornly and decisively when people tried to point out easier paths for him. He would take the same routes as everyone else, even when he needed a bit of help. Awww.

We came back on Sunday evening, very happy and grateful.

Some summer photos:







(Lately LT seems to resize my photos when I upload them, making them small and low-res. Does anyone have an idea why this might be?)

>32 Alexandra_book_life: Even small those are beautiful photos! What gorgeous blue water!

>30 haydninvienna: Have a wonderful time!

>32 Alexandra_book_life: That was a lot to get into a weekend! Sounds great. My grandmother used to make jam on their camping trips when berries were available. Sounds more reasonable in a cabin!

>33 Sakerfalcon: Thank you so much :)

>34 MrsLee: The weekend felt much longer than it really was (it's always a good sign).

>36 Alexandra_book_life:
I find the more things you cram into a weekend the longer it feels. You do so much you cannot imagine doing all those things in just one weekend.

>37 pgmcc: This is very true :)

>32 Alexandra_book_life: What a great weekend! And good for your kiddo! I love to hear when children challenge themselves. Even with a bit of help, I bet it made his confidence soar. :D

>39 catzteach: Oh, yes, we had a very happy little boy :) It felt like he had grown a bit in three days, with all the new experiences.

Well poop. Purely a selfish, whiny post so be warned.

For the past few years my husband has been self-employed as a consultant with basically one client; a former employer. Until this spring they had a few company airplanes and it made his life (and mine by extension) much easier. WAY less travel time and complications.

Unfortunately the company sold all the planes and laid off all the pilots (duh) and so he has to fly commercial now. Bad enough, but now he's also taken on additional work with them that basically means it's a full-time job when before it was part-time. Ok. I won't die, but he will be gone more often and for longer periods. The money is good, he likes the work and enjoys what he does. I don't begrudge him that for a second. My cushy life is because of that brain, his relationship to the company and how much he likes the work. But still, can't he be in two places at once??!! Can't the laws of physics bow to my crabbiness??!! LOL.

And this weekend due to the big software issue that disrupted everything yesterday, he can't fly home today. So one more night alone and I'm bummed out. I'm not helpless, neither am I scared or distraught, but dammit, I like the guy and when he's not here it's not nearly as much fun. He's leaving again Tuesday morning for the week.

Poop.

>41 Bookmarque: Aw, hugs! That would be hard.

>41 Bookmarque: Ah, well... At least he's not around for a good reason, as difficult as that may be for you.

Edited to add: On the selfish side we might be getting a higher number of excellent photos from youthan we would have if he were around.

>41 Bookmarque: Hugs, hugs, lots of hugs!
Maybe you can do something really nice together before he has to go away again, if it would make you feel better?

>41 Bookmarque: Once he gets back home, perhaps go out for dinner somewhere and play footsie under the table. It might remind him what he'll be missing more frequently, given the new work activities.

>41 Bookmarque: That's why everyone in the pub has big shoulders, so we can cry on them when we need to. Or just vent.

Great ideas all! And thanks for putting up with my little tantrum.

And it just got worse. Tomorrow's flight is now cancelled and he's trying for Sunday. The thing is, he is set to leave on Tuesday. If it wasn't for the fact that he has to be here for a medical thing on Tuesday, he'd stay there. Doesn't make sense to come home for 36 hours, but he might have to. So aggravating and the ripples continue to expand - the hotel's software is hosed, too. Luckily he stays there all the time and everyone knows him so he's taken care of, but it's chaos.

You could be in for some Bald Eagle photos that I got today. A juvenile learning to fly that had sort of crash landed on the shoreline and oh, was I ever close. It got a wonky start and flew across the water and landed, awkwardly, in a tree. With all the yelling you'd think its parents would be right there, but I think they were exercising some tough love.

Bald eagles photos are fine :)

My Friday has been busy - almost 2 hours on the phone with the hort society's web designer, grocery shopping (2 different stores) for my mother-in-law and a visit with her, grocery shopping for us, a stop at our regular pharmacy to pick something up, then home to unpack all of it. I feel like I need a nap.

Saturday has nothing planned, which means stuff around the house and yard, but Sunday is my volunteer shift for the Garden Tour. I spent all day Thursday photographing most of the gardens so I've seen all but one. I'll have to visit that one to get photos, and I'll spend a morning at one of the others for my volunteer shift, but otherwise I probably won't go around the rest again. There are some really beautiful gardens on the tour, though. I may post a few photos on Instagram after the tour is over.

You might recall that our week of madness with Laura is under way. At the moment I’m in a quite nice motel in Wauchope with Mrs H and Laura is in Canberra with her brothers David and Philip and David’s wife and their son Xavier. She seems to be having a good time, but she is supposed to be flying back to Brisbane on Monday …

Ok so here's one of the shots of this newly-fledged, big baby Bald Eagle -



Normally I'd put this in my thread with all the other photos I litter the place with, but since I brought it up...

You just never know what you'll find when you kayak in northern Wisconsin. I heard it before I saw it and I knew it was quite low to the ground, but I didn’t expect this. I came around a bend and - bang - there it was. Right on the shoreline next to me and barely above my head. I was a little nervous about its parents having a go at me, to be honest, but nothing happened, although they were in the vicinity I’m sure. Because neither parent was on hand and junior had to figure things out alone. It flapped up to a small dead tree and yelled for a while before wobbling across the water to land in a tree behind me. Awkwardly. Oh the pains of learning how to fly. It’s ok, Junior, you’ll get the hang of it.

>50 Bookmarque: This shot is amazing! It's like a painting :)

>50 Bookmarque: Love it!

This weekend is one of cleaning because my sister is coming Monday to stay for a couple of nights. What used to take about half a day to accomplish now takes me three days, but hey, I accomplish it. Sort of.

Still plodding away on the next family history book. If I start first thing in the morning I can almost get in two hours before my eyes give out. That means no screen time or reading before I work on it.

>50 Bookmarque: amazing!

I was able to get out this morning for a short walk. I didn’t want to run because of the heat and there was a bit of smoke in the air. The rest of the day has been spent helping The Husband purchase and install a storm door on our front door. Not easy in 90+ temps.

Looks like it’ll be too smoky tomorrow to be outside much. :( I’ll just stay in and read and work on my puzzle. :)

>41 Bookmarque: >47 Bookmarque: Sorry about all the changes recently and the extra time away from home for your husband, that's no fun.
Your pictures just continue to amaze. Have you considered making a book?

We were affected very little at work, most of our software is not Microsoft, almost everything in my lab is not Microsoft, and we don't run Crowdstrike on our laptops any more and while others did have several large issues, they were fixed by about Noon Friday. Lots of frantic activity by the hosting folks. The carnage in the near future will be interesting.

>54 Karlstar: Did you happen to see the story that revealed that the reason why Southwest Air wasn't impacted by the outage was due to the fact that they were still using Windows 3.1? I didn't have time to follow-up on the source, but it's a telling and important aspect if the reporting was accurate.

>47 Bookmarque: Hang in there. (((Hugs)))

Yesterday I went to visit a good friend, together with my mom and my son. We took a long beautiful walk in the forest together and had a lovely swim in the lake. As we came out, we saw this:



Someone is getting soaked on the other side, we said...

Three minutes later, there was thunder and the skies opened over us. Luckily, there was a nice cafe just by the beach that we could run to. My little boy thought it was quite an adventure :) We could walk back to our friend's after 15 minutes or so and had a lovely lunch.

Today, we are not doing much. I made orange jam and might make an apple pie later ;)

>56 Alexandra_book_life: That photo is a lovely study in greys. Glad the adventure was fun.

We've had a very quiet weekend so far, and I don't see that changing. Not a complaint! Thursday and Friday were cool and damp, so I made cherry juice and saskatoon jam, and so Saturday and Sunday have been back out in the garden. Some of that time was repairing damage by the wind of the previous two days, but mostly deadheading and weeding. I also finished a couple of books (one audiobook, one print) and did some work on the hort society's website. The new version goes live on Wednesday, so at this point I'm mainly doing polishing and search engine optimization.

>57 MrsLee: Thank you :) We had a very good time.

>58 tardis: Best of luck with the new website!

>58 tardis: tardis: I (foolishly) offered to start up the website for our local historical society. After much research and (hopefully) securing a grant to pay for it, we chose a company that specializes in a website for historical societies, museums, family histories, etc. I've watched the tutorial twice, taking meticulous notes, and have even talked on the phone with the owner (Paul) to get tips. It's supposed to be very easy to learn, but apparently I'm unteachable on this...and it didn't help when Paul told me that their oldest webmaster is 95 years old and does very well. Right now, we're still in the sandbox, so I can't permanently mess anything up, but it's terribly frustrating. Oh well...I will try again this week.

>60 Alexandra_book_life: Thanks!
>61 theretiredlibrarian: I took over the Horticultural Society's website back in 2015 or 2016, when the previous webmasters had to quit suddenly due to a health crisis. I took a one-day Wordpress course, had a small amount of training from our web hosting company, and then got dumped into a complete redesign with a different hosting company/designer. So, I've been doing this a long time and this is my second redesign project. I'm pretty good at it (if I do say so myself LOL) but I'm still learning, and Wordpress and all the plugins keep updating and changing things, so it's always a challenge.

I'm also webmaster for the Orchid Species Preservation Foundation, and they need a redesign, too, but it's on the back burner until I finish this one.

>56 Alexandra_book_life: Awesome capture!

>63 clamairy: Thank you :)

I had a busy weekend. Our community was hosting a ribfest (big trucks selling bbq'd ribs and other stuff) in the park. Our historical society was selling corn on the cob there as a fundraiser. I was on shift Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. When I discovered the corn was being dipped in margarine, I donated some butter to the cause. It was fun, but I don't think we made a lot. I thought our prices were too high. (especially if we were using margarine!)

Also spent some time picking saskatoon berries in my yard. Many years ago I ordered saskatoon seedlings with a friend. They were only $2, and I thought I could afford $50, even though that was a very broke period in my life, after my husband left. So I planted 25 seedlings, thinking they wouldn't all survive. They not only survived, but suckered and spread. I now have huge hedges down both sides of yard, so most years there are lots of berries to share with friends, neighbours, birds, and random strangers.

We still have forest fires around, but they have died down a lot. Thankfully the wind has changed, as we had over a week in horrible smoky air. When I saw the pictures of Jasper, I thought of how easily that could have been our small town. Thankfully, in our case the wind changed before the fire was driven into town.

>65 NorthernStar: I'm glad the fires are dying down. What do those berries taste like exactly?

Never mind, I did some Googling. I cannot grow most of the varieties of them here successfully as it doesn't get cold enough. However there are some other 'Southern' varieties I might be able to grow.

>65 NorthernStar: so glad your town was spared! Seems forest fires are getting scarier. They grow way too quickly. Also, how could they dip wonderful fresh corn in margarine! Ick!

>67 catzteach: Oooh the shame of it!

>65 NorthernStar: What a relief that the wind had changed!

But why would anyone dip corn in margarine? :)

sorry, duplicate post
Glad to know I'm not the only one horrified by margarine on corn!
Looks like I'm going camping in the mountains this weekend! Should be fun.

Another weekend sneaking up on me. No plans, but I just got a phone call from my 3 year old grandson (with some help from his daddy) telling me he wanted to come and play Play*Doh at grandma's house, so that will be happening tomorrow.

>71 MrsLee: Sounds like it’ll be a fun visit.

I had coffee with friends today.

Tomorrow was supposed to be spent going to Lowe’s to look for rock for the front yard. But a fire just broke out in that area. They've cut power to the area and evacuations are happening. There are tankers and helicopters on it. Hopefully it’ll be out by tonight, but things are so dry… all that to say: I doubt Lowe’s will be accessible tomorrow.

So no other plans as of now.

I have some photography to do this weekend. I volunteered to photograph the finalists for Front Yards In Bloom, and I've got two categories to do - Public Spaces and Edible Front Yards. I haven't got the addresses for Edible yet but I want to get the Public Spaces done. There are only 4 and one is right around the corner from home. The others are spread out, though, so I'm going to have to do a bunch of driving.

The Unintended Consequences of COVID

We are being tourists in our own city. We arrived back in Ireland from France on Wednesday and could not go home because our son is there and has tested positive for Covid. We spent Wed. & Thu. nights in a hotel in the seaside village of Kilmore Quay. We are staying Fri. & Sat. nights in a hotel in Dublin city centre. We dined in our favourite restaurant, Chez Max, on Friday night. Tomorrow morning we will have breakfast in the zoo, wander around looking at the animals, and then visit the Irish National Museum. In the evening we are going to a play, “2.22 - A Ghost Story”.
Sunday has yet to be planned.

>74 pgmcc: Sounds like fun, Peter. Er: were there ever any intended consequences of COVID?

>75 haydninvienna:
Will we ever know?

>74 pgmcc: This is a lovely weekend!

It's kind of nice to read about any nice unintended consequences of COVID.

>74 pgmcc: It sounds like the cloud of Covid has a silver lining for you!

>78 Sakerfalcon:
Precisely.