I'm sitting here in my backyard with 14 chicken feathers sticking out of my bra and a beer in my hand, typing out a blog post while my hairdresser/friend Renee swears at her iPhone as we wait for my hair to bleach. I know the shocking part of that sentence is that I bleach my hair. She's actually swearing a lot at her phone now and appears to have actually fainted. I think that was a growl. I'm just going to ignore it.
Later I'm going to make us dinner and that'll be it. That'll be the memory. It isn't what you'd call mind shatteringly exciting and definitely not something you could base a Netflix series on for instance but weirdly those HUGE instances in life aren't normally the things that morph and stick and turn into memories anyway. It's the weird little things. I barely remember going to Disney World when I was a little kid but I definitely remember our next door neighbour cooking french fries for the kids in the neighbourhood in their basement kitchen and serving them in brown plastic cups.
Every year when summer starts to wind down and the skies go from bright blue to light blue, when shadows are longer and mornings are cooler I get angry at myself for not having done more. I think *next year* I'm going to do more in the summer. I'm finally going to book a trip to the East Coast, I'm going to go out more, go for dinner more, enjoy more ... and then I don't.
But this year I feel like I've made more memories than I have in a long time. I've made more of a point of saying yes to things I'd normally say no to. Because there might be a kick ass memory to be made. I work less (marginally) and garden more. My front yard is a disaster and I'm sure the neighbours think I'm suffering from some sort of dementia or arthritis or work allergy. Or maybe they just think I'm lazy. LOLOLOLOL!!! No they don't. They might think I'm nuts but they definitely don't think I'm lazy.
Here's a little bit of what my summer has looked like:
A little bit of pizza making.
I've only managed to get through two of the books here this summer and I've just started the one in the centre, The Ice Cream Makers.
A rather large memory from this summer is going to be building this garden. Holy crap. It took months but I absolutely love it now. It's easy to take care of and just a nice place to be. You know. If you like gardening and vegetables and snakes.
This wasn't this most recent haircut with my friend Renee, it was one or two cuts ago nearer the beginning of the summer. She is clearly a garden gnome and I am leaning towards that Hermey the Elf.
This summer I tried to help save a neighbour's sick chick but we weren't successful. But we tried. We really tried.
I grew, picked and made jam out of strawberries.
You'll never believe me but I made this rain hat out of a grocery bag.
Me and Murray. I made it as far as picking up some back ribs from my favourite pig farmer, but still haven't got around to actually cooking them.
One of my favourite super-stupid, boring, simple, summer things to do is go to the feed store.
Met a lot of snakes in the garden this summer. This is the milk snake I saw a few weeks ago living in my stash of wood at the back of my plot. Love him!
And yes I've worked this summer. But I've made a real point and habit of working in the backyard. Outside. It's still working but it just feels slightly better than being stuck inside working.
I've cut scapes and made pesto and harvested around 160 heads of garlic.
And I relaxed for a full ... I'm gonna say day. At Lynne Knowlton's astonishing treehouse.
I even stacked rocks in what turned out to be a fierce rock stacking competition with Lynne herself. So that wasn't so much relaxing as training for what I expect to turn into an Olympic sport.
And I gardened some more.
I'm raising caterpillars into Monarch butterflies like I do every summer.
I went to MORE antique markets and ate french fries. What better memory could a person possibly have? Other than maybe eating french fries with gravy.
But I wanna make MORE memories. So I'm taking next week off from blogging. Here's a funny story. I didn't even know I was going to say that until I typed it. Now that I'm saying it, I feel like I should also take a week off from social media entirely. omg. This is getting real now. Where is this coming from???!! Maybe I do have some form of dementia.
Have a great summer memory photo to share? This is where I ask you to add it into the comment section with a little description of what's going on.
Monday is a holiday in Canada so I wasn't going to post then anyway, so technically you're only missing 2 posts from me. And chances are during my time off I'll be doing stuff that I'll be able to turn into great blog posts when I get back.
See you in just over a week and don't forget to upload some summer memory pics.
Have a great weekend and week!
Stefanie
We spent an amazing week in the Salzkammergut region of Austria. One day we rented an electric boat and puttered around lake Hallstätt, simply amazing!
Mary
The day we saw how much our Aussie Finn loves the leap in the water hose!!
Karen
Ha!!! ~ karen
Ryn
My husband and I took our friends from Chicago, who we don't get to see often, to Provincetown, MA for their first time. It was a little rainy in the morning, but it turned out to be a beautiful day.
Karen
Wow, it's beautiful there! ~ karen
Marilyn
Have a great week.
Karen
Thanks Marlilyn! ~ karen
Kim Kelley
I'm glad you love your snake. You do know snakes eat eggs?
Karen
I do. But these snakes are literally miles away from my chicken coop. :) ~ karen!
jaine kunst
If I had any idea of how to upload a photo to your site I would leave a photo of my QH "Splashy Girl." That's who I'll be making memories with this summer, not riding (she's recovering from an injury) but just hand walking and enjoying my time with her.
Have a wonderful week off. You'll be missed.
Debbie D
No vaca for me. Spent the summer "fixing" my living room, weeding, deadheading and working. Big audit time at work so no vaca. I have a beautiful "redone" fireplace now and my front yard was in a Houzz article! Also repainted the outside of the house, replaced the siding on the fireplace, replaced all the windows in the house along with the sliding doors..gosh, I guess I did a lot!
Karen
SOOO nice Debbie! ~ karen
Maggie Van Sickle
3 moves in 2 and a half weeks is about all I can take this summer. From house on Buckhorn Lake to a trailer on Buckhorn Lake for summers and then moved furniture and boxes to our daughters basement until our apt in Dundas was ready Aug 1st . Painted apt and now to do final move today and then knée replacement surgery in Oct. I need to rest. Enough memories for one summer.
Karen
Ha! Yes, I guess you can work on making no memories at all now. You're entitled. ;) ~ karen!
Laura Bee
I planned a trip to the east coast in about two weeks. My six year old's first road trip longer than 4 hrs. Stayed with family and friends. One night Montreal, Fredericton and Pugwash. Kensington PEI for three nights with her dad's family and then three nights near Halifax with my best friend since grade 5. My girl and her two girls finally met!
Memories that we will never forget.
Karen
Yup, those are good ones! ~ karen
Marna
Awesome! Have a great time off, well not if you do too much work! I've been busy too, purging, because I need to downsize, getting too old and my 3 grown sons don't want anything I have.
I do intend to give some to some nieces and grand nieces and nephews. Sad to me, I have things from family, heirlooms, but today people don't want those types of things. I read that taking a photo and saving it, journal some about it, then I can look at the photos and remember.
Trying to organize along the way too, been doing a lot though I am limited as to what I can do. I will remember because of my end result, less stuff, less to clean especially! LOL
Karen
Taking a photo of stuff and writing about it is a great idea! ~ karen
MrsChrisSA
As we are opposite......................summer was December for me and that is when I had to say goodbye to this little bundle of joy as her and her parents jetted off to New Zealand to live.
For the coming summer we have great plans. It will start with a trip to NZ to welcome my grandson and then we will be home and doing things in and around our garden (which was very neglected last summer!). We have already started by painting those horrid dirty white walls.............................
Come one summer!! Can't wait!
Karen
Ha! Whenever I read about New Zealand or Australia in their summer I'm always so jealous. For once it's the other way around! ;) ~ karen
Irene
Or South Africa even. :)
Centi
Have a good time!
(I love the picture of the rain hat)
Jani Wolfe
Have fun Karen and make some new memories to share!!
Wisconsin Gal
You bleach your hair? I thought you were a naturally white haired girl of Scandinavian ancestry. What is your natural color? (I won't tell.)
Karen
White hair until I got into highschool when it became darker and darker until it finally ended at a dark blonde. Now I'm back to my natural state of white. :) ~ karen!
Kimberly
First of all, Karen, I love you. Not just because your writing is hilarious and you remind me of myself (& obviously I'm narcissistic), but also because: IT'S A HOLIDAY ON MONDAY! Holy heck, I had forgotten. You have totally made my LONG weekend.
Also fries at antique markets sounds just about as good as it gets to me too.
& my memory is definitely going to be the arduous week of "vacation" we spent building my art studio.
Karen
omg that's beautiful!! ~ karen
Mindy Northrop
We sold our house and bought a farm! We move out, afternoon sixteen years, this weekend. We move into new house in two weeks. Yes, we're couch crashing for our vacation this year. Woo hoo! BUT CHECK OUT MY NEW BARN!!!!!
Mindy Northrop
That should have said, after sixteen years, not afternoon. Doh.
Karen
LOOKKKKKKK at that!!!!!! ~ karen
Karen
I've never been so jealous! You're SO lucky. :) You get to set up a new house AND you have a barn. ~ karen!
Mindy Northrop
And a greenhouse!!!!! And a cider orchard! And we somehow managed to adopt their animals in the deal....we're either really blessed, or we've completely lost our damn minds.
http://rindymae.blogspot.com/2017/07/we-found-house.html
Kim from Milwaukee
Wow, Mindy, what a beautiful dream come true!! Thank you for sharing that lovely story, such an inspiration! I'm making my list tonight!!
Ann Brookens
Mindy, what a fabulous place! I envy your view but I'm happy for you!
Renee Ryz
I am so happy for you, and yes, a little bit jealous (but not in a mean way)- that is my dream too!
Gwen H.
Enjoy your break. Eat a lot of French fries and relax.
Kayla
GO KAREN
Enjoy your summer fun and remember to make goid decisions. (Even if they turn out as not so good decisions at least you'll have some good stories)
Sherry
My favorite summer memory.... My new and first grandson, who I have utterly fallen in love with. I have been amazed and astonished at just how completely taken with him I am. It's a new kind of love and every day I spend with him lightens my heart for days at a time!
Denise Del Mundo
Happy long weekend Karen! I've volunteered at girls camp, dejunked my clothes, put my ceramic jewelry and small dishes into four stores, went camping in my 1965 Shasta named Suzy Q and visited with my granddaughter. Life is good.
Karen
Nice! ~ karen