august in review

Hello, sweet friends.

It appears that I decided to take most of the month of August off. It was not planned, but then so few things in life are. I guess I needed the break from having to “keep up.” And I don’t mean that in a bad way…I love being here – I’ve just had so much going on in my life and it feels like something had to hit the back seat. I suppose (subconsciously) it was the blog. And yet here I am, feeling renewed and regenerated. The air has turned a tad cooler and I can definitely smell Autumn in the air. It’s a beautiful transition; one I truly love.  And while I haven’t been here in a month you’d expect I have tons to share, and I suppose I do, but I also feel like I have little to say. Hmmm…where to start, what to share?  Pictures. Let’s start with pictures. There’s a lot of them. (Remember…this is a journal of our days…and I WANT to remember August.)

5 years old - blowing out his candles

Fred was off for a week following Isaac’s birthday so…back to the beach we went…

another trip to the beach

where we found this…

fish skeleton

So very cool. And then after some time playing in the surf…and building in the sand…

"meet you at the car"

someone was ready to go.

We spent some time hiking. We love our access to Westminster Ponds. So much to learn and explore. 

deep in the woods

Lophocampa caryae -- Hickory Tussock Moth caterpillar - they were everywhere

a gorgeous old oak tree

my little tree hugger

We found lots of cool fungus.  I had too many photos to share so I picked my favs. Someday perhaps I need to do a fungus post.

beautiful fungus

such intense colour

gorgeous berries

We took a trip on the great big sea…sail and all.

anchors away

And we were visited by pirates…

the sweetest pirate ever

Luckily for us…he was a very cute pirate.

There was tree trimming and Fred had a great helper – who only trims in his underwear, don’t ya know.

so exciting to climb that ladder...

There was frisbee…

Isaac learning to throw

and rolling down hills…

made me dizzy just watching him

and watching trains go by.

such a highlight for isaac to be so close

We attended a wedding; my dear friend Katie and her dashing husband, Aaron. One of the best weddings I’ve ever been to…and I bawled the whole time. It makes me so happy to see my friend so joyous. And she was absolutely stunning.  <3

happily married

We’ve been eating tons of great food, as you can imagine.

panzanella

homemade salsa

blueberry hand pies (and we've since made many more using tons of fruit from our freezer)

homemade sourdough

We’ve seen signs of fall…

shades of autumn

goldenrod

one of our garden pumpkins

As a nation we have been mourning the loss of one of our great leaders, Jack Layton, the leader of our countries official opposition in the House of Commons. Mr. Layton had struggled with and beat prostate cancer, suffered a broken hip (and hip surgery) and lead his party, the NDP (New Democratic Party), to a historic victory, only to die of a second, non-prostrate cancer less than four months after a historical win for his party. Oh…I could easily turn this into a post about Jack Layton, I was a big fan…and member of the party, and his loss has hit us all (even non-party supporters) hard – but I won’t do that. If you are interested in what Jack stood for, why he mattered to so many people, why we trusted him and loved him and respected him the way most other politicians have never experienced, I’ll allow you to do your own research. There are amazing stories out there and they are worth finding.

He will be missed by many but his legacy will live on in all that knew him and believed in him. In fact, I believe it will live on in the history of this country. He was an incredible man. A testament to that is a letter he wrote less than 48 hours before he died. He was always thinking about Canada and her people.

I attended a candlelight vigil in his honour and was moved to tears multiple times by the stories people had to share.  He held a great passion and vision for this country and he walked and talked and lived and breathed that passion. He was one of a kind.

honouring Jack Layton

My boys decided they needed to do a little singing and dancing in the rain like I recently did. It was Isaac’s idea. “Mama…I want to go out in the rain just like you did.”  And he was gone.

singing in the rain..part one

Fred followed.

part two

I’m missing so much but these are the highlights. Of course there was that crazy storm last week where all of southern Ontario was under a tornado warning. It was the most intense storm I’ve ever experienced…and I LOVE storms. I had friends sleeping in their basement and it made me wish our basement was finished and inhabitable. We had nowhere to go but our main (and only) floor.  There are reports that the lightning was so intense that there were 1000 strikes every two minutes. The sky was constantly lit up. It was quite scary. Of course Isaac never woke up. Lucky duck.

And so that…in a nutshell…was our month. I promise to not disappear for an entire month again. While it kind of felt nice, I missed you all. And so I hope the pictures tell a story…I’ll be back with actual words, soon. I am so grateful for this life…and for all of you who show up here to share your life with me. Thank you. <3

Much love to you all,

Debbie