Because I refuse to act like a normal human being and stop eating bad foods in the evenings, I’ve decided to give into it, but try a healthier route.  Thus far I’ve made really quite acceptable ‘paleo’ brownies, fudge and chocolate pudding.  Whether cave people ate these things is debatable.

What I enjoy doing is pounding back huge volumes of those items, and then pretend it’s all good for me.  However I have to say being off sugar and flour is quite a good feeling, and I really don’t miss it given my penchant for stevia.

If you’re cursed with the kind of sweet tooth I have, then stevia’s a godsend.  It’s unfortunate though, as this just aids and abets the staggering amounts of paleo desserts I can consume in an evening.  Oh well, onward we must go in our struggle for the elusive svelte silhouette.

Something that should help are the hikes Margaret and I plan to do, given I’ve lived here for 28 years and have never done any of them so need to get going.  Yesterday was hike #1, which was Lebanon Creek Park, off Lakeshore Drive, which begins with stairs leading straight up for a very long time.

Once at the top the views of the lake and vineyards below are fantastic and well worth the calf-destroying stairs.  I want to return in spring as I could see spent balsam root flowers which would be gorgeous to see in full bloom.

I have so many little kiwis on my bushes, and last year I had the same but ignored them as I thought they should get larger and become brown and fuzzy.  I finally Googled hardy kiwis, and it turns out they remain grape-sized and are a pale tan colour and never develop the fur.

The site said once they’re soft, they’re ready.  I squeezed one and sure enough, it was soft, so I bit into it, and there was indeed the quintessential bright green interior with the telltale black seeds, and so they’re mini kiwis.  Sweet and tasty, so I was quite surprised to know I now grow kiwis.

I also still have raspberries ripening, but we’re definitely at the end of those as well as the figs, which I’ve eaten daily for the past few weeks.  I put a couple into a salad I made for Margaret and me and they were a nice addition.

Luke’s on a strict keto diet and eats nothing but butter-filled coffee, bacon, more meat and a lot of fat.  He’s lost over 20 pounds in a month so we know that kind of diet works, however if you recall I tried it in June and felt sick so had to stop it despite losing five pounds in about three days.

I’ll just slug it out with the paleo diet, and that way I get to eat things like the delicious fudge made with coconut oil, cocoa, almond butter, stevia and orange flavouring.  Once it’s cold I cut it into squares and sprinkle it with seat salt.  I then devour it quickly because it’s quite melty due to the coconut oil.

I’ve offered my paleo desserts to Luke, but one man’s meat is another man’s poison.

Margaret and I decided to start September off right so planned a day trip to Summerland.  The weather was perfect and the traffic was light, even though it was the Labour Day weekend.

We started at the adorable Summerland Sweets store where I bought too much stuff, as usual.  Besides their usual jams and syrups they sell other products made locally.  I bought one of their jams and a raspberry wine, as well as fancy mustard and chocolate-covered dried fruit.

We continued on the road and stopped at the Dirty Laundry Winery, which is one of my favourite winery settings.  The Kettle Valley steam train’s tracks run right by it, and on our way out we were lucky to see it pass right by us on the road.  We want to take the train ride on our next Summerland visit.

I bought some cheese at the winery, and we both lamented the empty restaurant, given how cute it would be to sit there.  However we had other plans, and decided next summer we’d return to have a nice lunch on their beautiful patio.

After a brief stop at the Grasslands Nursery, we went to the Summerland Research Station’s Ornamental Gardens.  What a gorgeous place that is, and also has beautiful vistas and benches set around so you could have a nice picnic lunch there.  Again, we planned to do that on another visit.

Our final stop was Zia’s Stonehouse Restaurant where we had lunch, and were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food and the very reasonable prices.  We had a helpful waiter and the whole experience was a positive one.

Then last week my pal Sharon asked if I wanted to join her at the Kelowna Art Gallery as they have a special show on right now of someone’s private collection.  It includes Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet and many others.  Image owning that collection!

So I said sure, and then our friend Carol said she also wanted to join us so the three of us met there and spent an hour at the gallery.  This was followed by lunch at the Cactus Club which is a mighty nice place to sit on a sunny day, especially lakeside, as we were.

Tomorrow it’s Happy Hour at the Eldorado with Petra and Sharon, and that’s another nice establishment where one can be seated right at the lake.  I don’t want anyone to try and tell me there’s nothing to do in the Okanagan.

I had my second singing lesson, and we worked on the themes from Gilligan Island and the Monkees.  Charissa’s around 30, and had heard the Gilligan Island theme, but never the other, so it was fun to do together.  By the end of the year she’ll be a 1960’s TV theme song maven.

Thrift shopping continues.  Since the children have assured me all of my stuff’s going straight into the dumpster when I die, I didn’t feel bad about buying a bronze statue of two horses with one of the tails missing, as it’s all going to be thrown out anyway.  And besides, I don’t mind as I have it positioned perfectly so no one will even notice.