It only took 33 years, but I think I finally got the hang of vegetable gardening.  This year everything’s doing really well, and I’ve even managed to grow cantaloupes which is a total miracle.  The one thing I have in huge abundance is cucumbers, so I make myself a cuke salad every day.  Grated cuke, drained, then add oil, vinegar and salt.

I’ve been cooking like a mad person, because as you know, I made lasagne and butter chicken for the visit with the nieces and their families.  I figured with that kind of a choice, everyone should be happy and they all seemed to be fine with the food.  This was followed by Margaret’s visit, and the day she left Alison arrived.

Alison and I are an incredible cooking duo so happily took on the task of making the après memorial dinner for the Ya Ya’s.  Now there’s just six of us left so not a challenge for us at all.  Alison made Ina Garten’s panko-crusted salmon which was well-received.  I made mom’s apricot crisp which we served warm with vanilla ice cream.

Mom was shocked and perturbed to be shooed from the party, but we wanted to be able to reminisce about Rhonda, and our high school days, in peace.   We marvelled at her widower, Ron, who spoke for an hour at the memorial.  I was the last person to speak and read my one-pager which hopefully had a couple of laughs for people, and I mercifully didn’t make an ass out of myself by crying.

Marie took me to Earl’s for a belated birthday lunch which was fab however after that we walked through City Park, and it was so damned hot I thought I would die.  Not as hot as the ruins at Tulum, but very close.  Marie said one day we should go to the beach and swim and I said, “I’ve never swum in Okanagan Lake.”  I’ll fly to Mexico to swim in the Caribbean, but I won’t swim in my own lake.

Tomorrow Elsa and I will be busy treasure-hunting, and then one day this week I really do need to have a squished ring cut off my finger.  How it happened is quite hard to do as I managed to drop a large watermelon directly on that area of my finger.  I could’ve dropped it anywhere, so you see the skill involved in this.  In any case the ring is flat on one side and no longer turns so it has to be removed, repaired, and re-sized.

The small town of Osoyoos is battling a forest fire right at this moment, however it seems to be less of a threat than it was a day ago.  Mom, Luke and Jan live north of town so aren’t in the evacuation area which is good as I’d hate to think of what would happen.  The three of them would go, hey, mom’s got spare bedrooms and surprise! we’ve been evacuated and here we are.  Hurray, more cooking!

Remember how I had a fit in the spring because all of my dahlias came out of storage mucky and rotten?  So I bought quite a few, and was given a bunch, and this year my garden is looking better than it has in a long time and I have a very wide variety of dahlias to boot.  It’s funny how sometimes a terrible event can end up being a godsend in disguise.

Just like the other day when I realized I’d have to stop at a liquor store on my way home from Osoyoos as I was out of tequila.  I was too lazy to do so, and then when I got home was thrilled to discover I had a bottle I hadn’t seen.  No stop at the store yet I was rewarded with sweet elixir.