summer happenings and visitations by nieces

whoooo, where's the summer gone at? here it is, the long weekend, and it's fall. I blame Annalise, Byron's niece from Regina who's visiting for a few days before starting first year university. They have had some damp and chilly weather out west, and I suspect she's brought it with her. Perfect sleeping weather (and I do love sleeping) but it's sad to see another summer come to an end...

The summer has been one of bike rides, camping, gym-going, and working weekends. Our garden has fallen apart a bit, due partly to my weekend overtime and partly to its being overrun with spiders and slugs. Bleah! We did manage to make some raised planter boxes and a trellis, on which we've grown 2 cucumbers and a load of raspberries, so I can't complain too much.

The volunteering has taken a different path, the bees and Foodshare are last year's news. I'll likely pick up with them again, but wanted to try something different this summer. I've joined forces with Not Far From The Tree, a super bunch of folks who go out and pick fruit, right here in the city. First time visitors to Toronto have been surprised at how much greenery the city has, and among all that foliage we have lots and lots of fruit trees. Until a couple of years ago much of that fruit was going to waste, but Laura Reinsborough decided that was a shame, and started organizing volunteers to harvest the bounty. Volunteers keep a portion, tree-owners get a portion, and the rest goes to foodbanks and community organizations. Win-win-win! After a few picks (about 5 hours work) I came home with 15 lbs of pears, 5 lbs of plums and 5 lbs of rather scary apples. The end result is that this winter we will all get fat on jam, delicious jam!

Another highlight of the summer has been quality time with nieces. My own dear niece Katie is now 15 big years old, and to me that's always seemed a good age to be confused and get into trouble. I am thrilled that I'm cool enough to be a facebook friend to her, and was really excited when she suggested we 'hang out' sometime over the summer. We spent a great day in Kensington Market, talking and listening and learning from and about each other... I'm hopeful that we can make this a regular event.

As mentioned earlier, Byron's niece is here visiting, she's 18 and a completely different species of teenager. It's great to spend some quality time with her. She's a young lady approaching a really exciting time of life. Freshly graduated from high school, with a huge range of interests and experiences in spite of her youth the world is her bivalve, and it's invigorating to share some time with someone so raring to explore the world.

Fall will bring the Warrior dash and the start of night school--Byron is taking an art metal class and I'm taking photography, and oh yes, maybe I'll file my taxes as well :0 and I'm sure that we'll find other adventures along the way, which will be chronicled here in my customary irregular intervals.