Digressions by D’reen

— by Doreen Uren Simmons

Hi there! I’m thinking that maybe every column starts with the weather! Why is that?  Well…it has a fairly profound effect on us, eh? For instance, at the moment it is apparently 97 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Phew. But of course we are INside, with the AC going full blast.  And I do remember that we were complaining about the very cold spring …and now …too hot. But not like Europe, where they do not have an abundance of Acs. And when you have wildfires in small countries like Spain and France and Greece, you have to worry about the impact. And here in Canada we are building more pipelines. No comment. 

We did manage to go to the market today though. Our favourite veggie/fruit booth is right beside where we park.  How lucky can you get? Consequently, the frozen jams are all done and ready for winter: 10 jars of strawberry and 10 of raspberry. Only Chili sauce to go, but not for a couple of weeks until the field tomatoes are ready .

Did I moan about the backyard flood for all of April?  We are very low-lying, and consequently the ‘garden’ is mostly green. The  Sweet Peas were spared and are trying very hard to spread over previous boundaries …a bit of purple something …but no beebalm or Cone Flowers, although the clematis is climbing valiantly and the Iron Weed will stand tall and stalwart , eventually. I just have to enjoy my raised herb bed, which is bountiful and makes for very tasty dinners.

I finally got to meet my great-grandson and he is of course, a sweetie: smiley and fat and incredibly well-behaved. He posed for photos, ate and slept and than awoke and enjoyed us for an hour more, and then murmured something which was obviously “wanna sleep now” and so he did whilst the rest of us partied on. Brilliant child. 

I hope the rest of your summer is splendid. Orillia seems to have a lot of festivities for you to enjoy, and I know you will. Much love…D’reen.