Do you ever get homesick for places that aren’t home?
I sure do.
Since we’ve been wintering in South Texas, I’ve come to love the area around Port Isabel and South Padre Island. I think of it often when we’re back home for the summers in our landlocked Canadian province. Our summers here at home are great, weather wise. There’s just something about our winters, living so close to the Gulf of Mexico, that makes me “homesick” for the water.
Yesterday, I was reading a fellow blogger’s hilarious reply to my reply to a comment he’d made on one of my recent posts (clear as mud, right?), and a fun memory came back.
I immediately recalled my ride on this mythical creature, while road tripping in 2008.
How many miles are “you” from Wall Drug? It’s 496 for us😉
In my world, it’s the best time of day … quiet, except for the waking birds, peaceful thinking time, and that consistently soft glowing light, illuminating everything it touches to welcome a new day.
These days, it’s just before 5 am.
When I was a child, my dad worked building the first gravel roads around our small prairie town.
He was known near and far for his CAT operating skills.
While Dad was out on his daily work schedule, he’d often come across wounded and/or abandoned animals.
His soft heart resulted in a great variety of temporary pets for us kids. Once they were nursed back to heath, or had grown enough, the critters were released back to their home in the fields.
One spring, he brought home two abandoned baby rabbits. He promptly built a cage for them and all seemed rosy and filled with love of nature, until …
Taking turns cleaning the rabbit cage became a part of the chore list for my sis and me.
All the love of baby bunnies went downhill from there.
If you’ve ever had to clean a rabbit cage, you’ll understand.
*My feature photo is courtesy of Google images*
This week, canned soup from Tim Hortons (a Canadian coffee shop and lunch spot as popular for us as Starbucks is for folks in the USA ), was on sale, so we picked up a few cans to try it out.
I’ve been a dedicated Campbell’s Soup lover forever, so to say I had reservations is an understatement.
Review: The vegetable soup was bursting with flavour and contained some different pasta and veggies than what’s in the Campbell’s brand.
The tall saltine crackers tin, I’ve had for years. It’s a part of our soup ritual, so had to be included in the photo.
Many would not call this a complete dinner, but it’s one this house looks forward to each summer.
I have mine with just butter and salt. Hubs adds pepper as well .
Both of us were raised in families where corn on the cob was a complete summer meal. Both of our Moms made big pots full in boiling water.
I’ve found several prep methods that are far easier and quicker (and more flavourful) than the boiling method.
This time, I just wrapped the shucked cobs in damp paper towels and then microwaved two cobs at a time for seven minutes (total time – not each)
My favourite method is four shucked cobs in the Instant Pot for two minutes at high pressure, which we’ll do next time.
Do you ever have corn on the cob by itself for a meal?
What’s your fave prep method for this veggie?
Last week, I was happy to return to (brisk) walking the developed trails that follow the outskirts of our prairie city.
As I was walking along one of these trails, I looked up to the side and saw this big new build. I can’t begin to guess the square footage of this three and a half story house that looks over a trail by the river.
I couldn’t help thinking, “I wonder if they’re installing an elevator.”
Is my age showing?
This past week, I finally felt recovered enough from my injuries to bead back out to the hiking/biking trails. Until now, I’ve been either just circling the block or doing laps at the indoor track.
I felt a strong yearning to get back out to the many rewards of nature offered in our trail system here.
On the first trail, at about the 1K (2/3 of a mile) point and at a fork in the road, I came across this barrier pushed off to the side (feature photo).
Now what? Do sinkholes get filled in? Do they miraculously resolve? Who pushed the barrier to the side? Should I turn back?
I decided to forge ahead and was happy I did. There was no sinkhole to be seen on the path I chose at the fork. Whew!
This was what greeted me:
Before we took my parents on their first road trip vacation with us, a cousin recommended getting a little handheld tape recorder to record the entire trip: conversations in the vehicle, what we were seeing, weather reports, time of day, hi-lights from each day, as well as interviews with strangers like waiters, bell staff, locals and other travellers.
I took her advice and what a treasure these recordings are now. Listening to the conversations and the laughter is just like doing those trips all over again.
This past week, I hauled out the box of tapes and the original tape player/recorder for the first time in years, and so many memories are flooding back. It’s amazing how much one forgets while remembering the hi-lights. These tapes bring back every single detail.
Priceless.
Mid June here sees the pure white fluff/fuzz gently drifting down from the poplar/cottonwood trees like snowflakes.
It always amazes me that it collects in drifts – also like snow.
Radically Retired 