August 8th was “National Sneak a Zucchini onto your Neighbor’s Porch Day”, and unfortunately, we missed it.   Now we are stuck with these, and several other zucchini that are still hiding under the leaves of our zucchini plants.  There is no way we will be able to use all of these zucchini. 

    I picked a large one a month ago and even though we have eaten most of it, there is still a large chunk of it in the fridge.

    This happens every year; the zucchini always get away from us.  I only really need to plant one plant, but it seems like zucchini bedding plants always come in pairs, so I bought and planted both of them.   Realistically, we would only need 1/8th of a zucchini plant to satisfy our needs.

    Some things never change.  I have a similar photo to this one that I took in 2013, it looks like I just don’t learn.  Below is the 2013 photo.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Busy Bees

    These bees were hard at it yesterday on one of our sunflowers.  As the progression of different plant species bloom, then die off throughout the summer, the bees have to continually move to whatever flower is currently available to the next.  As we move toward fall, there are less and less blooms available for them to harvest, but they have worked things out over the millions of years of their evolution, so I won’t worry about them starving.

Take a look at my sunflower painting:  http://davidmarchant.ca/Color_%26_Light/Sunflower.html

 

Whacked Bushes

    Red Osier Dogwood is a common bush with white berries that grows on our property.  Yesterday when we did a walk around the pond we noticed that all of the Osier Dogwood bushes we came upon had been thrashed.  It didn’t take us long to figure out who the marauder was; it was our neighborhood black bear.

    My plant book says the berries are “bitter and inedible,” but I guess bears haven’t read the book, because they seem to love the berries (as do Pileated Woodpeckers).  The white berries are now mature and the bear has traveled through the neighborhood sampling them.

You can take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

A SIgn of Autumn

    Our Boston Creeper that covers the gate going to our garden has leaves that turn a brilliant red in autumn.  We spotted these leaves yesterday, and although they are not yet red, they seem to be anxious to get to it. 

    The last couple of days have felt like autumn, with coolish temperatures and overcast skies.

View my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Evening Storm

    We have been getting a lot of storms passing through lately, with streaks of lightning and crashing thunder.  Fortunately they have been accompanied with downpours of rain that lesson the chance of a forest fire.  Kona, although still scared from the thunder, seems to have gotten a bit use to the storms, and isn’t as terrified and trembling as she was earlier in the season.  

    All of the rain sure makes it look gloomy outside, but I am happy to have it, after seeing all of the horrific fires burning across the world.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

My Hodgepodge Diaries

    If one thinks of a series of diaries, they might visualize a line of uniformed volumes on a shelf.  I started writing diaries in 1973 when we immigrated to Canada and continued with them until 2003, when I retired.  Above you can see some of them.   Each new year I had to scrounge around to find a “diary” to write in, so they ended up a real hodgepodge of books and booklets. 

    Certainly, they are not a uniform collection, but they are really valuable to me, and I am so glad I took the time each night to write in them.

    I have been slowly reading through them and it is a strange experience.  Some of the mundane things I had mentioned in the diaries, I remember quite clearly, while other experiences that seemed noteworthy, I have totally forgotten about.  I come upon interesting things that had happened, but now I scratch my head and wonder about some of the details that I failed to mention, which are now gone in the fog of time.

    Each Friday at the McBride Library we have a “Writer’s Group” that meets and writes.  That’s what we do there:  We just write, whatever we are working on.  I find it hard to write at home with so many distractions and a faltering motivation, but when I go to the library to write, that is what I do.  At the library I have been reading through my diaries, digesting and picking out the good bits and writing them down. 

    I am so thankful for my diaries and having the chance to “re-live” the past through these documented  memories.  I still have a lot more to go since I am only in the 1980 diary.  The 1980 diary is the old large gray book.  It was an old blank accounting book that I bought while working at the Goodwill Store as a Conscientious Objector in 1971.  At the start of 1980, I couldn’t find a regular log for the year, so in desperation I just used the old accounting book as a diary. 

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca 

 

Morning Haze

    This morning as I looked back at the house from the path on the pond dam, everything was green except for a light bluish haze between me and the mountain slope.  I suspect that all that green will becoming more and more yellowish as the weeks march toward autumn.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca