Atwoodfest 2024

This is the tenth year of Atwoodfest, in this incarnation.  We've gone every year since 2016 but for 2020.   Dancin' in the street!

Street Reconstruction Part 2

And it begins...  or is about to begin, anyway.  (See first post from April here.)

Signs were put up yesterday on the whole block.  No street parking between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. except on Sundays, starting this Wednesday and going through November 15.  So, instead of the two months indicated during the planning stage it appears the work will take up to four months.  I can only hope that it's doubled because they will do one block at a time and starting with ours, so our street will mostly be completed in 2 months.  Stay tuned, we'll find out.

And, knowing full well of the upcoming work, a crew came through about a week and a half ago to do some spot patching on the street.  Despite this being a complete waste of time and money, they even ignored the bigger potholes for smaller, inconsequential patches like this one in front of our driveway. 

This work, which will remove half of the parking on both our street and the next street over, seems to fall in line with the new Bus Rapid Transit System that has been being built in the city for more than a year now.  When finished, there will be a dedicated bus lane on those busy thoroughfares, meaning one less lane for regular traffic.  It seems obvious the city is trying to make its citizens get rid of our cars and use their public transit.  Perhaps a nice, green idea, but good luck trying to get people away from their cars.  I just don't see it happening.

Flowers, Fasting and Floods

The second half of the last post left a bad taste in my mouth.  This blog is not about politics, though I've made it pretty clear where I stand, and I really don't want to discuss much further.  So, to push last post down the page a bit here's the stump area flowerbed this morning.

I'm off work today and tomorrow, good to have but I will need more very soon.  When I woke up at my Mom's on Sunday morning I knew immediately I was having another diverticulitis flare-up, too.  A mild one, but I still have to (mostly) stop eating until it passes.  Also not a good way to spend time off work, but this too shall pass.

I mentioned our rain when replying to delcatto's comment a few posts back.  Sounds like a very wet year across the pond, as well, though cooler temperatures than the heat we've gotten on and off.  Our waterways are high and the ground is saturated.  We get as many flood watches in the region as we do thunderstorm watches, anymore.  The rugs have been up in the basement and the dehumidifier running for several weeks now, by far more water down there this year than any other I can recall.  Might be time to buy a life raft.

Yesterday's storm created a lake in the fire pit area and to the left of the stump area, out of picture.

Then I noticed the neighbor's back yard almost completely flooded.  They removed the old shed recently and installed this new one earlier yesterday.  Yes, it is elevated a bit.

Fireworks Finale and Failure

There were fireworks at my Mom's last night at a nearby park with a hill and cornfield in between.  And it rained, softly at first but pretty good by the end here.

And, an inch or two away from ending this orange nightmare.  Not right to say that, but...

Flatbread, Flowers And Hamish

We had gyros some time ago from a delivery restaurant.  I got the regular gyro meat and my wife hasn't cared for their chicken version so tried the veggie, which is just more of the gyro veggies in a pita.  Unsatisfied, she recently wanted to try to make homemade ground beef gyros (since we still have lots to use before we can order another side of beef) with a Greek seasoning.  She found a recipe and it turned out really better than expected.  That seasoning also seemed to work as a binder so the patties were able to be cut similar to regular gyro meat and made for a rather good meal. And we love tzatziki sauce!  The only downside was the store-bought pita bread, of which only one choice is ever available at the local grocery store, as it is way too dry and bland.

So, for the leftovers I tried a flat bread recipe that I had saved but not yet made.  In fact, I hadn't tried to make any kind of flatbread previously, but I found this so quick and simple, and yet so good.  Like my homemade baguette, pizza dough and cheese pennies, flatbread will now surely be a regular homemade food in this house, though I may experiment with other recipes/techniques, too.

Otherwise, I've just been so tired this week.  I don't want to discuss my job here, but I've been doing it now for over 8 months without taking any time off for myself, only a few sick days when I've been unable to work.  I have a couple days off soon here which will hopefully recharge me until my week off in September.  After that I'll have to see what little time off I have left for the rest of the year and plan accordingly.  That's all I want to say about that for now, since I'm in a rather crispy state of mind at the moment.

Anyway, the tiger lilies by the porch are mostly waning, but for each end which are a different type and will continue flowering for a bit.  The tree stump area is doing pretty well with some of the wildflowers on the old stump starting to do what they do.  The day lilies are big and strong and many smaller plants are maintaining, at the least.  The newly planted bushes seem to be doing okay but not really taking off yet, but hopefully by next year.

The two sunflowers by the back corner of the garage are still doing their thing and growing tall.  About a week ago the remaining stalks of the peony next to it were bitten off by a critter, which is unusual for peony but wouldn't be for the sunflowers next to it at that stage so thankfully keeping that cage has kept them going.  That peony may not even come back next year as the lily of the valley has mostly strangled its roots, it seems.

And lastly for today, I've not posted any cat pictures in a while and I really ought to more.  After the break is Hamish, tonight, waiting on the back of the chair for me to come into the computer room and type this.

July 4th, In Pictures

Happy Independence Day, everyone.  (Those in this country, anyway.)  I don't have a lot to say right now, I'm just enjoying a day off work so here's some recent pictures I found interesting.

We took a walk to the Atwood area for lunch last Sunday.

From the breakwater at Tenney Lock yesterday, the capitol building in the distance.

Interesting skies in the waning minutes of daylight last night.  Good to see bats and fireflies about.

I made each kind of cheese penny this morning.  On the left is parmesan on top and sharp cheddar with cayenne below. On the right is the last of the mild cheddar and bleu cheese below.

I think we may go out to lunch here in a bit, but I'm otherwise just relaxing after some baking and making pizza dough this morning.  Back to work tomorrow for a day and then the weekend.  Cheers, everyone.