circus of the sun

 I sat back, letting the performance move me to another plane of reality. Troupes of aerialists, jugglers, trampoline jumpers, and others, drew me into a magical world where gravity ceased to exist. Oh to be gently floating over the crowd, suspended by huge helium balloons, my journey helped by audience members pushing me back into the air. Yes, we were at Cirque du Soleil, in person, not bobbing in a pool on a giant cruise ship watching a recording on the massive movie screen! It was awesome and magical and fantastic.

With no worries about the dogs being left alone for hours and hours, (Pat was dropping in to spend some time with them), it was easy to let myself be immersed in the magic. Big thanks to Stephanie for getting tickets arranged :-)

Going back ever further into the past, Thursday was a day of hurry up and then chill on the deck in our fantastic shady nook… it really is a slice of paradise. The morning and early afternoon was spent getting some prep done for Friday night’s stay at the villetta, and a dash of cleaning and prep for supper that night with Pat and Marie. 

Carm took a few hours in the afternoon to get new rubber on the truck. Fresh tires for rolling down the road… The truck is a 2007 but doesn’t have much mileage on it - we are hoping that the beast runs for many, many more years.

It was a lovely evening on Thursday with Pat and Marie. The mosquitos held off until almost 9pm so we were able to enjoy a summer supper outside. I had planned to make a new recipe - Greek Orzo - but alas, I could not find the orzo anywhere in the house (had I taken it ALL to the trailer?) So I fudged it with regular rigatoni instead, but added too much water and too much pasta; everyone else thought it was good but I was disappointed with my errors…

Friday morning I was up at the crack of dawn to get the rest of the food made for Friday night. Getting the Cinnabon Cinnamon Cake into the oven took much longer than I anticipated, but it seems to be worth it. I’ve saved the recipe into my favourites :-) The long baking time gave me a chance to get the rest of the food prepared.

It was a last minute affair so I didn’t have time to get much prepared for supper and went with my old standby: rice with sausage, roasted red peppers, and fresh basil. I also harvested the Swiss Chard that we accidentally planted (we thought it was red leave lettuce!). I chopped up the stems, added some onion, sauteed them, then added the leaves - I loved it and will be planting it again, this time on purpose :-) I also brought the Asian cucumber salad that has become a staple in our house.

It was our annual beginning of summer get together at Kirsten’s with Olaf, Stephanie, and Freya - unfortunately Graham didn’t make it and Shawn was in New Zealand so it wasn’t a full on sibling night. It was another lovely evening so we crammed around the table on the patio by the pool. There were lots of laughs (mostly at Shawn’s expense - he was on the phone with us), at times I was almost on the floor with laughter. And then Carm said how small I felt when he was hugging me but that I seemed so big when he wasn’t… well… I couldn’t breathe I was laughing so hard!

All this laughing was joy at being together, but also, it was a slightly hysterical reaction to sad news… 

The evening ended for us with the appearance of the first mosquito (almost 9pm again!).

Before we left for Cirque we took down our shade cloth… there was a severe thunderstorm warning with potential for tornados so we didn’t want to risk it with us being away. It came down easily (I’d be able to do it myself). Putting it back up was another thing! It was definitely a 2 person and one step ladder job. It took less than 10 minutes though so it was not too onerous.

Lupa got shorn today - 40 minutes, with Carm’s help, and she no longer looks like a ragamuffin!

I made a discovery this weekend… the last time I was at Kirsten’s I had horrible leg cramps a few of the nights. I tried everything: gatorade, magnesium, water, salt… nothing worked. And then on Friday night (again at the trailer), they started again. WTH! What was it about being at Kirsten’s that caused such agony? I even had muscle cramps when I visited them in NZ… so what could it be? Black licorice! Sure enough, I checked google and there it was, it can cause cramps among other things. The crazy thing is that last week, as I was walking around trying to alleviate them, I was also nibbling on MORE black licorice! DOOH.

Awesome!

“being with family”

“an afternoon on the deck”

“suppers outside”