Life Lately: August 2024

August this Summer has been full on! We have spent lots of time with family and friends and doing all the Summer things! It was a bit of a hard month in regards to the health of my parents but I think we are on the way to better things with that, thank goodness. It’s been a weird month weatherwise, we’ve had beautiful sunny warm days and then a few blustery rainy days too which I wasn’t mad about. There is so much going on in the garden and I am struggling to keep up with all the fresh produce we are getting! Here is what we’ve got up to this month!

An evening at the lake

To kick off the month we met a friend at Seward Park for an evening swim! It was lovely!

Birthday Potluck at my Grandpa’s House

At the beginning of the month, we went with my dad and Aunt to my grandpa’s house in Ellensburg to celebrate my grandpa and Aunt’s birthdays with family. It’s been almost a year since we had been there to see him and it was nice to see and chat with the family.

Seafair Sunday on a boat

We got invited to go out on a boat for Seafair Sunday. We watched the Blue Angels fly over Lake Washington and then took a trip to Lake Union. It was perfect weather and we could swim for a bit and had a good time with new and old friends!

Haunted Farmer’s Market in Tacoma

I am so excited for Spooky Season so when my friend asked if I wanted to go check out a Haunted Farmer’s Market I of course said YES! It was full of so many unique stalls and vendors. People are so creative and it was fun to see what everyone was selling! We decided to get some breakfast at this little cafe inside a nearby concert venue. It was so cool because they had a TV with a VHS player in it playing Happy Gilmore and then my friend and I played Mario Kart on another TV with the classic Nintendo 64! It was such a nice morning!

Our failed outdoor movie night

That same day, Jake and I had planned a BBQ and outdoor movie night and while the weather during the day was perfect, it took a turn for the worse right about the time we were about to start the movie in the evening. We were able to have the BBQ but the clouds opened up right about 8 pm and it was thunder and lightning and downpour raining. We all had to run inside and finish the evening in the house. We watched the movie and then sang karaoke for the rest of the evening. Unfortunate about the weather but it was a fun time anyways. Hopefully next year we will get more lucky with the weather.

The next evening though, Jake set up the projector again and he and I sat out in the yard and watched The Goonies again and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows just the two of us. It was such a nice evening and I am glad we did it!

An evening on the boat

We finally got the boat out this month and we went on a lovely evening ride at a lake that is close to us called Lake Meridian. It was nice to spend some time together out there on the water.

Bottling the wine we made

Back in July we went over and made some blackberry wine with our friends. This month, we had them over for dinner and to help us filter and bottle it all! While we were bottling we taste tested our friend’s wine that she made. We tried the blackberry port fortified with apple brandy, blackberry lavender wine, and blackberry port fortified with black forest cherry brandy. All delicious and our wine tasted yummy too!

Neighborhood Block Party

Every Summer, our neighborhood has a block party where we get together and mingle with our neighbors. This year they got Costco pizza and different kinds of ice cream! We got to meet new neighbors and catch up with our direct neighbors. It was the first time I can remember that many people from the neighborhood showing up for it! The weather was perfect and it’s always nice getting to know the neighbors!

Neighbor’s Birthday Party

The weekend following our failed outdoor movie night, our neighbors invited us to their birthday BBQ. It was nice spending more time getting to know them and we stayed late to play a new board game with them!

Friend’s Birthday/New Homeowner Celebration

On the last day of August we headed down to Olympia to my friend’s house to celebrate her birthday and her and her husband becoming new homeowners! We had delicious salsa, tomato crostini, and hot dogs for dinner. Then we watched Jurassic Park out on their back patio with popcorn and candy for snacks! It was a lovely evening and the perfect way to finish August!

In the Garden…

It’s been a month full of garden harvests and finally some more beautiful blooms! Admittedly, my flowers have been farther behind than in years past due to a seed starting miscalculation back in Spring. But, the direct sown seeds that I did start earlier in July are finally starting to bloom and it has brought so much joy and color to the garden!

We’re harvesting loads of tomatoes and zucchini, some beans, carrots, peppers, herbs, and the last of the blueberries and strawberries. My larger pumpkins are starting to come to the end and I have 3 to show for my efforts which is fantastic and much better than I thought I would get. My Jack-Be-Little pumpkins have several on them and I am so excited to harvest them all for Fall decorating!

I started some Fall seeds as well this month. I transplanted my seedlings last week and I now have broccoli, kale in the ground, and only two cabbage as sadly the slugs got to those seedlings…ugh! I’m excited to see what I can get to grow in the season ahead!