By the Numbers

I'm pretty satisfied with the numbers this month. August ended (can you believe it???!) with a surplus of $284 (in addition to putting $350 into savings). YEAH BABY!! Riding my bike everywhere is really saving me money. Other savings included utilities: natural gas was a low $32 and electricity was $42!! We've run the A/C a little bit but mostly our house stays pretty cool as it is protected by two huge maple trees and a locust tree. The patio only gets about an hour of direct sun per day and a couple hours of filtered sunlight. I can't complain. It was sweltering and humid today but the A/C only kicked in a couple of times.  I keep it set at 25c.

I went over a little bit in the food budget because it was cherry season and I gorged myself. Not even kidding! Cherries are my favourite fruit and no time to be frugal!! I bought quite a few bags at an average cost of about $13+/bag. But I more than made up that overage by NOT having to put much gas in the truck. And recently our gas prices have dropped making the gas budget even smaller.

So what did I waste spend my money on this month?

• went to the movies twice (The Minions and Shaun the Sheep Movie :)
• two albums downloaded from iTunes
• bought several books; a couple new but the rest were second hand
• beer
• yoga x 4
• Yogathon - $25 donation
• played progressive euchre twice plus dinner
• $20 UPS delivery fee for the maps/guide for upcoming trip
• renewed my hiking membership $25.00
• paid for travel insurance
• paid for train x 2 while away
• extra google storage - $2.71
• Hallmark membership
• hiking: food/entrance fee into provincial park
• dinner/beer at the Jazz Fest yesterday
• food/icecream at Rib Fest
• Dairy Queen x 2, 3, 4 times?? But who's counting right?

Some freebies: 

• loaned my truck to my brother and he treated me to dinner at The Waltzing Weasel
• Kazi worked the Beer Festival downtown and treated me to several samples and gave me a T-shirt from her workplace - Toboggan; (there was a long line up to get into the Beer Fest so she threw me a T-shirt over the fence and I put it on and walked right in as if I was working there lol!) Then I benefited from her "beer" expertise (beertise?) and tried a number of yummy samples (I wasn't driving!!)

This was my favourite! Scotch Ale.....

• also free - weekly meditation, weekly visits with my brother, pot luck dinner & MORE!!

All in all a pretty awesome month!! And not just the numbers...!

Plover Mills

Where have I been?  I have been so excited about the wonderful weather we've been experiencing (sorry East Coasters...) that I haven't been spending much time indoors. But today we've had some rain on and off...so here I am!!

Last Friday I spent some time on my bike and ended up downtown to snag a few photos of Kazi's latest gig - full-time day bartender at a brand new micro-brewery/bar/restaurant/retail store!! It's called Toboggan and I can't wait til a hot and sweaty bike ride ends with me sitting at my daughter's bar drinking a craft beer served by her loving hand! Hoping for too much??

She's worked a couple of shifts though they aren't officially open yet. They've had a few corporate events over the past week just for practice and to spread the word. Well...I just made that up but it sounds pretty good doesn't it? I do know they had some corporate events - I don't know when the grand opening is.

I was hoping Kazi might see me out the window and offer me a beverage but no...but your eagle eye might espy the top of a toboggan by the open window.

Saturday I hiked the Plover Mills Trail....again. We moved so fast that I couldn't really get any good photos so like the trooper I am I went back by myself in the afternoon to just stroll and take photos. Because you KNOW how I LOVE photos!!

Bloodroot...

And this is why it's called Bloodroot!

Hundreds of Trilliums (our provincial flower) throughout the woods...there's a closeup further down...

 

Most of the year large parts of the Thames River are too shallow for canoes, kayaks etc but right now it's still full from the spring run-off.

Did you know their were red Trilliums too?

 I love looking straight down into skunk cabbage - very pretty.

                                     

Do any of my plant experts know the name of this purplish plant?

Sunday I went to the trailer and I have WATER!! Hurrah! Only cold water for now as I have to call the natural gas company to get hooked up - natural gas will also power my stove and I'm thinking of getting a natural gas BBQ too!! No more propane tanks!  I was too busy to take any photos...oh darn! The birds seemed to enjoy my grass seed :(  I spent most of the day inside cleaning which was too bad as it was  quite mild and sunny but soon all the work will be done and I can just go and enjoy myself.

I spent lots of moolah today at Dollarama buying stuff for the trailer - cutlery, dishes, utensils, etc etc. And now you're caught up on the life of Jane. Oh, except for this evening - my brother is having a "shed night" to meet some people from the Netherlands who are staying with a neighbour and to listen to the tunes of Bob Dylan. Yes, it's a Dylan night. I'm not overly fond of him so I may leave early. I saw him once in concert and he kept his back to us the whole night, never even acknowledged our presence...you know, the presence who paid $100 for a friggin' ticket!!