Mom is definitely on the mend! My sister sent a picture of her this morning, and Mom looks great, rosy cheeked, and smiling. Sis sent me another picture of Mom this evening, perusing her cell phone, definitely on the mend! My sister made the right call taking Mom to that hospital, even though it is far from Mom’s home, and both my sister’s homes. Their local health care system wasn’t addressing Mom’s needs, and as it turns out, the situation could easily have become critical.
The weather has become cooler, particularly at night. The garden, although slowing down, continues to provide us with lots to eat. My breakfast includes fresh raw cucumber, green pepper, and strawberries. Our daily green salad includes two different types of lettuce from the garden, as well as cucumbers and tomatoes.
We seldom have a surplus of produce from our garden, but occasionally something does well that is not easily preserved. Zucchini and cucumbers were bumper crops this year, and fit under that category. So we have given away some of the zucchini and cucumbers to people from our neighbourhood. One of the people who has been enjoying our surplus cucumbers, has unexpectedly left us a small bag of freshly picked MacIntosh apples. We think we know who left them, it is a mystery to solve. We immediately sliced one of them to enjoy, delicious.
The current tariff situation includes increased prices for packaging materials, which includes food packaging. Since we buy little in the way of canned goods, this won’t affect us much. But if it did, we would be switching to frozen produce, vegetables and fruits. We already cook the beans and legumes that we eat. But if we relied on canned beans we would purchase dried beans or legumes and cook them ourselves. A lot of packaging is related to convenience foods, so part of the rough ride ahead for Canadians might be reducing the reliance on convenience foods, to rely more on raw ingredients and cooking skills to feed ourselves nutritious meals. Who knows, we might just improve the general health of the entire nation through this experience.
I made a curious observation at the NoFrills store in our area this week. Since August there have been stacks and stacks of canning jars for sale in the store, no shortage, priced almost four times higher than they were in 2019, not selling very well, and not running out by any means. But just after the tariffs on glass jars were announced, the canning jars disappeared from the store, I have serious doubts that they were actually sold. I will watch to see if they suddenly reappear at an inflated price. No tariffs were paid on those jars, they came to Canada long before that. If my concerns have any merit, it would not be an ethical reaction to the tariff situation. If my concerns have merit, there is a bright side, the price of commonly used canning jars in Canada would then be comparable to the price of canning jars from other a variety of countries, brands such as Weck, which have reusable lids, so cheaper to use than those with disposable lid systems.
Here at Mist Cottage Attila is tackling some small projects that cannot be undertaken during the winter months, when the house is closed up tight against the cold. Yesterday he prepped the stairs to the basement, then painted the same half of each step, allowing us to use the unpainted half steps for access to the basement. This morning he painted the other half of each step. Sections of the basement floor were also painted the same colour.
I do not think I have a photograph of the stairs to the basement, as they were when we bought the house. They are very steep. They were covered in blue carpeting that was filthy and mouldy. The same carpeting lined the horizontal surfaces in the lower kitchen cabinets, where mice had had their way… disgusting. Within weeks of taking possession of the house we removed all but one small patch of that carpeting. I don’t remember why that little patch of carpeting was left, it has been there since 2010. It is gone now.
The purple arrow points to the riser with the last remaining remnant of carpeting that covered the stairs and the horizontal surfaces of the kitchen cupboards, in 2010.
By the time Attila finished the paint job, it was too dark to take another photo.
Not a lot of the work done on Mist Cottage has been aesthetic. Our goal is to first secure the infrastructure, the new roofing, the new windows, the updated garage roof, the sump pump, the new heating system, etc, etc. There are still a few such projects left to accomplish. The back door needs to be replaced. The back porch needs renovation. The radon needs to be brought under control. The plumbing needs attention. Those are expensive (for us) projects; not currently vital for day-to-day life, or the integrity of the house. But painting the stairs is something I consider aesthetic, they would function just fine without the new splash of paint. It is nice to reach a stage where a few small less-than-necessary projects can be tackled.
Mist Cottage will be “rustic” for a very long time to come, at the pace we are moving with the projects. We pay as we go, so it is a slow go.
Worldly
Weather
22°C
Date: 7:00 PM EDT Saturday 12 September 2026
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.3 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 22.4°C
Dew point: 20.0°C
Humidity: 86%
Wind: S 10 km/h
Humidex: 30
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“One kind word can warm three winter months.”
Japanese proverb