July Days

The camera makes my walking road seem much shorter than it is. But look at these hills! The great undulating hills of Saskatchewan!

Flowers found with broken stems or hidden behind other plants get clipped and brought into the house. Here are today's rescues:

And it's harvest time for wild raspberry leaves, from which a tea for the lady parts may be made. These have been rinsed three times and the water's been spun out; they'll sit on these tea towels overnight and then probably will need, because of the high humidity in the house,  to be dried by the light of the oven.

Wild yarrow picked yesterday was, after rinsing, spinning, and airing for several hours on the counter, put into lunchbags with holes snipped to let moisture out. The hope is that the brown paper will absorb excess humidity. These sat on the window ledge for 24 hours but have been moved to the oven, where the heat from the oven light should help them dry. If leaves and stems were hung anywhere in this house right now, they would take forever to dry.

Scott has been away for 10 days or so, and noted upon his return that the house smells musty. Our clothing, hanging in the closet, smells musty. My books probably smell musty; perhaps our bedding and towels do. When we're here all the time, we get used to it and don't notice. A few days away and we are reminded when we walk back in.

The next plan of attack regarding this godawful ridiculous humidity situation is to do with the basement — tearing out the last of some old wooden shelving, mucking around with cement, hauling up and out every possible thing that may have absorbed moisture, and so on.

An air-exchanger is going to be a must, anyway ... or so I think.