Wednesday Hodgepodge - On the August Calendar

A hodgepodge is a jumble or assortment of things that might not appear to belong together. Joyce at From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly link-up called Wednesday Hodgepodge that is a little collection of questions for bloggers to answer just for fun and to get to know each other. I always look forward to chatting with friends over coffee, so pour a cup of your favorite and let's visit for a few minutes!

Here are this week's questions - and my answers - for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1.  What's something on your August calendar you're looking forward to? Or dreading if that's easier to answer.

 

I have an overnight chorus retreat in a couple weeks and I'm looking forward to that. Just for something a little different. I'm expecting it to be a lot of fun with chorus friends, but I expect it to be hard work as well. My husband has a church board workshop this coming weekend, so he will be busy all weekend with that. I'm not dreading it, but I'm a little at loose ends because he won't be available to do anything with me on Friday evening or on Sunday. At the same time, I'm kind of looking forward to it because I will have a lot of time and space to myself as well. Hopefully I'll make good use of that time! 

 

2. August 5th is National Oyster Day . . . do you partake? How do you feel about pearls?

Absolutely not! Oysters are a hard no for me. Now pearls, on the other hand . . . I think pearls are so pretty and make lovely jewelry. The promise ring my hubby (well, he was my boyfriend back then) gave me was a pearl. 

3. Tell us about a time when you felt like 'the world was your oyster'.

 I guess I kind of felt that way when I was a young adult, especially during the first few years we were married, and when our first child was born. We had a pretty nice house, we were fairly well- established in our church and community, we were close to family and had great friendships. Felt like things were going our way! Things were definitely bumpy during the time we made our huge move from western Canada to southern New Jersey, but even so we had so much hope and optimism about the future. 

4.  Trip Advisor lists seven islands in the US that require no passport (for US citizens). If you're answering today from outside the US you'll still need to produce yours. An-y-way, have you been to any of the seven? Let's pretend you get an all expense paid trip to one this month . . . which one do you choose and why?

Catalina Island, California - Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts - Mackinac Island, Michigan - Key West, Florida - South Padre Island, Texas - or Kauai, Hawaii

 I have been to Key West and we loved it! We drove from Miami all the way down through the Keys and I must say we preferred a couple of the other islands because they were less crowded than the famous Key West. Marathon and Big Pine Key and some of the others have just as much tourist appeal but perhaps less in the way of nightlife and amenities. 

I also visited the Keys virtually as I was working on the Florida Keys Virtual Challenge to earn this medal from The Conqueror Virtual Challenges. I enjoyed looking at the street views on the map and remembering our trip through those areas.

If I could get that all-expense trip I'd definitely go to Mackinac Island. Yes, I'd love to return to Key West, but I've already seen it and I did like other keys better; and I'd love to see South Padre Island or Kauai, but the old world charm of Mackinac Island is what puts it at the top of my list.

 5.  Sylvia Plath is credited with the following -

"August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time."

Agree of disagree? In other words, how do you feel about this month?

 August does feel like sort of an in-between time. It's still summer, sometimes even the hottest part of summer, but there's an awareness that summer is practically over too. Especially if we've already been on our summer vacation, like this year. And it's all Back to School in the stores, with kids back in the classroom by the middle of the month! I guess I mostly agree with Plath.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

It seemed appropriate to include our wedding photo in my answer to #3 because we just celebrated our 39th anniversary this past week! To mark the occasion we went up to Huron on Lake Erie on Saturday (our son and his family went along) and made sure to eat a Lake Erie perch dinner. One of my favorite treats. I've always loved fish & chips, but Lake Erie perch is a little different and such a special treat. Way back before we were even engaged (but after he gave me the pearl promise ring I mentioned), I lived with hubby's family in Ontario one summer. During that time, we went to Port Dover several times, and that was where I first had Lake Erie perch and oh my goodness, I loved it. Ever since then, visits to Ontario have very often included a jaunt to Port Dover for perch. We've had perch on the stateside of Lake Erie a few times now since it's a much shorter drive!

What good things are on your August calendar? Leave a comment and let me know!

I'm sharing in this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

I host the Wednesday Quotes link-up every other Wednesday. Stop by and share a few thoughts and quotes on the current topic here: WQ - Patience. I host the Everyday Images photo link-up every other Thursday. And find the Scripture and a Snapshot link-up here every Sunday.

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