Five on Friday

1. Regarding blogging woes: Here's one little fix that might work if you find that people cannot comment on your posts. Jenny of Elefantz  (a beautiful site with lovely embroidery designs) did some research and she said to spread the information around. Apparently the "embedded" option is the one giving problems.

Solution: 
1. Go to the top right of your blog page and click on 'design'.
2. In the left hand sidebar, click on 'settings'.
3. From the list shown, click on 'posts and comments'.
4. Go to 'comment location'...
5. ...and choose either 'pop-up window' or 'full page', but not 'embedded'.

I changed my comment option so if you've had trouble leaving a comment before and notice a difference, I'd like to know if this fix really does work.

2.  Summer means salad. Crisp Vegetable Slaw is currently a favorite in spite of my love/hate relationship with cabbage. You can read about it over on my recipe blog. The weather has cooled off (not that we had much heat to begin with) so I'm back to making heartier meals. I'm confident hopeful mildly optimistic that we'll have warmer temperatures soon.

3.  Many of my readers know that we spent quite a few years living in Ecuador, including 10 years on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. (It sounds so exotic, but really, life becomes pretty ordinary or extraordinary no matter where you are - depending on your attitude.) Anyway, I dug out my crochet hooks last night (keep up here, this will all fit together in a sec). I haven't crocheted much in the 12 years we've been back in Canada and when I opened the container, out wafted the peculiar musty smell of Eau de Jungle. Took me back to sunny days and evenings with rain pounding on the tin roof (in our first home) so hard that conversation was impossible. Drifting into sleep to the steady drum on the roof as clean, rain-scented air blows through the room is one of the things I miss. A simple scent brought it all back.   

4.  Until recently these shelves were a pale wood color. When I was painting picture frames a few weeks ago, I painted the shelves, too. They look crisper and fresher and so different that I've been asked if the whole setup is something new. Nope. Just paint. As an aside, do you know hard it is to take photos of something between two windows? I finally forced the flash. There's nothing like looking at a photo for realizing things need to be moved an inch or two to really balance out. But hey, this is real life stuff and those are working shelves, not just for pretty.

5. Three deer were enjoying a late dinner when I passed them on my walk yesterday evening. I was just across the street from them and they took little notice of me as I stopped, took out my phone and snapped a few portraits. I also saw a wild bunny at the bottom of our street. I'll be keeping a wary eye for my garden. Fortunately we have a fenced yard, but for keeping the wildlife away, the dogs on either side of us do a much better job.

Today I'll be house fluffing in the morning and meeting a friend for a walk in the afternoon, then grocery shopping. Tim's had a busy week including 3 nights of meetings that included dinner so I haven't done much cooking this week (except for the strawberry tart.) I'll make a nice dinner for this evening - any ideas? What are you cooking?