This month, Photo Blogging Challenge host PJ asked participants to share what makes them smile. This is a good follow-on theme to July’s Self Care theme. And it’s a helpful nudge to lean into the things that bring you joy and make you smile, a small – but powerful – counterweight against the way so much of what’s in the news these days fosters dread and frustration.

Long time readers can probably make a pretty good guess at what makes me smile: spending time with family and friends (especially in Nature), hiking, biking, kayaking, gardening, cooking, photography, building Lego, reading, learning, family board game night, etc. Here are five such moments from the past month:

1. Family Time

This photo is poorly composed and has very uneven lighting. But it makes me smile because it’s so typical of my parents – Dad enjoying a nap and Mom working away on something. At this particular moment during their week-long visit, she was gamely trying out the Google Keep app.

Her whole life, she’s been a diligent list-maker, finding sparks of joy in crossing things off once complete. But with a big move coming up, transcribing tasks from one scrap of paper to another was becoming a bit overwhelming. So I suggested Google Keep, where she’s now got a master task list for their move. And she likes creating a “daily tile” where she digitally checks off everything she completes. I beam when I think about how willing she is to keep trying new things.

Most of all I smile with anticipation when I look forward to October, when they’ll be living in Calgary, near all their “kids” and almost all of their grandkids, a team ready and willing to support them as they continue to do their best to age well.

2. Brownie Raspberry Mousse Cake

I flexed the muscles at the side of my mouth a few times for this one. The first time was when I spotted the recipe in a Norwegian cooking magazine in our hotel room in sleepy Kristiansund. I tore the pages out and they traveled with me all the way to 82 degrees North, and then back to Canada.

When I set out to translate the recipe, I grinned over the fact that Google Translate couldn’t decide whether kremfløte meant heavy cream or cream cheese! I consulted a few other recipes for raspberry mousse before concluding it was almost certainly whipping cream.

Next, I discovered my springform pan was much larger than the recipe called for. By the time I upsized the recipe, I was going to need 600 grams of raspberries. Hooray! An entire picking from the backyard garden that I could use immediately, rather than trying to find yet another corner of the freezer with room for a large Ziploc bag from this year’s abundant harvest.

Finally, the first taste, and I went ear to ear. I may have ditched the bain-marie meringue third layer, but it’s still the best dessert I’ve ever baked. K backed my conclusion. Mr GeoK votes for Chocolate Dream Pie. 😉

3. Success!

We first discovered Upper Kananaskis Lake’s little island with a karst-fed spring back in 2022. Every time we’ve paddled the lake since, we tried to find it again. Finally, on our most recent circumnavigation, we found it again! This time, it was just up from the lake’s shoreline. And just as strangely as last time, the water flowed from deep underground, emerging above the surface level of the lake. This time it flowed directly into the lake in one direction, and then joined a drainage creek that emptied into the lake in the other direction. With a smile of quiet satisfaction, I remembered to “mark” the spot with our GPS so that it’s (hopefully) easier to find next visit. For a completed video recap of our Upper Kananaskis Lake kayak outing, watch Mr GeoK’s Relive video here.

4. The Wonder of Nature

Our next kayak outing in August was a paddle around Lower Kananaskis Lake. Over the years, we’ve had better success with wildlife sightings here vs. Upper Kananaskis Lake. This year’s Lower lake highlight was watching up to four bald eagles feeding off a fish they caught. They were a mix of ages, none of them this year’s hatch (at least as best I could tell from the feather patterns). One (not pictured) was a mature bald eagle, with the pure white head and bright yellow eyes that indicate maturity. One was maybe four years old, with a mostly white head but still some brown feathers at the back. And two were definitely sub-adults, perhaps one female and one male, based on their relative sizes.

Anyhow, it was absolutely amazing to watch them take turns feeding off a large fish, with several oblivious common mergansers in the water nearby. Oh, and a couple dozen oblivious humans in a “closed” day use area maybe 25 meters away. Watch this Relive for more photos and some great video clips.

5. Anniversary Paddle

It’s become a soft tradition to kayak on Banff’s Vermilion Lakes to celebrate our wedding anniversary. And while I doubt anything will ever top the bald eagle in the water photo I captured in 2022, this lovely female Belted Kingfisher brought a big smile to my face. Why? For one thing, it’s the first Kingfisher we’ve seen in 2025. Plus, it’s the first Kingfisher we’ve spotted at Vermilion Lakes. If you’d like to see more photos from our Vermilion Lakes paddle, Mr GeoK put together this video recap.

Some bonus content before closing:

• Our last family board game night in August produced the tightest final scores for Wingspan ever: 104 for the winner (K), 101 for me and 100 for Mr GeoK. I can’t help smiling when I think about the fact we actually gave K some competition for once!
• We celebrated Mr GeoK’s birthday by cycling the Bow Valley Parkway, which is once again closed to motorized vehicles until early October. For the first time ever, we encountered no other cyclists on our ride from Banff out to Johnston Canyon. But then we passed more than 150 pedalers on the way back! Here’s the Relive from our birthday ride. This is one of my favorite road rides, and it always brings a grin to my face.
• Although August finished hot and dry, earlier in the month we had some rain (or at least showers). One morning, I awoke to see a double rainbow hanging over west Calgary. When you think about it, a rainbow is a colourful upside down smile.

To close out this month’s post, I invite you to hop on over to host PJ’s blog to see what makes other participants smile. I’ve no doubt reading through their entries will prompt a grin or two.

Finally, please consider joining us for September. I’ll post the theme here as soon as it’s available. You’ll need 5 photos and a blogging platform. The amount of accompanying text is completely up to you. Until then, I encourage you to make a little note to yourself when you catch yourself smiling. Then you can bring that memory out and relive the moment whenever you need a little pick-me-up. 🙂