I’m going to take Photo Blogging Challenge host PJ literally this month, and make my post about things I love, not people I love. So that means inanimate objects, spatial entities, situations, events, deeds, acts, ideas and/or similar items are in bounds. But family and friends are specifically excluded from this post.

Another thought I have on this topic is that the things you love are likely to change over time. For example, my favourite chocolate treat used to be Smarties. (NOTE – Smarties in Canada are candy-coated milk chocolate pieces made by Nestlé, completely different from the chalky, tablet-style candy known as Smarties in the US. I’d say the Smarties I’m referring to are kind of like M&Ms, but flatter. Oh, and they definitely melt in your hands.) But these days, I’m all about bean-to-bar dark chocolate.

Now that I’ve got those two caveats out of the way, here are five things I loved this month:

1. Local Theatre

I first mentioned Canmore’s Carter-Ryan Theatre for the PBC theme Make Your Month Different. In May, we attended our first show at this unique performance space. This month, we enjoyed another completely original, small cast production. “The Cheezie Musical” tells the story of Hawkins Cheezies, the distinctly Canadian-made snack food from W.T. Hawkins Ltd. in Belleville, Ontario. For those who’ve never had the privilege of tasting Cheezies, they are randomly-shaped and -sized crunchy nuggets of deep fried extruded cornmeal dusted in real Canadian cheddar cheese. They are delicious, addictive and way too high in sodium to be part of anyone’s daily diet!

Anyhow, the musical conveys the history of Hawkins Cheezies – how they were invented, what’s unique about the brand and why they are only sold in Canada. The music varied from rap to barbershop-ish, from solos to ensembles. And funny! So funny I had tears rolling down my face. Hats off to Bridget Ryan (original book and lyrics), Morgan McKee (score), the talented cast (of four), and the support team. If you are anywhere near Canmore before August 16th, 2026, do your best to score tickets to this ~ 90 minute show. You won’t regret it.

2. Family Game Night

Traditions are also things. One family tradition we’ve had running for about 5 years now is family game night, which we try to do every week. It doesn’t always work out that way. Most times we play Wingspan. But one game night this month Mr GeoK’s vision absolutely sucked because he’d had his eyes dilated that afternoon. So K and I played cribbage instead. I broke out a new deck of cards – Lego City themed – that we’d been saving because who knows why!? Anyhow we played two games and we each won one. I snapped this photo of the Queen and King of Hearts because my brother and sister-in-law are both firefighters and these cards made me think of them.

You may note that the red pegs are in the blue lane. That’s a “thing” we do – mix and match the lane and peg colours. They contrast makes it easier for my middle-aged eyes to peg accurately!

3. Growing Things

Conditioned by helping in the family vegetable patch as a kid, I’ve been growing edible things since 1994. Mostly outdoors. Then in late 2020 we bought an AeroGarden for growing herbs. (NOTE – AeroGarden subsequently went bankrupt, but the product line was bought out of bankruptcy and is slowly returning to market.) A few months ago I shared why I bought a Click and Grow 25. The short version is that I bought it specifically to grow salad greens. And it’s working! Unfortunately, it’s not as prolific as I expected. So I’m glad I’m able to harvest beet greens and sprouting brocolli leaves from my outdoor garden to supplement my indoor harvest.

Since the outdoor garden will be over and done with in another couple of months, I’ve been trying to figure out why my greens aren’t growing as large as the ones on the Click and Grow website (aside from the obvious). My current working theory is that by planting three seeds in each pod, the plants are using up the embedded nutrients/fertilizer too quickly. That’s why the newest plantings (on the left) are larger than the oldest plantings (on the right). So I planted only two seeds in each pod this time around and will watch to see if that helps.

One final thought on this topic = I am especially happy about growing my own salad greens every time I catch another news story about the massive Cyclospora outbreak in the US this summer.

4. Biking

One of our favourite outdoor activities is biking. I especially love biking in the Canadian Rocky Mountains on smoke-free days. This shot is from a short photography break at Valleyview Rest Area along the Rocky Mountain Legacy Trail, early in July. Unfortunately we’re enduring many days of air pollution due to wildfire smoke from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, BC and here in Alberta. So our outdoor activities have been very limited this month. 🙁

Bonus Photo – Here’s one of our air purifiers, hard at work removing the smoke particulates from the living room air. Note that the usual reading is 001 PPM and this reading is from a time when all the windows and doors had been closed all day. This higher reading is from smoke seeping in through tiny gaps in the building envelope and entering the house when the air conditioner runs.

5. Kayaking

Another activity we’ve grown to love is flat-water kayaking. Too bad there have been so few birds around this year, because we really love to combine birding and kayaking. In this shot, you can see the distinctive blade shape of our new Greenlandic-style paddles. We love using them – except we get way more water in the boat than we do with our old paddles. It’s kind of nice on a really hot day, but we’ll have to switch to our old paddles come autumn.

Some other things that didn’t make it into the final five? Wildflowers, including several sightings of Western Wood Lilies. And spending time in Nature – always a favourite of mine. I did kind of sneak this one in, with a photo of a Canada goose family as the header photo for this post.

That’s all I’ve got for you this month. Hop on over to host PJ’s post to see what other participants shared. And while you’re there, please consider joining us for August. PJ shares the theme at the bottom of his post. You’ll need 5 photos and a blogging platform (it me up if you want a recommendation). The amount of accompanying text is entirely up to you. I am definitely on the wordy end of the continuum.