August 2026 Monthly Blog
It’s the month without holidays except that school starts for youngsters. Of course, this might be a holiday for some. It’s the time when I think that I must have new pencils with amazing erasers and a box of Crayolas. Just going down the aisle of a store with all of the crayons in their taped shut boxes makes me want to smell the newness of the crayons. The unused sharpness of each of the year’s new colors is enticing and I’m sure that I will color inside lines and all in one direction. Oh, the heavenly delight of such a new box!
Years ago, when I was still working as a principal, an art supply company contacted me and promised new boxes of crayons to the students if I allowed their newer associates to participate in a Saturday beautification morning. They also included tempera paint for our teachers’ classrooms. Well, I jumped at the opportunity. New crayons indeed. The Saturday came and the associates brought the supplies (we were going to paint a yellow brick road from the cafeteria area to the playground – don’t ask why. Just assume that there was difficulty getting the children from one end of the school to the other :(( ) but lo and behold the crayons were a different brand than my all time favorite. I was pleasantly enthusiastic for the school’s newfound largess and the publicity stills, but the other crayons simply didn’t smell the same. I kept my own Crayola box in the bottom drawer of my desk to delight me when the day was iffy.
This month our website is changing a bit. I’m substituting a portion of a cozy mystery that will keep running each month until its ending for the Fun Things To Do. I’d love it if you could suggest a title for the section. Right now I’ll put Monthly Mystery something or other for the title. Please read it and do comment back.
Also, this month we’re adding monthly recipes. If you have a favorite recipe that you’d like to share, please send it to either Tahlia or me. I’ll be posting recipes on the 20th of the month so think about your recipe as being made for the following month (that is, if I post your recipe on August 20th then probably it will be made by our readers sometime in September).
Later, perhaps in September if I squeeze in the time, we’ll also add a crafts section. I do needlepoint, some people make quilts, others do embroidery, still others make really pretty articles out of clay. If you have a craft and the directions, send that to either Tahlia or me. We want to make the website one that our readers will enjoy and get something useful out of it.
I want to end with a short shout out – thank you to all of you who sent get well wishes to me when I was ill. It made me feel 100% better!
Remember, out meeting is August 23rd at 2:00 p.m. Pacific. We’re reading The Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill but if you haven’t finished it by that date – come anyway. We love seeing you. The reminders will go out the week before the meeting and will contain the zoom link.
Keep cool and keep reading,
Karin