I am again on time for #WeekendExperiences by @galenkp after a solid weekend of fun. This week's post can be found at https://hive.blog/hive-168869/@galenkp/weekend-engagement-topics-week-276 I also love #SublimeSunday (inspired by @c0ff33a) and #BeautifulSunday (initiated by @ace108) with no time limits and are equally as fun to follow.

This weekend, I am enjoying a little weekend adventure and enjoying the colours of the first day of Autumn.

First things first! The Prompt!

What do you do to keep a positive attitude in difficult times? Explain with examples.

There were a couple other prompt options but this one stood out a little. When you look at the picture with the little happy purple flowers, how does it make you feel? Well, this weekend, while walking in the dog park, I noticed these growing wild right beside the path. While some would call them weeds, I call them native plants and now know this ones is actually called New England aster, hairy Michaelmas-daisy, or Michaelmas daisy Not matter what is going on, I can be content breathing the clean air, helping the dog have fun, enjoy the colours out in the real world, and learn something new while the rest of the world seems to be aspiring to get stupider!

The prompt demands examples so the second one reminds me of a recent conversation with @bleujay. From the prompt of 'What goes up must come down', we broke it down to having the wisdom to know that, when things are difficult, the upswing is just about to happen if you keep striving. Seen it too many times and know that the best thing to do while you are going through hell is not to stop there because it sucks!

Now Back to the Weekend

I will actually give a proper garden update later this week because I know many are wondering how things are going way up north here where the growing season is a little shorter. Lots of other fun this weekend but I made time to get into the back yard. If you look closely, you can see scads of tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, horseradish and more, but this weekend is about the flowers!




In the foreground of the garden pic, you can see these little unintentional beauties. Unintentional because it grew from a wandering seed from last year's Apple of Peru A friend gave me a handful of seeds and one apparently made it into a planter I was going to use for other flowers. The flowers and the seed pods are neat and I will get to that in a #hivegarden post this week.

An intentional beauty this year are my Calendulas. I planted these edible flowers between veggies so that they could shoot up those flowers and attract the pollinators to help with the veggie blooms. Helps especially with the tomatoes and peppers. I will have to harvest seeds again to make sure I plant them again next season.



Goldenrod also grows natively in these parts and I have come to discover some of the historical health benefits:

• Urinary infections and kidney problems: Traditionally used to treat urinary tract infections, kidney stones, and prostate inflammation.

• Incontinence: Helps strengthen urinary tone.

• Healing properties: Promotes the healing of wounds and burns.

• Cardiovascular system and metabolism: May have beneficial effects according to recent studies.

• Medicinal virtues: Diuretic, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, and healing.

• Joint pain and skin conditions: Relieves pain and helps treat certain skin diseases.

• Hemostatic and styptic properties: Solidago canadensis helps stop bleeding.

• Benefits of flowers: Analgesic, astringent, and febrifuge.

• Treatment of sore throats: Chewed flowers release a juice that soothes irritation.

I just love how they bloom all summer and the bees always have a place to rest and feed.

Even downtown is torn between the summer blooms still popping and the autumn leaves gathering from the first of the trees.




Speaking of colour, it was finally time to harvest from the habanero plant. I have taken a couple off for sampling and to spur more growth and I can tell you these are hot as hell! They are the predominant pepper in our hot sauce because they are the perfect balance of heat and flavour. I wait til they are red so the sauce is a nice bright red/orange colour.

For more colours for the first day of fall, a little harvesting and foreshadowing of the next #gardenhive post. So many tomatoes and peppers to slice into sandwiches and use for sauces and salads of many varieties.

The Rest of the Weekend

Another fun part of the weekend was a trip to the big city to see the colours of downtown. So much less traffic when it gets dark.

The impetus for the trip was to hook up with the guys and play a little hockey! I live away from the big city now so I don't get to many league games during the year. My better half was away so I took the opportunity to head in for the first game of the year which we ended up winning.

Il Doggo

It wouldn't bee a proper weekend if we didn't make it to the park for a little run-around. We actually visited 3 times this weekend and Runny McGee would probably have preferred to come 6 times.

Even majestic Birdhouse Tree is starting to show the slightest signs of colour change as autumn has officially started. I have a couple weekends of travel up to cottage country on tap for the next couple Weekend Adventure posts. Then you will see some colour!

How was the first day of the new season where you are?