Yesterday was kind of interesting. We saw no one at all on our ramble through the ravine, just us two and our two little dogs, in contrast to the day before where we couldn't move a hundred yards through the forest trails without coming across other people with their dogs, some of them known to us, many more not. What made September 1st a ravine-trekking day for so many people in the community is a mystery to us. The sky was completely cloud-littered, it was one of those hot, sticky days when some relief could be found from the humidity and heat under the forest canopy, so perhaps that was it. But then again, the following day was the same, even warmer, with the sun out.

What distinguished yesterday however, were other incidents. For one, I had months ago decided I'd put away my hair shears, and no longer cut my hair so compulsively. (I cut my own hair because I'm never happy with the results of professional haircutting services.) So I allowed to it grow in, and grow it most certainly did, swiftly becoming noticeably longer and more difficult to tame, since it's naturally curly. Still, I didn't mind it all that much and thought I'd just continue to let it grow and eventually, as I'd done before, ponytail it high on the back of my head. Then I began discovering the irritation of finding hair here and there, where when it's short I never do. And the winds dishevelled it on our outdoor excursions, so I began to resemble (ugh) Margaret Atwood. Besides which, I've a small face that doesn't look good framed by long unruly locks. Though my husband said I looked fine, I finally decided to take up scissors again and lop all that extraneous length away. It's easier to maintain now, and looks far better, so I guess I'll stick with short hair.

Yesterday too, I decided I'd prepare something different for dinner, given that it was another 30-degree day and humid. I was always curious about Asian wraps made with rice paper wrappers, so I thought I'd give them a try. I used lean ground chicken for the filling, with garlic, onion, ginger in the cooking process pre-wrap-filling. Adding grated carrot and julienned cucumber when I was filling the wraps. Oh, and hoisin sauce. As I wrapped the finished product and placed them in a serving platter to be refrigerated until mealtime, I thought they looked rather neat, but the wrapping unappealing.

Sure enough, neither of us, my husband nor I, liked the taste of the wrapping itself, though we both appreciated the filling. So the filling was eaten and the wraps set aside, a limp, wobbly mess that found its way into the garbage. Curious, experimental, and a failing grade.

The other thing was the completion of our long search for a small rug for our powder room beside the kitchen. We had there a small oval rug we'd bought over 40 years ago, and which had, over the years, become dreadfully worn, the backing coming away as well as the fringe deteriorating beyond repair. So we had been looking about for quite a while for a replacement; we wanted something similar to what we had there. We'd had no success looking in obvious retail places up to this date, and a search on the Internet seemed fruitless. We wanted to access a retail site not far from where we live. Finally, my husband called one place which required an 'appointment' to view warehoused stock. Another place which sells household appliances primarily along with furniture informed my husband that there was a stack of rugs of various sizes that he could go through. So we drove to that place, and lo and behold there were the very rugs we were looking for.

We have a thing for Oriental-type rugs and have many in our house, some dating back almost 50 years having been acquired for our previous homes, others of more recent vintage, only half that age, and all stand up rather well to use. The small, oval rugs we discovered in this commercial establishment were not made of wool as were our previous rugs, which have come from India, China, Iran and Afghanistan, but of acrylic, which looks like wool; hand-tied fringed knots and carved floral elements. And to our astonishment they were on half-price. The original price was far less than we had expected they would be. Now, that's something...! They were irresistible; we ended up with three of them, placing one in the powder room, another in the vestibule, and a third in the dining room.