Photo Friday: Livin' La Vida Covid

I've been having a really fun month, despite living through a pandemic! It's surprising the number of new things you can find to do close to home when you really start looking.

Craft breweries seem to keep popping up everywhere. I think I've tried 4 new places this summer. This one had a large fenced in seating area, and with the barn building, you might feel like a farm animal.

I admit that I pigged out on this pretzel and mustard dipping sauces along with my beer flight.

One day we visited this nature preserve up near Lake Erie. I appreciated that they had signage for all the plants.

Plenty of flowers blooming in August.

An interesting water sculpture.

They even had a small butterfly house.


Our niece was married in a beautiful garden in another part of the state. This was planned long ago, when the biggest concern was the weather. We were just happy to be able to attend. Guests were asked to wear masks during the ceremony and when not seated at the reception, which was under a large tent.


Me and Middle Child in the Japanese garden.


I discovered this unusual horticultural park online that I took Middle Child to last week. Some guy bought 16 acres of land in the middle of a large suburb in 1949 and spent the rest of his life creating an English Cottage Garden. It was laid out like a jigsaw puzzle with these paths. Fortunately, small painted arrows showed you the way to go. We were the only ones there, besides some caretakers.


Nothing was labeled, but I recognized many of the plants, like these tall cana lilies. Most everything was overgrown and a lot of it needed weeded. The owner passed away in 2014 and it's now a non-profit park.



My favorite part was this tunnel of trees. I doubt I'd ever return, but it was a nice way to spend an hour in the sun.



Last Friday afternoon, my husband planned an outing for the two of us. He found this food truck that now operated out of a brick and mortar store specializing in tacos. We ordered ours for carryout, along with some chips and mango salsa. I got the tequila lime chicken taco and it was delicious.



We took our food to this new (to us) brewery to enjoy their huge patio. The brewery is inside a former tire store (see all the garage doors?) I thought that was a clever way to repurpose a building. To the left, you can see the food truck that was there that day. Donuts! We did not partake.

Here's my flight. I think the donuts were to celebrate their tapping of the Jack-O-Lantern beer on the end there. I liked that they had cinnamon sugar on the rim of the pumpkin beer and toasted coconut for their Mounds of Curiousity coconut stout.

Afterwards, we headed to this nursery that I just discovered this summer. It's a bit of a drive for us, but it has a ton of plants and trees that the ho hum places like Lowe's do not carry. Plus, I like to support local, family businesses. An added bonus is that the entire place is super cute!

Have you been finding new ways to enjoy the outdoors during Covid?