Category Archives: Gardening

June 6, 2011 · 8:06 pm

What a gorgeous day

It has been warm with sunshine – a perfect day to work in my garden.  I spent part of my day acquiring some new plants and some good soil to plant them in and another good part of the day planting and fixing up in the yard.  As you can see from the photo, dogs are hard on grass and I will have to do some reseeding.

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But I love our yard.  If it weren’t for the mosquitoes I’d be out there now reading or maybe snoozing in the hammock. 

I got a few new pond plants this year.  My fish seem to have eaten almost all of the pond lettuce already.  But the other plants are fine and maybe the lettuce will recover.  I was in the pond this afternoon arranging rocks and plants and was surprised that the water wasn’t colder.  Summer is almost here I think.

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July 3, 2010 · 6:42 pm

Canada Day till now.

I am so glad that Canada Day showed up in the middle of the week this year! We had decided a long time ago to close the office on Friday giving us all a nice long weekend in the middle of summer.

I haven’t had time to relax like I have this weekend for a long time. I decided sort of at the last minute to drive out to Alberta to see the Friesen’s in The Field. Best decision I could have made. Good friends, good times and long stretches of quiet.

And see – I planted Lauralea’s garden.  I think there is more gravel than top soil.  We’ll see what grows.

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It’s never too late? Hope the tomato plants survive. They were still looking a bit droopy this afternoon.

I also watched the cross raising.

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Good use for an old fire truck. You could tell they are farmers though – no safety harnesses.

Mostly I read and rested.

My soul may have actually caught up with the rest of me. The winter months have had so much time devoted to studying. I’ve crammed lots of things into my brain but my soul sort of went a bit dry I think. I am feeling a bit like I can go back home now and give the last two weeks of work my best, finish organizing the travel in Europe and pack my bags for the Big Trip.

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June 1, 2010 · 10:37 pm

My garden

Tonight I went out to finish planting my hanging pots and to sit in my beautiful new garden. 

Pictures will be posted soon,but it was too nice to stay inside at the computer. 

Now I must find a way to rid the yard of some of those pesky mosquitoes. They make reading outside just about impossible.

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May 24, 2010 · 10:10 pm

The house is quiet again

The last couple of hours have been so quiet.  I went out and planted some of my planters, loaded the dishwasher for the umteenth time today and wiped down the table.  Having a house full of people, including little ones with sticky fingers, makes for a lot of dishes and wiping up.  And this afternoon while I was watching Zaka for his mom, the neighbour kids came over too.  So for a while we were a hub of activity.

Leo’s brother left this morning with a load of plants and some of the hostas escaping from the edge of our flower bed – slated for annihilation anyway.

This afternoon Sara and Christian headed back to Saskatoon.  Sara has loads of clean laundry and has a couple more weeks of class.  Not sure just what Christian is up to.  Music of some sort I guess.

Tomorrow it is back to work.  It will be nice to settle back into the routine, busy as it is. 

And I will have my space back. 

I love having everyone here but my introverted self sure is glad when the quiet descends on us again.

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Filed under Day to Day, Family, Gardening, grandchildren

May 22, 2010 · 6:00 am

The calm of the morning

I‘m up early this morning.  Funny how when I can sleep in, the biological alarm kicks in and wakes me every time.  But this way I do get to enjoy the peace and beauty of a calm sunny morning without the inevitable obligations of the day encroaching on this space.

Today is Leo’s birthday.  Our spare beds are full of family up for the weekend – just what Leo wanted I think.  And it seems that everyone is still sound asleep, even the baby.  Later on there will be lots of activity. 

A whole bunch of yard work is going to be going on around here this weekend as well as birthday celebrations. We need to take out a couple of dead trees, build a new section of fence and the back gate and put in some paving stone and maybe even my little pond that I’ve been hoping for.  Other trees and shrubs need trimming and I need to get some things planted. It is still pretty cool at night but I think it might be safe to go ahead and plant.

So, here I am appreciating the quiet in preparation for a busy day ahead.  May your long weekend be as blest as I’m sure mine is going to be.

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Filed under Day to Day, Family, Gardening

June 26, 2009 · 8:37 am

A day off

This is the first day that I have been home on a weekday for ages.  I was going to say that it is the first day I’ve had with no preset agenda but I had to withdraw that thought.  In a few minutes I am off to a hair appointment and then I have some errands to run.  I must work on the paper for my class today as well.  So, I guess in reality my agenda is already pretty full.

But today I will also plant the last of my flower baskets – a chance for me to be out in the sun working in the dirt, planting some beautiful things. 

I will also go for a ride, hopefully for an hour or so, on the Rotary trail which is close to completion at our end of the city. 

Maybe I will get to spend some time talking over coffee with a friend – we’ll see.

So, I’d better get going.  

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Filed under Day to Day, Gardening, Studying

May 2, 2009 · 9:02 pm

Quiet

My day has been quiet.  I had very few obligations today and even some of the things I intended to get done, I didn’t even attempt. (In other words I’ve sort of been lazy)

The day got off to a leisurely start at 6 am and for me this means I slept in a bit.  My biological alarm clock has a loud and persistent ring and I just wake up.  Made some very good strong coffee and sat and talked to God with no time constraints.  That was good. 

I did study.  I sat and wrote out vocabulary words and know enough to know I need to do that again.  So I will.  Till I think I know them.  Then I’ll do the quiz and realize that there are a lot of words I still don’t know. 

And the day held a few other things.  Reading for the summer course; looking up scripture passages for the Bible test I have to take.  I never was good at remembering chapter and verse. (I blame it on the fact there is a number to remember) It seems as if repetition is my destiny for the next few years.  Maybe it will do my brain some good. 

Then I sat and went over some issues I needed to discuss with a friend.  That took a couple of hours.  Stuff I need to deal with that will be a challenge for me. 

What a way to spend a lovely spring day!  Actually it was very windy most of the day.  I did manage to squeeze in a bike ride and in spite of the wind which made for hard pedalling on the way home, I was out in the sun and fresh air and remembered again why I love to ride my bike.

Then I re-potted some plants.  That was as close to gardening as I got today.  It is still way too cold to even think of putting plants outside.  But in the sun and the songs of the birds in the back yard there was the promise of warmer days ahead. 

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Filed under Day to Day, Gardening, Studying

May 23, 2008 · 4:37 am

That felt as if I accomplished something

 

Tonight I changed the burner in our old barbeque.  It works!  One of my children will inherit our old barbeque if they want it. 

At first I wondered if I could do it.  The instructions seemed a bit complicated and I had trouble getting the old burner out to begin with.  Then I figured that out and the rest was a matter of following the instructions. 

A new grate to hold the ceramic tiles would also be a good idea.  Metal subjected to high heat pretty much oxidizes away so it is looking a bit sad. 

After that task was accomplished, I moved a big chunk of cement to use as a base under one of my big urns, leveled that area out and did some weed removal there.  It is ready to plant – if I decide to leave it there.  I have to get a better look at it in the light of day.  I am NOT going to fill it and then try to move it. 

 

It felt good to be outside working in the yard.  I need to spend more time doing that.  It clears my mind.

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Filed under Day to Day, Gardening

May 22, 2008 · 11:07 pm

Just keeping on

Sometimes work seems to take so much energy – mental and physical – that there is not much brain left to blog with.

Someday, I’m hoping it will get better and maybe once again I will have some semi-profound thoughts. 

Meanwhile, I am enjoying the warmer weather we are having and the Blue Jay that shows up in my back yard early in the mornings.  Maybe I will plant the large urns I picked up cheap at the Co-op.  And I did put out my hummingbird feeders so I am ready for them.  Hopefully they will show up and grace my yard with their beauty.

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August 10, 2003 · 6:32 pm

Gardening Day

Today was another gardening day. Weeds seem to grow about twice as fast as the flowers. But the flowers I do have are probably at their best now. I have this one on my desktop.

One of the things I like best about my home is the yard. It is like a bit of wild park and in the summer with all the trees in full leaf it is very private. And if you don’t look too closely you won’t see the weeds.

I must confess that today was mostly spent being lazy. I guess you could say I was unwinding but I think most of it was just downright laziness. Oh well tomorrow I can always make up for it.

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