Week 9 - Spring fever

Our weather started off cool this week, but by Friday the warmer temperatures arrived. Just in time for the long weekend.  I don't know about you, but the term long weekend has sort of lost it's meaning.  No matter, I'll still enjoy the warm weather that is forecast for the next few days.

My Mother's Day gift for D

So I left off last week with my anticipated trip to visit my daughter D and grandson Eli.  I didn't take any photos while I was there... I was far too busy responding to Eli's "c'mon grandma!".  We read books, went to the "out" which to him is the backyard, and hid from his momma.  I'll admit it, there wasn't a whole lot of social distancing between he and I.  We ate our lunch together at the table and he told me a multitude of stories, some of which I understood.  And THAT moment happened when he turned to me and said, "I love you Grandma".  My heart just melted. 

My Mother's Day gift from Eli

Later in the afternoon (no nap) he was sitting quietly on the couch with his I-Pad playing one of his language games.  All of a sudden, he jumped up and said to us, "run".  We both looked at him, I'm sure in a funny way, when D noticed that the letters on the screen were n, r, u.  He knew what that spelled!  Later he was working with numbers and put the odd numbers 1-13 in order without any help and in about 5 seconds.  He's is a smart kid and I love him to the moon and back.



Monday was grocery day, and I masked and gloved up to pick up a few items at Sobey's.  They made me remove my gloves to wash my hands and without thinking I put my gloves back on.  Oops!  From there I headed over to Home Depot to pick up a quart of paint.  They have a cattle corral set up, as one enters the store they ask you to take a cart, which helps them to know how many people are in the store at one time.  I had to wait some time at the paint counter and by the time I headed back out there were at least a dozen in line waiting to get into the store.  I'm glad I got there early.  My last stop was Canadian Tire for potting and garden soil.  I went to the yard where a young gave me the codes, then went into the store to pay, before heading back out where he loaded the bags into my trunk for me.  I was the only customer.  

The next three days were pretty relaxed.  I did the regular laundry, vacuumed, washed floors, cleaned bathrooms, did dishes, cleaned cat litter...yada yada yada.  C worked a few hours each day so I did get out to the garage on Wednesday and swept out the winter debris.  

Friday was the busiest day by far.  First I went over to Home Depot and filled up the back seat of my car.  (There are more plants beyond the box.)  I couldn't find everything I wanted there so ended up picking a few more plants at both Superstore and Walmart.  None of the greenhouses were terribly busy and trucks had just come in so everything was lush and social distancing was pretty easy.

I picked up two of these baskets at Home Depot for $25. I'm pretty certain I wouldn't have been able to purchase the separate plants to make up the containers for that price.  These will go out in front of the yard near the street.  I've done this for a few years now as it provides a fuller look than the start of small plants and adds instant color.  I bought an ivy for each container as well.

I had a visitor, actually two, a pair of mourning doves.

Once home, and having unloaded the plants on the patio, I got busy indoors for a bit with a little more housework and then I headed out to the backyard.  I spent some time raking up the dead grass, adding soil and grass seed.  I tamped down the soil and gave it a soaking before taking my first break.  That's pretty much how it went for the rest of the afternoon.  I'd work for 20 minutes or so, then take a 15-20 minute break for a drink and to read a chapter of my book.

I raked the gravel where the shed once sat, and picked up as much of the pink shale or stones that were part of it as I could.  I moved that over to a corner of the yard for now, though I plan to put it in a pail, mark it free and put it out by the driveway. Perhaps someone else will like it better than I do.  I also got my three containers planted with my vegetables.  Peas and lettuce in two and radish and onions in a third.  Whether I'll get any produce or not is yet to be seen but I'm giving it a try.  

Saturday was another outside day.  It was about 4C (40F) when I got up at 6 a.m. but the forecast indicated a high temp of 24C (75F).  I wanted to get as much done before it got very warm out there.  More raking, more picking of pink shale, clearing up pine cones and pine needles under the spruce tree out back, and a good cleaning of the small shed.  I tidied up my tool box, and used some nails to hang up tools in the shed.  

As I'd done on Friday, this was done in spurts, with breaks every half hour or so to read and have something to drink.  It was such a nice day that most of the neighbours were out as well and at one point, I moved around to the front patio when someone started up a noisy machine.  Too noisy for me to read.  That didn't last long because other neighbours were out front.  So back to the back yard I went.  I filled four more containers with soil in preparation for planting on Monday.  

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing on the deck with my book.  The clouds rolled in but it was still lovely and warm.  What a beautiful day!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful long weekend.  It seems spring has finally arrived in Canada!  

A white crested sparrow - he has a beautiful song

I think purple finches are such attractive birds, the colors and markings are striking.

Take care all and stay well!