Playing catch up

I feel the need to explain Wednesday's wordless photo. Overnight Tuesday we had a large storm system blow through. Again there were several alerts for tornado watches (not warnings) for our area though none touched down nearby. What we did get was rain, rain, rain, and more rain. By the time the rain stopped Tuesday around noon, we'd received nearly 2 inches. That was a lot for us; in fact almost a normal month of July's worth, but areas outside the city actually got closer to 7 inches!!! At some point in the afternoon, I was in the kitchen doing something and I heard a crash outside. I went out to investigate and found that the shepherd's hook holding a 10" container of marigolds had fallen over. The rain had obviously loosened the soil enough and the weight of the pot with all the rain water had pulled it over. I got lucky as the pot landed just beside a begonia, so nothing was harmed. 

We had more rain overnight Wednesday as well. When I mentioned to my son that morning that it had rained again, he said he knew as he'd heard it through the night. I didn't hear a thing. That's a good night's sleep. 

Most of the week has been spent catching up on housework. C was on vacation for the past three weeks and while he's home, I tend not to get as much done around here. I like having the house to myself when I'm on a cleaning tear. By Monday evening, I had the entire upstairs vacuumed, floors washed, windows (inside only) and mirrors cleaned, the kitchen sink scrubbed, and had run an errand for D as well.

I won't bore you with a list of things that were completed the next couple of days but later in the week one of the jobs I got done was putting things back where they belong. I have a bad habit of stacking things on the side table next to my chair in the living room. The other doom pile (a description my daughter uses) is on one corner of the kitchen island. It generally includes mail that I've opened but not filed, and small items that get dropped for some reason. I'm not sure why I wait so long to tidy; when surfaces are clear the entire room looks much neater. 

I've also spent a fair amount of time on Ancestry. I've just under a week left before my two month pause takes effect. I haven't yet cancelled my Newspapers.com subscription and may continue to clip even if I can't save the articles to Ancestry. Speaking of which, I discovered a distant cousin who along with his wife and daughters survived a plane crash in 1969. That was an interesting read although there wasn't a whole lot of detail as to the cause of the crash.

Something else occurred as a result of my activity on Ancestry. Another subscriber reached out to me as my profile and family trees are set as public on Ancestry. (I hope the information I've found will be beneficial to others.) She had found, in a book store in Comox, B.C., a book written a distant cousin of mine. She reached out to determine how we were related - we share a set of great-great grandparents - and asked if I would like the book. It was published the year prior to his death in 1986 and contains family information. Of course, I said yes and offered to pay for the book and the postage, but she didn't want any payment for it. I told her if I ever make it out to the island, I'll get in touch with her and buy her a coffee/tea/drink - she thought that would be a great idea. I expect the book will arrive in the mail in the next few days. My plan is to review the book for information that may be useful to my research and then try to find another family member who is more closely related.

I should mention, he was born in 1916 while I was born in 1959 and when I realized we shared great-great grandparents, I was curious to see how that occurred. First, his great-grandmother and my great-grandfather were siblings born 20 years apart. The second factor was my dad's age of 49 when I was born. Now can anyone tell me what the relationship between my cousin and I would be? I'm thinking third cousins but I've never understood the way these relationships are measured.

Outdoors, the lawn was mowed and weeds were pulled as well. With all the rain and the heat everything in the yard is growing. My veg containers are doing very well. The three large tomato plants have fruit, (one is Roma, the others are cherry) and all of the five plants that I started from seed this spring have fruit! The peppers plants I bought are prolific - the smaller red pepper plant has at least six to eight little peppers, the other larger green pepper has only three - but one of those is quite large already. 

This spring I was able to get a couple of marigold seeds to sprout and both plants are with the peppers. 

The one in the smaller pot is busily flowering and doing its thing, while the one in the larger pot hasn't a single blossom, but check the height of that plant! The pepper is actually quite a bit shorter, so I've got the pot turned so the pepper gets the sun. 

I'm hoping I'll get seeds again this year - especially from the larger of the two plants. Bloom baby, bloom!

I did get my welcome sign finished this week too. I had found an old board in the backyard a year or so ago. It had some damage at the one end but was still in pretty good shape. I've seen welcome signs at Michaels and they are expensive. When I saw the board, I thought I could make something from it. 

The wooden letters were the least expensive option at Michaels (about $2.50 per), I used leftover paint from the front door to paint the letters, and got a sunflower stake at Dollarama for $4. I had the glue I needed (I use E6000), along with wire snips. Once the letters were adhered, I added the flower and the leaf and left everything to dry for 24 hours. It's being held in place currently by a large rock - if that doesn't hold I'll affix a stake to the back.

Today looks to be a quiet day. I've have a couple of items on my to-do list but they can wait. I'll spend some time on Ancestry, watch Blue Jays* baseball, and likely knit or crochet. I've been reading Jeffrey Archer's Turn a Blind Eye, and before the baseball I'll head out to the patio for my lunch and some reading too.  I don't need to make dinner this evening as my son is planning to go out with friends to celebrate a birthday. And maybe I'll get a call from this character. (We were taken over by aliens in some game causing distortion to our faces - how he does these things, I have no idea!)

Have a great week ahead everyone.

*The Jays game on Friday turned into a football game with a final score of 28-5 for our team. It should be an interesting game today.