More weeding, decluttering, and day camp

Another week with lots of weeding, interrupted by rain, trips to day camp, and some crafting.

I spent three hours on both Saturday and Sunday tackling the weeds in the area outside the side door and in the raised flower bed. The original plants in this bed are the day lilies and poppies, as well as some other plant that I didn't like and dug out last year. The bed also had the red oxalis. It was overshadowed by the larger plants and wasn't doing very well. Next spring, I plan to remove the day lilies and poppies. There are lots lilies elsewhere and I'll keep seeds of the poppy to seed later in another bed. In my mind they are in the wrong space - they should be at the back of the bed, not the front. Another project for next spring is replacing the fence. It is in rough shape and my brother braced it for us in a couple of places. So I don't want to move anything to rear of the bed until the fence replacement is complete.

Last year I added a small piece of Lamium (pink flowers) from the yard at the old house. It is a form of dead nettle, of which there was another variety here (yellow flowers). I moved a piece when we had the air conditioning unit installed. This year, I've planted tulip bulbs, gladiola bulbs, and two small rock cress in the back of the bed. I'd cleared the bed, as best I could early in the spring, but by the time I returned it was overgrown with cleavers, bindweed, thistle, and others. Our problem is the next door neighbour and their un-used dog run. By late last summer the weeds in that area were taller than the fence. D called the bylaw officer and they did cut things down, but did nothing to get rid of any of the weeds. As I was weeding, I was pulling on plants that were coming through the gaps in the fence and growing into our side. I suspect we'll continue to have issues, as the  weeds in their yard will continue to go to seed. It does look like they may be mowing that area this year.

Just in case, you are concerned about me removing the daylilies, here is the area behind the house where the lilies are almost a hedge!

Another view taken from the bottom of the stairs provide a view of my container garden. There are five tomatoes here, peppers, parsley, sage, and basil. Since this area gets a lot of sun, I've added a pot of portulaca for colour.

We had a rainy and cloudy day on Monday. It didn't rain a whole lot; the gauge held about 4 mm, just over a 10th of an inch. But it was enough for me to declare it an indoor day. Besides some housework, I did a bit of crocheting and knitting. D is planning to make sunflower pens for appreciation gifts for Eli's teachers. She'll wrap the pen with floral tape, and glue two flowers together for the head of the pen. I think they will be cute. I finished a toque I'd started some time ago, and started another. These will be added to the bag for Eli's school to provide to children who don't have the proper winter gear. 

Tuesday and Thursday were Day Camp days. Eli enjoys the camp so much. It's offered through SaskAbilities. Their mission statement is, "SaskAbilities supports people experiencing disability with program and services that enhance their lives". The Day Camp he attends offer opportunity for indoor and outdoor play, as well as field trips. Eli loves it! They offer the program during school breaks in February and at Easter break too. Thursday was exciting as they brought in a bouncy castle!

D and I took the opportunity to do a bit of shopping and a whole lot of browsing without buying. One of our stops was the Book Worm, a used book store, and picked up a pile of books for ourselves and Eli. Everything in the store was buy 1, get one free. The store owner told us she is moving the store in September to a larger pace, about twice the size of the current store. I can understand why. There are wooden shelves (appear to be homebuilt) that are at least 8 feet tall. She keeps step stools available so one can climb to find books on the upper shelves. In back, she has an curtained off where the books she hasn't room from out front are stored. She wants to sell as much as she can before she moves. Like a regular bookstore she has the books organized by genre and by author. As far as I know, she works alone, so it must be a lot of work!  She told me the books come from donations, from garage sales, and through exchange. Once we've read the books we can return them for a credit against the cost of new books. (obviously for less than what we paid). It is pretty impressive for a one woman business.

Wednesday, Eli and D went to the library for their summer program. I met them there towards the end of the day's event, and had a chat with the librarian. She's agreed to allow me to set up a Stitch and Chat group in the fall. We'll put up a poster in the library, and D will post to local FB groups later this summer. I've been here for just over a year, though not full-time, and I've yet to meet any folks my own age. There is a senior's center, but I haven't made it there, as yet. I should, but I seem to fill my time with things at home.

I also did some sorting and rearranging in my bedroom. When we bought the house (over a year ago), I asked that the nine drawer dresser in the room be left behind. I quickly filled that up, with clothing, bedding, table cloths, and personal items. I've found another space for the table cloths and some of the toiletries. We have no linen closet and our bathroom is tiny! I found a box of books that hadn't been unpacked, and I set aside half of them to be donated. Along with three bags of other items D has gathered up, we dropped them off at the thrift store on Thursday.

I was ready to get out early on Friday, and finish weeding the last area in the side yard. First, I went to the front yard and weeded between the cracks in the city and our sidewalk. When I finished there, I took the now full bag of weeds to the garbage bin, and managed to trip over a downspout landing on my knees and jamming my left wrist. I lay on the ground for a couple of minutes catching my breath before I got up and continued on. I did manage to finish half of the area before giving up and heading for the shower.

We still have the parking area behind the back fence but D bought a weed torch to work on that...and I'll let her do it. I'm hoping, once I've done the weeding in the main yard, that I'll only have to maintain - maybe a half hour each day? We'll see.

Out in the wee garden out back (Wednesday's photo) are peas, carrots, onions, lettuce, asparagus, and strawberries. The last two were here when we moved in. We did get a few misshapen berries the last two years, and I think the plants are just too old. While they are lush and green, I plan to pull them this fall. It will give me more room to get the bed fully weeded, and more space to plant vegetables. I picked the last of the peas on Friday - Eli's had three feeds off the few plants. The carrots and green onions are looking pretty small, but they still have time. The lettuce that Eli planted at school is doing well, and I've picked the first bit for a salad this weekend. I also have sweet peas planted on the trellis - it' a throwback to my mother's garden which grew (like crazy) on a lattice fence.

Today, I hope to finish off that last area of weeding, and then it will be time to go back over the areas I've already weeded to get rid of the stuff that's popped up. We're supposed to get rain starting this evening and continuing the next few days. The gardens will be happy...as will the weeds. 

Have a great week ahead everyone!